cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/4249593

Democratic Gov. Jared Polis called the Gadsden flag ‘a proud symbol of the American revolution’ after a a Colorado student was told to remove a patch of the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag from his backpack.

  • fubo@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Yeah. It’s not an expression of mutual defense, it’s an expression of self defense only.

    It doesn’t say “Don’t tread on my neighbor.”

    It doesn’t say “I won’t tread on you.” Snakes conveniently don’t wear boots.

    Hell, it doesn’t even say “I’ll stick up for my neighbor after they defend themselves from you.”

    • TwilightVulpine@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      It could be as simple as “Don’t Tread on Us” but it’s not. To be fair, the wording doesn’t necessarily imply a selfish attitude, but the ones waving a flag definitely do,

      • Kalcifer@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        There is nothing inherently oppressive about saying “Don’t tread on me.”. Individual liberty does not beget an oppressive structure within the collective. An individual should not stand behind the flag in good conscience if the believe that their liberties trump those of others.

    • Kalcifer@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Being individually free does not necessitate an oppressive structure within the collective – if all individuals are free, then the collective must also be free.

      • fubo@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        This seems like it should be true, but unfortunately game theory shows that it is not, due to coordination problems. It’s possible for everyone to have individual free choice in their actions, and yet the collective to be incapable of making the choice that everyone would individually prefer it to make. The elementary example of this is the Prisoner’s Dilemma.

        Interestingly, real humans turn out to be better at resolving coordination problems than a purely selfish algorithm is.