Apparently it had been bought for my world flag collection before the al-Aqsa flood, and ever since then it's just been kinda sitting there all folded up at the back of the gifts-to-give shelf for over a year, because giving the Zionist flag to me on any occasion would be incredibly tone-deaf, and has only continued to become progressively more tone-deaf as... *gestures broadly at everything*
So finally it was decided to just give the flag to me today because "that's where the Christmas story happened" — and I said to this justification, "Bethlehem is in the West Bank, you have to go through like eight checkpoints to get there from Nazareth nowadays."
...But in any case the deed is done: I am now in possession of the flag of a settler-colonial vassal of empire currently committing an active, brutal genocide, to realize its expansionist ambitions under its racist ideology of ethnic supremacy. In other words, I have basically been given the equivalent of the Hakenkreuzflagge for Christmas of 1944.
After reviewing my options for things I can do with this gift, I have decided that I want to try redyeing the flag into either the Palestinian flag or the flag of the PFLP. I haven't dyed any fabric in nearly a decade so it'll be a good opportunity to practice that sort of crafts skill, I think.
I'll be "no fun" for a second and suggest that there's probably nothing good that can be done with publicly. Put it in the trash instead and just get a Palestinian flag instead. If you already have one then get a nicer one with gold fringes.
So you don't think bleaching and redyeing it is a good idea, either?
Edit: because it's a synthetic fabric things work a bit differently. I'm gonna have to look into how to do this right. Worst case scenario I'll try spray paint instead of dye.
I mean, if you'd think it be a nice arts and crafts project then have fun. I don't think it would send more of a message than a clean Palestinian flag if you were planning on flying it.
Seconded.
Consider this scenario. You have an ex on whom things didn’t end so well. If you see them a couple years later, and they ask “what did you do with all the love letters and little gifts I gave you?”, which response actually has the most impact:
‘1.) “I turned them into an effigy of you and then burned it.”
‘2.) “After a while I just threw them out.”
Personally I believe #2 is much more impactful.
The Zionist entity is an illegitimate state. The flag is illegitimate and does not belong in this collection. It should be discarded as the rubbish it is and never thought of again.
I mean that might be true with people, but Israel is never going to learn of this situation and there is a sort of poetic irony in tur ining the zionist flag into the flag of their victims. For anyone who believes in that sort of thing you could maybe even consider it some sort of manifestation ritual lol. I think it adds a sort of symbolism for OP to have a homemade Palestinian flag, and if and when someone asks about it they can say "well actually let me tell you about the history of that flag" and then hopefully they migjt even be able to talk about how it mirrors the history of the region. The flag was colonizing space in their collection but was righteously reclaimed.
- Doormat
- Gender neutral urinal
- Display it under a big
- Make a "closed section" of your collection for this one, the swastika flag, the flag of Rhodesia etc. Display it with the same contextualisation that Nazi artifacts are displayed in museums.
I get what you're going for on the doormat thing but others will see it like you're proud of it
Stepping on something is a pretty solid sign of disrespect imo, but I see what you’re doing
Look if I walk up to your house and see a Nazi themed doormat with swastikas and a black sun and shit I'm definitely assuming you're a Nazi
A doormat yes, but something not intended for that purpose being used as one takes on a different character I think
Maybe they need some more context, but there’s no culture where wiping your feet on an item signifies respect or adoration
Eg: https://www.ynetnews.com/culture/article/sjmjlbrac
So if a mat says "welcome" it really means the person fucking hates visitors and can't wait for guests to leave
I'm gonna be honest I kinda like the idea of the red triangle
Edit: Holy shit though imagine like a transparent cloth flag with a red triangle on it that you hoist over the Zionist flag
Burn just enough to leave it recognisable then stamp on the remainder and leave it outside for a while before adding it to the collection.
It's not illegal in Norway anymore but I still don't intend to do it because of the fumes. Also I am American but presumably "if she's not American" really means "if she doesn't live in the USA". This may or may not be pedantic to point out.
It’s pedantic, but not really wrong. The US are just some self-centered bastards and the programming can be tough to throw off. Even the acronym US could technically apply to Mexico, who’s full name is “United States of Mexico”
To be clear, the reason why I wanted to point out that "being American" is a different thing from "living in the USA" was really just to poke at how people in the USA think of national identity vis-a-vis land/birthplace/residency.
Which is to say, I feel like many people in the USA have practically umbilically tied their sense of national identity to the land: they consider themselves Americans because they live in or were born in the USA, right? And I feel like this conception makes the continued rule of the land by the USA both completely natural and absolutely necessary in their eyes: any threat to the USA's rule is also on some level a threat to their own personal identities.
Likewise those like me, who manage to be American without this umbilical cord plugged into the land, end up triggering cognitive dissonance among the USA's patriots. Patriots loathe the idea that you can be American without having been born in nor ever having lived in nor even desiring to live in the USA, because if you can just do that — i.e. if Americans can basically just become a diaspora minority group laying claim to not even a single square inch of land — then what the Hell's even the point of the USA continuing to exist? There is no answer to this question other than that the USA has no reason to exist, and in fact should not continue to exist. But if this is a conclusion that you cannot accept, then, well...
In any case, use of the terms America or American to refer to the whole continent from Tierra del Fuego to Greenland is a different matter.
I wouldn't say it has anything to do with Americans being self-absorbed, just the assumption that most people live in their country of birth, or the habit of referring to people primarily as their current place of residence.
The use of American for a country rather than the entire continent from Canada to chile is what I was referring to
All English alternatives are subpar at best. I use Yank to be pejorative to them but otherwise they're Americans to me.
Edit: Also what's more useful, to have a term for a group of people as disparate as Canadians, Mexicans, Surinamese, and Brazilians, or to have a term for people from the US?
People from the Caribbean and any country south of the US: Latin Americans.
People from a country north of the US: KKKlanadians.
People from the US: Uᛋᛋian.
primary topic aside, worlld flag collection is such a cool thing. as a prime owner of geography autism, I would love to build up a world fllags collection myself. it's a cool project you have!
I'd be curious to know what the process for dyeing a typical flag made of like nylon
It's made of a synthetic material, so I'd worry about creating toxic fumes if I'd burn it.
You don't have to literally burn it. You can just use "kindling" as an analogy.
I keep many of my flags folded up in shelves sorted by category since I don't really have the space to display everything. The flags I do put on display I most often display indoors. From where I'm currently sitting, excluding flags made of paper, representations of flags, or the odd "duplicate flag", I can see some 58 different flags in this room. Some of these flags are affixed to the walls, displayed vertically; some are attached to flag-staffs placed into a little "receptacle" on the floor, like the flags behind politicians when making speeches; and most of the smaller flags are in things like ceramic mugs or dedicated stands on shelves, or have had their stick sort of fed into the hole in the side of a cardboard box at the top of a shelf as a makeshift way to display them vertically.
It's hard to say without sorting through everything I have, but I will say I'm very glad to have my own little Abkhazian flag.
How into it were you? Doesn't seem like you would've been a pedant about it.
Nice, I have a small collection of flags gifted to me by people I've worked with, but they're all in a bag under my bed while I work out how to display them...
