Poutrage: More Right Wing Flag Porn, Flag Propaganda 9

For those unfamiliar with the term, Poutrage, from the Urban dictionary:

The combination of emotion and behavior that results from a possibly feigned or genuine outrage over some slight and pouting about it like a spoiled child.

Bad behavior at sporting events is a growing problem, especially from young conservatives who presumably are learning the wrong/right wing way to behave from their parents.

Polarizing politics, resulting from the deliberate misinformation campaigns of right wing media, particularly social media and the blogosphere and conservative radio, keep people angry or feeling victimized when NEITHER are warranted by the facts.  There is no pattern of disrespect, but the right wants their fools to believe there is.  One of the most common memes involves flags in schools.

For some unfathomable reason, lying about the flag is a serious problem for the right; and it is reliably a trigger for emotional irrational responses.  We've seen the flag in particular used as a pretext for right wing outrage, usually when nothing wrong has occurred.  And we've seen the right defend flags when those flags were used to intimidate and insult as has been the case with the display, especially in-your-face display of the Confederate flag, a symbol of racism, particularly lynching to oppress people of color.

So it should come as no surprise that HOW display of the American flag, or other flags, is monitored and restricted in places like schools where one group, mostly the radical right, seeks to oppress and intimidate another group of people who should be treated fairly and equally.  There is no patriotism, no honoring of the flag and what it represents when the displaying of the flag is abused and misused.

The right wing poutrage is big, fake outrage over the flag, a form of fake but extremist patriotism.

In that larger context we have one of the latest incidents, taking place as is so often the case, in the Deep South, South Carolina.  In this case, following a problem with flags, including the American flag, being used to harrass and intimidate, there was a restriction on bringing them to sporting events at a high school.  The excerpt from the news, below, quotes two principles, Principle Lavey, from Traveler's Rest High School, and Principle Noel, from Berea High School.

From WBTW News 13:

Students allowed to bring American flag to all events, Upstate principal says

Several social media posts stated over the weekend that students were denied entry to the Travelers Rest vs. Berea High School football game because they were trying to bring Americans flags inside the stadium.
...The school district reports there was a larger group of students than usual who gathered at the flag pole Monday morning at Berea High School. Principal Mike Noel reports in a written statement that some students wore red, white and blue and some waved flags.
...Noel says two adults attempted to join the gathering at Berea High School, but were asked to leave because it was a student event and not one for the community.
American flags were not allowed into the high school football game Friday night. Lavely said in his statement on Saturday that his decision was to “not allow the American flag to be used in an improper ‘taunting,’ unsportsmanlike manner.”
Noel released a statement in support of Lavely later Saturday about the decision.
Lavely based his decision on past incidents where Travelers Rest students were misusing the flag, but has since reached a different decision after current students requested that he judge them on their own merits and not on the actions of past students.