Photo: Erik Mclean

What does a black flag in front of a house mean?

no quarter given The all-black American flags being flown by so-called local patriots apparently means “no quarter given” and may even imply a willingness to use (lethal) violence against perceived enemies, essentially any non-Trumper who threatens their washed out, retrograde vision of what the U.S. is supposed to look like, how they ...

buckscountycouriertimes.com - Mychalejko: Why is your neighbor flying that all-black American flag?

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By Cyril Mychalejko

They’ve been popping up across the country for months, and now they’ve been spotted in Bucks County in places such as Perkasie, Plumstead, Buckingham, and Jamison. The all-black American flags being flown by so-called local patriots apparently means “no quarter given” and may even imply a willingness to use (lethal) violence against perceived enemies, essentially any non-Trumper who threatens their washed out, retrograde vision of what the U.S. is supposed to look like, how they believe democracy is supposed to function, or what they think freedom is. "The flags are one of several possible warning signs ... though it doesn't mean they are going to galvanize into action," said Amy Cooter, an expert on U.S. domestic militias and other right-wing "patriot" groups. "I do think people who fly it are marking themselves as folks to watch for other signals of radicalization.” Cooter, a senior lecturer of sociology at Vanderbilt University, actually embedded with Michigan militias for three years while doing fieldwork. "For more than a decade I tried to tell people that militias are under-counted as a political barometer to learn about what many mainstream conservatives are thinking," said Cooter. Bucks County’s own local militia leader T.J. Kosin posted a video on TikTok of who appears to be his fellow militia member and wife taking down a red, white, and blue American flag and replacing it with a desecrated, all-black one. Keep in mind Kosin told the Courier Times in August that “masks rules represented the ‘tyranny’ he fought against [in Afghanistan] and [he] ‘would not tolerate it in America.’” These black flags symbolize Jan. 6-type thinking. And one of the lessons we actually learned from that violent Insurrection, which so many Republican Pennsylvanians and Bucks Countians participated in, is that the warning signs and intelligence were there in the run up to that black day, there was just a “profound failure to act” on it. “I don't know that there's just one right answer for why people move to violence,” explained Cooter. “It does appear that most of the folks who eventually engage in violence reach a point where they believe some aspect of society and or the government is close to being a lost cause, and that, for whatever reason, it is up to them to try to fight that eventuality.” The apocalyptic talk used by the far-right locally underscores this looming potential threat. At a North Penn School District school board meeting this month a local parent denounced “medical tyranny.” A Reopen Bucks member recently told the Central Bucks School Board that masking is a “satanic ritual.” I’ve already written about the “civil war” talk by Trump supporters. Finally, Rick Saccone, a Republican candidate for Pennsylvania lieutenant governor, told a crowd this month at the Rod of Iron Freedom Festival in Greeley, PA: "There are dark forces out there trying to destroy our republic. Frankly, we have a nation to save."

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I believe these people believe what they say, as unhinged as they sound. And there are legions more who buy into these paranoid conspiracies, as well as the lie that the election was stolen, the QAnon delusion, and the “Great Reset.” These are the hills they apparently are willing to die on to “save” the nation.

"I am very worried headed into the next election cycles," Cooter added.

She told me that if the top of the Republican ticket in 2024 is Trump, or a Republican who fashions him- or herself as Trump's successor more so than just the next Republican nominee, that they could end up re-inflaming these feelings of resentment, grievance, and that the country is facing an existential threat. This could lead to violence against politicians they see as traitors (think about the chants of "Hang Mike Pence" at the Jan. 6 Insurrection), businesses they see as treasonist (potentially having to do with vaccine mandates or maybe supporting Black Lives Matter), and the public which includes people of color, women, LGBTQ, or just liberals in general who, for a growing number of Trump-tainted Republicans, are a threat. Law enforcement, the media, and most importantly the community at large can’t afford to ignore these warning signs, again. And we need to start thinking about how we can collectively address and stamp out the root causes of this right-wing radicalization that is ravaging our county and country, otherwise this growing domestic extremism we face will never end. Cyril Mychalejko is a teacher and freelance writer from Bucks County. He can be reached at cmychalejko@gmail.com and at https://cyrilmychalejko.substack.com.

buckscountycouriertimes.com - Mychalejko: Why is your neighbor flying that all-black American flag?

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