Hypocrisy seen in efforts to scrub Confederate battle flag from public view
On Tuesday, several well-known retailers, including Wal-Mart and eBay, announced they would no longer sell or offer merchandise featuring the Confederate battle flag. But, Twitchy said, a number of people noticed a bit of hypocrisy in the items remaining for sale.
Walmart, for example, continues to offer Che Guevara posters for a mere $46.55. Guevara, Biography.com said, "was a Marxist revolutionary allied with Fidel Castro who went on to become an iconic cultural hero." The retail giant also offers at least three Lynyrd Skynrd CDs that prominently feature the battle flag as of this writing. We contacted Walmart to determine if they intend to remove the items but have not received a reply. The retail store, however issued a statement on its decision.
"We never want to offend anyone with the products that we offer," the company told CNN. "We have taken steps to remove all items promoting the confederate flag from our assortment -- whether in our stores or on our web site. We have a process in place to help lead us to the right decisions when it comes to the merchandise we sell. Still, at times, items make their way into our assortment improperly -- this is one of those instances."
Another Twitter user discovered Communist-themed t-shirts on Amazon, another company banning sales of the flag. Responding to the discovery, one person said that "genocidal totalitarians are hip." The popular auction site eBay said it was banning the Confederate flag for being a "contemporary symbol of divisiveness and racism."
The hypocrisy wasn't lost on Twitter users. "Hi, @ebay, I see you're banning Civil War memorabilia, but happily trafficking Che Guevara chic," one person said. "I find that odd."
Another Twitter user posted a picture of Nazi memorabilia found for sale on eBay. Among the items found was a painted German Nazi coin.
Sears, Target and Etsy have also banned sales of the flag, according to the Huffington Post. Target, Andrew Lord said, pulled a Confederate soldier costume from its website "after a CNBC reporter questioned a spokesperson about it."
“Our intention is never to offend. We all recognize the great sensitivity around this and have removed that one item from our website," spokeswoman Molly Snyder told the Huffington Post. "But ... that was the only item.”
But the effort to scrub the flag from public view is not going to stop or solve real race issues, as Zeba Blay observed at the Huffington Post. "Taking down the Confederate flag is just a band-aid over a gaping wound, and right now, our country is still bleeding," she wrote.
Mollie Hemingway, a senior editor at The Federalist, said the effort goes far beyond removing the flag from view. Now, she said, media activists are "hopping all over the place" looking for things to rename, change and remove. In addition to state flags that may incorporate features of the battle flag, some, like historian Max Boot, appear ready to erase anything that might recall the Confederacy.
"Not only should the Confederate flag come down, but I believe it’s also time for Southern states to change place names in honor of traitors such as Jefferson Davis," he wrote at Commentary. "I know, I know: it’s a slippery slope that could eventually result in taking slaveholders such as George Washington off our currency or even renaming our national capital."
Boot was not the only one to make such a statement. Earlier Tuesday, Don Lemon said the day may come when Americans are forced to consider removing Thomas Jefferson from the U.S. Capitol because he once owned slaves.
"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it," says a quote attributed to philosopher George Santayana. One can only wonder what he would say about those who seek to forcibly remove history from a nation's memory.
http://www.examiner.com/article/hypo...om-public-view
I Did NOT do the research, my friend April Overman did; but it makes a HUGE point, so I'll share. I'm also a shopper of Amazon and I think they need to read it as well, April - can I send it to them?
"So Amazon is considering removing all rebel flag merchandise. I thought I'd do a little research and discovered the following.
There are 2,939 articles for sale that bear the logo "F-ck the Police." Are they thinking of removing those, too?
How about the 11,988 Che Guevara articles they are selling? Do they know their history, or do they just not care?
You can also choose from 27 different phone cases with Farrakhan's picture on them. You know, the guy who has incessantly called for a race holy war and refers to the white race as a race of devils. Inciting racism and violence much there?
Now, talking about inciting violence ... how much violence has been committed in the name of the gangsta lifestyle? Well, Amazon must not be offended by lyrics that encourage violence because there are 14,171 CDs that identify themselves as "hardcore" gangsta. (I guess "hardcore" gangsta is more violent than plain old gangsta.)
Shouldn't Amazon remove its 74 articles of clothing with Crips logos and gang signs? (Sorry, I couldn't figure out how many articles of clothing they had for Bloods because it kept pulling up stain removers and compression shocks alongside the shirts with Bloods gang signs.)
Oh, and we need to look hard at expressions of racism, right? So, how about those 13,035 items that use "Nigga" or "Niggas" like it's actually a socially acceptable term of endearment. Isn't that word supposed to be the pinnacle of racist expression?
And, don't even get me started on all of the clothing and memorabilia for the Hell's Angels, Banditos, and other criminal motorcycle gangs. (Not to be confused with the good bikers, of course.)
Finally, you can still buy a copy of The Anarchist Cookbook from Amazon Books.
Now, don't get me wrong. I don't think Amazon should remove any of these things. It's a free market. But, don't target one item that 30% of the population finds offensive while letting all of the other violent, racist, pro-criminal stuff stay."
Orwell would be proud at the left's efforts to scrub the Confederate battle flag from history. And it's not just the flag. Some want to erase any mention of the Confederacy from public view. "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it," said George Santayana. This is what you get with political correctness.