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“a few January 6 rioters also flew our national emblem upside-down, signaling distress.”

It was merely symbolic of somebody’s opinion that something had gone wrong with the election. Signals are visual and/or audible information conveyed with a specific purpose in mind such as warning of dangerous atmospheric conditions, civilian traffic control, combat troop movements, landing aircraft on aircraft carriers, etc. while the misinterpretation of symbolism is often unwittingly derived to mean more (or less) than what it was supposed to. Mixed signals can be just as counterproductive and dangerous to organized missions. Bad actors abuse the conveyance and interpretation of symbolism as much as they can signaling, and I think that’s even more dangerous, especially to the civilian population(s). 9/11 was symbolized by al Qaeda as “two sticks on a cake” but it was also meant to be a signal to proceed with the mission.