UPDATE: A commenter named Leo at XRoads posts, "You are assuming these flagging groups want to be relevant. Judging from their tactics and history, I believe these flagging groups are more interested in getting in the faces of people who disagree with them or are offended by the Confederate battle flag than offering any positive solutions. They appear to have no interested (sic) in history or any form of compromise. They often site (sic) 'the right to offend' as justification for their actions even though doing so harms their cause in the end."
I think she means "cite" and I'm not sure how she defines "often" so I left a comment asking, but of course, Simpson has a long, long history of not posting comments from people he doesn't like. In any case, here's what I posted:
Hi, Leo. I have an observation and some questions. First, just because one perceives that one's face has been "gotten in to" doesn't mean the Flaggers are getting in one's face. That could just be he perception of someone who disagrees with what they're doing.Too bad Simpson won't post it. I would love to know what the commenter is talking about.
Positive solutions to what? Compromise what?
I'm not sure how you conceptualize "often" but could you provide some proof -- links, preferably -- of the Virginia Flaggers citing the right to offend? Not all Flagger groups are the same, and the focus on Mr. Simpson's blog is overwhelmingly the Virginia Flaggers, so that's who I'm asking about here, not other groups.
I try to keep up with them as much as I can, but since I'm so far away, and I my contact with them is via the Internet, it's possible that this has slipped past me. However, I've never seen them cite the right to offend, and I really wan to see at least one example of it. If they do it often, as you claim, it shouldn't be difficult to provide one example, or several.
I have seen heritage folks, including some Flaggers, say that being offended is not a right, and it is not justification for trying to silence others or mislabel and remove their beliefs and positions about their heritage. But that's not the same thing as claiming the right to offend.
As for getting in the faces of people, the Virginia Flaggers have publicly made reference to Simpson and other hostile critics -- and often not by name -- perhaps dozen times in three years, while Simpson has posted 247 "flagger" (or "heritage") posts at Crossroads blog, virtually all of them unnecessary and untruthful attacks. Who is in whose face?
Leo, I can provide proof of what I just claimed about Simpson. Look at the left sidebar <==== where the posts are identified. So please, identify just one example of what you're claiming.
~
End of Update~
I just LOVE watching the haters in floggerland show their true colors....
"Today the Virginia Flaggers will dedicate yet another flagpole bearing the Confederate navy jack, this time along I-81 near Lexington, Virginia. How many people really care? I know I don’t." Brooks Simpson. On the very day the flag went up.
He couldn't wait one day to express his, um, total indifference? (Smirk.)
Also note that this, the very post where he "doesn't care" about the VaFlaggers raising the flag is his 15th post of 2015 that is about the VaFlaggers (or Southern heritage) or makes reference to them.
And remember, eleven weeks ago he said he was only going to post about Southern heritage once a week ... meaning there should be eleven denigrating and hate-laced heritage posts, instead of the TWENTY there are.
Methinks Simpson is not telling the truth.
UPDATE: From XRoads:
“He couldn’t wait one day to express his, um, total indifference?”If it was composed before the event (which readers have no way of knowing), how does that answer my question? It means his claim of "not caring" is an even greater lie. The fact is, his blog post on the flag raising was expressed (by uploading to his blog) the day of the event, as I said. Unless Wordpress puts fraudulent dates on his posts? It says "March 28" and the day of the flag raising was March 28.
So says our favorite Confederate heritage fanatic. Actually, the post was composed before the event and appeared before the event. But please don’t let the truth get in the way of Confederate heritage’s “lust to denigrate.”
So, what I said was the truth. His eagerness in showcasing his obsession with the VaFlaggers belies his claim of "not caring."
And that he would "review" the flag raising event in Lexington before it even happened (according to him), mirrors his act of "reviewing" (with verbal violence) of one of my novels that I haven't even written yet. How's that for obsession? I have no doubt it would be up on Amazon, along his vicious, fraudulent reviews of my current books, if Amazon allowed reviews of as-yet unwritten books.
Simpson is obsessed with the Confederate heritage community, but especially the VaFlaggers, to an unhealthy degree.~End of Update~
Then you have comments that show the bigotry of a couple of heritage critics.
First we have Corey Meyer who says, "Today’s ceremony was a private event. I am guessing it was private so that they can use that excuse to push the notion that the small numbers in attendance was only because those were the invited folks."
Don't guess, Corey -- first, you show your hatred when you do, and second, you guess wrong. Interested in facts? Of course not, what a silly question. Nevertheless, here are some facts for you, chump. No invitations could be reliably sent in time for crowds to attend because the setting of the pole had to be put off so many times because of the weather. The flippin' pole wasn't set until Wednesday. (And temps were below freezing, and it was snowing when the ceremony began.)
Then you have Ohioboi who says, "Oh, I forgot, these guys and gals want to live in the Old South with slaves to do their bidding and be their underclass." Presumably, by "these guys and gals" he means the Virginia Flaggers. If his life depended on his proving this, he'd have to put in his order for his last meal, because the only "proof" comes from the statements of critics and haters -- statements like the one he just made. Try to find the Virginia Flaggers saying ANYTHING like what this lyin' scum just said.
I've never seen ANY evidence that the VaFlaggers, or the vast majority of Southern heritage folks, want to live in the Old South. The oft-stated (both publicly and privately) purpose of the Virginia Flaggers (and other heritage groups and individuals) is to honor Confederates for fighting to defend their states, communities, homes and families from a brutal military invasion.
I wonder if Ohioboi knows he's lying, or if he's delusional and actually believes the sewage he spouts....
Despite Simpson's obviously false claim to the contrary, he and his minions are vitally focused on the Virginia Flaggers and the big flags they're putting up around the state. In a little over three years, this group has grown from one woman and her flag to the most powerful and influential Southern heritage organization in existence -- and the cause of a heritage tsunami that has energized other people from one end of the Confederacy to the other.
This, btw, shows that Ohioboi is wrong about something else, too. Sez he, "The only thing these large flag poles with the CBF (or Navy Jack) accomplish is to reinforce the belief among cultural bigots in the North who happen to be traveling down the road and see the flag that most southerners are racial bigots..."
Ah, no, cutie pie. That is FAR from the only thing these highway memorial flags accomplish ... and, as you demonstrate, they aren't even necessary for northern cultural bigots such as yourself to reinforce your lyin' beliefs about the South.
This is truth the floggers hate, but then "...the truth has never distracted them from their beliefs..." (about Southern heritage and the VaFlaggers), to paraphrase Brooks Simpson.
Yes, I do love it when the floggers and floggerettes show their true colors...
You know when I first heard people like Ohioboi who claimed that people who honor Southern heritage want to live in the past and have slavery, ect....I was generally inclined to believe that it was just a bunch of BS talking point.
ReplyDeleteThen when it found out "holy crap, they actually REALLY believe what they just said!" that's when I simply just started deducting IQ points.
There's a gentleman over at SNN who spent several years living in the deep North. He said that people there are so deeply and subconsciously anti-Southern that they don't even realise it. It colours their attitudes and thoughts about almost everything. It's even a core component of their identities. They also consider it to be a key element of their Patriotism. Everything from their schooling, to their media, reinforces it on a daily basis. Ohioguy's statement is typical. He starts out with what appears to be a pro- or at least favourable, statement about the South, that ends in a back handed insult. He's been raised from childhood to think this way and doesn't even realise it. None of them do. They just react to what they perceive as a threat to their identity and world view. Combine that with the Yankee predilection for worrying about the business of distant strangers, and you have the Floggers pegged.
ReplyDeleteFor some one who claims not to care about the activities of the Virginia Flaggers, the good perfesser sure seems to be quite occupied by them and their doings. So contradictory. Seems as if some folks are living rent free in Arizona
ReplyDeleteTo paraphrase Professor Clyde Wilson: Most Southerners don't think about the North for months and years on end. But there are millions of Northerners that are thinking about you and their right to regulate your wickedness right now.
DeleteThey are the ultimate busy-bodies, and they would be alarmingly dangerous given power and control, as our Constitutional protections from such as them grow weaker and more tattered every year.
DeleteI seem to recall reading that some Northern Senator complained that the constitution was a dangerous document because Southern statesmen used it to shield the South from Northern predation. It also stood in the way of Northern aspirations and designs for America. There's plenty of historical documentation on Yankees and their peculiar understandings of the Constitution. Which was, after all, written by those evil Southerners from Virginia. There's a huge gap between The Southern Political Tradition and the New England Moral-Political Paradigm. The Floggers are simply not tuned into the huge cultural disconnect. What's normal in Illinois, is simply not the case here in Dixie. They don't think that they live in a different country, but they do.
DeleteAmen, James. Different outlooks, for sure.
DeleteAll the Yankee Hate directed at The Southern People since the 1850's, have never stopped our God Given Heritage from making our Beating Hearts from Loving Dixie; and You Yankee Hateful Thugs, it never will. God Bless The South!
ReplyDelete