Hey, did you know the federal government says that one of this nation’s own Revolutionary War flags is basically “hate speech”? That would be the Gadsden Flag, the familiar “Don’t Tread On Me” flag that is quite popular right now. See here.

Ok, as I have said here before, I don’t like to get into “diversity” issues. I find most of them can be traced back to “activists” that have nothing better to do than find “hate” in everything from TV commercials to breakfast foods. But, look, people need to grow up and get over it. What, the Gadsden Flag is “hate speech” because people you don’t agree with fly it? I think you’ll find a lot of people you also don’t agree with fly the current American flag, too. The Ku Klux Klan and various American neo-Nazi parties have all carried the good old Stars and Stripes. Therefore, does that make the Stars and Stripes “hate speech”, too?

Anley Fly Breeze 3x5 F... Buy New $6.95 (as of 01:45 UTC - Details) My gosh, everyone these days needs to be “offended” over something, or find some reason to claim victimhood and seek that special status that affords them the right to weep openly on television talk shows. “People never accepted me because I’m a vegan! Someone actually unloaded a family-pack of pork chops from a grocery cart right in front of me! I was so traumatized, I needed to seek professional counseling! I think we need a law that either bans meat altogether or makes it all packed in black plastic bags so it can’t offend anyone!” Hey, I don’t make this crap up, folks. This is where we’re at now. Everyone wants to be a victim and have a cause to trumpet with bumper stickers and t-shirts. And their own “activists”.

Look here, if you don’t like the Gadsden Flag, I think you shouldn’t buy one. I think you have the right not to affix one to your motor vehicle. You can even make your own bumper sticker that says, “I Think The Gadsden Flag Is Not Very Eco-Friendly” or some other such claptrap. But there is a message the flag continues to state: “Don’t Tread On Me”. Meaning, hey man, you don’t get to trample on everyone else’s free speech rights just because you’re “offended” or you don’t like it. The First Amendment was actually not written to protect porn, vulgar song lyrics, or violence on television. It was written to protect political speech and religious freedom first of all. And the Gadsden Flag is political speech. Duh, it’s a flag. So, get over it and stop whining.

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What, have we all got to fly flags that have only the Smiling Happy Face on them? I guarantee someone will be offended by it, too. “I suffer from Frequent Anger Syndrome and find that flag to be a slap in the face! I had to call my support group for help!” Then the talk shows, marches, celebrities bawling in front of Congress, and so on. Next thing you know, the Smiling Happy Face flag is right up there with a Third Reich battle flag in public perception. I’m sorry, but this is getting ridiculous. We’ve got people now that want images of firearms removed from every public arena. Well, you know what? Remove your eyes from lingering on the images, dummies.

We’re basically seeing a return to the government being used to enforce certain groups’ ideas about “morality”. Whereas in the past, this was mostly in regards to sex and selling booze on Sunday, today it is in regards to true free speech, firearms, flags, “junk food”, tobacco, and Don’t Tread On M... Buy New $2.44 (as of 10:30 UTC - Details) other things the weenies tend to whine about. The group herd decides a certain thing is morally wrong, so they press for a law to remove it from the public sphere. Tobacco has been one such thing. People “decided” other people shouldn’t smoke. The begged the government to “do something”, the government does, and new taxes are created. These are the Neo-Puritans that want to regulate and ban everything we say, ingest, own, believe, and do. Just so long as that law is carefully crafted so it doesn’t regulate and ban the things they say, ingest, own, believe, and do.

People might say, “That’s easy for you to say! You’re not the one victimized or marginalized!” Really? And you know that how? I’ve got some of the most, as they say, “diverse” adoptive and birth parents there are, but I don’t use them or my ancestors for cheap political grandstanding designed to culminate in a law banning someone’s freedom of speech. I guarantee you there are groups of people that have said horrible things about my parents publicly. But I am not out there demanding they be jailed or looking to nail them for “hate speech” or crap like that. I have no desire to be a professional victim. Yes, people did horrible things in the past. But the people flying the Gadsden Flag are not those same people. I’ll tell you what. If the people flying that flag break the law, then you can arrest them. But don’t pass some cockamamie law to make criminals out of people that weren’t breaking any laws until you made that stupid one!

It is well past time to move past this incessant need for attention that people have. Hey, people, this isn’t “social justice” anymore, this is just narcissism. “Look at me! I need more rights than everyone else because I am more special than everyone else! I have special needs! I have special problems! I am marginalized!” Yeah, well, guess what? Those are the labels you apply to yourself. If you let other people define you, then you’re pretty well going to be what they say you are. Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy. We’ve all got problems. They’re not limited based on EEOC regulations. Problems are an equal-opportunity pain in the keester. So stop begging the government to make more for us.

I don’t know where this comes from, this need to be victims or needing more human rights than other human beings. You should see what the public schools go through with this type of thing. If you knew how much tax money is wasted on this McBending Over McBackwards Dont Tread On Me Brand... Buy New $24.95 (as of 02:45 UTC - Details) cottage industry of parental whiners with a Munchausen-By-Proxy shtick using their kids, you’d hit the roof. I suppose they’ll need to spend a few million dollars redacting the history textbooks to remove images of the Gadsden Flag so kids (or, more likely, their parents) won’t be offended. You know who used to do that? Stalin. Every time someone fell out of favor with him, the Soviets were ordered to go through all history books and cut out the photos of that guy. They probably issued a pair of scissors with each new textbook. And this is where we are at now, except we’ve got a more eco-conscious Stalin called political correctness.

Again, I actually don’t like talking about this. But this needs to be said. And not said in a way to make sure someone’s feelings aren’t hurt. Listen up. We live in a world where, right now, people are being murdered en masse because they belong to the “wrong” sect of Islam. Is that you over here? No? Then shut up. People are dying very real deaths because of their faith and you want to act like some yellow piece of cloth with a snake on it somehow injures you? Grow up and stop wearing training pants, crybabies. I know this will generate a firestorm of whining and outrage, but I have now heard enough of people so offended they need the government to enforce it.

I don’t fly the Gadsden Flag. I don’t own one. I don’t fly any flag, nor care about one. But it is the First Amendment right of anyone who wishes to fly it. Period. If you don’t like it, then you know what? Design your own dang flag and fly that one! Call it the Anti-Gadsden Flag. That’s what America was supposed to be about: Using your MIND and not a government law to make your ideas known. If you need the government to speak for you, then you are saying your own point of view is so weak it cannot stand up on its own two feet. There is certainly a fabric store in your town. Design your own flag and leave the government out of it.

If you want to be a professional victim, pay for it yourself. I wonder what all this hoopla over the Gadsden Flag cost us in terms of Crazydecals Don’... Buy New $0.99 (as of 04:45 UTC - Details) committees, private research contractors, university studies, and so on. All because probably a few well-connected (to the Democrats, obviously) activists decided to raise a stink about it. Again, our government wastes enough money without people putting forth reasons to waste more and probably form some new government agencies to boot. So I’m going to tell you straight: No one is more special than anyone else. We’re all human beings and the sooner we see ourselves as equal to one another, the sooner that will be the norm and not the exception.

The ironic thing is, the government has just succeeded in entrenching the Gadsden Flag as a symbol of resistance to the government more than it already is. They probably boosted the sales of it, too. People will be flying that flag who normally couldn’t have cared less, just because they know the government is whining about it. So, yeah, hey federal government: Don’t tread on this.

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