this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2024
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I only ever participated in the original Place years and years ago, putting down maybe two or three pixels.
Maybe where you’re from it’s easy to separate your government flag as its own symbol that doesn’t represent real people but when you’ve got like 20x30 pixels it’s hard to represent a local community online with something better than a flag. I think we ended up with less than ten pixels inside of a heart iirc.
At least for me, in my own country, I associate flags with popular protests and other symbols make me think of the government. Law enforcement uniforms and mismatched old automatic rifles from fifty years ago. Crippling bureaucracy that operates four hours a week that stretches five hours of paperwork errands into a six month chapter of your life (not a symbol but when you say government that’s what I think of).
Point being I don’t find it weird at all that people wanting to represent themselves will default to a national flag. My understanding is that in like Germany there’s a line where nobody wants to seem too proud of the flag, and in the US people are so desensitized to seeing every McDonald’s have 4000 flags on display, in England the red and white flag has different connotations if it’s in a football context or not, etc etc etc
A lot of flagpoles here are faded and tattered and often with one of the stripes almost separating off the flag. Might be doomerism but I think it looks cool, I think it very much is an appropriate representation.
I’m from Lebanon, this flag is for me, and when the government uses it, it’s using it deceptively to pretend it has any interest in our lives and our problems
By far, my biggest issue with flags in r/place and Canvas does not apply to a (like you said) 20x30. It's stuff like this:
People covering and fiercely defending huge chunks of the canvas, for something that is completely unoriginal, repetitive, and boring. And yet it still gets a pass - unlike, say, The Void; everyone fights The Void.
Another additional issue that I have has to do with identity: the reason why we [people in general] "default" to a national flag, for identity, is because our media and governments bomb us with a nationalistic discourse, seeking to forge an identity that "happens" to coincide with that they want.
But, once we go past that, there are far more meaningful things out there to identify ourselves with - such as our cultures and communities, and most of the time they don't coincide with the countries and their flags.
As such I don't think that this is a discourse that we should promote, through the usage of the symbols associated with that discourse.
I think that this is more of a matter of worldview than where we're from, given that some people in Brazil spam flags in a way that strongly resembles how they do it in USA.
I agree with your basic point that just claiming the space with a flag and not using it is no fun but if you look at the final state of the section you posted the flags are very nicely decorated with artwork