I was at the post office the other day. I needed some stamps so I asked for a book of the ones with the frog on them. The clerk said they didn't have them, only the ones with the American flag on them. Fine, whatever, I hate the flag but I needed the stamps so I bought them.

I had some more driving around I needed to do, but that experience got me noticing the flag more. I mean, I know Americans love to display the flag but when you start paying attention you really notice how pervasive it is. It's flying outside of nearly every building. It's incorporated in advertising. So many people include it in their clothing and on their cars. At the grocery store, I noticed how many products have it on the packaging. It's almost stifling when you pay attention to it.

I'm not all that well traveled but I've been to Hong Kong, Germany, Iceland and the UK. I was in HK for a few months and I barely ever saw either their own flag or the PRC flag. Pretty much the same thing in Germany. In the UK I saw a decent amount of Union Jack stuff and the same with Iceland but nothing like it is in America.

But... why? I really want to understand why Americans are obsessed with the flag. Maybe there's nothing more to it than showing others you're "pro-America", I dunno...

  • skollontai [any]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Just a vector of nationalism. In Spain for years after the latest Catalonia spat you saw the flag out way more than you see it in the U.S.--often the fash version with the eagle too. Mexico has had their (kinda cool, tbh) giant flags proliferating for the last couple of decades. Peru requires everyone display it every July, it's more dramatic even then the fourth of July in the U.S., because that law used to be (and sometimes still is) pretty aggressively enforced. The French get pretty into theirs given all the other tricolours it inspired. Just some examples I'm familiar with, I'm sure flag fuckery ebbs and flows in other countries too.

    • Awoo [she/her]
      ·
      4 years ago

      In Peru if they have to display it is there a size requirement or can you like put a little cocktail flag outside your house?

      • skollontai [any]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Haha, yeah, there are rules based on the size of the building that dictate the size of the flag. Fines and enforcement vary by local government, but it's certainly getting more chill nowadays. I know a Canadian-Peruvian family where the Canadian wife has been known to sneak the Canadian flag out there with the Peruvian one (they look the same without wind). That's not something she would have done back in the 80s when the military was routinely shooting people in the street for curfew violations.