NPR: "Oh NOOO! Florida is offering license plate bearing dis hateful symbol of violent insurrections!!"

Florida is offering drivers a license plate featuring a pic of the "Gadsden flag"--and the leftists at NPR are wailing that this is "hate speech" or some sort of declaration of war on Americans.

NPR story: "A Florida license plate has reopened the debate over the 'Don't tread on me' flag
  by Scott Neuman, August 10, 2022

The Gadsden flag dates to Benjamin Franklin.  BUT "for many" it now symbolizes a far-right extremist ideology and the "Stop the Steal" movement that sought to [investigate massive fraud in six "swing states" in the 2020 presidential election].

But such plates *have gotten pushback,* not only in Florida, but in states such as Kansas, Missouri and Virginia.

>>OH NO, NOT "pushback"!  Wonder what ol' pantywaist Scott means by that, eh?  Let's ask the communists at the Southern Poverty Law Center:

Rachel Rivas, a deputy director at the SPLC, says "Florida can't claim a lack of knowledge about what this image represents to most of the public."

>>Gosh Rachel, what do you claim the image *does* represent "to most of the public,* eh?  The Revolutionary War--our war of independence?  Oh NO!

She says it's become clear that the flag has been used for some "really awful" causes, most notably the Jan. 6 [protest] at the U.S. Capitol, where [police killed two protesters as part of an FBLie plot to turn a peaceful protest into a Democrat propaganda opportunity].

The history of the Gadsden flag

Benjamin Franklin was the first to use the rattlesnake as a symbol of defiance against the British crown, says a journalist-historian.  In 1775, Christopher Gadsden, a South Carolina politician, "took that *menacing rattlesnake* and put it on the flag,"

"It really was just completely an anti-British [and] anti-colonial symbol," he says.

A writer for the leftist rag The New Yorker noted that by the 1970s "it had some popularity in Libertarian circles, as a symbol of enthusiasm for minimal government and the rights of individuals."

>>Well there ya go, citizen: Anything advocating minimal government and the rights of citizens is automatically suspect to the Left and the Media.

Then the Tea Party movement adopted the banner, and since then it has gone on to become a symbol for anti-government groups and individuals.

>>Cite?  Certainly conservatives support an FBI that doesn't shoot your dog or break down your door at 4 a.m., or shoot unarmed mothers carrying their infant, as FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi did Randy Weaver's wife at Ruby Ridge.

Extreme or not, First Amendment scholars the Gadsden flag and the "Don't Tread on Me" motto are legitimate, protected speech.  Of course we at NPR don't agree:  We're sure it's "hate speech," since it's used to symbolize disgust with our wonderful, brilliant, compassionate government!  And we believe anyone who displays it should be jailed, just like those awful people who complained about election fraud!

Other controversial slogans routinely appear on license plates across the country.  One of the most incendiary is 'Live free or die.'  We at NPR cannot believe such an anti-government license plate would be permitted.  It's nothing short of "hate speech," since it implies that citizens have the right to resist a government that takes away their freedom.  We at NPR can't even  imagine any good person would want to live in a nation that put freedom above obedience.

Of course some hateful, violent right-wing extremists claim "Live free or die" is actually the state motto of New Hampshire, but we can't confirm that.

Another expert noted that District of Columbia plates bear a version of the colonial-era rallying cry "No taxation without representation," but we seriously doubt it really means that.  And he notes that "'Don't Tread on Me' has more extreme, scary, right-wing connotations, and therefore should not be considered protected speech.

On the other hand, slogans like "Trust Women/Respect Choice" which is an option on license plates in Virginia, is perfectly peaceful and good.

>>Say, remember the propagandist's claim that offering the Gadsden flag on special-order plates had gotten "pushback" in Kansas?

Kansas approved the "Don't Tread on Me" plates only weeks after the Jan. 6, 2021 [protest].

Democrat Dinah Sykes, minority leader in the state senate, opposed allowing the state to offer plates with the flag design.  "I think a lot of people would argue that it's become a symbol of the people who marched on the Capitol," she says. "I don't think it's appropriate.  When I see that, whether it's a flag or a license plate ... it's not a good feeling for me."

>>See, we Dems really really support "free speech"--except when it's anything we don't like.

>>Hey Dinah, here's another flag lots of people carried on Jan 6th.  By your logic this flag would also be "hate speech" since it represents free people who don't like being dictated to by assholes.  So you should make a law preventing "violent right-wing extremists militia members" from carrying this one too.  And I expect that any day now you and your Democrat comrades will try that.  After all, public schools in California RULED that students couldn't wear shirts bearing this same flag, so not much of a stretch for ya, eh?

The bill to offer the Gadsden plate to those who wanted it passed the legislature but was vetoed by Democrat governor Laura Kelly, because it's just too obvious that the flag had been adopted by people who prized rights over obedience.  The nerve!

The Republican-controlled legislature overrode the veto.  But the matter isn't finished, because the Left is preparing to file suit to bar the plate from being offered, on the grounds that it makes some people feel uncomfortable.

Source.

https://www.npr.org/2022/08/10/1116523396/florida-dont-tread-on-me-license-plate-ron-desantis