Big Flag Post

November 15, 2023 1:42 PM

How Do the World’s Largest Flags Actually Fly? ... Massive flagpoles are all the rage, and hugely divisive ... The Big Flag ... Flags as big as football fields: The story of giant American flags ... Why do they need such a big flag? [MeTa]
posted by chavenet (33 comments total)

[this post flag]
posted by Rhaomi at 2:47 PM on November 15, 2023 [3 favorites]

I tried flagging this post but it was already flagged
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 3:01 PM on November 15, 2023 [6 favorites]

Rather ashamed to admit that, as the US Flag has been so thoroughly appropriated by the far right, with all their performative patriotism and such, whenever I see one anywhere that is not a government building, I just sort of assume that person is an asshole.
posted by xedrik at 3:31 PM on November 15, 2023 [45 favorites]

We had a flag waving right wing anti-vax protest for several weeks here in Ottawa and now we are all similarly on edge about Canadian flags.
posted by jacquilynne at 3:47 PM on November 15, 2023 [4 favorites]

On a long road trip we passed through Twin Falls, Idaho. There's a huge gorge (made famous by Evil Knievel jumping across it), and the view is truly spectacular. And directly in front of the bridge where you can view it, they had hung one of these inconceivably enormous flags, right in the middle of the gorge, blocking the view. Even if the US Flag hasn't become a symbol for the worst part of our country, it would have been an obnoxious waste of a great view.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 3:51 PM on November 15, 2023 [12 favorites]

We Americans have such a short attention spans we need giant flags so we don't forget what country we live in.
posted by cccorlew at 4:24 PM on November 15, 2023 [5 favorites]

if you can't spot the chinese delegation at the opening ceremonies for the olympics, that's a big red flag
posted by logicpunk at 4:24 PM on November 15, 2023 [11 favorites]

🪕How big must a flag be before
You call it a red flag

🎻Yes, n how many seas must a white power claim
Before he sleeps in Freedom?
🎸Yes, n how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before the minorities forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' up the woke
The answer is blowin' up the woke

How many years can a mountain exist
Before its washed to the sea?
Yes, n how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be Freedoms?
Yes, n how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesn't see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' up the woke
The answer is blowin' up the woke
posted by Jacen at 4:27 PM on November 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

...whenever I see one anywhere that is not a government building, I just sort of assume that person is an asshole.

See also: Car dealerships flying the biggest, most monstrous, damned flags possible, 24/7, 365. Guaranteed to be staffed with the most stereotypical salesmen possible.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:30 PM on November 15, 2023 [6 favorites]

If the bumper stickers I see around here are accurate, there are plenty of people with pickup trucks willing to help you pack if you are offended by any of these. That's such a nice gesture, I hope to take one of them up on it.
posted by credulous at 4:44 PM on November 15, 2023 [5 favorites]

"whenever I see one anywhere that is not a government building, I just sort of assume that person is an asshole."

Very much the same thing here in the UK, esspecially since just displaying flags has never been much of a thing. Looking at photos of the counter-demonstrations at the Palestinian support march in London last weekend just confirms it. Loads of Union flags and a few extra St George's flags, which (possibly excepting at international football matches) are solely displayed by right-wing English nutjobs
posted by Fuchsoid at 5:59 PM on November 15, 2023 [5 favorites]

Fascist flag fetish. Fascist flag fetish. Fascist flag fetish. Ok, I'm ready for my speech.
posted by adept256 at 6:01 PM on November 15, 2023 [7 favorites]

...whenever I see one anywhere that is not a government building

My See also: in the US, Filling Stations. During the Iraq conflict I recall somebody using the word festooned to describe the flag displays at gas stations, which have subsided, somewhat; the expressions of patriotic zeal by individual citizens in interesting contrast to many other countries, where flag-flying isn't common; especially places like China, where flying the flag is illegal unless it's a government facility.
posted by Rash at 6:06 PM on November 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

I don't think of NZers as being particularly flag attached and mercifully the flag-pole in the yard is not really a big thing. On the other hand, the little patches on packs & silver-ferns do appear to be code for "I'm a fellow Kiwi lets chat about 3 degrees of separation over a beer" globally.

I really wish 'Laser Kiwi' had become the flag. OK, and I'm a sucker for the Hundertwasser Koru flag too (I have one hanging in my bathroom).
posted by phigmov at 6:11 PM on November 15, 2023 [4 favorites]

Giant super flags:

“Wind is our enemy,” Green says. “The power behind it is unreal.”

I really hope we re not going to war against....the wind.

I would also like to state that the wind is indeed real.
posted by eustatic at 6:52 PM on November 15, 2023 [3 favorites]

Any Americans that think they've seen some big flags should take a vacation down to Mexico. Then you can see what big flags look like.
posted by Back At It Again At Krispy Kreme at 7:18 PM on November 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

Switzerland has a nice flag.
It's a big plus
posted by avocet at 7:23 PM on November 15, 2023 [15 favorites]

Just a moth-eaten rag
On a worm-eaten pole
It does not look likely
To stir a man's soul.
'Tis the deeds that were done
'Neath that moth-eaten rag
When the pole was a staff
And the rag was a flag.
posted by ob1quixote at 7:57 PM on November 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

Any time I see one of those giant flags all I can do is quietly sing "But your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven anymore"....
posted by drewbage1847 at 9:39 PM on November 15, 2023 [8 favorites]

I think auto dealers joined the Giant Flag Brigades because flag size isn’t restricted by laws on advertising signage.
posted by Warren Terra at 10:09 PM on November 15, 2023 [4 favorites]

Wales has a nice flag.
It's a fucking dragon.
posted by adept256 at 10:35 PM on November 15, 2023 [9 favorites]

I have seen the comically huge flag in Jeddah - which also has a comically huge fountain. I think the instincts to create the two things are closely related.
posted by rongorongo at 1:16 AM on November 16, 2023 [1 favorite]

When I had my final "history, culture and attachment to Republican values" interview before naturalising as a French citizen, when asked to name some symbols of La République, I nervously replied "le drap bleu-blanc-rouge" (rather than le drapeau)... which is the blue, white and red bedsheet...

Luckily it was appreciated by both sides as a pretty humorous moment of relief from the otherwise weirdly tense combination of the banal (name a French river) and the weighty (what's the significance of this cartoon showing a pack of cigarettes filled with crayons, labelled "dessiner tue", next to a copy of Charlie Hebdo).
posted by protorp at 1:29 AM on November 16, 2023 [5 favorites]

I would have answered 'tricolore'. Is that wrong?

How stressful was identifying all the wines?

I like the line in the national anthem about watering the fields with the blood of tyrants. That's pretty metal for an anthem.
posted by adept256 at 1:56 AM on November 16, 2023 [4 favorites]

There's a filling station chain called FREEDOM that goes for the big flags; I dunno, maybe it attracts a certain sort of person, but most Americans are probably trained to look at exactly one thing at a filling station, and that's what they're charging for gas.
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:39 AM on November 16, 2023 [3 favorites]

"We stole countries with the cunning use of flags."
posted by kirkaracha at 7:15 AM on November 16, 2023 [1 favorite]

Show me what a patriot you are by flying your ratty torn dirty flag on your coal-rolller.

Magnum dickus vexillum amantem
posted by BlueHorse at 8:33 AM on November 16, 2023 [1 favorite]

In the US, flagpole regulations are different from sign regulations.

Most US cities have regulations about the size of the branding signage on buildings, and ritzier cities have regulations against billboards. But they don't have the same regulations against flags, at least not yet.

So since branding signage is limited to relatively small sizes without expensive variances, an easier way to raise site profile next to a 70mph highway is to add a giant flag.

It's similar to how some English buildings were taxed due to windows in ye olden days, so they just left them bricked in.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:14 AM on November 16, 2023 [1 favorite]

I really hope we re not going to war against....the wind.

1977 concept album about this: Consequences
posted by Rash at 10:12 AM on November 16, 2023 [1 favorite]

Sure all Big Flag Discussion must also link to Big Trafalgar Flag?
(Yes yes it's a Big Naval Ensign but I will argue that is a subset of Big Flag)
posted by Vortisaur at 2:24 PM on November 16, 2023

In Geoguessr recognizing that you are in America is the easiest, you just look around in a spot until you see the flag. This always works, if you limit yourself to cities. It doesn't work in any other country on Earth.
posted by Pyrogenesis at 7:05 AM on November 17, 2023

Works pretty good in Turkey too.
posted by Meatbomb at 7:36 AM on November 17, 2023

Would work in Switzerland. They fly quite a number of flags. Hehehe, they are "power-ups".
posted by Goofyy at 4:32 PM on November 17, 2023