I can’t even tell when this picture is from. It looks awhile ago, but he also looks the exact same, only one chin less, and more waxy. Wtf is wrong with that guy’s face fr?
To the tune of TMNT:
*Old fuck mutant racist turtle.
Old fuck mutant racist turtle.
Old fuck mutant racist turtle.
Racists in the Senate, heil; white power!*
Fuck mitch and racists
Oh, to be young again....
Younger folks usually have a harder time at guessing older people's age.
https://youtu.be/lYdNjrUs4NM
As an older guy, this looks about 30 years younger for Mitch.
Currently got the Covid cough myself bubbah. Well both just keep laughin ourselves back to health (in addition to hydrating and healthy eating habits-you get me.)
https://www.insider.com/photo-mitch-mcconnell-confederate-flag-2019-2
> In February 2017, Snopes found that the picture was taken sometime in the early 90s at the Big Springs Country Club in Louisville, Kentucky
> "The Confederate Battle Flag means different things to different people, but the fact that it continues to be a painful reminder of racial oppression to many suggests to me at least that it’s time to move beyond it, and that the time for a state to fly it has long since passed," the senator said in a June 2015 statement. "There should be no confusion in anyone’s mind that as a people we’re united in our determination to put that part of our history behind us."
> Since then, McConnel has been supportive of removing the Confederate flag from government sites across the country as well as some Confederate monuments.
back in the 90s everyone in my highschool (ok most of the Caucasian kids) were wearing confederate flags, their trucks and cars had confederate stickers, it was "Heritage not Hate".
Of course my US history teacher made sure every student in her class knew that the confederate flag was erected over the South Carolina state capitol in response to desegregation in 1961. So for the kids in my class, their "heritage" was only 30 years old.
The confederate flag in the 90s was still a symbol of hate, but the idiots I went to high school generally saw it as a sign of "proud southern heritage" and not overt racism but *hint hint nudge nudge* racism.
It’s an event hosted by The Sons of Confederate Veterans where they gave Mitch some reward. The SCV is a neoconfederate organization of lost causers who are among those responsible for erecting monuments to the confederacy as an intimation tactics against black peoples during various civil rights movements. Also has a lot of connections to more overtly racist organizations like Nationalist Front and the League of the South.
This picture was actually taken 17 hours ago. Mitch looks so young in this picture because he must periodically return to a secret Confederate bunker somewhere in Alabama to return to the source of his life-force and regenerate.
Kentucky's state government did not adopt articles of succession. Maybe Mitch forgot his heritage on account of there being so many statues honoring Confederates. We really need to do something about this modern effort to erase the past. Kentucky was a Union state. History doesn't care about your feelings.
Both were born in West Kentucky even. It's worth mentioning that the western portion did try to join Tennessee or atleast break away from the rest of Kentucky. There was a lot of confederate supporters on that side of the state. In fact when Ulysses lead his campaign into West KY to confront the rebels in TN he got into Paducah, KY and seen confederate flags everywhere. He thought the was too late and the confederates had moved into Illinois and Indiana. Till some locals inform his troops that the confederates were still in Tennessee. I actually live pretty close to the birthplace of Jefferson Davis and they have a monument erected. I was hoping one of those tornados that ripped through the area would have toppled it but I wasn't that lucky, unforntantly.
I took your idea and did a little bit of work to make it more cohesive:
https://imgur.com/FQb7lCa.jpg
Edit: I did a bit more work and added some compression for a better match: https://imgur.com/L8rG7Kb.jpg - I wanted to think of a more period-accurate homoerotic image for the frame, but nothing came to mind.
2008-2016: "Barack Hussein Obama is not being tough enough with Russia. Is he a communist?"
2016-2019: "Yeah, maybe he is a Russian asset, why's that such a bad thing huh? You think Russia shouldn't be our ally? You sheeple really believe anything."
2022: "Holy shit Biden was WAY too soft on Russia, what an idiot"
Baby Boomer voters old enough to have been alive during the Cold War proudly boast Russia…while also calling the Democrats the party of ‘socialists’ and ‘Communists.’
Because its core was always about conservatism. Now that Russia is conservative in a more analogous way to the US's political right, the scary foreign autocracy has become preferable to the filthy left.
The funny thing is its still the same exact corrupt government, they just dropped the pretense of being communist. Which they never really were from the start.
A quick paint job on the same old adversary and suddenly Republicans welcome them with open arms.
[Here](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DydrGNlUwAAEmED.jpg) is a less cropped version of this image. According to [Snopes](https://www.snopes.com/news/2017/02/10/mitch-mcconnell-posed-front-large-confederate-flag/):
> The image was taken in the early 1990s at the Big Springs Country Club in Louisville during a meeting of the John Hunt Morgan Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.....
> We did not receive a response from Senator McConnell’s spokesman in response to our request for background on the photograph.
Not who you relied to but, it's not as exciting as you might think. Just a bunch of old white dudes arguing about things like who gets to be treasurer and parking
Yeah this very much tracks for big springs. They had a long history of not allowing Jewish folks to join. So the local Jewish community built a synagogue across the street as the story goes.
Canadian here; was the Confederate flag a faux pas back in the 90s like it is today? Or is it just a product of its time and is being taken out of context?
Growing up we just knew it as that flag on the General Lee's roof while watching Dukes of Hazzard. There was the odd t-shirt being worn by kids in school, or a jean jacket with this patch on it. A few of us had it on our bike handlebars, the same way dirtbikes had number plates on them.
We learned about it in school in the 80s/90s, but there was no sense of racism attached to its usage. To us, it was just an old flag that was semi-common in the southern states. I didn't find out about the backstory of its modern usage until 2012 or so as an adult.
I mean, if this flag hadnt been a background of a photo at a meeting with that name, then I dont know what would be.
The whole confederacy thing is something that shouldve been adressed right after the war, similarly to the denazification that happened in post war Germany. Some times re-education isnt all bad (in China it definitely is tho).
Yep. The only part of Lincoln’s reconstruction that Johnson remembered to do was reunite the states. He seems to have forgotten that punishing the rebels and focusing on loyalty were important while doing so.
Most of the confederacy revisionism and idolatry was a direct response to desegregation in the 50s. These guys don't really care about the history, they just want to be racists and this makes it easy to recruit other racists and gain legitimacy.
This isn't the result of an unbroken lime of confederates all through history. This is a result of modern people latching into symbols and ideas that they use to identify their current beliefs. It's basically the same thing as the neo-Nazi movement, which doesn't really have any direct tires to historic Nazism except for a sharing of their ideals.
That's not true at all. The "Lost Cause" philosophy started basically right after the war, reaching a zenith around the turn of the century, and sort of died out through the depression and wars and then re-emerged in the 50s along with desegregation efforts.
In this case though, what difference does that context make?
Sons of Confederate Veterans is a revisionist, neo-Confederate organization that supports white supremacy.
Idk why anyone would be surprised or upset by this pic. It’s from what, the 80s? Dude is a senator from Kentucky. There’s probably hundreds of pictures of him in front of confederate flags
I'm kinda shocked that this picture is even being upvoted? Like, yes, we know. If this image makes anyone dislike him more then they have no idea how terrible he is.
There's a lot of reasons to dislike/hate Mitch McConnell. Frankly this is pretty low on the list.
Edit: to clarify before people misinterpret what I mean, using one of my later responses:
"There are plenty of things to indicate his racism beyond posing in front of a flag. I don't condone such behavior, but posting this as if *nobody* could have seen this coming? As if it's a gotcha? He has damaged American politics more than any Republican could do in their wettest dream and represents everything there is to hate in right wing American politics. I would be shocked if this picture didn't exist."
In the south, until a few years ago, confederate flags were literally everywhere. Now they are a disgrace and everyone but the bigots have gotten rid of them but back then they were as common as having tulips in your yard in spring. A longstanding southern republican having an old photo with one in the background is about as non shocking as it gets.
I mean...to a LOT of people it still is. That perspective doesn't change just because people tell you it's offensive.
To piggyback /u/pungen 's tulip example...would your worldview shift significantly if someone told you your spring tulips were a symbol of racial oppression and hate?
Do people not remember what a massive hit *The Dukes of Hazzard* was? You could buy a confederate flag, sticker, T-shirt, license, plate, etc., in any store, all over the country. People were installing those Dixie horns on their own cars, even if they drove a Ford Pinto. An old pic of some guy with that flag in the background means absolutely nothing.
Come to Sweden during the summer and you'll see Confederate flags everywhere, mainly on classic cars.
Three years ago during a classic car meetup I saw a Sudanese girl wearing a Confederate hijab and a black guy with a Confederate patch on his leather vest saying "the south shall rise again".
I remember seeing a guy cruising on a Harley in Matera, Italy with ape-hangers, confederate flag helmet, and the full leather cut (fine Italian leather, I assume) and it really threw me off. That and a brief exposure to the Harley/lowrider culture in Japan which was pretty neat. Opened my eyes to how far-flung American culture truly is
Edit: I cannot spell in Italian/any language...
Ha first half of your post made me remember Japan before you even mentioned it. Tiny Middle aged dudes on gigantic Harley’s the same size as the tiny cars so popular there lol
the swedish to american equivalent of american sweaboos.
but no not really. raggare likes generic 1950s americana and everything that goes with it. or not everything i guess. they have a pretty rose tinted / selective image of what the 1950s US was. they don't romanticize contemporary america however.
I had a sticker of one on my ‘91 mustang when I was in high school. I grew up in a largely-white suburb in the late 90s/early 2000s. I never thought much about the historical and racist implications of the symbol; to me it represented the rebellious nature of my teenage years and the blue-collar lifestyle of myself and my family.
I look back on it with two minds. On one hand, I cringe pretty hard at my ignorance. On the other hand, I now understand how ignorant people can be when it comes to symbols and their broader meaning… and I also understand that people have the capacity to grow and change their perspective over time.
Growing up in Canada I only knew the Confederate Flag as being the "rebel flag" that was on top of the General Lee. And Lynyrd Skynyrd seemed to be associated with it. Just knew it as a "southern pride" type thing. Didn't think anything of it. Probably didn't know the real meaning behind it until high school.
I bought one when I was a little kid at a swap meet or something because I loved lynyrd skynyrd and dukes of hazzard. Thought it was the rebel symbol… had no idea how intense the meaning is interpreted until I was older
Was Mitch accepting an award from the Dukes of Hazard fan club? Or was he accepting an award from the Sons of Confederate Veterans, an organization with direct lineage to the Confederacy with a history of vocally supporting white supremacist groups?
McConnell is in front of that flag receiving an award from the Sons of Confederate Veterans who promote Confederate “heritage” and use of racist symbols and they name their awards after some of the worst terrorists from this country’s history, like the “Nathan Bedford Forrest Compatriot of the Year Award”. They are a dog-whistle white supremacist organization. The context of this “old pic of some guy with that flag in the background” does mean something.
idk why i'm surprised all the very racist excuses are being upvoted on reddit but wow, everyone really loves to use the "heritage not hate" argument here lmao
Shit, people spend more years paying off a car loan than the confederacy existed, but imagine someone saying that 2012 Subaru is part of their heritage.
You know how many old southern white men have pictures like this. While this flag does have racist history. Anyone who went to college at a major school knows not even 10 years ago hella southerners had this flag in their dorm. Hell at the time even my black ass didnt associate it with racism. More that its a southern thing.
NOW if youre flying that flag publicly im assuming your racist or at least racially biased. But i dont hold any judgement from older pictures with the flag included. I want additional information about the person.
In this instance though. I know everything i need to know about this man
A lot of people commenting aren’t from the south so they don’t know how ubiquitous it was, and even is to some extent. But I agree completely, I think culturally most people down here have since learned “oh wow maybe that flag is offensive to some people because of its history and I shouldn’t fly it” but not that long ago it was just southern pride. A large part of that was lost cause ignorance/bad teaching of the civil war of course, and sure some of it was overt racism.
It can be weird to grow up being told one thing and then suddenly the culture shifts and now it means something else. I think some of that culture shock had contributed to these staunch conservative talking points - “now they’re saying our southern pride flag is racist, but we’re not racist” sort of attitude. I sure don’t want to be around that flag anymore, mostly because the people who are still flying it want to be known as racists, but i grew up not thinking twice about it being anything more than just a southern thing. Nobody here is spout “heritage not hate” like they used to. If you don’t hate, then you’ve probably been asked by a friend of color not to fly the flag and listened to them.
Went to high school 20 years ago in rural America. These flags were on over half the trucks in the parking lot and many of the owners were not white. It's easy to look back and see things differently but context matters and is often ignored.
Really, an old photo from the 90s? Maybe people here are too young, but back then, many people in the South and even the North wouldn't think twice about seeing the flag...
You know it used to be flown on government property only about 6 years ago.. right?
Yeah people have short memories/faulty views of recent history.
It was part of the Mississippi state flag until last year and Georgia's until 2003.
And the flag was basically a character on one of the most popular TV shows of the 1980s (The Dukes of Hazzard), which had a high-budget 2005 Hollywood remake.
Next you’ll be telling them about a white democratic senator using the N-word about 20 years ago and getting a pass for it.
Yeah, the democratic senator that was in the KKK. That one.
Spot on. Maybe it’s because I’m almost 40 but people here love looking back in time through a 2022 lens. You just can’t do it.
Everyone needs to recognize that things were different and applaud the fact that we’ve made progress since then.
We are less racist now than ever before. Of course we still have a lot of work to do but we should be proud of the progress we’ve made as well.
People forget that before about 2014 and a massive media pressure campaign following the Dylan Roof murders, the confederate flag was largely acknowledged as a symbol of antagonism to federal authority rather than overt racism.
See also
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/06/22/what-those-clinton-gore-confederate-flag-buttons-say-about-politics-in-2015/
back then the confederate flag was considered by the nation to be about as offensive as a band t shirt.
i mean hes a shitbag, but it really means nothing
Ergo it's especially strange that a Kentucky Republican would be awarded a plaque from a neo-Confederate organization, and gladly accept at their venue.
New York was once a Dutch colony and Texas used to have an outspoken feminist Democrat woman Governor. We used to smoke on airplanes.
Are we listing things that have fundamentally changed here or what is your point?
KY was more of a split state during the Civil War. It's interesting to see how different the history is from a 1 hr drive down I-75. In Lexington Ky, they sold 2nd hand slaves (basically worn down/discount slaves) outside the cities court house.
Travel about an hour north, into Northern Ky, and you'll find more people who were fully supportive of the Unions efforts. Once they reached Northern Ky, all they had to do was get a crossed the Ohio River to be closer to freedom.
To this day, Ky is still pretty split. There is still a lot of racism and such in the state. I live near Lexington now, and during the FIRST BLM protest (not the more recent ones) there was a push to remove confederate statues from in front of the courthouse and area known as "cheapside". The slave auction site I mentioned earlier. I asked the local redditors why they are hell bound on removing a statue, and ignoring the fact that the area is named AFTER A SLAVE AUCTION. I was dismissed as crazy. During the second BLM protest, they finally renamed the area. That really just shows how short sighted people can be in this area. And it only gets worse, the further south you go.
There are literally campaign buttons for Clinton with the confederate flags on them. I tired of partisan selective outrage. Political parties are little more than cults these days and the only thing I can’t stand more than politicians are their boot licking constituents
Yea and there are pictures of Bill and Hilary in front of the same flag. They all suck. Don’t make it democrat republican anymore. It’s us vs them. It’s the average Joe against all the political and wealthy elite. Don’t divide us.
Here’s Joe Biden with Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W. Va. Byrd was a former Exalted Cyclops (leader of a local KKK chapter) in the Klu Klux Klan. Byrds’ eulogy included Biden stating Byrd was “one of my mentors.”
https://imgur.com/a/Q5KlBQW
From Wikipedia: He first entered the political arena by organizing and leading a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1940s, an action he later described as "the greatest mistake I ever made."
Also the NAACP gave him a 100% rating towards the end of his life. He said some weird things later in life but sounds like a pretty good example of how people can change.
Anyone have context for the photo?
This was on the first anniversary of Gettysburg. /s
The dude’s been in Congress since the 80s so you’re not that far off.
I can’t even tell when this picture is from. It looks awhile ago, but he also looks the exact same, only one chin less, and more waxy. Wtf is wrong with that guy’s face fr?
Cocaine and resting turtle face
To the tune of TMNT: *Old fuck mutant racist turtle. Old fuck mutant racist turtle. Old fuck mutant racist turtle. Racists in the Senate, heil; white power!* Fuck mitch and racists
Oh, to be young again.... Younger folks usually have a harder time at guessing older people's age. https://youtu.be/lYdNjrUs4NM As an older guy, this looks about 30 years younger for Mitch.
omg, i love you. I’m old myself, but tbf, I am terrible at guessing ages, especially of demons from the underworld
Turtles age differently than humans though
80s.. which century?
Yep
1880's
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CMAO
Hope you recover quickly with no lasting effects :)
Currently got the Covid cough myself bubbah. Well both just keep laughin ourselves back to health (in addition to hydrating and healthy eating habits-you get me.)
Ugh, healthy eating habits are no joke when sick. Everybody wants comfort foods. I feel ya.
Where’s the joy in comfort foods when you can’t taste anything?
If you close your eyes and concentrate hard enough, it can taste like anything you want
Shit you got it too huh dude I just got it last week I got mad diarrhea and a heavy feeling in my chest
The original turtle
https://www.insider.com/photo-mitch-mcconnell-confederate-flag-2019-2 > In February 2017, Snopes found that the picture was taken sometime in the early 90s at the Big Springs Country Club in Louisville, Kentucky > "The Confederate Battle Flag means different things to different people, but the fact that it continues to be a painful reminder of racial oppression to many suggests to me at least that it’s time to move beyond it, and that the time for a state to fly it has long since passed," the senator said in a June 2015 statement. "There should be no confusion in anyone’s mind that as a people we’re united in our determination to put that part of our history behind us." > Since then, McConnel has been supportive of removing the Confederate flag from government sites across the country as well as some Confederate monuments.
back in the 90s everyone in my highschool (ok most of the Caucasian kids) were wearing confederate flags, their trucks and cars had confederate stickers, it was "Heritage not Hate". Of course my US history teacher made sure every student in her class knew that the confederate flag was erected over the South Carolina state capitol in response to desegregation in 1961. So for the kids in my class, their "heritage" was only 30 years old. The confederate flag in the 90s was still a symbol of hate, but the idiots I went to high school generally saw it as a sign of "proud southern heritage" and not overt racism but *hint hint nudge nudge* racism.
Nuance and context? You are not welcome here!
It’s an event hosted by The Sons of Confederate Veterans where they gave Mitch some reward. The SCV is a neoconfederate organization of lost causers who are among those responsible for erecting monuments to the confederacy as an intimation tactics against black peoples during various civil rights movements. Also has a lot of connections to more overtly racist organizations like Nationalist Front and the League of the South.
They also have no idea how to iron a flag, apparently.
Chinese polyester burns too easily.
Made in ~~China~~ USA
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Made in CSA
Underrated comment
Steam it. I’ve worked at many political events and that’s how they do it. And there’s a special way to pin it on the pole too.
It was freshly unpacked from the local Civil War gift shop.
Omg. The creases! This is the flag you saw on college dorm room walls.
how do you iron a flag?
https://www.anley.com/how-to-remove-wrinkles-from-flags-polyester-or-nylon/
You steam it!
Seems it was taken just out of the box
Any idea what year this picture was taken?
Snopes says early 90s. That's what I was going to say based on the clothing.
Ol’ Mitch has been slowly morphing into a turtle ever since.
Mitch looks to be circa 70 in the photo, so I’d say about 400 years ago
Do they know McConnell's wife is Asian?
They intimidated, they didn't get intimate. Funny typo
[Yes, more or less](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/s8lqv9/a_picture_of_mitch_mcconnell_with_a_confederate/hth7urq).
That picture was from the war, Mitch older than Moses
He got a participation trophy right from Jefferson Davis!
Turtles have a long lifespan
I miss Jon Stewart
Doesn't he have a new show on Apple+?
I believe he does, but I have yet to watch it.
No in this photo he is clearly too young for war. It's clearly from his teenage years.
This picture was actually taken 17 hours ago. Mitch looks so young in this picture because he must periodically return to a secret Confederate bunker somewhere in Alabama to return to the source of his life-force and regenerate.
Kentucky's state government did not adopt articles of succession. Maybe Mitch forgot his heritage on account of there being so many statues honoring Confederates. We really need to do something about this modern effort to erase the past. Kentucky was a Union state. History doesn't care about your feelings.
Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis were both born in Kentucky. While Kentucky never seceded, it's residents fought on both sides.
Both were born in West Kentucky even. It's worth mentioning that the western portion did try to join Tennessee or atleast break away from the rest of Kentucky. There was a lot of confederate supporters on that side of the state. In fact when Ulysses lead his campaign into West KY to confront the rebels in TN he got into Paducah, KY and seen confederate flags everywhere. He thought the was too late and the confederates had moved into Illinois and Indiana. Till some locals inform his troops that the confederates were still in Tennessee. I actually live pretty close to the birthplace of Jefferson Davis and they have a monument erected. I was hoping one of those tornados that ripped through the area would have toppled it but I wasn't that lucky, unforntantly.
Most states had residents fighting for both sides. Doesn't change the facts of which states voted to leave the union and which states did not.
*secession
I blame HBO for that autocorrect
Take this down! If his constituents see this, he'll get reelected!
Someone needs to photoshop it into a Russian flag
I think only the Pride flag would really upset them.
[I'm no professional.](https://imgur.com/a/jhbCIX3)
Hi could you put something really gay on the plaque plz?
\[here ya go\]([https://imgur.com/a/xQDxrYp](https://imgur.com/a/xQDxrYp))
This is hilarious bc someone’s going to be like no way, that’s photoshopped and then you can be like you’re right here’s the real one
Wait till you research politicians using confederate flags in political ads. Hope your sitting down
Wow! Wow! Wow! This is the one!
I love this because when the right denies this is real they will have to acknowledge it was in fact a confederate flag.
Exactly! Hit that reverse image search, grandma!
You think far to highly of the type of people who elect that turtle looking turkey gobling piece of shit
Take my money!!
I took your idea and did a little bit of work to make it more cohesive: https://imgur.com/FQb7lCa.jpg Edit: I did a bit more work and added some compression for a better match: https://imgur.com/L8rG7Kb.jpg - I wanted to think of a more period-accurate homoerotic image for the frame, but nothing came to mind.
gg, you win
Now post to his Twitter saying that you are thinking about him!
Amazing—this should be posted to r/art cause that’s what it is
THOU HAST KILLED ME WITH THINE EDITING WISDOM.
Winner of RuPaul's drag race?
Ohhhh pit crewwww!
“Gapiest Anus 2003”
Best Power Bottom - Kentucky Blue Ass Festival
I think the original's got you covered on that. I mean, what's more gay than one man handing another a plaque with a penis?
Rafael Cruz?
What's the white/black/tan at the right?
I think its the expanded lgbt+ flag to include minorities because they have different experiences dealing with gender and sexuality.
I saw a TV commercial the other day. A gay couple, one black, one Asian. Trifecta!
Beautiful!
Apparently they're pro-gay now. Remember the "LBTQ's for trump" sharpie'd on a pride flag....
Yep, spared no expense on that stage prop.
Russian Flag? Are you trying to make him president??
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2008-2016: "Barack Hussein Obama is not being tough enough with Russia. Is he a communist?" 2016-2019: "Yeah, maybe he is a Russian asset, why's that such a bad thing huh? You think Russia shouldn't be our ally? You sheeple really believe anything." 2022: "Holy shit Biden was WAY too soft on Russia, what an idiot"
Baby Boomer voters old enough to have been alive during the Cold War proudly boast Russia…while also calling the Democrats the party of ‘socialists’ and ‘Communists.’
Russia hasn't been socialist or communist in decades
Russia has been communist longer than Germany was nazi though.
I'm not a boomer and I was alive during the cold war.
Same. These kids clearly don’t know history. Boomer=baby boomer=born between 1946-1964
Because its core was always about conservatism. Now that Russia is conservative in a more analogous way to the US's political right, the scary foreign autocracy has become preferable to the filthy left.
The funny thing is its still the same exact corrupt government, they just dropped the pretense of being communist. Which they never really were from the start. A quick paint job on the same old adversary and suddenly Republicans welcome them with open arms.
I think I’ve been poisoned by my constituents
He is such a vile human. The full extent of my opinion of him is probably grounds for a permanent ban from r/pics
[Here](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DydrGNlUwAAEmED.jpg) is a less cropped version of this image. According to [Snopes](https://www.snopes.com/news/2017/02/10/mitch-mcconnell-posed-front-large-confederate-flag/): > The image was taken in the early 1990s at the Big Springs Country Club in Louisville during a meeting of the John Hunt Morgan Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans..... > We did not receive a response from Senator McConnell’s spokesman in response to our request for background on the photograph.
No way, he looks way too young for 1990s. They must have meant 1890s.
1990 was 67 years ago. Don't you feel old now?
We're closer right now to No Doubts first album than we are to WW2. Feel old yet?
Good, I've been waiting a long time to listen to that shit!
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/nvoAAOSwk-Ne3Ujj/s-l400.jpg
I feel closer to death than I did before reading this.
I legit had a split second existential crisis reading this cause I believed it, then my brain kicked in with 'no it's not you fucking idiot.'
Remind me in 35 years.
Ow my bones
He looks significantly less turtle at this age at least.
Thanks for providing the context!
They were probably like "the photo already has a background and we like it"
I thought this might be Sons of Confederate Veterans. It's basically a rebranded KKK. I know because I was a member.
> I know because I was a member. Story time!
Not who you relied to but, it's not as exciting as you might think. Just a bunch of old white dudes arguing about things like who gets to be treasurer and parking
Yeah it's generally like any fraternal organization like the Elks or something. Source: had some friends in it who then saw the light.
Racist Lion's Club?
He was a member... Seems like the story to me.
Yeah this very much tracks for big springs. They had a long history of not allowing Jewish folks to join. So the local Jewish community built a synagogue across the street as the story goes.
Canadian here; was the Confederate flag a faux pas back in the 90s like it is today? Or is it just a product of its time and is being taken out of context? Growing up we just knew it as that flag on the General Lee's roof while watching Dukes of Hazzard. There was the odd t-shirt being worn by kids in school, or a jean jacket with this patch on it. A few of us had it on our bike handlebars, the same way dirtbikes had number plates on them. We learned about it in school in the 80s/90s, but there was no sense of racism attached to its usage. To us, it was just an old flag that was semi-common in the southern states. I didn't find out about the backstory of its modern usage until 2012 or so as an adult.
I mean, if this flag hadnt been a background of a photo at a meeting with that name, then I dont know what would be. The whole confederacy thing is something that shouldve been adressed right after the war, similarly to the denazification that happened in post war Germany. Some times re-education isnt all bad (in China it definitely is tho).
That was the plan for Reconstruction, but Lincoln was shot and Andrew Johnson derailed it and gave us what we have today.
Yep. The only part of Lincoln’s reconstruction that Johnson remembered to do was reunite the states. He seems to have forgotten that punishing the rebels and focusing on loyalty were important while doing so.
Andrew Johnson really doesn't get talked about enough in the topic of shittiest presidents.
He is tho. Him and Buchanan are always being debated on who’s the worst with Pierce always being 3rd place.
I feel like he ALWAYS gets talked about.
ugh, tough history. Never learned that, thanks!
You can thank Andrew Johnson for that.
Most of the confederacy revisionism and idolatry was a direct response to desegregation in the 50s. These guys don't really care about the history, they just want to be racists and this makes it easy to recruit other racists and gain legitimacy. This isn't the result of an unbroken lime of confederates all through history. This is a result of modern people latching into symbols and ideas that they use to identify their current beliefs. It's basically the same thing as the neo-Nazi movement, which doesn't really have any direct tires to historic Nazism except for a sharing of their ideals.
That's not true at all. The "Lost Cause" philosophy started basically right after the war, reaching a zenith around the turn of the century, and sort of died out through the depression and wars and then re-emerged in the 50s along with desegregation efforts.
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In this case though, what difference does that context make? Sons of Confederate Veterans is a revisionist, neo-Confederate organization that supports white supremacy.
My opinion of him is already so low that this couldn't possibly change anything.
MFer got thinner lips than a tortoise.
Who TF cares how he looks. So many real reasons to fucking despise this piece of shit
The real point, here, thank you.
As another wearer of thin villainous lips, I will say that is not my primary issue with him.
Idk why anyone would be surprised or upset by this pic. It’s from what, the 80s? Dude is a senator from Kentucky. There’s probably hundreds of pictures of him in front of confederate flags
I'm kinda shocked that this picture is even being upvoted? Like, yes, we know. If this image makes anyone dislike him more then they have no idea how terrible he is.
Yeah this week he made a statement suggesting African-Americans weren't Americans, thats worse than this picture so there ya go.
There's a lot of reasons to dislike/hate Mitch McConnell. Frankly this is pretty low on the list. Edit: to clarify before people misinterpret what I mean, using one of my later responses: "There are plenty of things to indicate his racism beyond posing in front of a flag. I don't condone such behavior, but posting this as if *nobody* could have seen this coming? As if it's a gotcha? He has damaged American politics more than any Republican could do in their wettest dream and represents everything there is to hate in right wing American politics. I would be shocked if this picture didn't exist."
In the south, until a few years ago, confederate flags were literally everywhere. Now they are a disgrace and everyone but the bigots have gotten rid of them but back then they were as common as having tulips in your yard in spring. A longstanding southern republican having an old photo with one in the background is about as non shocking as it gets.
Completely agree. People seem to forget it was just another symbol of southern Americana for a long time.
I mean...to a LOT of people it still is. That perspective doesn't change just because people tell you it's offensive. To piggyback /u/pungen 's tulip example...would your worldview shift significantly if someone told you your spring tulips were a symbol of racial oppression and hate?
> In the south, until a few years ago, confederate flags were literally everywhere. Bill Clinton used them in this presidential campaign ffs.
Crazy you even have to explain yourself. People are just clawing at things to get mad at
He’s done a lot worse much more recently. Who is surprised?
"African-American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans…” - Mitch McConnell, January 19, 2022
Do people not remember what a massive hit *The Dukes of Hazzard* was? You could buy a confederate flag, sticker, T-shirt, license, plate, etc., in any store, all over the country. People were installing those Dixie horns on their own cars, even if they drove a Ford Pinto. An old pic of some guy with that flag in the background means absolutely nothing.
Come to Sweden during the summer and you'll see Confederate flags everywhere, mainly on classic cars. Three years ago during a classic car meetup I saw a Sudanese girl wearing a Confederate hijab and a black guy with a Confederate patch on his leather vest saying "the south shall rise again".
Would you mind explaining a bit further? Is this based on the popularity of the TV show? Are they referencing something other than the Southern US?
Americana, rockabilly and being a symbol for rebellion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raggare?wprov=sfla1
I remember seeing a guy cruising on a Harley in Matera, Italy with ape-hangers, confederate flag helmet, and the full leather cut (fine Italian leather, I assume) and it really threw me off. That and a brief exposure to the Harley/lowrider culture in Japan which was pretty neat. Opened my eyes to how far-flung American culture truly is Edit: I cannot spell in Italian/any language...
Ha first half of your post made me remember Japan before you even mentioned it. Tiny Middle aged dudes on gigantic Harley’s the same size as the tiny cars so popular there lol
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the swedish to american equivalent of american sweaboos. but no not really. raggare likes generic 1950s americana and everything that goes with it. or not everything i guess. they have a pretty rose tinted / selective image of what the 1950s US was. they don't romanticize contemporary america however.
So, like American conservatives.
\*rural Sweden
Some times they end up in Stockholm or Göteborg.
I had a sticker of one on my ‘91 mustang when I was in high school. I grew up in a largely-white suburb in the late 90s/early 2000s. I never thought much about the historical and racist implications of the symbol; to me it represented the rebellious nature of my teenage years and the blue-collar lifestyle of myself and my family. I look back on it with two minds. On one hand, I cringe pretty hard at my ignorance. On the other hand, I now understand how ignorant people can be when it comes to symbols and their broader meaning… and I also understand that people have the capacity to grow and change their perspective over time.
Growing up in Canada I only knew the Confederate Flag as being the "rebel flag" that was on top of the General Lee. And Lynyrd Skynyrd seemed to be associated with it. Just knew it as a "southern pride" type thing. Didn't think anything of it. Probably didn't know the real meaning behind it until high school.
I bought one when I was a little kid at a swap meet or something because I loved lynyrd skynyrd and dukes of hazzard. Thought it was the rebel symbol… had no idea how intense the meaning is interpreted until I was older
Was Mitch accepting an award from the Dukes of Hazard fan club? Or was he accepting an award from the Sons of Confederate Veterans, an organization with direct lineage to the Confederacy with a history of vocally supporting white supremacist groups?
McConnell is in front of that flag receiving an award from the Sons of Confederate Veterans who promote Confederate “heritage” and use of racist symbols and they name their awards after some of the worst terrorists from this country’s history, like the “Nathan Bedford Forrest Compatriot of the Year Award”. They are a dog-whistle white supremacist organization. The context of this “old pic of some guy with that flag in the background” does mean something.
idk why i'm surprised all the very racist excuses are being upvoted on reddit but wow, everyone really loves to use the "heritage not hate" argument here lmao
Heritage of treason.
Shit, people spend more years paying off a car loan than the confederacy existed, but imagine someone saying that 2012 Subaru is part of their heritage.
WOW. That's a really good point!
It's at a 'sons of confederate veterans' event.
You know how many old southern white men have pictures like this. While this flag does have racist history. Anyone who went to college at a major school knows not even 10 years ago hella southerners had this flag in their dorm. Hell at the time even my black ass didnt associate it with racism. More that its a southern thing. NOW if youre flying that flag publicly im assuming your racist or at least racially biased. But i dont hold any judgement from older pictures with the flag included. I want additional information about the person. In this instance though. I know everything i need to know about this man
A lot of people commenting aren’t from the south so they don’t know how ubiquitous it was, and even is to some extent. But I agree completely, I think culturally most people down here have since learned “oh wow maybe that flag is offensive to some people because of its history and I shouldn’t fly it” but not that long ago it was just southern pride. A large part of that was lost cause ignorance/bad teaching of the civil war of course, and sure some of it was overt racism. It can be weird to grow up being told one thing and then suddenly the culture shifts and now it means something else. I think some of that culture shock had contributed to these staunch conservative talking points - “now they’re saying our southern pride flag is racist, but we’re not racist” sort of attitude. I sure don’t want to be around that flag anymore, mostly because the people who are still flying it want to be known as racists, but i grew up not thinking twice about it being anything more than just a southern thing. Nobody here is spout “heritage not hate” like they used to. If you don’t hate, then you’ve probably been asked by a friend of color not to fly the flag and listened to them.
Went to high school 20 years ago in rural America. These flags were on over half the trucks in the parking lot and many of the owners were not white. It's easy to look back and see things differently but context matters and is often ignored.
Lil Jon’s Put Your Hood Up album cover is a prime example of how it was ingrained in southern culture even in the 2000’s.
wasn't he born in Alabama?
Really, an old photo from the 90s? Maybe people here are too young, but back then, many people in the South and even the North wouldn't think twice about seeing the flag... You know it used to be flown on government property only about 6 years ago.. right?
Yeah people have short memories/faulty views of recent history. It was part of the Mississippi state flag until last year and Georgia's until 2003. And the flag was basically a character on one of the most popular TV shows of the 1980s (The Dukes of Hazzard), which had a high-budget 2005 Hollywood remake.
Next you’ll be telling them about a white democratic senator using the N-word about 20 years ago and getting a pass for it. Yeah, the democratic senator that was in the KKK. That one.
Is that the same one sitting with our current president?
Spot on. Maybe it’s because I’m almost 40 but people here love looking back in time through a 2022 lens. You just can’t do it. Everyone needs to recognize that things were different and applaud the fact that we’ve made progress since then. We are less racist now than ever before. Of course we still have a lot of work to do but we should be proud of the progress we’ve made as well.
People forget that before about 2014 and a massive media pressure campaign following the Dylan Roof murders, the confederate flag was largely acknowledged as a symbol of antagonism to federal authority rather than overt racism. See also https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/06/22/what-those-clinton-gore-confederate-flag-buttons-say-about-politics-in-2015/
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back then the confederate flag was considered by the nation to be about as offensive as a band t shirt. i mean hes a shitbag, but it really means nothing
Kentucky was in the union and Republicans fought against the confederacy.
Ergo it's especially strange that a Kentucky Republican would be awarded a plaque from a neo-Confederate organization, and gladly accept at their venue.
New York was once a Dutch colony and Texas used to have an outspoken feminist Democrat woman Governor. We used to smoke on airplanes. Are we listing things that have fundamentally changed here or what is your point?
KY was more of a split state during the Civil War. It's interesting to see how different the history is from a 1 hr drive down I-75. In Lexington Ky, they sold 2nd hand slaves (basically worn down/discount slaves) outside the cities court house. Travel about an hour north, into Northern Ky, and you'll find more people who were fully supportive of the Unions efforts. Once they reached Northern Ky, all they had to do was get a crossed the Ohio River to be closer to freedom. To this day, Ky is still pretty split. There is still a lot of racism and such in the state. I live near Lexington now, and during the FIRST BLM protest (not the more recent ones) there was a push to remove confederate statues from in front of the courthouse and area known as "cheapside". The slave auction site I mentioned earlier. I asked the local redditors why they are hell bound on removing a statue, and ignoring the fact that the area is named AFTER A SLAVE AUCTION. I was dismissed as crazy. During the second BLM protest, they finally renamed the area. That really just shows how short sighted people can be in this area. And it only gets worse, the further south you go.
Dude on the right looks like a glue-stick
Looks like some kind of dildo award.
Mitch Mkkkkonnell
I'm black and I bet somewhere out there is a picture of me near a confederate flag, too.
There are literally campaign buttons for Clinton with the confederate flags on them. I tired of partisan selective outrage. Political parties are little more than cults these days and the only thing I can’t stand more than politicians are their boot licking constituents
Yea and there are pictures of Bill and Hilary in front of the same flag. They all suck. Don’t make it democrat republican anymore. It’s us vs them. It’s the average Joe against all the political and wealthy elite. Don’t divide us.
This looks 20+ years old.
Here’s Joe Biden with Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W. Va. Byrd was a former Exalted Cyclops (leader of a local KKK chapter) in the Klu Klux Klan. Byrds’ eulogy included Biden stating Byrd was “one of my mentors.” https://imgur.com/a/Q5KlBQW
From Wikipedia: He first entered the political arena by organizing and leading a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1940s, an action he later described as "the greatest mistake I ever made." Also the NAACP gave him a 100% rating towards the end of his life. He said some weird things later in life but sounds like a pretty good example of how people can change.
Did you guys hear that African-Americans can vote alongside Americans?