Today, a bunch of people on my Mastodon feed are making declarations about somebody apparently flying a flag upside down, and this apparently has something to do with the New York Times being terrible.

What happened?

  • @[email protected]
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    696 months ago

    Flying the US flag upside down on ship is apparently a distress signal.

    (Flying the UK flag upside down just makes people think you’re an idiot.)

    • @[email protected]
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      406 months ago

      Jan 6th insurrectionists were using it to say the country was in distress because of the “stolen election” lie.

      • snownyte
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        246 months ago

        Funny because THEY were the ones causing the country to go in distress.

      • @RizzRustbolt
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        6 months ago

        And folks on the left were doing it after Trump was elected to symbolize their resistence.

        Misusing a flag has always been a back and forth argument in political circles.

        It’s a nothingburger in my opinion.

    • gregorum
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      106 months ago

      Does the UK flag even have an “upside down”?

    • @hoshikarakitaridia
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      76 months ago

      Some additional information on that:

      Generally, depending on the country there’s laws for that.

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_protocol

      Violating these laws can lead to varying degrees of fines and or prosecution, depending on the country and the type of country flag desecration (burning a flag is worse than getting the height of the flag on the pole wrong).

      Half mast is the more famous distress signal internationally.

      That said, Alito, even if not doing something illegal, is definitely signalling something very ominous. I agree with the experts that such an extreme degree of the appearance of impropriety is definitely gonna run afoul of supreme court ethics rules.

      But: no check of power means no executive power and that means a rule might as well be unwritten.

      • @FireTower
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        146 months ago

        Flag code in the US has no teeth. Flag burning is legal per Texas v. Johnson. Symbolizing a stance of the nation being in distressed is definitely protected speech. Impropriety is a stretch for a statement on his private property that amounts to “our country is in turmoil”.

        • @Bytemeister
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          36 months ago

          Flag code in the US is just recommendations for citizens. I think it is only “enforced” for military personnel.

      • @HeyThisIsntTheYMCA
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        56 months ago

        burning a flag is the appropriate way to dispose of a flag I don’t know what you’re talking about

    • @sailingbythelee
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      6 months ago

      Flying the national maritime ensign upside down is an internationally recognized distress signal. A UK-flagged boat wouldn’t fly the Union Jack upside down (which would be rather ineffective), but rather the Red Ensign (for civilian vessels).

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Ensign