Why Do Americans Value A Piece Of Cloth So Highly?

@SW-User *Looks around*

Nope, doesn't seem to be any declining around here...

@SW-User It does seem that most of Europe is stuck in a kind of cultural self-loathing, doesn't it. One expression is the lack of respect for their own flag, anthem, etc., another is surrendering sovereignty and democracy to an unelected faceless bureaucracy in Brussels and the reduction of national institutions of government and law to agents of the would-be mega-state of EU. Another again is the declining birthrate, well below replacement level throughout the EU, a sign of lack of optimism and faith in the future...

@SW-User You think people have a lack of respect for a flag? Na, they just don't care as it's a piece of cloth. Your ignorance is stunning. 😂😂

@MaryJo1996 @MaryJo1996 I'm sorry, MaryJo, it's you who need to inform yourself. Every country has a flag and anthem, they stand proudly for them at special events like the Olympics, it used to be at every film show and sporting event. even in England, they take them into battle and die defending it. The demise of that respect, which you so well represent, is a symptom of cultural and national decline, something the EU aimed at from the start, but which many, many people reject, hence Brexit, hence the rejection of EU referenda in France Netherlands, Ireland, etc. The EU response - hold another vote until the poor plebs get it right according to the views of the bureaucratic elite. Don't be fooled, MaryJo!

Check out the great book on this and what it means, The Great Deception: Can the EU Surivive? (2016 edn) by Booker & North.

@SW-User I'm informed enough thanks. All i keep reading from you is the same nonsense time and time again. It's just a flag, the sooner you realise that materialistic symbols are meaningless, the sooner you will stop with the ignorance you keep displaying.

@MaryJo1996 you keep asserting the same point, without argument or evidence. This time, at least, you recognize that the flag is a "materialistic symbol." But a symbol, by definition, carries meaning. Dictionary.com defines "symbol" this way: "Something that represents or suggests something else. Symbols often take the form of words, visual images, or gestures that are used to convey ideas and beliefs." If it's meaningless, it's not a symbol, e.g., a piece of cloth with a random arrangement of colors and shapes. But if it is a symbol, it has meaning, it conveys something, such as ideas and beliefs.

It's an opinion i hold. What evidence do you expect me to ptovide? This isn't a murder case.

@MaryJo1996 well, you could show that the flag of the U.S. - unlike all other national flags - has no meaning. Or you could show that any flag, being made of cloth, has no symbolic meaning. You could show that Americans, in respecting their own national flag (as nearly all people of all countries do, are for that very reason "morons," as you call us. Or that symbols are not in fact both material things (musical notes on a page, mathematical signs, traffic signals made of metal, etc., etc.) AND conveyors of meaning.

Another definition: "A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship." You need to show how or why a flag, being made of cloth, is thereby different from a traffic signal, made of metal. Do not both convey meaning (even though some may misunderstand, refuse to honor it, etc.) and so neither is meaningless? Those who disobey traffic signals do not think they are meaningless. They just choose to ignore them. Those who burn a flag do not think the flag is meaningless or why would they burn what they considered nothing but a piece of cloth?

@SW-User I first posted this nearly 4 months ago. My opinion hasn't changed. It won't change. Get over it and go bore someone else.

@MaryJo1996 ok, I never expected you to change your mind, I just hoped you might be open to rational discussion. I hope one day you will be and you won't be so quick to attack the people of another (any other) nation and their flag.

@SW-User I attacked because i think when you're putting a flag before people you are stupid. Like in the whole take a knee thing in the US. Rather than rationally trying to understand why people were doing it, they just saw it and roared "they're disrespecting our flag". I'll say it again, that is stupid and deserves to be called as such.

@MaryJo1996 ok, but you didn't say that. Those kneeling were also Americans and they did not do so because they thought the flag of their country was meaningless or "just" a piece of cloth."

@SW-User Never said they did, did I?

@SW-User Yeup... Europeans, or at least a fair number of them are caught up in self-loathing, and a near-total ignorance of their culture, and all that it's meant for the world. Some of those countries are turning it around, and just in time too, cause if they don't... they will be reduced to obeisance to others.

@MaryJo1996 In no way is respect for the flag the same thing, or even remotely akin, to putting people before the flag.
... as for the incident you refer to, well... people understand why they are doing it - and calling it out as unwarranted disrespect, which is what it is.

@SW-User *in my opinion.

Corrected it for you.

@MaryJo1996 Ok. thank you. Well... you certainly heard why Americans care about the issue.

BTW... on a separate note - the NFL has paid a price, and may continue to do so. The US consumer doesn't like to be dissed.

@SW-User And black people don't like to be shot for no reason by white police officers. That's a bigger issue than kneeling before a flag.

Yeah... but the two aren't related, and that issue is way way down, which makes the activists sound more and more like morons and highly unfair. Law enforcement has saved at least 18,000 + black lives in NY City alone since 1990, but somehow that is dismissed to harp on what is about 6 unwarranted shootings in the whole country. There's a lot not right about that.

@SW-User Six people being murdered because of ratial stereotyping is ok to you then? Bit concerning.

Of course it isn't ok. It also is no reason to diss the flag and the country.

@SW-User It's a peaceful protest. It's their right to do that!

@MaryJo1996 ... and it's our right to oppose them and call them out for it... especially since they are doing it on our time... company (NFL) time... and during our ceremony (America's).

@SW-User If it brought about change and stops people being shot for no reason and those responsible being properly punished, is it not worth it? Yes or no? Simple answer required.

@MaryJo1996 I do respect your point of view. I'm giving you mine.
As for your question. It literally has no such effect - there are law processes for that, and besides like I said - they targeted the wrong groups, it's a false narrative. What effect it does have is divisiveness and separating the people who need it most, from the police.