I don't understand; why do people defend things such as the confederate flag

[Jackalope]

Minimalist Wrote:
Now, name me one government which simply rolled over and allowed itself to be replaced by rebels.

Canada. 
We rebels repatriated our constitution from the UK through an agreement, not through war.

I wouldn't exactly call that a rebellion.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Mind you I am still proud of my southern heritage but my view on that heritage has nothing to do with plantations, slavery, cotton, flags... it's about boots, hats, biscuits & gravy, saying hello to people you pass by, sitting on the porch drinking sweet tea, around a fire drinking beer, about southern drawls, wide open spaces, country music, bbq, line dancing, hospitality, pulling over to the side of the road to check on the person broken down, knowing everyone in the store, small towns, and just in general southern charm... that is my heritage.

Oops, you lost me there.

They keep saying "country" music, but they never say which country.

[Silver]

They keep saying "country" music, but they never say which country.

Does any other country besides 'Murica even create country music?

[Aroura]

They keep saying "country" music, but they never say which country.

Does any other country besides 'Murica even create country music?

Yes
Ireland, the source of it at least.
And really any country's "folk" music is their version of our "country" music.

[Crunchy]

Canada. 
We rebels repatriated our constitution from the UK through an agreement, not through war.

I wouldn't exactly call that a rebellion.

One man's rebel...

[The Grand Nudger]

For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it's still not yet two o'clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it's all in the balance, it hasn't happened yet, it hasn't even begun yet, it not only hasn't begun yet but there is still time for it not to begin against that position and those circumstances which made more men than Garnett and Kemper and Armistead and Wilcox look grave yet it's going to begin, we all know that, we have come too far with too much at stake and that moment doesn't need even a fourteen-year-old boy to think This time. Maybe this time with all this much to lose than all this much to gain: Pennsylvania, Maryland, the world, the golden dome of Washington itself to crown with desperate and unbelievable victory the desperate gamble, the cast made two years ago; or to anyone who ever sailed a skiff under a quilt sail, the moment in 1492 when somebody thought This is it: the absolute edge of no return, to turn back now and make home or sail irrevocably on and either find land or plunge over the world's roaring rim.

-Faulkner, Intruder in the Dust

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Really? Because the only question in his diatribe is a rhetorical one which calls people who support the confederate flag bad people

There's a reason for that: People who support the Confederate flag are bad people, no exceptions. Wanting to display the emblem of a culture that condoned and embraced human chattelism makes you a bad person, full stop. The Confederacy was formed when states seceded from the Union because they wanted to perpetuate their imagined right to hold human beings as property.

Slavery is a bad thing. Embracing a culture that embraced it makes you a bad person. This isn't difficult.

Boru

[mlmooney89]

I'm glad y'all think my 'new way of thought' is a good thing cause you'd think that I was the most tree hugging wild hippy ever since I moved to Austin (for those that don't know it's the only blue speck in all of Texas) according to my family. They think my community changed my way of thought because I started posting openly atheist things, starting calling racists out, and married a Latino. In reality I just found a place that I feel able to do stuff I already felt. It's amazing what the people around you can control even in your own mind.


And hardy har har my bad I did not specify which country music... shall we call it southern American music? :p does that sound too south American? American southern music? Music from the southern states in the United States of America? Oh hell I dunno.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

They keep saying "country" music, but they never say which country.

Does any other country besides 'Murica even create country music?

That's like asking if any other country besides the US has a god. We don't own the term "country music". Every country has their own brand of music.

[Catholic_Lady]

To be fair, how is the South wanting independence from the North different from the US having wanted independence from England?

Because the south wanted independence specifically so they could continue the practice of slavery. 

The colonies wanted independence from unfair taxation.

Apples and oranges.

They South wanted independence from the North for other reasons besides just slavery. I know this is a subject of debate among historians, but I don't think it's fair to say it was a sole reason.

Since the Confederate flag is offensive to so many people, I think out of respect for those people it would be better to stop waiving it around. But at the same time, I'm not going to accuse someone who does of being racist/pro slavery if they say the flag does not represent those things to them. I may think they are insensitive, out of touch, etc... but not racist.