Louisiana Walmart Creates ISIS Flag Cake After Rejecting Confederate Flag Cake

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Last week, I weighed in with my thoughts on the whole Confederate flag debate in the post: Video of the Day – CNN Reporter Dumbfounded as Black College Student Defends the Confederate Flag. If you never had a chance to read it, I suggest taking a look now.

When it comes to the Confederate flag, I think it is completely appropriate for states to debate whether or not they should fly the symbol on their flags. When it comes to private businesses, that’s an entirely different story. Whether a business wants to sell Confederate flag merchandise, or ban it, should be entirely up to the business. That being said, it is certainly clear that the Confederate flag means many different things to many different people. If Walmart or any other company wants to ban such items without taking context into consideration, that’s fine. I just happen to think it’s a pretty stupid decision.

It’s a stupid decision because of events like the incident that just happened in Louisiana, in which Chuck Netzhammer asked his local Walmart to make a cake with the following image on it:

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There can be absolutely no doubt in anyone’s mind that the above does not send a racist or hateful message. Irrespective of one’s personal opinion on the flag, in a free society different symbols can mean different things to different people. We don’t have to agree with it, but we should accept people’s freedom to commit thought crime. When you start banning things like flags, you open up a whole can of worms. For example, what happens when someone sends in an image of an ISIS flag for a cake and you don’t know what the image means so you make the cake anyway? That’s exactly what happened at the same Louisiana Walmart.

From ABC News:

A man in Louisiana is asking for an explanation from Walmart after his request for a Confederate flag cake at one of its bakeries was rejected, but a design with the ISIS flag was accepted.

Chuck Netzhammer said he ordered the image of the Confederate flag on a cake with the words, “Heritage Not Hate,” on Thursday at a Walmart in Slidell, Louisiana. But the bakery denied his request, he said. At some point later, he ordered the image of the ISIS flag that represents the terrorist group.

“I went back yesterday and managed to get an ISIS battleflag printed. ISIS happens to be somebody who we’re fighting against right now who are killing our men and boys overseas and are beheading Christians,” Netzhammer said.

Last week, companies like Walmart, Amazon, Etsy and eBay announced that they were banning sales of Confederate flag merchandise in the wake of the shooting death of nine African Americans in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 17, allegedly by a racist gunman who was seen in photos wearing the flag.

Just in case you were wondering how superficial the Confederate flag banning gesture from these corporate giants is, we know that eBay continues to list Nazi items even after the rush to remove Confederate flag-related goods. The bottom line is all these corporate bans on the Confederate flag aren’t so much about a principled stance, as they are panicked public relations reactions to a news story. Just like Americans panicked after 9/11 by gladly handing over their civil liberties (see: How I Remember September 11, 2001).

From Reuters:

Amazon.com Inc and eBay Inc sharply cut the number of Confederate flag products on their sites a day after vowing to remove them, but in a sign of the difficulty of removing controversial content, Nazi-era memorabilia are listed on both sites.

Another challenge to keeping controversial products off the sites involves the guidelines the companies use. Despite its general ban on Nazi memorabilia, eBay list certain items from that era, which a representative said recognized the historical significance of World War II.

A search by Reuters found numerous coins and stamps from that era available for sale, including some bearing the image of Adolf Hitler or Nazi swastikas.

The whole thing is a slippery slope of stupidity, and once again just goes to show, there’s no reason to get this bent out of shape over a piece of colored cloth.

For related articles, see:

Video of the Day – CNN Reporter Dumbfounded as Black College Student Defends the Confederate Flag

The War on Free Speech – U.S. Department of Justice Subpoenas Reason.com Over Comment Section

Statists Declare War on Free Speech – College Students Banned from Handing Out Constitutions in Hawaii

California Student Banned from Handing Out Constitutions on Campus

In Liberty,
Michael Krieger

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2 thoughts on “Louisiana Walmart Creates ISIS Flag Cake After Rejecting Confederate Flag Cake”

  1. Hmmm

    While the government is at it, they should ban all the Israeli flags flying in and around so many State and Federal Buildings. I find the constant reminder of Israel’s on going tyranny and terrorism against the Palestinians just as repulsive as those who have issues with the Confederate Flag. And just as an aside, the Civil War was not fought primarily over slavery. But hey lets not let facts get in the way of the age old call for government censorship. Just because free speech is protected as an inalienable right by the Constitution, we all know it is just a god damn piece of paper anyway.

    Reply

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