It's not that people hate the country; if anything, the conditioning is a threat association. People who adorn their vehicles with the American flag are more likely to be very loud supporters of the Republican party, especially supporting excessive police violence and marginalization of minority and impoverished populations. That's the association which this sign is implicitly saying.
Covering your car in anything is tacky. I fly the flag at home as a proud American but there’s nothing on my car that tell you anything about my religion, political affiliation, etc.
"Tacky" can at least be a "to each their own" flair though. There's something to be said for individualism and quirkiness.
The practice of using a national flag as decoration for "patriotism" has rather mixed meanings though. Like, other cultures see country flags as either distinguishing oneself amongst a group of mixed nationalities, or denoting property which belongs to said government. The casual insistence of swearing a personal oath to the federal government and adorning one's property is philosophically akin to almost a religious fervor in the government, which is where foreigners and many progressive folk see it as wierd. Especially the parallels to authoritarian governments in history.
We can agree to disagree. I served in the US military and being proud of the flag and displaying it on my property is not an issue for me. I’m proud to be American but not supportive of the current administration. You can be both of those and this country will outlast our current leader and heal from the damage.
Indeed, I wouldn't say people should not be doing that. I just try to provide a perspective that there are multiple interpretations of using the flag of the United States. And there are unfortunately groups who intermingle the flag into their symbology (and entirely ignore the Flag Code while doing so) and those groups have been quite aggressive in trying to say the flag represents their ideology, even if it's bigoted and suppresses marginalized people.
Trying to reclaim the symbology is laudable. It's worth remembering that this is a country that has been proud to be a mingling of diverse backgrounds and ideas in its history. No single ideology should be represented by the flag, yet there are people who disagree with that notion.
You know what? You may have a point. The people who most frequently put multiple miscolored flags on their cars to represent support for police also put bumper stickers loudly affliating themselves with the political movement that wants a white nationalist anti-democratic theocracy. Those are the people who are loudly claiming that's what America should be, and what the flag should represent.
I don't hate the country, but I don't support those people, and I don't want to be associated with them.
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u/Gratuityspine_1779 6h ago
The conditioning to hate your own country was a success. Yes, sad.