Why Burning the Flag Matters

[stevenleser]

122. It's amazing how many of you missed MineralMan's point and created all kinds of strawmen

Let's run down the points and strawmen

#1 - MineralMan never opined either way whether the burning of the flag was legal or Constitutional

#2 - MineralMan never opined either way whether it was a potent statement to burn the flag

His point, which seemed obvious to me, was that burning the flag in protest pisses off a large amount of people in this country. Too many for a movement that is competing for the country's hearts and minds. I've spent a fair amount of time on several occasions with those occupying Wall Street. Occupiers are smart folks. None of the folks I spoke with would have been dumb enough to do this. Its unfortunate that a small number of idiots decided on their own to do something that could give the movement a black eye across a broad swath of this country. It's a potentially devastating blow.

We can talk until we are blue in the face about what we believe people SHOULD think about burning the flag. The fact is all of us here on DU would be in violent agreement on that. That isnt the point. The point is regardless of what think other people SHOULD think about it, most of them DON'T THINK THAT WAY.

A movement, even one that is as right as OWS is, can destroy its effectiveness with boneheaded PR mistakes.

Now, was that really that difficult?