A Counter-Currents reader has offered the following essay to stir thought and four prizes — a first prize of $200, and three runner-up prizes of $100 each — for the best concrete ideas on the topic outlined in it, to be submitted to: editor@counter-currents.com before October 1, 2023.
* * *
I wish to share some ideas about the power of symbols in claiming territory. I wish to make three points:
symbols are powerful,
the Left has good symbols, and
the Right needs better symbols.
I feel distinctly unwelcome in areas that are filled with rainbow flags and Black Lives Matter signs. It’s demoralizing. When I see them, I want to leave and never return. I think Trump and Make America Great Again flags — and even American flags — have a similar effect on the Left in great enough numbers.
I think the rainbow flag is quite brilliant propaganda. Consider some of its merits:
Rainbows are lovely; they’ve co-opted something everyone loves.
The color scheme is endlessly adaptable to all kinds of shapes and merchandise.
Although the full LGBTQ+ package is highly destructive, its symbolism provides plausible deniability, not only as to what it means but also as to whether it means anything at all. Is that rainbow sign in your kids’ classroom political propaganda, or is it just a rainbow? When the hospital gave my daughter a rainbow-colored bear during Pride Month, was that subtle propaganda targeted at a child, or was that it simply a rainbow-colored bear? When children in school have shirts that say “Be kind,” where “kind” is rendered in a rainbow theme, is that sexual politics or is it “just promoting kindness”? And who can oppose kindness without seeming churlish?
Despite plausible deniability, it serves as a reliable marker for Leftists to identify each other. When the schoolteacher has a rainbow flag sticker on her car that says “Compassion” or “All are welcome,” they mark themselves as part of the tribe. Perhaps you can’t nail them down as to whether they really support the sterilization and mutilation of children — I mean “gender-affirming health care” — but you know they’re part of the tribe.
The Left goes around to businesses and asks them to hang rainbow flag in the windows “to show that all people are welcome here.” but it also has the (likely intentional) effect of visibly claiming that territory for the Left. Some rural areas have a fair number of Trump flags flying from the houses, but I’ve never seen a Right-wing equivalent of an entire business district festooned with rainbow flags. Would a Leftist want to patronize a business with “Straight pride” and “Trump 2024” flags? What if nearly every business was like that? I think it would demoralize them. (Yes, a few would defiantly paint their house like a rainbow in the middle of Trump territory, but most might be pressured to find bluer pastures.)
It’s unfortunate that the Right doesn’t have good flags and symbols to rally behind and claim territory with, except the highly imperfect Trump/MAGA flags. We need symbols that explicitly counter those of the Left with our own positive vision.
The flag should be pro-heterosexuality, pro-marriage, pro-children, and pro-European/Western.
Do we have somebody who can make such a thing, in a way that’s wholesome, distinctive, and in a manner that instills pride?
The Right’s most popular symbols are all lacking:
The Gadsden flag doesn’t directly counter the Left. It instead counters tyrants, or rulers and governments generally. Unless you’re an anarchist or pure libertarian, it’s too vague. You might say it’s “pro-freedom,” but the Left can claim to just want “freedom,” too: the freedom to love whoever they want to love, to choose their own gender and family structure, to let all children encounter their ideology in schools and libraries, to give children the freedom to choose to be free of parental tyranny, and for all oppressed and downtrodden peoples to have the freedom to seek a better life in the West. “I’m a childless trans lesbian: Don’t tread on me!” This is not self-contradictory.
The MAGA flag is vague. Make America great in what way? And if greatness is accomplished, the symbol would become obsolete. It is directional, and the direction is towards the Right, but that’s about all. One can argue that it works well in the plausible deniability department, but its meaning is perhaps too much in the eye of the beholder.
The Trump flag is pro-Trump, but it’s similarly vague. It’s also bound to a specific time period. Unless he becomes a much greater man than he is now, flying a Trump flag 20 years after he’s dead will merely be sad.
FJB is anti-Biden and similarly time-bound.
The Thin Blue Line flag is pro-police, pro-law-and-order, and implicitly pro-government and anti-crime. Those are generally good things, but they only tangentially touch on the culture wars.
Then we have Pepe, Gigachad, and other meme characters. These are probably best left on the Internet.
Ideally we’d have symbols that:
espouse a positive vision and set of ideals, not simply state opposition to the enemy or his ideals;
have a lasting message that will be continually relevant and inspiring, even after the mission is accomplished;
can be adapted into many formats;
spark interest and curiosity in those who see it, providing natural opportunities to spread the word;
leave no wiggle room for enemy subversion, such as how “all men are created equal” has been subverted.
espouse ideals that are simultaneously wholesome and good — such that most on our side would proudly and openly agree with them — while simultaneously demoralizing the enemy, who could not agree with them without compromising their own ideals, and who face an uphill battle justifying their opposition (just as you have to effectively oppose “kindness,” “compassion,” and “being welcoming to all” to oppose the rainbow flag), and
appeal emotionally to both men and women, young and old.
Given the realities of media and cultural power, they may also need to provide plausible deniability for the more extreme implications of those ideals — just as the rainbow flag provides plausible deniability for child mutilation and sterilization under the guise of “love” and “compassion.” It should be the kind of thing that a young, rebellious teen would want to put on his backpack, except for the fact that his mom already has one on her SUV — not because his mom is an extremist like he is. She merely has the equivalent of the “kindness” and “compassion” rainbow flag.
I realize this is something difficult to achieve, and perhaps even impossible. I also realize that the Anti-Defamation League and its ilk are ruthless in smearing any symbol even tangentially connected with “extremism.” (Caught cracking your knuckles in a way that somebody thought looks like the “okay” symbol, which has meant “okay” for decades but was recently declared evil? You’re fired!) We can’t hope to pull the wool over their eyes. It unfortunately seems to require the kind of skill and talent that money can’t buy. But don’t we have artists who can do better than the symbols we’ve got? I wonder . . .
