The New Yawker article made some good points about the Don't Tread flag, and its shifting meanings. Thanks, Larry. I was largely unfamiliar with it except for its colonial history and the later adoption as a libertarian thing. Does it annoy me when relatively benign libertarian concepts, e.g. smaller government that doesn't mess with my life, get grafted onto white nationalist bilge? It does. Has the DTOM flag been corrupted beyond repair? Maybe. I liked the concluding paragraph...
We have no real context for what that aggrieved postal worker experienced, or for the motives of his Gadsden-fan colleague. But however that incident is ultimately resolved as a matter of workplace regulation, it’s not going to settle some definitive meaning of the “Don’t Tread On Me” rattler. “Symbols are emotion-charged,” Hartvigsen, the flag expert, said. We care about and interpret them on a personal level. And that’s why the facts of a symbol’s history and associations can be compiled, documented, and studied, but they still won’t be the whole story. “Flags very much have the meaning of the individual who is displaying it, or seeing it,” Hartvigsen continued. More significant, those may be two wildly divergent, but equally fervent, perspectives. The Gadsden flag is just the latest example that disagreements and ambiguity do not undermine the emotional power of a symbol. Sometimes, in fact, they are its source.
For what it's worth I wouldn't display a Ross flag. Would I assume someone else is doing so to express WN sentiment, and object to the display? Probably not. I need to hear more context. Just the fact that patriot twits are wrapping themselves in flags of various provenances isn't enough; twits have been doing that for millennia. To me patriotism is loving and caring for your land, and seeing that it nurtures life, liberty, and the PoH for everyone you share it with. Flag waving is for the simple-minded.