NYT Alito Flag Hysteria - The Politicization of Patriotism

The Most Dangerous Part Of The NYT Alito Flag Meltdown Is The Politicization Of Patriotism https://t.co/e623YawvhN

— Mollie (@MZHemingway) May 25, 2024

Tristan Justice writes:

On Tuesday, the Times published another smear piece on Justice Samuel Alito to indict the conservative judge as a partisan ideologue corrupted by far-right politics. The evidence presented to suggest Justice Alito is a right-wing provocateur incapable of serving as an impartial jurist? An “Appeal to Heaven” flag, also known as the Pine Tree flag, with historical roots in the American Revolution, flew outside his New Jersey home on Long Beach Island last summer.

“Last summer, two years after an upside-down American flag was flown outside the Virginia home of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., another provocative symbol was displayed at his vacation house in New Jersey,” the Times reported. “This time, it was the ‘Appeal to Heaven’ flag, which, like the inverted U.S. flag, was carried by rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.”

Ah, yes. The flag is considered a symbol of extremism now because a few people carried the flag to the Capitol for an hours-long demonstration three years ago. If only The New York Times applied the same rules to the militant anarchists who terrorized the nation in 2020 under rainbow banners of identity politics.

Will The New York Times publish a follow-up story chronicling the extremism on display at congressional offices hanging the “progress pride flag?” What about at the State Department? Or K-12 classrooms? Should the generic rainbow pride flag be considered a symbol of virulent extremism?

No, even if some who drape themselves in the colors act increasingly extreme.

This flag lunacy is all so ridiculous.

The New York Times is a rag, trying to smear Justice Alito. It's just more trash meant to discredit a Supreme Court justice who respects and upholds the Constitution.

...[T]he most dangerous aspect of the New York Times’ latest flag hysteria isn’t even the attacks on the Supreme Court, but the politicization of patriotism itself.

Alito’s banner to “Appeal to Heaven” was designed by George Washington’s personal secretary and was adopted by the colonial military in 1775, becoming the official flag of the Massachusetts Navy in 1776. The text was inspired by British political philosopher John Locke, whose ideas became the foundation for American independence. According to The New York Times, “Justice Alito declined to respond to questions about the beach house flag, including what it was intended to convey and how it comported with his obligations as a justice.”

The fact The New York Times is writing to millions of readers who likely live in online echo chambers that the Pine Tree flag “conveys” anything but a patriotic message of democratic resilience warrants an American flag flown in distress on its own. And it’s not just the Pine Tree flag that’s now written off as an overt symbol of extremism. Just about every other flag with historical roots in the American fight for independence has now become the target of far-left attacks as banners of radical opposition. A nation steeped in self-hatred, where patriotism itself is written off as extreme, will not survive as a governable nation. And even if the nation does survive, it won’t be “united.”

I'm not ashamed in the least to say I'm a patriot. I'm a proud American. Being patriotic doesn't make me an extremist.

My patriotism is an expression of my gratitude to all those who have fought and served to protect the freedom I am blessed to have.