Today, a bunch of people on my Mastodon feed are making declarations about somebody apparently flying a flag upside down, and this apparently has something to do with the New York Times being terrible.

What happened?

  • NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    In general, any flag upside down is an insult to the flag and to whatever that flag symbolizes.

    So, for example the Usa flag upside down means insulting the Usa.

    People have mentioned a ship flying their own flag upside down. This is special, because they are apparently insulting themselves, like “something is very wrong with us” - this means distress at sea.

    In this case, somebody has managed to manipulate the meaning into something different: the Usa flag upside down is now an insult to only one political party.

    • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      Uh… no:

      Don’t fly [the] flag upside down unless there is an emergency.

      Though you’re right about the hijacking of the symbolism. Used to be exceedingly rare to see. Nowadays, it’s basically just fascists self-identifying themselves.

        • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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          6 months ago

          The question was “why is everyone talking about flying a flag upside down”.

          The answer to the question is that “a quasi-fascist member of the US Supreme Court used it as a dogwhistle to signal support to other fascist elements in the US”. And I provided additional context indicating when it is appropriate to fly an inverted flag in the US, per US flag code.

          Don’t complain when someone answers a question in a thorough manner.