I know Facebook isn’t the apex of intelligent political discourse, but I was shocked at the number of people, who I thought were smarter than that, defending the Confederate flag. Yes, I know it’s not the official flag of the Confederacy; stop being pedantic, and while you’re looking up the definition of “pedantic,” you may want to look up the definition of “eponym.” So in this year, 2015 Anno Domini, or Common Era if you will, let’s take a look at why the traitor’s rag is indefensible. That last part may be a bit of a spoiler.

African Slavery

The Civil War was about slavery. Deal with it. You can take your “War of Northern Aggression” state’s rights bullcrap and stick it up your Stonewall Jackson. The state’s right to own slaves, maybe. Slavery was even a cornerstone of the Confederate constitution.

Just for grits and giggles, let’s say that the war was not about slavery. That still brings us to our next point.

Sedition

The symbolic start of the Civil War was when Confederates fired upon the Federal Garrison at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. By modern standards, if a governor of any state decided to use his or her state’s resources to violently attack a federal military base, would that not be looked upon as the act of a traitor? That was a rhetorical question, yes, yes it would.

On the losing side

The last time I checked, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant after the Battle of Appomattox. So by flying that flag, you’re celebrating the failure of an inferior army. You may as well fly the white flag of surrender in its stead.

So now that the Civil War is over, let’s jump ahead about 100 years into the future, the 1960s to be precise. What did the flag stand for then?

Segregation

In the 1960s the flag came back into prominence, for lack of a better term, in Southern states as a symbol of their opposition to the equal rights movement. To put it more succinctly, it was a state government-sponsored endorsement of racism. So it should come as no surprise that it’s been adopted by…

Hate Groups

If the flag had any redeeming qualities at this point, which it didn’t, it lost any kind of legitimacy when it was widely adopted by hate groups like the Klan. Someone said to me on Facebook today that men carry out these actions, but flags don’t. What that person doesn’t realize is that the flag was being used by those cowards as a symbol of fear and intimidation that some may even call terrorism. This unfortunate jackass on the right is what the flag has come to stand for.

However, this is the United States; you have the right to fly that flag as much as you want, and I support your right to do so. It will be an indicator of which moronic troglodytes I need to avoid.