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?

  • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Justice Alito’s house had a flag upside down, while the Supreme Court is considering Trump’s cases. Flying a flag upside down was what insurrectionists did on Jan 6. Insert your own conclusion.

    *Apparently the flag was in 2021 the days after Jan 6. I thought it was recently but apparently not.

  • RobotToaster@mander.xyz
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    6 months ago

    Flying the US flag upside down on ship is apparently a distress signal.

    (Flying the UK flag upside down just makes people think you’re an idiot.)

    • snooggums
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      6 months ago

      Jan 6th insurrectionists were using it to say the country was in distress because of the “stolen election” lie.

    • hoshikarakitaridia@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Some additional information on that:

      Generally, depending on the country there’s laws for that.

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_protocol

      Violating these laws can lead to varying degrees of fines and or prosecution, depending on the country and the type of country flag desecration (burning a flag is worse than getting the height of the flag on the pole wrong).

      Half mast is the more famous distress signal internationally.

      That said, Alito, even if not doing something illegal, is definitely signalling something very ominous. I agree with the experts that such an extreme degree of the appearance of impropriety is definitely gonna run afoul of supreme court ethics rules.

      But: no check of power means no executive power and that means a rule might as well be unwritten.

      • FireTower@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Flag code in the US has no teeth. Flag burning is legal per Texas v. Johnson. Symbolizing a stance of the nation being in distressed is definitely protected speech. Impropriety is a stretch for a statement on his private property that amounts to “our country is in turmoil”.

        • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Flag code in the US is just recommendations for citizens. I think it is only “enforced” for military personnel.

  • morphballganon@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    It’s not a good sign when a supreme court justice openly associates with violent insurrectionists, is it?

    • Aaron@lemmy.nz
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      6 months ago

      I dunno, Thomas is still there, and I’m sure he wouldn’t be with their iron clad ethics guidelines, right?

  • BrerChicken @lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Flying the flag upside is a distress signal. People who use it as a political statement are misusing the flag, and that is the actual disrespect here.

  • 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.

        • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          6 months ago

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

          Gee, I wonder why he was talking about the US in response to this in your comment, and the OP saying it was related to the New York (the one in the US, not old York in the UK) Times. Damn Americans, there are other countries!

        • 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.

  • w3dd1e@lemm.ee
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    6 months ago

    I grew up near Westboro Baptist in Topeka. We all knew where they lived because they fly the US flag upside down. They say “the US is in distress because of all the sinning”. Basically, because they hate LGBT+ people.

  • Resol van Lemmy@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    I remember seeing both the Moroccan and Paleatinian flags flown upside down at times. Either people simply do not know the correct orientation (remember: star points to the top, green on bottom), don’t really care enough to fix it, or have no idea that it’s being used as an insult (does that only apply to the US flag?)

  • abbadon420@lemm.ee
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    6 months ago

    In europe, farmers did it to protest european farming laws. The idea was quickly adopted by corona weirdos to forward their ideologies, so it was ultimately seen as something for the mentally unstable, except by the mentally unstable themselves (and some farmers still haven’t gotten the message)

  • db2@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    It’s because they’re stupid. Deeply stupid.

    e: poor little triggered tankie snowflakes, gonna cry?