Warner Brothers is going to stop selling models of the General Lee.
Apple has removed historical startegy games that use the confederate flag.
Amazon has banned confederate flag merchandise.
A police department fired an officer for wearing confederate flag boxers in a facebook post.
They are all afraid of taking part in a thoughtcrime.
They are perfectly free to do these things, but I think they are wrong to do so.
I never saw the confederat flag on the roof of the General Lee as promoting hatred and racism, but I'm not black. I guess that if I felt victimized by society, I might resent a symbol of that victimization. Does that mean we engage in newspeak and eradicate the symbol from our culture? If we do, does that remove hatred and racism?
No. Destroying a symbol does nothing to the underlying concept.
Orwell was wrong. His ministries of love, peace, plenty, and truth were government institutions.
The truth is, these ministries exist now. They spring up with a thousand heads from within the population.
Should the confederate flag be erased from our newspeak? What then? The mob will move on to another symbol that they hate even more.
Or a thousand different heads will pop up with their anger.
The majority of people don't give a shit. They want to be left alone. We are left with a situation where a minority mob rules.
It has been argued that burning the American flag is a symbol of free speech. A reminder that dissent is allowed. Shouldn't flying the confederate flag be treated in the same regard?