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...
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.
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?
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.
Remember, the United States has been growing in ethnic and political diversity for the past hundred years, and it's only speeding up. Having nationalist markers that it's taboo to criticize is a useful way to condition people--and more importantly, their children. The great American process is to distill its immigrants into workers and remove any outside influence they could bring.
My mind immediately went to Dat Boi, which would be an incredible stamp imo
The USPS ended the custom stamps program June 10 but you can still get prepaid envelopes with a custom design.
Sending mail with ugandan Knuckles on it for the next 40 years because I bought the minimum order of custom printed envelopes
In Finland, there's a flag pole per every apartment building block. The Finnish flag's flown on specific flag days , and at half mast in the event of national tragedies, or when there's been a death on the apartment block. My mom's griped to me several times about the caretaker of her apartment complex letting the flag touch the ground when it's being taken off the pole, or letting it fly past government proscribed flag flying hours. In general, I don't think the average joe is too attached to the flag though, and the flag's not that pervasive outside of sporting events or the shirts and hats worn by alcoholic chuds
lol, you can get fined for fucking with the Finnish flag:
By Finnish law it is forbidden to deface the flag or to use it in a disrespectful way. It is also illegal to remove a flag from its pole without permission. Anyone who breaks these regulations may be fined for disgracing the flag.
Jesus, so much for a 'progressive wonderland' liberals go on about
The flag stuff is quaint and really a non-issue, to be honest. I actually like the tradition of flying the flag half-mast when someone in the neighbourhood has died. There's way shittier things to worry about, like mandatory sterilisation if you want to legally change your gender
In the UK I saw a decent amount of Union Jack stuff
Was it the usual tacky cushions and rugs kinda shit?
Or do I need to lose more faith in the people I share this dreary slice of hell with?It was more the tacky shit, I didn't really see it hanging from flagpoles or things like that.
Seeing German flags in the wild is fucking weird. A few years ago I stumbled into a cafe absolutely plastered in German flags and had a moment of terror that I was in some crazy fash dive and should gtfo. Then I remembered the World Cup was on. Only time it's acceptable to fly a flag tbh.
German fascists wouldn't be caught dead with a black-red-gold flag anyway.
This was mostly true in the UK up until Brexit happened. Now you see one in every hundred or so houses. Aside from that you never see a flag outside of sports.
We don't have the illusion of a shared history and ethnicity (human migration has been happening since forever) that other countries have. I think that's part of it. The civil religion gives people a sense of unity.
Americans loving their flag so much is simple, the third Reich escaped the clutches of the Soviets. Came to America took off the swastika and wrap itself in the stars and stripes. (Fun thing to do with the American flag stamps it to affix them upside-down)
It's really easy. Just remember that literally everything rightwing is projection.
Calls everyone else NPCs
Americans are NPCs who follow American Civil Religion, with blind worship of the flagYou're a cuck
They are cucks who are extremely servile to their government, even if it means giving up individual resources
