Apple’s App Store should join Amazon, eBay, Walmart and others in boycotting the Confederate Flag
[Update 6/25/15: Apple has begun removing apps that “use the Confederate flag in offensive or mean-spirited ways” without removing apps with “educational or historical uses”.]
Apple’s Tim Cook added his voice to the chorus of CEOs speaking against displaying the Confederate Flag on Sunday, indirectly referencing it as a symbol for racism. In a tweet, Cook called to honor the lives of the victims in last week’s tragic South Carolina shooting by “eradicating racism & removing the symbols & words that feed it.” An Alabama native like myself, Cook has been a strong proponent for equality during his tenure as CEO, often speaking out against the South’s tarnished history and the changes we still need to address.
With major physical and online retailers including Walmart, Target, Sears, Amazon, eBay, and Etsy now publicly supporting the boycott against the Confederate flag by removing merchandise that displays it, I believe it’s time for Tim Cook’s Apple to join the campaign by removing digital goods that display the Confederate flag on the App Store.
Apple tends to be a leader in the movement for equality and inclusion, but over the last few days the company has let other tech giants like Amazon and eBay lead in this space. In all fairness, the physical goods sold by physical retailers and online vendors are much less abstract than digital software with icons and artwork displaying the Confederate flag. These companies have also received growing pressure from customers to make this decision to support the boycott.
Still, a quick search on the App Store for ‘Confederate’ reveals iconography and artwork that displays exactly the symbol that Tim Cook spoke against on Sunday. One app, a game called Redneck Shooting Range, displays the flag behind a rifle scope. Another app, Southern Pride Themes, promotes the Confederate flag as an iPhone wallpaper.
I don’t believe Apple should censor historical content or remove informational material from iTunes or the App Store, but if a user wants to use the Confederate flag as a wallpaper, let them rely on an online image search and not an App Store app for creating that experience.
Apple controls the experience that customers have in its App Store in many controversial ways. Removing content that celebrates the Confederate flag should not be viewed as such.
The company could cite the App Store’s guideline against personal attacks, 14.1 specifically, which reads that “Any App that is defamatory, offensive, mean-spirited, or likely to place the targeted individual or group in harm’s way will be rejected.” I believe it’s crystal clear where Tim Cook’s heart is on this decision, and guideline 14.1 addresses his description of “removing the symbols & words” that feed racism.
App Store guideline 19.1, which addresses religion, culture, and ethnicity, is also relevant as it says that “Apps containing references or commentary about a religious, cultural or ethnic group that are defamatory, offensive, mean-spirited or likely to expose the targeted group to harm or violence will be rejected.”
[tweet https://twitter.com/tim_cook/status/612703567082688513 align=’center’]
Tim Cook and company may vary well already be in motion on making this decision, but Amazon and Walmart are certainly leading in not supporting the Confederate flag. While the it may be seen as censorship or controversial, I believe Tim Cook has shaped Apple during his tenure to execute such a decision without distracting from the day-t0-day business of running Apple.
See Arkansas. See Indiana. See Arizona. In those instances, Cook and Apple stood against controversial legislation in the spirit of equality. In this instance, even the politicians that publicly supported the Confederate flag as recently as over the weekend are listening to their constituents and changing their mind. Still think this would be un-Apple? See Cook’s commencement address at George Washing University.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fJMBW-9LTI]
As a Southerner having lived across Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia over the years, I know that a small group of Apple’s customers would view this decision unfavorably as a quick read over my Facebook news feed tells me where some of my friends and family in the South sit on this issue. But for many, myself included, that flag has never been anything but a painful reminder of a part of the South’s heritage that we should never be proud of, no matter how much we love where we come from.
And while it’s a shame it has taken a tragic shooting in South Carolina to make this a national conversation, I’m moved by the number of politicians, companies, and communities recognizing the Confederate flag as a symbol that invokes pain for many. I hope Apple will move as quickly to support this boycott as it did to adjust its Apple Music free trial policy on Sunday. With another customers addressing the Confederate flag’s presentation on the App Store, I believe Apple will quickly make the decision to pull these references.
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Yes, America, wipe out your history…
The best thing for humanity would be wiping out all evidence and history of religion. That’s not happening unfortunately.
That was funny, Mr. Carlin!!
DAE Orwell’s 1984?
“Those that don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.” – Edmund Burke
That’s what you want? Wipe the slate clean, so we can redo all our past mistakes all over again? What a horrible idea.
Speaking of wiping, the bible and confederate flag comes in very handy when you run out of toilet paper.
I think you’ve already said that, Straw-man, as your primary argument. Have you anything better? That one’s old. I wipe my ass with “you.”
Have you considered coming out of the closet? For wanting to beat on homosexuals? Rub your nipples gently next time you’re horny and see if you fail the homosexual arousal test. Dare you to try it. If you fail, think of something kinky to punish yourself with. Like reading from the Koran while you masturbate to the confederate flag.
Sad..You’re more than one-off, dude. What does the Koran have to do with your nipples? You get stupider every time. I am losing IQ points by reading your posts.
You can READ? Oh yeah, the Bible is made of Quilted Northern braille.
* 16. It seems that, no matter WHAT I state: you simply can NOT come up with a legitimate argument. Go back to your gay forums and post pics of your penis.
“i know you are but what am i?” this is basically what you keep saying over and over
Can you repeat that one more time, Mr. Originality?
How long have you been suffering from religion?
Hell lets ban all historical books from iBookstore while we are at it. God forbid anyone reads a history book and sees the flag there. Erasing history makes me feel all fuzzy inside.
Reading and learning about the flag and hanging it proudly are two entirely separate things. God help you. What the people that hang that flag need are a history lesson, because they’re likely uneducated.
This article isn’t about hanging the flag you nitwit it’s about reading about it/seeing it in apps in the App Store. You seriously need to get a clue what is being discussed here before you spew this idiocy.
You know nothing Chris, both of your comments were just embarrassing. You apparently are unaware of the entire topic this article is about, which is the boycotting of the display of the flag. Good job.
You can go in the app store every day, download a shooting game that simulates murdering 1000 people.
But some ancient flag needs to be censored.
OK, but there is a lot of censoring work that Apple could be doing.
Making snap judgements against people who might like something that you dislike means you are most likely uneducated.
I think smoothie is gay, too.
Butt your knot?
“Butt”: AHAHHHHAAA ha ha! I forgot to laugh. Must be a faggot joke.
Isn’t that closet lonely?
Why would you ask me? I am not in that closet. Re-read the thread. Tell me where it says this.
It’s in the white space between your lines. come out already homo beater.
Now you can read white space? AMAZING.
We should just ban all history books/videos/DVDs/materials that even mention the existence of the South. Look at China’s campaign again 1989 Tiananmen Square now in it’s 35th or so year of making the event illegal to mention! Working out pretty good for them.
Wait so the confederate flag = proof of the existence of the south?
did the confederate flag kill those people in SC?
That’s an intelligent argument. Oh wait.
The confederate flag provided influence and pride, it’s a symbol which gives morons an idea, which is that racism and persecution is okay. It influences idiots, only other idiots don’t understand that.
o0smoothies0o an idiot you are. The South wasn’t a war about racism. It was a war about economics and taxation, and in which slavery was a tertiary issue.
@mbalensiefer Wow you’re stupid. IT DOESNT MATTER what the war was about (which of course you’re wrong about), 98-99% of the morons that display that flag have no idea about the history. It’s a symbol to these idiots of the aforementioned things.
You already called Chris stupid twice. You can’t use that one on me. So, in your words, we should get rid of all symbols that give people ideas??
OMG the south lost the war for a reason. Why can’t they get over it? Slavery is something a liberal is supposed to do, not a conservative. Right? Slavery is getting somebody else to do your work, rather than taking personal responsibility to do your own work. I guess conservative christians who are pro slavery are actually liberal satanists?
“We should just ban all history books/videos/DVDs/materials that even mention the existence of the South.”
This isn’t anything NEAR drawing comparisons like that. If anything, it’s encouraging LEARNING about history, quite opposite of your silly slippery-slope hyperbole. The Confederate flag has recently become a very overt code for racists to declare their dislike. Many stores are deciding they don’t want to encourage it. It’s their prerogative, just as it’s the prerogative of people to fly the confederate flag if they want. But everyone at this point pretty much knows what it currently means to fly it.
ISIS hates the symbolism of the American flag. The symbol represents their antithesis to their values, and Sharia law. North Korea, the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, extreme Muslim groups, etc., also hate the US flag. Do you support Apple banning the imagery of the American flag to appease their customers who oppose the stars and stripes?
Talk about a slippery slope… Don’t get off topic.
I think perhaps you should learn what this battle flag is for…
What’s next… you’ll tell me the primary reason for the civil war was to free the slaves!?
@bpbatch’s only argument revolves around appeasing a massive terrorist organization. Almost have a point, if only it weren’t unapologetically irrelevant and unequivocally stupid.
Nobody is condoning it anymore but it is a historic topic that should remain to learn from and move forward from
Run a search for the word “nazi” in the App Store and you’ll find more symbolism that, in theory, one could argue for removal in the same light. But this then becomes quite a slippery slope, right?
Exactly what I was thinking. The swastika flag is infact illegal in many western European countries. Still, it only a flag and I thought America was about freedom. There might be people in the Middle East that find the United States flag offensive.
While the Swastika is illegal in many European countries many Nazi groups there have adopted the confederate flag as a substitute. Says a lot about the symbolism of the confederate flag.
The symbol for the nazi is taken from Asia – it’s a common symbol seen here but in reverse – but many confuse the two…
But again – when we see the swastika we think ‘nazi’…but for many it no longer has a meaning, especially for younger people – it is just a symbol from history that has bad connotations attached to it…
It’s the same with the flag – for most they are aware of the connotation it may hold BUT it is just a flag from history…
Rather than banning the flag, people should just ignore the meaning of it…currently it is getting all this publicity, which is doing the reverse of what they want…
for some, illegal or limited things actually make people want them more!!!
When I spent time in India, I was initially appalled by all of the neon swastika signs that were hanging in storefronts. My Indian guide told me that the swastika was initially a Hindi symbol for peace, and that Hitler stole the symbol for ulterior motives. Today, Indians ignore the historical rape of the symbol and continue to promote it for peace. I appreciate this cultural reverence over the political correctness of the Western world and hope the grown-ups in our country to follow suit in this matter.
The problem is why the commies flags and symbols and “heroes” (just criminals and terrorists) don’t get removed.. no one asks for having those removed. Communism and Nazism both originated from Socialism, both are the worst possible version of the Left (although some claim Nazism would be Right but it is not). The ban should apply to both. Both regimes in the world caused deaths.
The problem is that there are too many people in the world thinking that Communism is nice and good and just Nazism would be bad and evil. Fact is both are evil.
Okay, and you could stop here and not turn an Apple news website into your political lecture room.
Take a basic history course, Aredo. You’re starting to sound like a Fox News analyst.
I don’t get it, Aredo. Are you talking to yourself?
Why is this nonsense on the front page??
Because it gets hits. Right 9to5?
Because 105 comments and counting…
So should we just forget the Civil War ever happened and banish any reference to it or the confederate flag in text books, CDs, movies, etc.? Perhaps people should stop and think for a minute before jumping to knee jerk symbolic reactions that won’t stop violence one bit.
It should be in any educational materials, for god’s sake (everyone posting here needs a refresher, and especially most people that fly that flag). Hanging the flag proudly is only pointing out how ignorant you are.
people display the flag here in japan… they don’t care about the meaning, they just like the design…lol
Wow what a giant leap you’ve made.
The history of America is not the history of the Confederate. If I remember right, they lost that fight. Speaking as an african american raised in the south I can say without hesitation the flag is flown over every Klan even and every white supremacy event. My personal belief is you fly whatever flag you want on your property, it lets me know exactly where you stand. Wherever a tax dollar is spent that flag has no place. As far as retailers deciding to carry items displaying that particular sign of white supremacy and the right to own slaves, well they are privately owned. Let them make up their own minds. It lets me know where they stand as well.
By pigeon-holing every single person who flies a Confederate flag as racist, you instantly become a parody of the very thing you are complaining about in the first place.
I think everyone who flys it is not intelligent, yes, I’m prejudice, I’m white, and I’m human. Being a human, you inherently judge, you inherently have prejudices. I just don’t publicly display things that might point mine out, that’s just stupidity.
Do you fly the US flag?
No, I fly no flags, because I could care less. Yes, I’m an American. Being patriotic is fine, this isn’t about patriotism.
If you wish to advertise a racist part of america is alive and well, go ahead and fly it. Just don’t do it in conjunction with any government building, thank you. Personally I feel any racist symbol should be recycled as toilet paper.
To be consistent, I hope you also feel that people should take gay flags down, etc.
They can be put into one of two holes (or both): racist, ignorant.
Looks like people agree the flag should be used as toilet paper. Think about it. Recycling is good for the environment.
@mbalensiefer why would you take down the GAY flag? You haven’t even come out of the closet yet. Pupae shouldn’t incubate too long lest their legs not be able to spread when it’s time to come out…
* 4 for insisting a straight person who disagrees with you is gay. Got a real argument? Got milk?
mbalensiefer If you weren’t a closet homosexual, why beat them up?
I don’t beat up homos. Just Faggots. Like you.
P.S. Why is it , according to your logic, that one has to BE a homo to beat up homos? Liberal Logic..again?
No masculine, secure hetero male has to beat up on homos. Just closet cases who follow the bible, like yourself.
I don’t beat homos. I beat fags. You are a faggot.
Do you hate your vulnerability because it makes you feel feminine?
Your one-liners make absolutely zero sense, dude. Aunty has a legitimate point. Make sense of it.
Aunty makes sense, you don’t.
…says the person who can’t quote one “fact”, but calls his opinions so.
Show me a “fact” that god is real and that slavery had nothing to do with civil war.
Now, show me a “fact” that gays are actually gay, and cannot control themselves and their desires!
Watch reruns of “The Dukes of Hazzard” — they had a Confederate flag painted on top of their car. It was not originally a “racist” symbol, It was turned into one by black activists and black race hustlers.
if anything Tim Cook should keep his personal politics to himself and stick to the business of running Apple. That would be nice for a change.
indeed.
So Tim Cook should keep his personal politics to himself, but you’re free to spread your own paranoid quasi-political ramblings at will?
Hear, hear.
True…eventually he’s gonna back the wrong thing, which will affect the image of apple, and could lose it business…
Either run the company as it should be…or be a political leader… don’t be both
Like your silly hero Reagan? The one who tried to be John Wayne, your other demigod who was actually a liberal?
Tim Cook posted this on his personal Twitter account, not on Apple.com. Considering that part of the argument for flying the “Confederate” flag is “freedom of speech”, this seems like a rather hypocritical view to take on this matter.
People are, in fact, more complex than their career. For example, I am not just a web developer, I am also a husband. I take martial arts for fun! I like to play with Rubik’s cubes! But, according to you, I should just stick to the business of being a web developer.
What do you do, rogifan? Are you a sociological business analyst? If not… Why are you commenting on this blog post? Is it because it is your right to do so? Yes it is. And it is Tim Cook’s right to post his feelings on this matter.
This was just silly.
What’s this, an embryo of another ban? Again? People should just quit this “huffpostmania” of cis-cross-double-trans-mutant privilege check/ban/cazzeggiare about anything that sounds unclear or debated, jeeeez
I am LOVING the posts people are making on this!!:B Tim Cook–do what you do best, and shut the F up.
What would you do if Tim Cook molested your children and spat on your confederate flag? I doubt you would stop using Apple products.
I would love it if you sucked my d*ck. Wait–I take that back. No HIV for me, please.
You’re probably an AIDS spreader because you’re closeted homo beater, therefore HAVING unprotected sex with males.
“You’re probably an AIDS spreader because you’re closeted homo beater, therefore HAVING unprotected sex with males.” Good one, dude. How long did it take you to come up with that one? “Hetero’s spreading AIDS.” That’s why San Fran and D.C. are filled with heterosexuals with HIV, right?
That was the past. Why is hetero the largest AIDS spreading group TODAY?
As a Portuguese, I see this as an atempt to erase history and I disagree with this kind of political correctness.
What is next? To forbid blonde jokes?
Besides, to allow politicians and key companies to decide what is acceptable or not is a terrible precedent.
Keep your thoughts in Portugal. You shouldn’t be speaking on something you admitted know nothing about.
Apparently as much qualified as you are, Mr. the-only-freedom-I-tolerate-is-when-it-suits-my-beliefs.
As far as the ban goes, it will be global, so any person should be able to express himself on the matter.
…or that Danny knows nothing about. Are you forbidding freedom of speech from those outside the US? Then why would you enforce your views on one topic, but not the other?
I bet Ricardo knows more about American history than you do Danny….
His version hasn’t been whitewashed…
Nobody has yet to say you can’t own or fly the Confederate flag. If you fly that flag it is your choice. If you tell people that they have to sell you the current symbol of choice for the Klan, the Arryan nation and every other white supremacist organization are you not violating their freedom of expression?
The soldiers that died so this country remained one country deserve as much respect as any soldier that sacrificed their life in any battle. To see the flag they fought against raised above the land they died serving is an insult.
Those people saying they are protecting their heritage need to be honest about that heritage. Members of the confederate army were guilty of treason. Some like to white wash the facts and say the fight was not over slavery, but over a state rights. Read the timeline and face reality. Slaves were the key to the South’s financial success. Many southerners also felt it was their right to own slaves. If you choose to display the symbol of my people’s pain and sorrow as a proud symbol of your heritage it says a lot about you. Racist is the simplest of the terms I use to describe those people.
For me the subject is: Governments and big companies may start saying what is acceptable or not.
The subject is not the defense of that flag, slavery, or treason – as for me it is not important what some people think about that or any other symbol.
Akil, “Members of the confederate army were guilty of treason”: Well: Our Signers of the Declaration of Independence were guilty of the same.
The difference is, confederates were wrong to defend their economic position built entirely on slavery.
How does ceasing to sell the flag a freedom of speech issue? Do you see Walmart or Amazon selling swastikas? No. Just because you’re free to say what you want doesn’t mean you can say it without consequence. Like I said, keep your uninformed opinion in Portugal..
It is not freedom of speech, it is freedom of expression.
I will not command you to do nothing, please refrain your attempts to command me.
You brought up ‘freedom of speech’ though. I’m replying to what you said.
Freedom of speech here, freedom of expression related to the flags.
Learn real American history before you speak on things you don’t know about like I said
Maybe I know more about American history than you. What do you know about me and my level of knowledge on history and politics? You assume too much.
Right now I am just hoping you are from a liberal and not from a swing state, so your vote gets wasted and is not used to elect your dear Hillary.
(Go Rand!)
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=swastika&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aswastika
What is that? Swastika items for sell at Amazon? Nooooo! No way Amazon would sell Swastika stickers for my PS4, Swastika jewelry, or Nazi flags. Amazon would never do anything as hypocritical for banning the Confederate flag while leaving Swastika items for sale. /sarcasm
“Just because you’re free to say what you want doesn’t mean you can say it without consequence”
if there are “consequences,” (such as economic sanctions or imprisonment) then it is NOT freedom of speech.
Political correctness? That flag has is not associated with anything positive. Why do you think the KKK and Neo-Nazi groups embrace it?
Interestingly you left out Communist and Stalinist symbols, so stop pretending you are being righteous, and just assume you have an agenda. You should favor no ban or an all hatred ban, if you would like to be considered impartial.
I brought up one example related to my point. Like I said stay in Portugal. No one in America cares about your opinion. People in Europe don’t even care about your opinion..
You are being disrespectful and rude. Your words demonstrate an hurt human being and that is sad.
You may think you will shut up me, but attitudes like yours just make me bolder and more prone to answer.
Your minions replying to me are the ones being disrespectful and rude. I’m driving now. I’ll continue the discussion with you when I get home. If you feel disrespected I apologize, that was never my attention.
You are a Democrat rooting for Hillary, aren’t you?
You surely sound like one.
No one gives a fuck about your thoughts on this Ricardo.
You do.
I’m sure you can agree with the rednecks because the Portuguese are racist fxcks
In fact, I do not agree with them more than I agree with you.
I just feel it is not fair for you to prohibit them to use the confederate flag. Or, vice-versa, for them to prohibit you to use the hammer and sickle.
On the Portuguese, it seems to me odd to accuse the civilization that started the Age of Discovery of racism.
Apple can do as they please. If you don’t like it you’re free to make your own hardware, OS, and App Store and do as you please. Why should they promote something or allow something that has been offensive for the longest. Please do research and educate yourself on this specific subject.
So, the hammer and sickle should also be banned, right?
Apple rolling back:
http://appleinsider.com/articles/15/06/26/apple-reinstates-select-games-with-confederate-flag-art-to-ios-app-store
I care, DannyBoy. Now shut the FUCK up!
You haven’t said anything in this discussion besides weak attempts at insults. Your lame attempt at trolling has failed. Your parents failed you. Let your ignorance show anyway..
Sucks to be on the wrong side of intelligence, eh, DannyBoy? I love how an absolute idiot like you thinks that you can teach racism and then have the gall to tell someone else to stay in their own country. FUCK you, hypocrite.
When did I say anything racist? Did I curse at you. Grow up you ignorant fool
No one cares about your opinion Brian Batch. I’ll have more info on you later. Hope you’re viewing this site through several proxies
Ricardo–I just found out that DannyBoy is a 14-year-old boy. He tried to spam my WordPress account but didn’t realize how much personal information he provided. At that age, it’s safe to assume that a freshman in high school hasn’t had enough education to speak intelligently on this subject.
Says the guy that started a conversation with insults. Grow up
I neither agree nor disagree, but when the hell did this become a political blog? Quit fanning the flames.
All these conservatard comments are GREAT for artificially justifying increasing the price charged to advertisers!
“Libtard” is the word you are looking for. There is no such word as “Conservatard”. Stop making things up.
Hello little child. “I know you are but what am I’. Do you need Angelina to adopt you lost one?
Are you even aware that you are debating your OWN comments?? What is your IQ?
Have you tried reparative ex gay therapy? I hear it works. But you have to come out of the closet first.
I have noticed a trend in your talk. You insist that others are gay; because it would make you feel better if it were true, does not make it so, dude. Liberal Logic: 2+2 = “Whatever the fuck I want it to equal”.
People don’t beat up people they hate, they beat up people who represent something about themselves they are trying to hide. In your case, repressed homosexuality. This is old news.
This must be another one of your “facts”, right? In attempt to make yourself feel better, you insist that the rest of society is gay. Are you discussing this with your counselor? I’ll bet that, being gay you can’t even get laid.
My counselor told me when closeted religious believers attack me with words, they never hurt me. You should try sticks and stones next time.
So–you admit that you are seeing a counselor. Good (really). Perhaps the best solution would to be to “accept” the world, rather than change it. No one can succeed in changing the world (Seriously).
So why do you fight the natural forces of human homosexuality? God isn’t natural, it’s made up in your mind.
–Why do you bring God into your gayness? “Natural forces”; gufaww!! You CAN’T REPRODUCE!!: Thus, nothing is natural about an unnatural act!
I think you were meant to post this on your Tumblr…
I’ve never been to Germany but would I see Swastikas at government buildings and on the back of cars? I’d never advocate hiding history but why be proud of it.
Note: I’m not saying Nazis and Confederates are equal.
I never understood why South Carilona moved the confederate flag from the top of their capital to a more prominent posisition on the Capital grounds.
Having it fly solo was always more inflammatory then having it fly next to the state flag and American flag.
Fly it at civil war historical sights or museums if you want, but it shouldn’t be displayed at government facilities like state capitals.
That was the north’s biggest mistake. Allowing the loser to fly it’s flag. Now that mistake is being corrected. When they win the next civil war, they can prevent us from flying the stars and stripes.
Hisstory apps is a bad example.
The KKK likes using burning Christian crosses and American flags should we ban those too?
Just don’t try to ban the car from Dukes Of Hazard
Nobody will ban the KKK… because the KKK was a spawn of the Democrat party.
Because democrats and republicans flipped polarity. Conservatard.
What about the Dukes of Hazzard…..no-one touches the dukes ;0)
To bad they do (((
http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/23/8836571/dukes-of-hazzard-car-toys-confederate-flag
I’m sure y’all know banning the physical reminder of Slavery (the flag) vs eliminating history facts in books, movies and the likes are different issues. Imagine, Isreal/Jews has a Nazi flag in prominent display where they live? all hell would break loose. Then, I ask, why should blacks be forced to endure such painful visual reminder in the USA.
But of course, blacks are animal, different standard always apply.
They don’t understand that because they’re all very stupid, as evidenced by the majority of the posts. Sad really.
When Apple stops selling music that prominently features the so-called “n” word, then, by all means, pull anything with a Confederate flag. Until then, stop the politically correct social posing.
How’s the view up there from atop Mt. Stupid?
Wow, really brilliant and incisive argument.
Please keep social options and politics off this website.
Removing bookmarks are easy but I would hate to have to do it.
Let me help you…this is no different than the Nazi Swastika. None of these retailers sell items with the Nazi Swastika but you can see still it any history books/videos/DVDs/materials. So what’s your issue? Oh I see..i’s nothing to do with China or people seeking freedom as in Tiananmen Square it’s about denying people freedom as in slavery! I get it! Carry on!
Why do people like you make a statement like, “None of these retailers sell items with the Nazi Swastika…” without doing your research.
Amazon DOES sell items with Swastikas. Something even as silly as stickers for a gaming console. Stop making statements about things you are obviously ignorant about.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=swastika
Sorry, but this is ridiculous. I don’t support what happened in South Carolina. I am not a southerner, and the confederate flag has no meaning to me personally. Anyone taking offense to the flag is allowing those who wish to use it offensively have power over them. Also, with free speech, you have to take the good with the bad. No need for Apple to overreact with the rest of the tech industry. Let’s spend our energy figuring ways to stop stuff like this from happening instead of trying to remove a flag.
Meanwhile, Tim Cook supports the New Jim Crow, requiring that Apple contractors not employ ex-convicts. Taking a photo-op with a token is not enough!
Any chance we can keep one site free of political commentary?
What a huge facade this is…
Democrats and Obama really are desperate..
Shh… somebody might find out that both Obama and Hillary/Bill used the Confederate flag in their last political campaigns…
http://www.infowars.com/obama-and-hillary-both-had-no-problem-using-confederate-flag-during-presidential-campaigns/
Idiots. Forget the flag. Islamist zealots are slaughtering innocents, selling women and children as rape slaves, torturing homosexuals, and you are worried about a flag? Really? Wake up to the real world.
It’s important to recognize the use of the imagery in an historical versus a promotional/radical context. There’s nothing positive about the significance of the flag and mark, but history isn’t something to be erased nor forgotten, regardless of how painful it may be. If nothing else, it should serve as a reminder to do and be better today and going forward.
YES!
Just FYI. Civil war wasn’t about slavery. Folks wanting to free the slaves made up less than 10% of the Union army. It was economics. The south was poised to start making trade and mercantile deals with other nations and wanted to charge the North taxes that the North didn’t want to pay, and northern senators put federal pressure on southern businesses… The Confederate flag isn’t a symbol of slavery, it’s a symbol of not wanting to be bossed around by an out of touch government.
The south was about to start making mercantile deals for things made BY SLAVES. in other words, “YOU didn’t build that”.
Obviously a libtard statement. “I”, and even gay “you” built everything in America. The government serves to corrupt, regulate when it does right, and generally tax us into oblivion. Where’s your budget, smart man?
Closet homo, “you didn’t build that” refers to obama’s speech. No, my taxes did NOT build everything in this country. My taxes under the insane libertarian model would only build up my LOCAL area. Not the freeways in other states, not the military for an entire nation. Not the social security payout someday needs NOW.
* 14: I am not an ass muncher. like you. STOMP!!
PS “Not the social security payout someday needs NOW.” –What does this mean? Use complete sentences, please.
Adult literacy programs are very helpful. You shouldn’t discount their value before trying them.
You are way off topic, as usual. WHO is your social counselor? I notice that you refuse to name him.
I think my therapist isn’t up to the advanced level prime time issues you’re dealing with sir. You are a deeply closeted individual. Your breasts leak uncontrollably whenever you protest that. And that in turn makes you leak more, perpetuating the stains on your shirt, making you look even MORE obvious.
I’m a Southerner that chooses to remember my heritage in different ways other than the Confederate Flag, but it’s a slippery slope.
Are there grits on that slope? I never understood grits. I prefer hash browns covered, smothered, capped and diced. :)
I only like grits with shrimp and cheese. I prefer my hash browns scattered, covered, and capped!
If someone thinks a piece of cloth is the key to a horrific act, they might need to check whether they’ve had such an act happen to them..an act like…. a lobotomy.
But if we absolutely have to talk flags, what flag was flying when my ancestors were forced to relocate from their lands here? When huge stretches of Vietnamese and Laotian land were spoiled by landmines and poisons? When the military tested agents of biological war on the very people who signed up for them? I could go on forever.
When you’re a foaming statist, you end up not knowing up from down.
Banning the American flag is next.
Why don’t you fly the confederate flag where you live and work? Because you’re a coward.
Complete and utter nonsense. Until the other retailers and hypocrites call for the ban and selling of communist, apartheid, Nazi, and any other item deemed “offensive” to someone, it’s just ridiculous. Amazon has Nazi and South African apartheid flags for sale right now. You can’t have selective censorship.
Zac:
This is a free country, where freedom of thought and expression are at the heart of our culture.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t agree with that expression or thought. It doesn’t matter if it makes you uncomfortable, or you think it’s “insensitive” to others. You don’t start banning things like books, flags, portraits, songs, because they’re upsetting.
If you don’t like the ideas they represent, then you fight them with better ideas, in free and open debate. But you leave your fellow citizens in charge of deciding for themselves, instead of you deciding for them.
Wise people know this. Only liberal wackos or rightwing wackos think they need to control other people’s expression, as if they always know best, and it’s their ideas that are superior.
When you start talking about banning things, you’re stirring up a tempest that I don’t think you fully understand. If banning is okay, how long before you’re on the wrong side of a ban? Or how long before your meddling convinces people that you’re a threat to their way of life, and they resist violently?
I have never had any interest in the Confederate flag, but I also know it’s a symbol of MANY things to many different people, not just one of oppression. And I know you and others like Tim Cook or Jeff Bezos have NO right to censor it from my life. How long before you start to censor other things that might mean more to me?
It’s almost funny: while you mourn the act of that deranged gunman, you seem to think a lot like he does. You both have a strong impulse to deny people their right to self-determination. Granted, his impulse was a lot more violent than yours is today, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re ultimately capable of that extreme as well, as long as you keep telling yourself “it’s all for the greater good.”
GREAT response.
On reflection, I read Zac’s commentary as implying that Apple is blatantly promoting an acceptance that the flag is a symbolism of racist thought—that is, unless all such flag imagery is removed… per Zac.
Pretty salacious. I expect a MacRumors troll to pen such a piece.
You know apple doesn’t allow pornography? Would you be cool with pornography on the App Store? Should it not be censored from children? Idiots will be idiots though.
So adults have to have the same rules that minors have? You could not be more moronic. We should ban alcohol too since its “censored” from minors as well as the right to vote,,,,,minors cant do that either. Please get an education.
Chris you never cease to be insanely stupid. There is no pornography allowed on the App Store at all, period. It’s not censored for children, as adults can’t get a pornography app either. Wow you’re stupid. Although, yes, in a perfect world there would be no alcohol. Unfortunately idiots have to drink, and we need to tax said idiots.
Take your faux-intellectual nonsense back to Tumblr. I come here to read about Apple stuff, not a 14-year old’s political opinion.
I didn’t come here to read your stupid comment either, but yet here we are.
It’s actually not the “Confederate Flag,” it’s the rebel flag of the soldiers, and yes, there is history. It has nothing to do with slavery, and in fact, General Robert E. Lee was anti-slavery…bet your mainstream media liberals CNN, ABC, etc., won’t tell you those facts.
There are British Flags flying in the U.S., at stores, on t-shirts, and at the Embassy. How many innocent Americans were brutally murdered and tortured by the British? For that matter, they don’t mind seeing the U.S. flag over in the U.K., even though we killed British soldiers once upon a time.
The Japanese were in prison camps during World War II in violation of their rights, and yet, you don’t see them upset about history and the U.S. flag, which flew over their “internment camps.”
Let’s get back to technology, instead of this click bait / race bait junk.
Because getting rid of symbols will magically disappear the negative things some people attach to those symbols.
Although it has racist connotations, i thought it was a flag that represented the southern states…
You might as well ban the US flag as well — when i see that i think of ‘the land of the free that oppresses people’ — i think of discrimination against anything that’s not american, a dominant christian race that is prepared to stamp on anything none christian…
I think most flags are offensive — they all contain racism, discrimination, ignorance etc etc — granted this flag is no-longer a representation of the country, and has much stronger meanings towards racism, but it is part of history to…
What if the flag is being used for an app about the civil war etc…
What if someone needed a flag for a history presentation etc…
What if people in the south want freedom of expression!!!
It’s the land of the ‘free’ as long as you conform — i’m against racism but you can’t talk of equality of you are forcing your views on others, you become just as bad as them…
“Although it has racist connotations, i thought it was a flag that represented the southern states…”
You sure your name isn’t Jon Snow? Because you apparently know nothing.
Wow. This is so ignorant I don’t know where to start… But I’ll sum it up… This country IS the beacon of freedom and open to just about anything. No other country has race relations BETTER than the USA, because no other country is as ethnically and culturally diverse as the USA. We are the only country in the world that repeatedly CELEBRATES our freaks and cultural misfits. Bruce Jenner is called “brave”… Anywhere else he’d be a freak or killed. As for the “Stamp out anything not Christian” … Well, that’s total bs. Christian viewpoint is the minority in the USA. Watch tv… Other than the 700 Club, it’s constantly promoting an atheist viewpoint. Christians are mocked, ridiculed, and ignored as “bible thumpers”. No prayer in schools, no Ten Commandments in courtrooms, and some dickhead wants to change our money. We are pretty open. We let just about any Tom, Dick, and Jose across our borders, unchecked. Anyone with a sob story can get healthcare, food, etc… Try sneaking across the border to live in Mexico illegally and get services…. And finally, anytime there is a crisis… Environmental or war, the USA responds quickly with humanitarian aid and money, and never asks to be repaid. We carry the world on our shoulders and get nothing but vindictive angry little pricks for thanks. God bless the USA.
Yeah… Anyway, we were talking about banning a FLAG…
I agree with this today — peope should do whatever they feel the need to do to eradicate this symbolism of racsm and the dividing of a nation. The south lost the civil war; they can say the flag is about southern pride, which I can kind of agree with — however, I din’t think most people can look past the south pride without getting to the racist connotations of the flag. Get rid of it, keep it in the Civil War museum or something, and let’s just do what we can to end racism, and never forget how we got here.
“I din’t [sic] think most people can look past the south pride without getting to the racist connotations of the flag.”
Well, that’s actually too bad for revisionist historians, and their students. Most people weren’t taught that the Civil War was fought over states’ rights, much similarly to the American’s fight against British forces over taxes and representation. Lincoln didn’t run for President in 1860 to end slavery. No Republican did, at least publicly. Lincoln introduced the idea of slave emancipation—two years into the war, mind you, as more states joined the Confederacy under the same belief—to bankrupt the mostly agricultural southern states that relied on slavery for profit to surrender and end the war. Morally, Lincoln did a great service beyond what I could write here, but facts are facts—the flag, and the South, didn’t represent nor fight the North for rights to own slaves until the South was financially “obligated” to do so to save their union—which, again, was financial and political.
The world today, as then, is complex. It just can’t be shrugged off as a more simplistic reason to justify sins of our ancestors, nor should we push those sins off onto a strawman as we are with the Conderate flag.
You know, before Common Core, this was taught in every 7th grade classroom. I guess you Millenials were sleeping.
Yeah, states rights to own SLAVES.
I couldn’t disagree with Zac more. Apple is moving too far left these days, and prohibiting free speech would just continue that trend. I think Apple should boycott China for it’s human rights violations, or Saudi Arabia for it’s treatment of women — but wait, that would cost money. Never mind, let’s just pick on the easy targets…
The Left are all hypocrites as long as the Almighty Dollar is involved. Apple only takes a cultural stand now because they are financially capable of supporting a hit to their bottom line against those who disagree with them.
Jobs was a democrat but never felt the need for Apple to get involved politically.
But its the world we live in now I guess.
Jobs was a libertarian. Not democracy at all. Hence the walled garden of Apple.
You finally got something right. He was a libertarian. However, this has nothing to do with Democracy?
Feudalism is NOT democracy dear.
Pulling shit out of your ass, again? Define “feudalism”; then tell me how it fits this conversation.
Feudalism is the inevitable outcome of libertarianism.
You said that yesterday, numb nuts. You don’t even know what “feudalism” is! lol
You don’t know who Ayn Rand Paul is?
Why don’t you give us a reference (URL), Mr. Fact-checker.
give us a URL that god is real.
Give me a URL that you love your mother. Or that love even exists other than a fig in your imagination. Fact is fact.
When the Confederate flag is gone from everywhere by everyone jumping on the get rid of that flag band wagon, what will the reason be for the next racial atrocity?
Also, what is whiter then the Antebellum Southern Aristocracy? Answer: the group photo of Tim Cook used in this article.
Answer to first question: back to gun control. This argument never ends.
Alternative answer to second question: The Southern Poverty Law Center.
Yes let’s erase all history because it’s unflattering…
Down with the Confederate flag. Down with the Confederacy… oh, wait…
Excellent piece, Zac. Well done.
Its just an old flag…nothing more. If we start censoring things, we are not batter than ISIS. If someone gets offended by a certain sybol used in game app, he is not less exremist or fanatic than those who kill in the name of their god. I think this is a pathetic dispute led by oversensitive individuals. One flag does not create an idology, nor it creates hate, just like the guns dont kill by themself. Its better if we focus our effort to censor people that promote hate, bigotry, introlerance and violance, than censoring objects that have certain symbolism associated with events that have taken place many decades ago.
I find communism an anti-human idology, but it doesnt maen that any symbolc associated with it should be baned, right?
It’s more than a flag. Just like the pages of the Bible are more than “paper”. Both are extremely important to have in EVERY home for the simple reason that everybody runs out of toilet paper.
Can you make that statement again? Just in case I didn’t read it right the first ten times? Get another argument to make yourself feel smarter. I wipe my ass with your Tupe. Get a sense of logical argument. I completely stomp your “intelligence”. In fact, every time you post, you make yourself appear more stupid. How is that possible? Only in gay-land.
Today is Gods day. Have you stocked up on toilet paper?
Times *13. Get a new argument. STOMP!!
I want you to follow my finger with your eyes.
One wacky nut job, you are. Follow your own finger. I don’t follow shit stains.
Just want to make sure you’re not drunk.
Stop using tech blogs as podiums for your personal politics!
Can we have just *one* site on the Internet that isn’t taken over by socialist-activist-conservative-progressive-right-wing-left-wing identity politics?
They can’t help it.
nhand42 could you please hand me a few sheets of toilet paper from your bible? I seem to have run out of Charmin.
*11. A smart one, you are. Running out of jokes?
Religion is a treatable illness.
*17, dude. Why don’t you try electroshock therapy?
Why should I? You’re the one suffering from religion.
perhaps because you are suffering from HIV?
Religion is a lot worse than AIDS which today is as manageable as diabetes thanks to Obamacare. Don’t you just hate that reality?
You’ve gotta love how your “realities” are based on Fact. So you are saying that HIV is okay? It’s like getting a sunburn or diabetes? Another Libtard argument, lol/.
I’ve been living with AIDS for a long time. Just take the meds, no possibility of dying :)
Well, in that case, let’s all get AIDs. No problem there.
I deliberately spread AIDS to Closeted Christian Conservatives Heterosexuals who don’t ask me to wear a condom. I do it so they will convert to homosexuality and destroy Christian Conservative Capitalist America from within. Homosexuality is a learned behavior, or spread by AIDS. it is NOT natural. What are YOU going to do about it? How are YOU going to STOP me?
–You admit you are anti-American. You want to change the Constitution. You are WHAT is wrong with America. Mother Nature abhors you. You can’t have daughters or sons, stop saying you can.
Have you considered learning how to fire a gun? Perhaps mount it on a drone and fly it above liberal hotbeds? What IS your plan for stopping people like me from deliberately spreading homosexuality via the AIDS virus?
Why would “I” need a plan? You fags are busy destroying yourselves. What is your plan to get rid of heterosexuals? LOL. PS I like your drone idea. Please put on rainbow-colored tee-shirts so that we can easily identify you from above. Faggot.
WTF–Are you saying that the AIDS virus MAKES people homosexual? you are one special dude.
Games are broadly works of art. Use of this or another symbol is not the same as endorsement. There are countless games that include the nazi swastika and no one has a problem with that. I don’t want Apple to act as a censor just because someone has a knee jerk reaction to some event.
A flag is a symbol, and by definition means different things to different people. It may mean slavery and oppression to one person – but to another it means independently standing your ground, to another it means taking a stand and rebelling against authority, to others it is a piece of history of which a family member fought and died for, protecting his home from a invading force. For anyone to decry it “wrong” is both ignorant, and tyrannical. If you don’t like the Confederate flag – don’t buy a Confederate flag, don’t wear a Confederate flag and do not look at a Confederate flag. But, how dare you tell me that I can’t exercise MY freedoms – because you know better.
Just because someone doesn’t like it – doesn’t make it wrong.
Apple should lead the charge
Pay a fee to an NAACP controlled voting rights fund every time an app that uses the flag is sold, and for every in- app purchase from these apps
Wow, and I thought the article itself would be the dumbest thing I read today.
Everything that you just said was correct. Except, that nobody is telling you not to exercise YOUR freedoms. No one has suggested that you can’t fly the flag on your own property. No one is telling you not to wear it on t-shirts and tattoo it across your forehead. However, you say “do not look at a Confederate flag” AND fly the flag on government property. =)
Not EVERY Southern fought in the civil war FOR slavery. Not every poor ditch digging southern army private fought the North for the chance that maybe he wouldn’t die and get to own a slave. And not every Southerner (myself included) likes and or looks at the Confederate flag as a “Slavery” Flag. Ban any flag BEFORE the civil war if you want to ban all flags that supported slavery!
Good grief, banning something doesn’t make it go away, it creates a martyr or a self-described oppressed people. Look at Muslims in France! Ban the ha-jab, now they feel oppressed and you turn a piece of fabric into a symbol that makes their sides militant hate groups flourish. Yes, ban the Confederate flag and lets see how many confused boys join skinhead groups, and confused girls start sowing flags if their boyfriends/husbands/sons can’t buy them. France banded the Natzi flag about 15 years ago, so those individuals must be almost non-existent without their flag. YOU CANT BAN AN IDEA, and banning the symbol just makes it stronger.
Here is a compromise, sell flags with the sticker “FOR BURNING ONLY-NO OTHER USE ALLOWED!”
Problem solved, let me know where to pick up my Nobel Peace Prize.
Or keep on in the bathroom to tear little pieces from to wipe with. They are doing the same with the US flag, why not return the love?
Simple solution
US congress should grant a special copyright for the confederate flag to the NAACP. Non-racist history buffs will not mind paying a small fee to a scholarship or voting rights fund every time the confederate flag is used. This would be a useful mechanism for reconciliation and a small step towards reparation.
That would never work because US congress does not own copyright on the confederate flag, so they can’t sell it. However, I’m sure the NAACP would not be above selling rights to the flag if they could make some filthy lucre on it.
This is a very stupid stance and is really annoying that the flag and the war was solely an issue of racism and slavery, which it for sure was not the sole issue. Beyond that, this article talks about “leading the way for inclusion” and then talks about excluding those that want to put the imagery in their content as well as the people that would buy it.
That’s hypocritical.
Me personally, I hate racism, but I also know this is part of history. We should not bury this any more than we should bury civil rights or black panther or stories of the holocaust. The issue I have here is that this strikes very close to home of a free speech violation. Are we also going to ban LGBT icons too? It’s a slippery slope.
Besides, how do you have redneck shooting range without the flag? lol
I’d rather see a policy of removing apps that support racism or hate groups. Using it alongside the american flag for civil war games or history apps for instance feels like the wrong thing to do.
* Removing an app for using it […]
My only issue with removal from places like Amazon is that it may impact civil war reenactors.
By the end of today, I am sure that they will.
Don’t like what is happening here in the US.
Some group does not like something, they bully then get it banned.
Thanks a lot Obama.
You created a nation divided.
But then, what did you expect from a former community organizer?
I’m glad we could destroy your nation. Feeling pushed yet?
Proof positive that you hate America. Why don;t you take your gay friends and leave, then? Cause you won’t. You’d rather troll and spread HIV.
We hate America….because….it’s against us? No, just religious nut cases like you are. Because you’re self hating and closeted, like all faith based religious haters of homosexuality. Why hate something you’re not required to participate in? Who’s sticking your penis into their anus? Are you being raped?
You are one troll that doesn’t know where to either start or stop. Stick with one argument: how is that for advice for adults? IF YOU DON’T LIKE AMERICA, THEN LEAVE. Faggot.
Why don’t you make me leave? Not enough guts?
We are all waiting for you to leave. We don;t mind gay guys, but man, we hate a fag.
If you love America so much, why are you a religious conservatard?
“Conservatard”?? THAT is your comeback? It’s Libtard, idiot. Get it right. No one needs to be conservative to know that ass munching does not make sense. Go bone your little brother, man. You dad probably molested you.
When you were molested, did it drive you deeper into the closet? What age did it happen? Did you enjoy it? Which relative or religious leader did it?
That’s why you are a faggot? Your father?
No. Why? Did YOUR father molest you? Did you enjoy it? Did the aroma and thickness of his penis change you forever?
Really “digging deep”, aren’t you? lol. Tell us what your father’s tasted like.
I wouldn’t know. But I figured maybe you would.
…you figured I would know what YOUR father’s tasted like? You were molested, weren’t you?
I am 100% for removing the flag from state grounds in SC. However, removing things from the App Store seems silly to me. If people want to consume that content, have it on their phone, and set it as their wallpaper, that is their right. The issue here is whether the state should fly the flag on government property. Banning the flag on the App Store is much closer to censorship.
First, your entitled to your opinion, but I don’t and I bet the majority of the people visiting this site don’t come here to hear your take on political correctness. The Confederate flag doesn’t mean a darn thing with these apps. Would your propose that anyone related to a Confederate soldier change their last name? The history books already don’t tell the whole story of the Civil War and you just add more fuel to this BS political correctness movement that is better suited for countries with no spine. Stick to your day job and let us continue to enjoy the site for what it is intended.
I haven’t got a need for once of these flags, nor a swastika nor anything similar. But …
Banning this emblem and hoping it will calm white supremacists down sounds a bit like banning the Koran and hoping it will make Islamist extremists calmer.
It won’t, it will just make people angrier.
This is the dumbest thing I’ve heard all day
These articles are completely asinine. Let’s ban flags so people are not racist anymore! Everyone wants to talk about a inanimate object because it is so much more convenient. What about that kid that actually committed the crime? Why did he do it? What went wrong with him and when did it go wrong? But no, no that is much too difficult. Instead we need to blame those damn flags, they are so racist! Let’s ban the American Flag too while we are at it because you know what many Native Americans died when Columbus came over and basically said, “F you this land is mine now!” The problem is that common sense has died a long time ago in this country and I fear it will have severe ramifications if people don’t wake up and actually process what is happening.
Linking the Confederate flag to that kid who committed that crime is as idiotic as linking the Macintosh to Osama bin Laden, who, it is known, used a Mac in his communications with his fellow terrorists.
The flag gives people hope, that the past can come back. If gives people a false right, to stand up for what they believe in as a separate nation. That’s what the flag was, it was of a SEPARATE nation. Where else on earth do civil war losers get to fly their break away country flag? That’s why poor white and rich white trash STILL hang on to their “cultural” ideas on race. Because we should have BANNED them from ever flying their flag on government buildings in 1865.
You called for it, you got it, you nasty social-engineering totalitarian.
So in an effort to join the cool kids at eBay and Amazon, Apple has not only banned apps that gratuitously use the rebel flag, but also apps that use it in its original historical context: to denote the difference between Union and Confederate forces on the battlefield. Part of the reason that the army of Virginia employed the rebel flag was that the Stars and Bars looked too similar to the Stars and Stripes and soldiers couldn’t differentiate between friend and foe on the battlefield. If you are playing a game that, say, asks which decisions you would make differently when fighting the Battle of Gettysburg, what other way would you designate the southern forces?
Anyone else find it hilarious the hypocrisy of Apple in that picture of their staff in which, in a country with a 13% black population, there appears to be only one black staffer?
Come on Apple, stop being such a bunch of hypocrites! How hard is it to hire 13% black staffers (including upper-level management)? This Confederate flag ban is just a smokescreen.
This is an appalling jumping on the bandwagon in an attack on free speech. Shame on you Zac Hall for refusing to think for yourself, and shame on 9 to 5 Mac for failing to at least run an alternate view point. And most of all, shame on Apple for their hypocrisy on this whole issue.
Check out the Apple Music Store for some absolutely shocking rap music containing hateful, violent and misogynistic lyrics. Where is the call to ban that?
The Confederate flag is a historical symbol of a significant era in this nations past. Few if any of the games in the App Store were “glorifying” the Confederacy or the Confederate flag. They were merely making some attempt at historical accuracy.
This whole “anti-Confederate flag movement” is an issue that has been trumped up relatively recently. Remember the TV show “the Dukes of Hazzard?”they had a Confederate flag on top of their car, of all places! No one thought this was “racist” back then. It was merely a symbol of the South.
This Confederate flag issue is one that has been hyped up relatively recently, and the sole purpose is to keep the grievance and resentment mentality alive in this country.
When the Confederate flag is finally banned everywhere, make no mistake, that will not be the end of the complaints. On the contrary, they will merely be escalated.
Already, we are seeing attacks and vandalism on historic monuments and historic sites across the country. Next, there will be attacks on our founding fathers, many of whom, after all, were slaveholders (never mind the fact that they ultimately fought to end slavery). Before you laugh, you should know that such attacks have already been mounted by black activists and black separatists.
No other winner of a civil war lets the loser keep flying it’s flag. That was the mistake we made when we let you surrender in 1865. That’s why some of you have attached your identity as a region to an outdated, nonfunctional nation’s flag. It’s over. The south will NOT rise again. We made the mistake of let ting you fly your treasonous flag after YOU surrendered, now we are fixing that mistake.
This is just great, let’s let the almighty APPLE CORPORATION can rewrite American history. They need to take a step back and realize they are in the business of selling overpriced crap that no one really needs. Making themselves look stupid is not in the spirit of ” I’m Smarter Than Everyone Else Because I Bought an Apple” sales pitch they have been pushing for years. Apple, back off; this is history not racism.
You are an idoit Michael Hopper
The Confederate flag, is an anachronism.
It is to perpetuate the memory of losers who once had a flag.
Worst, pretend that slaveholders were not the losers.
The Aryans, white supremacy, and all the trappings of fascism, KKK version.
Supposedly In a nation with liberty and justice for all, can have only one flag.
No exceptions.
Aryans, white supremacy, fascism, KKK…? Congratulations! You just trotted out every cliche in the book!
By the way, the US has at least 50 flags, one for every state.
Can’t believe the ignorance coming out in these discussions…
You have forgotten Puerto Rico, or you skip to mention it as they are Spanish, and not WACS?
World known is US ignorance of abroad, 300 Million people believe they only are Planet Earth. Come, if you can afford it, to Europe, 600 millions people that can speak and write in not less than three languages, not a US, English, and badly! Shame on you dating foforsingles, a Spaniard is lambasting you in your own language. You’r so ignorant!
Don’t forget this point!
USA, a country with a 13% black population, half of it (47%) in prison.
Of course not, that is not racism.
This whole thing about “The Confederate flag ’causes’ racism so let’s ban it” reminds me of the old argument “‘Violent’ video games ’cause’ violence in society so lets ban all video games.” Same idiotic mindset.
datingfoforsingles, you hide yourself, you don’t even have the courage to write your name and add a your picture, Southern Brave, I suppose? And with respect to your idiotic mindset, sorry to say there is no cure for that. Born Nazi, die Nazi.
You, sir, are an idiot.
Well you door knob Muyal anti-American bigot, I was born here, know two languages, more computer languages than you will, and fella, the rest of the world doesn’t really know about the rest of the world. You think that EU and UK is different from us? Congrats to being an idiot.
As to the rest of your stupidity, if you don’t even live in this country, stfu. You have no right to say anything about us what so ever. You have no idea what this flag means or doesn’t… apparently no one else does because all this little stunt did is cause racial tensions to escalate.
Leif, LOTS of poor white trash was born “here”. Doesn’t mean they know their own history. What IS your point? Loser flag of a war lost from a country that never was to protect slavery. No more to it than that.
Half of all blacks are NOT in prison. Let’s not make black people out to be more crime prone than they really are.
Right, only 47% of that minority is in prison. The missing 3% is on its way, or be dead by the time you read this. So, 47+3=50.
Dating, would you be so kind as to lend me your Bible or Confederate flag? This is really awkward, but I seem to have run out of toilet paper.
No, the confederate flag doesn’t *cause* racism, it just gives poor white trash the opportunity to hide behind “culture” as a reason to DENY racism exists.
I’m boycotting all apple products. Oh, and the writer of this article is some sort of spineless idiot.
No you’re not. You’re going to HUFF AND PUFF AND BLOW SOMEBODY but you’re not going to boycott Apple.
Thank GOD for the Confederate Flag and The Bible! When I run out of toilet paper, there they are to rip pages and strips from to wipe with.
Religion isn’t real, but they believe in it. Racism behind the flag IS real, but they DON’T believe in it.
Religion IS real, dipshit. God may or might not be. Of course, to not believe in the Word of God helps to make you feel better about ass-munching, continue your AIDS-getting ways. You can’t convince mother nature that it makes sense.
Religion is a mental illness. But it IS treatable with science and fact.
Mother nature says that gayness is not treatable. No children for you.
Since you’re a repressed homosexual, attend some reparative ex gay therapy sessions and tell me how it goes.
Your eighth time of telling me I am homosexual. Loser: find a new argument. STOMP!!
But you ARE gay. Why else would you have such strong hatred towards homosexuality if it you were more secure?
Once again, if your only argument is that people who disagree with you are gay, then you must hate gay people. This would make sense, then: you hate yourself!!
So you must believe in God? If you didn’t, then why the insecurity? Dipshit.
No, I don’t think there’s a old bearded guy in a robe watching me from heaven’s spy cam with his trigger finger on the trap door to hell.
Correct. No one said it works like that. One thing is certain, though: Ass boning does not make babies. it makes gonnasyphaherpelaides. You got it!!
Why do we need more babies? There’s already plenty of unwanted ones up for adoption.
Oh? And you must have been one of them? Adopted, were you? Then abused until gay, you turned…it makes sense now.
Keep going, you’re practically the president this country needs!
I’ll take that as a compliment. :)
You’re BETTER than Trump! Run Forest RUN!
Trump’s gonna win; he makes so much sense. When he does, are you gonna run to Scandinavia?
I don’t get it. The losers flag. That’s ALL it is. Why would you celebrate your own loss to a bunch of socialist liberals from up north? Are you planning round 2?
Please speak in proper sentences. Your run-ons make no sense.
Yet, you have no counter argument to my facts. An english teacher you must be?
You don’t offer facts. You “offer” biased opinion. Unbias yourself and watch yourself grow up. Name me ONE fact you have.
Fact 1. Confederate flag wavers are in denial about slavery being the ONLY reason they had any real economic power. Fact 2. you’re flying a LOSERS flag. Fact 3. Should have never let y’all fly that treasonous flag after you LOST the war.
You DID lose, didn’t you? Or are y’all still “WINNING” like Charley Sheen?
Show me URL’s to your “facts”. Once again; all opinion. STOMP!!
Can i see the URLs that prove god is real and religion is based on something real? No. Of course not. But you require ME to show you proof god does NOT exist.
Where is your URL that proves god exists?
Without slavery, the South would have had NO economic advantage. Christian Southern Conservative response? Deny, deny, deny.
“slavery had nothing to do with the civil war” is like saying gas guzzlers had nothing to do with middle east war and terrorism.
All these crazy libertarian programmers and conservative web designers here babbling like a brook about flags, “corporate rule” and irrational, uneducated viewpoints on the history of slavery and it’s economic boost to the south. Morons.
Again..name-calling without fact-checking or fact-posting. “Don’t worry–when you are losing an argument, you can always call a man foul names” -Ben Franklin (a Conservative)
But it’s true slavery had nothing to do with the civil war right?
Funny how all these hypocrite flag defenders refuse to give up their Apple products! LOL
Funny how faggots are eating at Chick Fil-A! lollol! *garfh. Dipshit.
Nobody I know. Keep trying. Hows the Apple logo looking in your home? Have you stocked up on toilet paper? Don’t want to run out!
You seem to insist that you are capable of reproduction. …is that so?
If I put a bag on your head and pretend you’re a man, maybe I could keep it up long enough.
Do you know how paranoid you look? Trolling this forum as if to seek approval for your ass-diggin, AIDs-having ways? No logic on Earth backs you up.
You’re here why? Responding for what reason?
Sorry to disapoint you: no matter how hard you try, you can’t make a straight man gay. Unless, of course you are gay cause of that same reason.
If I can’t turn you gay or infect you with AIDS why are you so hateful towards homos? If I can’t reproduce, isn’t that a good thing? More chances for your offspring to prosper? More resources?
Really? Have you resorted to “I know you are but what am I” arguments? LOL
How will you stop me from spreading AIDS to conservative heterosexual christian men when I deceive them morally? What are you going to do about this embarrassment to your kind?
Where do you live? And I will help you deceive me.
You want to come here for me to infect you with AIDS? that’s commitment ;) It would be more fun if I came to you. I’ll be the one handing out bibles at port a johns during beer fest.
YOU, Sir, are a real hero. Everybody on this Forum, and your Mother, must like you. If the whole world was populated by dipshits like you, there would be no people left on earth.
We are converting more people than islam. Apple makes it possible. What is little old YOU going to do about it? Take a stand? Drone gun? Join a militia? Lone wolf attacks? LOL
“Converting”.LOL. Educate yourself, homebro! “APPLE MAKES PEOPLE GAY”. What a F’;n, insure retard, you are.
If you don’t think Apple promotes the increase of homosexuality and liberalism, why are you here?
How will you stop Chick ‘Fil A from converting men of homesexual nature into a hetero class? Take a stand? Drone gun? Join a militia? Lone wolf attacks? LOL
I’m not poor white christian NRA bagger prepper racist trash. So why would I take a page out of your playbook?