by Dan Burns

Dec 5, 2021, 1:00 PM

Those black flags on Trumper poles

There’s one about four blocks away from where I’m sitting here typing this. It’s at the top of the pole in the yard there, with one of those that says “FUCK BIDEN And Fuck You For Voting For Him” beneath. I’ve also seen a handful of the black ones out in the country.

I assumed, when I first saw them, that they were meant to represent the supposedly dark, terrible place into which the country has fallen, since the election was “stolen” from Trump, etc. But I finally got around to checking into it. It turns out that they mean that no quarter will be given or mercy shown, when the righteous forces of Trumpism arise to set things right.

What kind of fantasy land do these people inhabit? How representative are they of the contemporary right wing as a whole?

As I’ve discussed, most – indeed, probably all – of the Trump voters I know would want no part of any armed uprising and civil war. I suspect that most of the people flying those flags know as well that that’s not going to happen. They’re just another way of expressing their anger and frustration.

Which in some ways I get. Certainly the home nearby, and as I recall the others I’ve seen, are no deteriorating hovels. Rather, they look fine – two car (at least) garages, roofs and siding in good shape, etc. But I’d wager that the owners are feeling plenty of financial anxiety, pretty much all the time. They’re sick of so much of their pay going to parasitic usurers, basically. Especially considering that they’re doing it right – get a job, get married, have kids. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Trump was going to fix it – after all, he speaks their language, where “book smart” = “stupid,” and “reality” is whatever makes you feel good about yourself and your way of “thinking” and living. But the “liberals” wouldn’t let him.

There’s more to it than that. It’s also likely that the households – the adults, anyway, hopefully not the kids – flying those flags are racist and bigoted. I’m not suggesting that that should be regarded with tolerant acceptance, by rational people. But there are potentially far more beneficial uses of progressive time and effort, than trying to get through to people far, far gone in extreme cognitive rigidity.

All that said, the right to free expression includes, within pretty generous limits anyway, the right of some people to make complete idiots of themselves. They’re just stupid flags.