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PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   26150 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 11, 2025

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FG gestured towards the numerous pride flags. I claimed to have interpreted them as generic contemporary decor. He then indicated the very large flag by the entrance, to which I could only plead a fundamental lack of situational awareness.

Given the proliferation in enemy areas of huge pride flags at the door of every imaginable type of establishment, the misunderstanding should be perfectly normal. In fact I now have to wonder how actual explicitly LGB establishments can now directly advertise themselves as such.

A Pride flag plus a "Black Lives Matter" sign is pretty much obligatory for every business in a "hipster" neighborhood. Just means "We support $CURRENT_THING". Reminds me of Havel's greengrocer.

Even the shitty dive bar near me has a pride flag in the window. And practically every establishment claims to be "black/woman/lgbt owned" for social credit points. If you live in a Blue area, the gay bars really have to try to stand out.

I work in an office building. There are a few open office sections with many employees in each one. At least two have pride flags. We design electronics and software for said electronics.

A local restraunt has outdoor seating with a pride banner wrapped around the barrier separating it from the public sidewalk. It must be hundreds of feet of the stuff. I met the owner and as best I can tell he isn't gay. The clientele are the regular mix of people in the area. Not a gay venue by any means. But inexplicably covered in pride.

In the gay bar near my apartment, the bathrooms are downstairs. At the top of the stairs is a little dispenser from which you can get free condoms and little sachets of lubricant.

I'd say the majority of straight bars I've been in have vending machines in the bathrooms for this. Maybe not lube, but that's just knowing your audience.

Yes, but in this particular gay bar the condoms and lube are given away for free in common areas, as opposed to being available for sale in the toilets.

Indeed. If I saw a parade's worth of Progress Pride flags, I would think "must be a mainline protestant church."

In fact I now have to wonder how actual explicitly LGB establishments can now directly advertise themselves as such.

Internet.

There's some flaming bars that will literally have rainbows draped from every awning and at every curtain, every wall bright pink, but especially these days there's a lot of very boring-looking bars that will have a surprisingly deep event lists. (And, albeit more rarely, some flame-on looking bars that'll have an event list that looks like an Applebee's.)

enemy areas

This is, on one level, my actual impression of many places. I live in a blue state, so casual pride flags happen. But once you get above a certain threshold of rainbow density in a nominally public place, it’s clear that there’s a dynamic of deliberate hostility to those of us with other convictions.

Still, I’d not open with that phrase on the Motte. Mistake theory is not altogether dead here, the way it usually is there.

I’ll admit, I’ve seen political signage and iconography on both sides that’s starting to get disturbingly close to the murals in Belfast that demarcate Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods.

Ah, thé pride flag and the Republican pride flag(although granted the thin blue line/thin red line/etc are usually separate flags). The Protestants who have discovered sacred heart month. The ‘y’all means all’ murals. The ‘in this house we believe’ signs. The maga flags. The bumper stickers saying ‘stand for the flag, kneel for the cross’.

Please explain (and ideally provide pictures).

In Northern Ireland during the Troubles (a period of civil war waged by clandestine paramilitaries roughly along religious sectarian lines), neighborhoods in the major cities would have large political murals on buildings and walls that marked the area as either Protestant or Catholic. This is a region where walking into the wrong neighborhood could get you shot.

Sorry, I should have been more specific. I mean - please explain what political signage and iconography you see today, and please provide pictures thereof if possible.

This is a region where walking into the wrong neighborhood could get you shot.

Well we still have the murals and your chances of being shot have gone way down. Though FYI seeing which colours the kerbs are painted or which flags are on the lampposts is probably easier as there aren't that many murals, you may have to walk a while to work out where you are if relying on murals alone.

You chances of being shot in the wrong region weren't zero, but they weren't massive even at the height of the Troubles. I was on the Falls road (Catholic area) a fair bit even though I was Protestant. Without checking where someone keeps their toaster, or talking to them about schooling you can't tell a Catholic from a Protestant in general just by looking. Hence the old joke about a Jew being stopped by Paramilitaries.

Without checking where someone keeps their toaster

Where do protestants keep their toasters?

In the cupboard as opposed to out on the counter. Popularized by Derry Girls where a Catholic girls school and a Protestant Boys school are attempting to find commonalities.

@Lewis2

https://ce-wp-site-content.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2022/08/13232530/MHROL34Q4K5PCNG5AE53V5QUTI.jpg

Is that really a thing?

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Where do they keep their toaster?

Care to tell the old joke? I’m not sure how I’d google it…

A Jewish man is walking through Belfast one night when he gets stopped by two men in balaclavas with Armalites.

One of the men asks in a thick Belfast accent "Prod or Taig?" The Jewish man looks confused. "What?" "Are you a Protestant or are you a Catholic?" the other man asks in an even thicker accent. The Jewish man says "Well, I'm a Jew". The first paramilitary gives a long suffering sigh. "Yes, but are you a Protestant Jew or a Catholic Jew?"

That's the joke.

I have heard a different version which plays off it:

A man is walking home late at night in Belfast. Suddenly he's pulled into a dark alley and feels a knife at his throat! A hoarse voice whispers into his ear, "Are ye Protestant or Catholic?" Thinking quickly, wondering how to answer to save his life, the man has an inspiration. "Neither! I'm Jewish!" he says. "Well now, I'm the luckiest Arab in Belfast, so I am!" says the attacker.

Edit: I see my near namesake beat me to it!

Edit Edit: There is also a version where it's an atheist and the final question is: "Yes but is it the Protestant God or the Catholic God that you don't believe in?"

"Are you a Catholic or a Protestant?"
"Neither. I'm Jewish."
"Sure, sure, but are you Catholic Jewish or Protestant Jewish?"

I'm not much into mistake theory, but what does annoy me about the "enemy areas" phrase is the consensus-building. @phailyoor's enemies are not the same as my enemies. I'd be fine with it if he wrote "Given the proliferation in areas controlled by my enemies,...".

I completely agree. I am conservative while strongly disliking MAGA and as a result pretty much everywhere else I go online it is very clear that I am the outsider and there is nothing I hate more than "as we all agree" style posts. Part of why I like the Motte so much is that it is one of the few places I feel closer to the median, like I actually belong, and one of the things I would like for my space is to not replicate the indignities of enemy territory but with the sign reversed.

I remember when my hotel had a gay pride flag flying alongside the American flag and the state flag. Definitely made me feel worse about working there; it was like I was under enemy occupation.

Thankfully, it has since been replaced with a Canadian flag. Woke may not be dead, but it is surely in retreat.

Location, word of mouth, I assume.

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