• Machinist@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    2 hours ago

    Nope. These days it’s an indicator that you’re almost certainly dealing with a magat. Occasionally you’ll see an American flag with a pride flag or something similar below it and know that it’s ironic.

    Used to be that mostly only ex military or similar would fly a flag. Some folks would fly a flag from their porch for happy fireworks day or memorial day if they had family that died in a war. You almost never saw anyone with an actual flagpole in their yard. Flagpoles were for schools, government offices and such.

    • Furbag@lemmy.worldOP
      2·
      1 hour ago

      I used to see American flags come out on or during the week of Independence Day or Veteran’s Day or something similar where it was not unusual for people to put their national pride on display. That stopped happening when some people took it too far after 9/11 and started making patriotism into their whole identity and used it as a smokescreen for their overt bigotry. Now it’s almost seen as a tacky or gaudy thing to do and I get why.

      But yeah, if someone has a full-blown flagpole installed on their front lawn, they are 100% virtue signaling. Big MAGA-weirdo vibes.

      • Machinist@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        1 hour ago

        Yeah, 9-11 was the beginning when I think about it.

        Used to be you had a few, mostly paranoid conspiracy theory types, that even conservatives kind of looked down on and felt sympathy for them being mentally unwell.

        It has morphed into this crazy fascist religious cultural identity shit that we have now. Fucking pod people. Sucks.

        This shit is normal now and crazy conspiracy theory mentally unwell people are a big chunk of the population.

        The really crazy thing is that Osama basically won. Him, 9-11, and the far right like Limbaugh infected the national psyche with something that may be terminal.