Boston Globe: Let’s Ban the Massachusets State Flag Because it Confuses Us

FrontPage Mag ^ | 06/26/2015 | Daniel Greenfield

[SeekAndFind]

It’s time to play a game of “Let’s denounce stuff.” What are we denouncing? Stuff! Why are we denouncing it? Because we’re progressives!

Do we understand what the stuff is? Silence. You sound like a reactionary! We’re denouncing stuff in order to denounce stuff. We’re getting rid of all the flags. Especially the ones that confuse us. Like the Massachusetts flag.

^[1]

We don’t know what’s going on here, but there’s an Indian in it so it’s probably racist ^[2]. Here’s the Boston Globe.

What exactly is going on here? There’s the blue shield on the white field. And a white five-point star, signifying Massachusetts’ status as one of the first states. So far, pretty standard stuff.

Then it gets weird. On the shield stands a Native American drawn in gold, a bow in one hand, an arrow in the other — its point turned down to signify peacefulness. Or is it surrender?

But wait — what is that right above his head? Why, it’s a disembodied, muscular arm, brandishing a broadsword. And beneath the whole bizarre tableau is a Latin motto which translates to: “By the sword we seek peace, but peace under liberty.”

The Indian represents Massachusetts. It’s a Revolutionary War flag. But that’s just a technicality for the social justice warrior.

It is hard to read it all together as anything but a flag designed by and for the colonial conquerors who made the Bay State, the ones who won the land — with a short time out for Thanksgiving dinner — by all but eradicating the people who got here first.

Which would be why the Massachusetts state flag was the first to have an Indian on it and why its people chose to have themselves represented that way. Because they’re huge racist colonial conquerors.

I mean sure you can point to some purported history of what really happened…

The motto and the sword purportedly refer not to the victory over the native peoples but to the pilgrims’ attitude toward their imperial oppressors in England. Vexillologists (the fancy word for flag scholars) and heraldry nerds will tell you the sword is related to the motto, not to the man on the shield. But that nuance long ago drained from the image, which also appears on the state seal.

History is just nuance. Who really cares what the seal means. Let’s just ban it.

“It’s time for the kids to step up again. Or for the grown-ups on Beacon Hill and beyond to take this on.”

Considering that there are no grown ups at the Boston Globe, why should there be any there?

[CGASMIA68]

Lets just ban Massachusetts as it confuses me

[Fido969]

[originalbuckeye]

The Indian is Massasoit, for whom Massachusetts was named. But I appreciate his firmly planted tongue in cheek article.

[originalbuckeye]

No, that’s Fauxcahontas. On the flag is Massasoit. /s

[FlingWingFlyer]

The flag has got to go. It offends Indians.

[MV=PY]

How is it possible that the MS flag still exists?

[SeekAndFind]

RE: How is it possible that the MS flag still exists?

Don’t worry, that’s next...

[T-Bone Texan]

I believe that is not a flag but a crest.

[2ndDivisionVet]

[Billthedrill]

Speaking purely hypothetically here, but if we did give Massachusetts back to hostile tribes, how would it differ from now? Apart from the Red Sox, that is?

[Neidermeyer]

Lets just ban Massachusetts as it confuses me
**************
Massachusetts was the first slave state.

[samtheman]

I support this. I think we should go on a banning, burning and burying binge.

It’s cultural revolution time... let the destruction begin.

But let’s go after real racists with real racist pasts, like Woodrow Wilson, for example. Let’s erase Woodrow Wilson from American History.

[Sparky1776]

“The Indian is Massasoit, for whom Massachusetts was named”

Actually Massachusetts was named for the Massachusetts tribe - many of its members (and those of other tribes) were sold as slaves and sent to the Caribbean after the King Phillip’s War in 1676.

Keep in mind many, perhaps most of New England’s stone walls were built by Native American slaves - shame they’ll have to be destroyed now.

[Madame Dufarge]

"The term masshole may have been thrown around the Bay State for more than a decade, but as of this week it's officially part of the dictionary.

The Oxford English Dictionary is a historical book and when the editors add new terms, as they did this week, they make sure to do their research.

Masshole was just one of several words that now grace the pages of the dictionary. Other new additions include hot mess, twerk and fo' shizzle.

Masshole was added as a noun, first used in 1989. The definition reads: term of contempt for a native or inhabitant of the state of Massachusetts. This is what is known as a blended word, which Lewis Carroll called portmanteaus, naming them after a suitcase that unfolds into two equal parts."

Masshole now part of the dictionary

[originalbuckeye]

The term ‘masshole’ was in use in the 70-80’s in New Hampshire. It referred to skiers coming up and flooding the slopes in the winter.

[StormEye]

DIVERSITY --- Isn't it wonderful.
Let's ban something!

[Madame Dufarge]

1989 did seem a little too recent.

Being a Massachusetts native myself, it just didn't seem possible that the term hadn't been in use since at least the 1700's.

[muir_redwoods]

Anyone who has ever driven against (not with) Massachusetts natives will understand that “Masshole” is a motor vehicle term.

[TLI]

Looks pretty Islamic, could be code for ISIS, better ban it.