Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not a leap. It's not a hop. It's not even a step. It's standing still. Go look at any nazi white nationalist rally and you'll see dozens of those sick yellow flags in the crowd. Thru don't even attempt to hide it.

They are nazis. Period.

Just because you throw a "Period" in there, it doesn't make it true.

The flag has a very long history.

A history in which a group of radicals today are trying to co-opt. The swastika was also a benign symbol at one point in time.

Tell me, when did VA start offering Gadsen license plates?

2011. So prescient of them to anticipate the nazis.

Anonymous wrote:It's not a leap. It's not a hop. It's not even a step. It's standing still. Go look at any nazi white nationalist rally and you'll see dozens of those sick yellow flags in the crowd. Thru don't even attempt to hide it.

They are nazis. Period.

I noticed that they like to wear khakis too. Now I see Nazis all over DC. The Gap is openly supplying the Nazi uprising.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not a leap. It's not a hop. It's not even a step. It's standing still. Go look at any nazi white nationalist rally and you'll see dozens of those sick yellow flags in the crowd. Thru don't even attempt to hide it.

They are nazis. Period.

Just because you throw a "Period" in there, it doesn't make it true.

The flag has a very long history.

A history in which a group of radicals today are trying to co-opt. The swastika was also a benign symbol at one point in time.

Tell me, when did VA start offering Gadsen license plates?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The flag has also been associated with the USMC. You know, the people who fight and risk their lives so you can sit at home and start ridiculous threads?

The Gadsen flag was used by the Continental Marines, but I don't really think there's any actual association with the USMC. I mean, for Pete's sake, it was also the official flag of a booster club for the US Men's National Soccer team. So what?

Today's context is usually a privileged white guy who is angry about the government for whatever reason and fearful that his favored place in society is being eroded by women and brown people.

Continental Marines are the fore bearers of today's USMC. Variations of the Gadsen flag are used by many USMC platoons, companies and battalions as their symbol - long before the Tea Party.

Anonymous wrote:It's not a leap. It's not a hop. It's not even a step. It's standing still. Go look at any nazi white nationalist rally and you'll see dozens of those sick yellow flags in the crowd. Thru don't even attempt to hide it.

They are nazis. Period.

Just because you throw a "Period" in there, it doesn't make it true.

The flag has a very long history.

Anonymous wrote:It's not a leap. It's not a hop. It's not even a step. It's standing still. Go look at any nazi white nationalist rally and you'll see dozens of those sick yellow flags in the crowd. Thru don't even attempt to hide it.

They are nazis. Period.

So everyone in the state of VA with that license plate is a Nazi. Yes, that makes perfect sense

I thought it was for the "Marines".

Ask people who lost their homes in Houston what they think about all that intrusive government regulation inhibiting their freedom.

It's not a leap. It's not a hop. It's not even a step. It's standing still. Go look at any nazi white nationalist rally and you'll see dozens of those sick yellow flags in the crowd. Thru don't even attempt to hide it.

They are nazis. Period.

At the end of the day, it's about values OP. It's pretty obvious you don't share those same values.

Everyone who uses the Gadsen nowadays is acutely aware that it's associated with anti-government, Tea Party types who flirt around with thinly-veiled supremacist ideologies and dog-whistle politics. By flying the Gadsen, your neighbors either (1.) subscribe to those ideologies themselves, (2.) don't mind being tangentially associated with such ideologies, or (3.) want to essentially "troll" others and get a rise out of the "stuffy thought-police".

None of those options are a good look. Ain't no one got time to deal with drama llama's like these, OP.

I don't necessarily even agree that they are "gun nuts." What bothers me is that they essentially have an anti-social world view in an age (and city!) that requires collaboration, understanding, get along with everyone.

I can promise that my Jewish wife and Muslim friends get really creeped out and feel threatened by people who advertise the Gadsen. The same way they want to get away quickly from a house or car that has the Confederate flag displayed. It's an anti-social signifier today, despite it's patriotic origins hundreds of years ago. It goes hand-in-hand with the dogwhistle politics of "Take our country back!" and "Make America Great Again!"

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of us have no problems with them

Because many of you are paid Russian trolls

Dream on and screw you. We're reasonable people who realize the ridiculousness of judging a neighbor by their license plate. You can't say you support peace and tolerance and liberal values, and then dismiss the family next door because you suspect you disagree with them politically. This whole thread disgusts me, and I only hope the op and her supporters are the Russians. Otherwise I really do fear for my country.

What assumptions do you make when you see a COEXIST bumper sticker on a car?

People express themselves in different ways. The Gadsen flag was a protest against tyranny. ACTUAL tyranny. So people who put it on their license plate during the Obama years are expressing that they compared Obama's presidency to tyranny. This is an explicit choice of hostile expression. One absolutely CAN take this at face value and it's not inconsistent with supporting peace, tolerance, and liberal values because the notion that Obama was tyranny is invalid on its face. This notion that somehow a liberal is being hypocritical for drawing conclusions about someone that are being telegraphed loudly and clearly is ludicrous. If you don't want to be judged, don't wear your damn politics on your sleeve -- or your license plate.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had this flag in graduate school. I'm an economist, a libertarian, and at the time (early 2000's) the flag and symbol was broadly associated with promotion of civil liberties. Then around 2010, the Tea Party usurped my symbol for their numb-skullery.

I would never judge someone who has this license plate. They may just be a live and let live libertarian like myself.

As a Tea Party supporter, I am not sure that any of you clueless types have an idea about what the movement is/was. Basically, it started with a correspondent on CNBC complaining about the level of taxation and regulation in the bail-out packages. The movement recognized that the federal government has become so large and so involved in the minutiae of our private lives that there is no real FREEDOM. Guns are one aspect of the Bill of Rights, but I would be willing to bet that a substantial number of Tea Partiers do not own guns.

There are lots of people who feel that the current iteration of federal control is excessive. This doesn't make them bad neighbors.

... resentment among some people that they couldn't be openly hostile to certain minority groups,

Because you know what these people think better than they do.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would absolutely keep my (polite) distance. They are telling you who they are - believe them. Yes, be polite; yes, smile and wave; yes, be there for them if there was an emergency but keep your distance from people like that.

And I agree - no matter what - do not let your children do over to their house. There will be firearms in that house. Most likely unsecured firearms.

Would you offer the same advice when the Muslim family moves in on the other side and the wife is wearing a hijab?

No, because I'm not a raging Islamaphobe, unlike you.

I'm actually a bleeding heart liberal, who's appalled at the hypocrisy on this thread.

You're appalled that so many people find nazis living next door to be..... appalling. The irony is sadly delicious

You made a huge and ridiculous leap from license plate to Nazi. Maybe the Russians really have found this thread.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of us have no problems with them

Because many of you are paid Russian trolls

Dream on and screw you. We're reasonable people who realize the ridiculousness of judging a neighbor by their license plate. You can't say you support peace and tolerance and liberal values, and then dismiss the family next door because you suspect you disagree with them politically. This whole thread disgusts me, and I only hope the op and her supporters are the Russians. Otherwise I really do fear for my country.

Anonymous wrote:The flag has also been associated with the USMC. You know, the people who fight and risk their lives so you can sit at home and start ridiculous threads?

The Gadsen flag was used by the Continental Marines, but I don't really think there's any actual association with the USMC. I mean, for Pete's sake, it was also the official flag of a booster club for the US Men's National Soccer team. So what?

Today's context is usually a privileged white guy who is angry about the government for whatever reason and fearful that his favored place in society is being eroded by women and brown people.