There is a house in my neighborhood whose owner flies both the American and the Confederate flags. I am tempted to confront her and tell her that the one is the negation of the other. The American flag stands for liberty; the Confederate flag stands for secession, slavery, and treason.
I haven’t done it, and I probably never will, for two reasons. One of them is simply that I don’t thrive on that kind of conflict. The other, which is more important, is that she might well tell me that the Confederacy is real America, and everyone else is an interloper, so there is no inconsistency. After all, that is what reactionaries genuinely believe.
I don’t think we will ever really have peace and justice in this country until they stop believing it.