The NFL certainly turned up some cracking entertainment yesterday

[Burney]

I do think it very odd when you see Yankee suburbia in films and they have flags outside their homes. I used think it was exaggerated for effect but not so.

They also have a very curious predilection for calling people “Sir” and an utterly fúcking bizarre sense of regard for people who “have served” in the forces.

There is one house I can think of with a flag pole, just as you come into Dun Laoghaire. I have always just assumed they are nutters.

That's the thing, though, isn't it? Over here, if you see a private citizen purchasing a flagpole, it's a pretty fair bet he's a thoroughgoing cock with some deeply unpleasant views. It's just not something a normal human would ever do. Over there, it's seen as perfectly normal.

[Monty92]

That's the thing, though, isn't it? Over here, if you see a private citizen purchasing a flagpole, it's a pretty fair bet he's a thoroughgoing cock with some deeply unpleasant views. It's just not something a normal human would ever do. Over there, it's seen as perfectly normal.

That's a rather metropolitan view, is it not?

[Burney]

That's a rather metropolitan view, is it not?

Dunno. It's my view. I've always found flag fetishism weird. It seems to me that the only reason to fly a flag in this country is to advertise something about yourself and your views.

[Ash]

Dunno. It's my view. I've always found flag fetishism weird. It seems to me that the only reason to fly a flag in this country is to advertise something about yourself and your views.

Not much need to do that now though, is there? Much easier to open a facebook account and start signalling.

[Monty92]

Dunno. It's my view. I've always found flag fetishism weird. It seems to me that the only reason to fly a flag in this country is to advertise something about yourself and your views.

I certainly used to feel this way, but I think the inclination to wave a flag has broadened out to non-swivel eyed loons too; people who simply want to reassert the belief that there's nothing wrong with patriotism and that they object to mass immigration.

[Monty92]

Not much need to do that now though, is there? Much easier to open a facebook account and start signalling.

Well on Twitter, certainly, you often see people with Union Jack/St George's cross symbols by their name. Virtue signalling, perhaps, but maybe the good kind?

[SWv2]

Well on Twitter, certainly, you often see people with Union Jack/St George's cross symbols by their name.

Tricky one all the same innit.

A chap may stick a few of your Georges Cross flags out the window during a World Cup finals and he will be lambasted for this.

We’re mad for football/sport related flags over here. Not me I should add but neighbours may have them out for weeks on end, perhaps too lazy to just bring them in after the first match.

No flag poles mind, just lashed out the front window.

[Ash]

Well on Twitter, certainly, you often see people with Union Jack/St George's cross symbols by their name. Virtue signalling, perhaps, but maybe the good kind?

Well, 'good' is obviously a value judgement and patriotism can certainly have both a good and a bad kind IMO. Like many old things with new names, virtue-signalling is as old as the hills, and done by all sides.

[Monty92]

Well, 'good' is obviously a value judgement and patriotism can certainly have both a good and a bad kind IMO. Like many old things with new names, virtue-signalling is as old as the hills, and done by all sides.

Perhaps, but I don't think it's controversial to say that virtue-signalling is intrinsic to the modus operandi of a certain type of lefty, whereas it is by no means as important to either the identity or the motivations of your average rightist.

[Peter]

I certainly used to feel this way, but I think the inclination to wave a flag has broadened out to non-swivel eyed loons too; people who simply want to reassert the belief that there's nothing wrong with patriotism and that they object to mass immigration.

I think the difference is that it isn't really seen as the natural or necessary symbol of patriotism. Our patriotism is rather more subtle than that.

There are sound reasons for the US attaching such importance to symbols (flags, anthem, military) and it is to do with the federal structure of the union and the sheer size of the country. They need this stuff because little else binds the together.

We have a rather different view of what our country is and those symbols are not really needed.

That said, they are ****ing weird about it. THey almost treat it as a battle flag.