We thank our lucky stars that we’re based in the United States of America, where “hate speech” has no legal definition. Sure, the term is still thrown around at everything progressives disagree with, and it’s annoying. But at least they can’t use that as a standard to come after us or anyone else — at least not yet, like in the United Kingdom.
Patriotic Americans have come to be accepting of a lot of things — including demonstrations that attack everything they stand for. For most of us, the American flag doesn’t represent Jim Crow, or slavery, or historic discrimination that occurred here and in countless other parts of the world. Instead, it represents our founding principles — principles that we haven’t always lived up to perfectly, but have made incredible strides in actualizing. That’s a wonderful thing.
This is why it bothers us when the American flag is burned during leftist protests. And we have a right to feel that way — just as we recognize the right of dissenters to do what they’re doing. That’s the best part about being conservative — we don’t see every problem as something we need the strong arm of government to club to death. The free market and our culture solve most of our problems for us.
On the other side of the coin, we see no good reason to burn the LGBT rainbow flag. What does that accomplish? It doesn’t matter — if someone feels incensed enough to 1. purchase one, and 2. actually take the time to burn it — this is also protected free speech. No one said free speech has to be “good” speech.
