If you hang the flag for a fete, jubilee, VE day, or for pride in your town/country. It is patriotic.
If you hang it because you are pissed up on Stella and a racist told you on X to do it. You are a dick.
Be English, in England and fly the English flag = BAD!
Be non English, in England and fly some other flag = GOOD?
In England specifically it seems the orange section is entirely absent.
This sub used to be full of high quality Great British memes. Now it’s just low quality tiresome political culture war ragebait divisive windup guff. Us Brits are famously self deprecating and always poking fun at ourselves, but this influx of probably bot generated drivel is not who we are. Wake me up if we decide to moderate out all of this political bollocks.
As with everything, it’s entirely dependent on context.
This seems to be something “the right” either don’t get or intentionally ignore – it’s always “well is saying a bad word on Facebook illegal or not?” or “is hanging a flag up illegal or not?”, followed by “SEE?! TWO TIER JUSTICE!”.
In reality, the answer is always “it depends on the circumstances”.
It’s not a fine line tbh. It’s simply intent.
Racists are trying to intimidate minorities.
I live near someone who painted their whole house as the flag during the diamond jubilee and just very obviously couldn’t be bothered to repaint afterwards.
Like yeah man, Patriotism.
But my relative who puts up their flag while spouting they belong to the last “pure race on earth” is quite frankly motivated by racism.
Load of bollocks. It’s not a fine line at all, it’s how it’s used. It’s currently being used by racists as a threat. If it’s cable tied to a motorway bridge by a gammon, it’s a threat. If it’s properly secured to a legally placed flagpole for the appropriate reasons it’s fine.
I grew up in Germany and as you can imagine it was kind of taboo to fly the German flag anywhere for any reason that wasn’t official (like in front of a government building). Like the meme but a tad further to the right.
This changed in 2006 during the “Summary Fairytale” . Germany hosted the world cup and people went fucking insane with flags because it was suddenly okay. Initially there was no hope into our team and people weren’t into the event.. then they kept winning and suddenly the whole country was invested. When I say insane I mean from no flags nowhere to flags everywhere all the time. People had these flag holders you’d attach to your car and there was a movement to break them off and call people racist for doing so but those people where shouting into a storm.
Weirdly enough it was football that repaired the relationship of the country to its flag and we didn’t even win.
There isn’t a fine line.
It’s just lefty cry babies who think everyone is racist who doesn’t agree with them.
And the leftys are the worst of them all.
To be fair, flying any flag with the intent of racism or causing any form of tension is a dick move.
In England yes, because it has been overtaken and corrupted for decades by racists and fascists like EDL and Mosleys lot (and the fact that England was built on this sort of thing)
The welsh flag, Scottish flag and Cornish flags are the exact opposite, because they have been used to fight against the English and show that (in Cymru and Kernew) the naitives are still here and won’t be wiped out.
The naitive nationalism of wales, and kernew (and the slightly manufactured nationalism in Scotland) all stemmed from the fight against an oppressive people who have spent centuries attacking them. The ‘nationalism’ in England is a temper tantrum because the world, and especially the other UK countries, doesn’t put up with their antics anymore. They need an ‘enemy’ because they can’t handle the truth, it used to be the celts (and frankly still is), and now it’s ‘immigrants’
I think it’s because there’s far right people who focus so much on the flag and the country, it makes more moderate people kind of back away from it all.
Ironically i think they’re abandoning the field on what national pride can be and making it even more polarising.
It’s not a fine line Putting them up for sporting tournaments is fine putting them up in your own house is fine putting them outside Chinese, Indian restaurants or any places that sells food from other countries is a dog whistle and is stupid because the people who own or work in those places are probably British anyway
Guess who’s pushing the current flag flying campaign online. Hint, it isn’t the left or the centrists…
Tbh I don’t get patriotism. Like okay you love your country, what does that mean? The government? The people? What makes them different from other people and more worthy of love? The soil? What makes that soil special? I have heard some people say the values of the nation are what they love, but when they name them it’s the same values that every nation says it has. Patriotism seems to just be nationalism, and I am not a nationalist, because I think nations are a profoundly synthetic construct that dosnt do much good, and they do not determine the value of the people living in them.
L’Amour Toujours intensifies as i hoist up the flag of MY country, on MY flag pole, in MY garden
We just need everyone who thinks the flag is bad/racist to leave the country, it’s a simple fix. Why are they here if they hate the country anyway?
Nobody could reasonably be patriotic about England/the UK in 2025
Even the local reform councillor pointed out they’re often at half mast, something normally done when someone important has died.
Their campaign needs hijacking, to make both our flags something other than signalling your views on migrants
And racism is bad because?
So it’s okay when Palestinian flags are hung from buildings? But I fly the flag of the country I’m in… and that’s perceived as racist? What happened to patriotism.
I love Reddit, full of some absolute melts 😂
And when this comment gets downvoted I’ll laugh even more.
No one is trying to ‘intimidate’ anyone it’s is a simple sign “THIS IS ENGLAND.” 🏴
The fact it’s caused so much uproar is very telling. Apparently, you’re only allowed to be patriotic when the lionesses play otherwise the you’re the spawn of the Austrian painter summoning the far right boogeyman through the act of ritualistic hate dances who is then going to jump out of the nowhere and deport the nearest non-white, and probably their grandma too.
This country is utterly cooked. I’d personally suggest:
– Stop labelling everything as racist it’s not.
– Stop dictating to people how they should think and feel.
– Stop implementing bizarre social rules about when you can and cannot fly the flag. It’s the flag of this country and you can fly it when you want.
– Listen to the concerns of your opposition to curb extremism. People are still wondering why Brexit happened.
– Recognise this is not a phenomenon limited to the UK. It’s happening right throughout the Western world.
Left wing movements need to co-opt the flag and use it in everything we can. If we make the flag associated with Left wing ideals, or better yet, LGBTQA+ rights in the UK, then we fuck up their messaging
“People say that people who wave the national flag are racists, so to prove them wrong I’m going to wave the flag and tell immigrants to fuck off” – Literal Rightoids.
It’s entirely context dependent. The current “fly the colours” campaign is brought about entirely through racism and national exceptionalist sentiment. It literally reinforces the criticism that more left inclined individuals have, as opposed to challenging it. If you’re a resident of the UK, then the union flag is YOUR flag because you reside here. Extreme-right groups have appropriated this as an exclusionary nationalist symbol i.e. “OUR FLAG NOT YOURS” which further fuels xenophobic feelings and makes integration and acceptance of foreign nationals into UK society less and less likely.
It’s a definitional self fulfilling prophecy
My local FB group had a post up entitled something along the lines of “the flags have all looked so lovely, like there’s a party on, shame theyve been taken down by someone”.
There were a fair few replies of “oh but why? Flags never hurt anyone…”
I can’t tell if it’s some deep sarcasm or people genuinely not seeing the hypocrisy.
In any case Im not against having a flag up, I am against having it draped or pinned off a lamp post like a bit of lost clothing and then claiming you’re a true patriot.
Patriotism is the love of your country.
Nationalism is the hatred of others’.
By this logic does that mean that all non UK flags being flown are racist and should be banned?
As a nation we don’t usually go in for the whole flag waving stuff. Not like America. The problem is people don’t raise or display the flag properly. It takes work and effort. So they just drape them out of window or zip tie to a pole. It then looks a mess and they get up set when someone with some authority says take it down.
It’s not that they can not display the flag it’s that you cannot display it in a such a disrespectful way.
calling white people racist because they fly a flag is a hate crime . I’m sure the police would love to look into this?
The far right have done to the English flag what Hitler did for the Charlie Chaplin moustache.
The way to fix this, is if anti-racist protesters wield the flag back at them, it then loses its “meaning”
Only in the UK is flying your national flag deemed racist. Can you imagine telling Ukraine not to keep flying their national flag? Oh wait, that’s what the Russians are doing
It’s nothing to do with the flag, the flag is just the flag. It flies on churches all over the countryside and lots of other places. It is not a racist symbol and it’s silly to claim it as such just because you see some people you don’t like flying it/someone who is actually a bad person flying it. That just shows you that they share the attribute of being English with you.
If we keep labelling things that bad people use as “dogwhistles” or “racist symbols” we’ll have nothing left at some point (not to mention how stupid it is – did you know bad people also wear shoes?!)
Somehow the Americans have managed to have the flag remain a symbol loved by all, not just the racist idiots who fly it. Let’s be more like them but without the excess cringe – the flag is just the flag and it represents all of us.
The flag itself isn’t offensive. The knuckle draggers who’ve hijacked the flag with their fake patriotism and racism is offensive, thus removing the true meaning of waving a flag. These people are a joke and seem to forget about the servicemen and women who’ve died for the flag in WW2.
Hanging national flags is a passtime so deeply cringe that only Americans really do it.
If Brits are doing it, you can be fairy sure an American put the idea in their head, and Americans always have agendas.
patriotism and nationalism are pretty weird mindsets to begin with
Not really. Flag is a flag mate
Flying the flag during the football and moments of national pride (Remembrance Sunday etc) is fine. Outside of that it’s needless “we’re English” bullshit that gammons use as a tool against non-native English folk.
Don’t be mad at people who don’t know your intention for displaying the flag. Be mad at the assholes who are hijacking the flag to use as part of their racist, hateful agenda. They’re the reason it can be difficult to tell the difference.
It’s about whether you make it political.
Flags at events like sports events, the British bake off, any event where the UK is a contestant etc. just say “yay! Britain!”. The flags on the wing mirrors of mini coopers are harmless.
Flags on people’s houses are a political statement if not hung for an event. But even if hung for an event you could argue that is still a political statement as patriotism in this country is a political statement. Personally I’m not proud of this country, so I’ll never hang the flag until it gives me something to be proud of. When we decriminalised abortion (there’s still work to do), I’d have waved a flag if I had one to hand. But in general, I am not proud.
This is fake…
That orange section for “Patriotism” is far too large, and the “Racism” is too small for most people.
If it’s not a World Cup event then the St George should be kept in locked boxes with a Palestinian flag over the top for good measure.
All equal rights marches should also include the Union and St George flag, any flag humper that complains outs themselves as a bigot and only interested in using the flag to push far-right culture war BS.
Also, what the hell is there to be proud of at the moment? Record cost of living crisis? Record child poverty levels? Record wealth disparity? A pro-ethnic cleansing government? Constant regressive rights policies? High food costs? Spiraling rent costs? Highest energy prices ever? Constant benefit cuts? Cuts to social systems and infrastructure? Billions given to criminal water companies? Crippled mass transit? No public ownership of any infrastructure?
The list can go on. Honestly, why fly the flag?
Flying a flag on its own will never be patriotic, especially if you don’t maintain it. Actions are patriotic, fixing a crumbling country, supporting the NHS and voting for a real change to austerity is patriotic.
It is upsetting that I fought for the Union Jack and now a group of people who are unable to practice critical thinking are making it a symbol of idiocy and hate.
46 comments
If you hang the flag for a fete, jubilee, VE day, or for pride in your town/country. It is patriotic.
If you hang it because you are pissed up on Stella and a racist told you on X to do it. You are a dick.
Be English, in England and fly the English flag = BAD!
Be non English, in England and fly some other flag = GOOD?
In England specifically it seems the orange section is entirely absent.
This sub used to be full of high quality Great British memes. Now it’s just low quality tiresome political culture war ragebait divisive windup guff. Us Brits are famously self deprecating and always poking fun at ourselves, but this influx of probably bot generated drivel is not who we are. Wake me up if we decide to moderate out all of this political bollocks.
As with everything, it’s entirely dependent on context.
This seems to be something “the right” either don’t get or intentionally ignore – it’s always “well is saying a bad word on Facebook illegal or not?” or “is hanging a flag up illegal or not?”, followed by “SEE?! TWO TIER JUSTICE!”.
In reality, the answer is always “it depends on the circumstances”.
It’s not a fine line tbh. It’s simply intent.
Racists are trying to intimidate minorities.
I live near someone who painted their whole house as the flag during the diamond jubilee and just very obviously couldn’t be bothered to repaint afterwards.
Like yeah man, Patriotism.
But my relative who puts up their flag while spouting they belong to the last “pure race on earth” is quite frankly motivated by racism.
Load of bollocks. It’s not a fine line at all, it’s how it’s used. It’s currently being used by racists as a threat. If it’s cable tied to a motorway bridge by a gammon, it’s a threat. If it’s properly secured to a legally placed flagpole for the appropriate reasons it’s fine.
I grew up in Germany and as you can imagine it was kind of taboo to fly the German flag anywhere for any reason that wasn’t official (like in front of a government building). Like the meme but a tad further to the right.
This changed in 2006 during the “Summary Fairytale” . Germany hosted the world cup and people went fucking insane with flags because it was suddenly okay. Initially there was no hope into our team and people weren’t into the event.. then they kept winning and suddenly the whole country was invested. When I say insane I mean from no flags nowhere to flags everywhere all the time. People had these flag holders you’d attach to your car and there was a movement to break them off and call people racist for doing so but those people where shouting into a storm.
Weirdly enough it was football that repaired the relationship of the country to its flag and we didn’t even win.
There isn’t a fine line.
It’s just lefty cry babies who think everyone is racist who doesn’t agree with them.
And the leftys are the worst of them all.
To be fair, flying any flag with the intent of racism or causing any form of tension is a dick move.
In England yes, because it has been overtaken and corrupted for decades by racists and fascists like EDL and Mosleys lot (and the fact that England was built on this sort of thing)
The welsh flag, Scottish flag and Cornish flags are the exact opposite, because they have been used to fight against the English and show that (in Cymru and Kernew) the naitives are still here and won’t be wiped out.
The naitive nationalism of wales, and kernew (and the slightly manufactured nationalism in Scotland) all stemmed from the fight against an oppressive people who have spent centuries attacking them. The ‘nationalism’ in England is a temper tantrum because the world, and especially the other UK countries, doesn’t put up with their antics anymore. They need an ‘enemy’ because they can’t handle the truth, it used to be the celts (and frankly still is), and now it’s ‘immigrants’
I think it’s because there’s far right people who focus so much on the flag and the country, it makes more moderate people kind of back away from it all.
Ironically i think they’re abandoning the field on what national pride can be and making it even more polarising.
It’s not a fine line Putting them up for sporting tournaments is fine putting them up in your own house is fine putting them outside Chinese, Indian restaurants or any places that sells food from other countries is a dog whistle and is stupid because the people who own or work in those places are probably British anyway
Guess who’s pushing the current flag flying campaign online. Hint, it isn’t the left or the centrists…
Tbh I don’t get patriotism. Like okay you love your country, what does that mean? The government? The people? What makes them different from other people and more worthy of love? The soil? What makes that soil special? I have heard some people say the values of the nation are what they love, but when they name them it’s the same values that every nation says it has. Patriotism seems to just be nationalism, and I am not a nationalist, because I think nations are a profoundly synthetic construct that dosnt do much good, and they do not determine the value of the people living in them.
L’Amour Toujours intensifies as i hoist up the flag of MY country, on MY flag pole, in MY garden
We just need everyone who thinks the flag is bad/racist to leave the country, it’s a simple fix. Why are they here if they hate the country anyway?
Nobody could reasonably be patriotic about England/the UK in 2025
Even the local reform councillor pointed out they’re often at half mast, something normally done when someone important has died.
Their campaign needs hijacking, to make both our flags something other than signalling your views on migrants
And racism is bad because?
So it’s okay when Palestinian flags are hung from buildings? But I fly the flag of the country I’m in… and that’s perceived as racist? What happened to patriotism.
I love Reddit, full of some absolute melts 😂
And when this comment gets downvoted I’ll laugh even more.
No one is trying to ‘intimidate’ anyone it’s is a simple sign “THIS IS ENGLAND.” 🏴
The fact it’s caused so much uproar is very telling. Apparently, you’re only allowed to be patriotic when the lionesses play otherwise the you’re the spawn of the Austrian painter summoning the far right boogeyman through the act of ritualistic hate dances who is then going to jump out of the nowhere and deport the nearest non-white, and probably their grandma too.
This country is utterly cooked. I’d personally suggest:
– Stop labelling everything as racist it’s not.
– Stop dictating to people how they should think and feel.
– Stop implementing bizarre social rules about when you can and cannot fly the flag. It’s the flag of this country and you can fly it when you want.
– Listen to the concerns of your opposition to curb extremism. People are still wondering why Brexit happened.
– Recognise this is not a phenomenon limited to the UK. It’s happening right throughout the Western world.
Left wing movements need to co-opt the flag and use it in everything we can. If we make the flag associated with Left wing ideals, or better yet, LGBTQA+ rights in the UK, then we fuck up their messaging
“People say that people who wave the national flag are racists, so to prove them wrong I’m going to wave the flag and tell immigrants to fuck off” – Literal Rightoids.
It’s entirely context dependent. The current “fly the colours” campaign is brought about entirely through racism and national exceptionalist sentiment. It literally reinforces the criticism that more left inclined individuals have, as opposed to challenging it. If you’re a resident of the UK, then the union flag is YOUR flag because you reside here. Extreme-right groups have appropriated this as an exclusionary nationalist symbol i.e. “OUR FLAG NOT YOURS” which further fuels xenophobic feelings and makes integration and acceptance of foreign nationals into UK society less and less likely.
It’s a definitional self fulfilling prophecy
My local FB group had a post up entitled something along the lines of “the flags have all looked so lovely, like there’s a party on, shame theyve been taken down by someone”.
There were a fair few replies of “oh but why? Flags never hurt anyone…”
I can’t tell if it’s some deep sarcasm or people genuinely not seeing the hypocrisy.
In any case Im not against having a flag up, I am against having it draped or pinned off a lamp post like a bit of lost clothing and then claiming you’re a true patriot.
Patriotism is the love of your country.
Nationalism is the hatred of others’.
By this logic does that mean that all non UK flags being flown are racist and should be banned?
As a nation we don’t usually go in for the whole flag waving stuff. Not like America. The problem is people don’t raise or display the flag properly. It takes work and effort. So they just drape them out of window or zip tie to a pole. It then looks a mess and they get up set when someone with some authority says take it down.
It’s not that they can not display the flag it’s that you cannot display it in a such a disrespectful way.
calling white people racist because they fly a flag is a hate crime . I’m sure the police would love to look into this?
The far right have done to the English flag what Hitler did for the Charlie Chaplin moustache.
The way to fix this, is if anti-racist protesters wield the flag back at them, it then loses its “meaning”
Only in the UK is flying your national flag deemed racist. Can you imagine telling Ukraine not to keep flying their national flag? Oh wait, that’s what the Russians are doing
It’s nothing to do with the flag, the flag is just the flag. It flies on churches all over the countryside and lots of other places. It is not a racist symbol and it’s silly to claim it as such just because you see some people you don’t like flying it/someone who is actually a bad person flying it. That just shows you that they share the attribute of being English with you.
If we keep labelling things that bad people use as “dogwhistles” or “racist symbols” we’ll have nothing left at some point (not to mention how stupid it is – did you know bad people also wear shoes?!)
Somehow the Americans have managed to have the flag remain a symbol loved by all, not just the racist idiots who fly it. Let’s be more like them but without the excess cringe – the flag is just the flag and it represents all of us.
The flag itself isn’t offensive. The knuckle draggers who’ve hijacked the flag with their fake patriotism and racism is offensive, thus removing the true meaning of waving a flag. These people are a joke and seem to forget about the servicemen and women who’ve died for the flag in WW2.
Hanging national flags is a passtime so deeply cringe that only Americans really do it.
If Brits are doing it, you can be fairy sure an American put the idea in their head, and Americans always have agendas.
patriotism and nationalism are pretty weird mindsets to begin with
Not really. Flag is a flag mate
Flying the flag during the football and moments of national pride (Remembrance Sunday etc) is fine. Outside of that it’s needless “we’re English” bullshit that gammons use as a tool against non-native English folk.
Don’t be mad at people who don’t know your intention for displaying the flag. Be mad at the assholes who are hijacking the flag to use as part of their racist, hateful agenda. They’re the reason it can be difficult to tell the difference.
It’s about whether you make it political.
Flags at events like sports events, the British bake off, any event where the UK is a contestant etc. just say “yay! Britain!”. The flags on the wing mirrors of mini coopers are harmless.
Flags on people’s houses are a political statement if not hung for an event. But even if hung for an event you could argue that is still a political statement as patriotism in this country is a political statement. Personally I’m not proud of this country, so I’ll never hang the flag until it gives me something to be proud of. When we decriminalised abortion (there’s still work to do), I’d have waved a flag if I had one to hand. But in general, I am not proud.
This is fake…
That orange section for “Patriotism” is far too large, and the “Racism” is too small for most people.
If it’s not a World Cup event then the St George should be kept in locked boxes with a Palestinian flag over the top for good measure.
All equal rights marches should also include the Union and St George flag, any flag humper that complains outs themselves as a bigot and only interested in using the flag to push far-right culture war BS.
Also, what the hell is there to be proud of at the moment? Record cost of living crisis? Record child poverty levels? Record wealth disparity? A pro-ethnic cleansing government? Constant regressive rights policies? High food costs? Spiraling rent costs? Highest energy prices ever? Constant benefit cuts? Cuts to social systems and infrastructure? Billions given to criminal water companies? Crippled mass transit? No public ownership of any infrastructure?
The list can go on. Honestly, why fly the flag?
Flying a flag on its own will never be patriotic, especially if you don’t maintain it. Actions are patriotic, fixing a crumbling country, supporting the NHS and voting for a real change to austerity is patriotic.
It is upsetting that I fought for the Union Jack and now a group of people who are unable to practice critical thinking are making it a symbol of idiocy and hate.
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