Facebook Follies of Friends and Families

[Barrister]

A flag does not represent the leader of a country.  I proudly fly the Canadian flag despite having a number of disagreements with our leader.  Similarly the stars and stripes is not a Trumpist symbol - it's an American symbol.

[crazy canuck]

A flag does not represent the leader of a country.  I proudly fly the Canadian flag despite having a number of disagreements with our leader.  Similarly the stars and stripes is not a Trumpist symbol - it's an American symbol.

Check out what people wear at his rallies.

The only time I see the American flag in Canada are in places where there are large number of American tourists and American ex pats.

You still haven't explained your motivation.  The Americans have not exactly been our friends these past 3.5 years.

[PDH]

The Americans have not exactly been our friends these past 3.5 years.

Perhaps if you said "the American Government" you would be on firmer ground.  This is a bit too dogmatic when you include all Americans...

[crazy canuck]

The Americans have not exactly been our friends these past 3.5 years.

Perhaps if you said "the American Government" you would be on firmer ground.  This is a bit too dogmatic when you include all Americans...

The flag does not represent pockets of the American public.

[Valmy]

So it represents what exactly?

[crazy canuck]

So it represents what exactly?

The country of the United States of America?

[PDH]

The flag is a symbol, symbols are not fixed in meaning.  They underline basic values shared by a group in total. Within that group there can be a wide variance of meanings ascribed to a symbol.

A symbol expressed outside the group needs to be understood within this shifting context, it represents what your varying pockets of people feel it represents.  So while, yes, the US Flag does represent Americans, the deeper meaning must be more nuanced or else you run the risk of dogmatically defining a more narrow set of beliefs onto a large group of people.

Saying "American" in the above context includes people who share a symbol but the not meaning with others.

[crazy canuck]

Sure, but it is the flag of your country.  Which raises the question why someone who is not a citizen of your country and is not living in your country feels the urge to put it on their flag pole.

[Valmy]

Sure, but it is the flag of your country.  Which raises the question why someone who is not a citizen of your country and is not living in your country feels the urge to put it on their flag pole.

If you own a flag pole you get the urge to fly all sorts of flags on it...speaking as somebody who once owned a flagpole.

[Valmy]

So it represents what exactly?

The country of the United States of America?

Well that is a pretty big and complicated topic is it not? Surely there is at least one thing we have done or are about that Canadians can find admirable.

[Barrister]

The only time I see the American flag in Canada are in places where there are large number of American tourists and American ex pats.

You still haven't explained your motivation.  The Americans have not exactly been our friends these past 3.5 years.

You frankly don't see a whole ton of Canadian flags in Canada either - not at private residences at least.

I disagree that Americans haven't been, and aren't, our friends.  They have been.  Don't conflate the people with the President.

[Maladict]

Sure, but it is the flag of your country.  Which raises the question why someone who is not a citizen of your country and is not living in your country feels the urge to put it on their flag pole.

If you own a flag pole you get the urge to fly all sorts of flags on it...speaking as somebody who once owned a flagpole.

I flew a Venetian flag on St. Mark's Day 

[crazy canuck]

So it represents what exactly?

The country of the United States of America?

Well that is a pretty big and complicated topic is it not? Surely there is at least one thing we have done or are about that Canadians can find admirable.

Depends on what you mean by we.  The nation known the United States of America has done a lot of damage over the last 3.5 years.  Not sure there is anything in that period of time that a citizen of another country should feel compelled to honour.  Mourn perhaps.

[crazy canuck]

The only time I see the American flag in Canada are in places where there are large number of American tourists and American ex pats.

You still haven't explained your motivation.  The Americans have not exactly been our friends these past 3.5 years.

You frankly don't see a whole ton of Canadian flags in Canada either - not at private residences at least.

I disagree that Americans haven't been, and aren't, our friends.  They have been.  Don't conflate the people with the President.

Ok, well that explains it.  You are marching to a different drummer.  But you are going to get a lot of odd looks.

[Razgovory]

CC, you really do need to chill out.  BB isn't your enemy.  Dguller isn't your enemy.  I'm not your enemy.  Nobody here is your enemy.  Times are tense, everyone is a bit on edge, and nobody is happy about situation in the US.  Getting angry at us isn't going to help things.  All we can do at this point is sit tight and try not to get sick.