Soon, Old Glory will have to be born in the land of the free and not merely flying over it.

Congress has passed a proposal to require the federal government to purchase only American flags that have been completely manufactured in the U.S. The U.S. imports millions of American flags from overseas, mostly from China, and the sponsors of the proposal said it’s time for American flags to originate in the country they represent.

Supporters of the proposal, led by Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, said the change is more than just symbolic — they believe it will support American jobs and manufacturers while preserving the nation’s most recognized banner.

  • tate@lemmy.sdf.org
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    3 months ago

    In the US today:

    • women can vote
    • people of all races can vote
    • people of all races can own property
    • there is no (official) slavery
    • gay people can marry (for now)
    • your boss isn’t allowed to fire you because you are gay
    • your boss isn’t allowed to fire you for religion
    • we got the 40 hour work week and weekends
    • child labor is (mostly) outlawed
    • women can go to college
    • prohibitions like on alcohol and marijuana are slowly fading away
    • the grocery store has avocados all year long

    But yeah, nothing ever changes incrementally. All those activists who worked their whole lives to peacefully bring these things about, well, that was a waste.

    ETA: I’m aware that the end of slavery was not quite “peaceful.” I stand by the point that things are getting better all the time, and that it is mostly from incremental gains.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago
      • They’re literally purging the voting rolls right now.

      • They’re literally purging the voting rolls right now.

      • You sure can own stuff. Good luck buying it.

      • There is official slavery. Read the 13th Amendment again.

      • Your Boss can fire you for anything at any time.

      • Your Boss can fire you for anything at any time.

      • The 40 hour work week is weaponized against hourly employees and non existent for salary employees.

      • Child labor is literally back on the menu in red states. And unenforced except for under age immigrants in blue states.

      • College requires selling yourself into lifetime debt.

      This list wasn’t incremental. When these things happened they were big fucking deals and not baby steps. If we wanted to outlaw child labor again we’d invent some stupid scheme where kids had to spend increasingly less time at work until employers voluntarily stopped hiring them. Instead of how we actually did it. Not only have we allowed all of this to be seriously degraded in the post Reagan era, we’ve forgotten how we actually got this shit done in the first place. We didn’t ask nicely and accept baby steps.

    • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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      3 months ago

      Perpetual children mindests and their need to have instant gratification is making it so that no victory is a victory. Sad is no fun and life should only be a party.

      Nothing was done in an instant and that is somehow unacceptable. I just want to feel good about a victory for like a minute without chucklefucks who have a very wrong idea of history claiming it’s unprecedented to change.

      If people actually knew how long the women’s suffrage movement lasted and how many turns it took they would likely be very upset and also actually aware of how slow reality often is to move in global ways. Heck women in Utah were granted voting access and then had it taken away after they voted for polygamy against what men thought would happen.

      People have to actually participate and work little by little but that’s so much work and often it’s filled with backsliding and failures and it hurts to lose. So it’s easier to pretend it should just happen overnight and that’s how people change. It’s bullshit and storybook thinking mostly.
      I do wish this was the case but wishing is to action what masturbating is to sex, fun but not the real thing.

    • Verdant Banana@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      women can vote until some police officer gets them on trumped up charges because he is on a prolife kick

      people of all races can vote as long as they are allowed to new ways to ban people from voting are made up all the time

      yes people of all races can own property if they can afford to $7.25 is still the minimum wage average US citizen’s purchasing power has not increased since about the 60s

      corporations use prison slave labor all the time even McDonalds

      yes for now marriage equality is a thing and Harris is the only loud supporter on this so far that is in the public eye this much

      in right to work states yes they can

      again in a right to work state a boss could fire you because he is having a bad day

      but it takes more than 40 hours to afford just food and housing

      if the people grow up in an environment filled with pollution and negatively they may get to college

      justice for some is justice delayed it should be fifty states under one union

      no cannabis prohibitions are ramping up not getting better bad products have flooded the market due to lack of regulations and lack of lab tested products

      again with the lack of worker’s rights and stagnation of pay yes only if you got the funds for those avocados

      • StupidBrotherInLaw@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Just FYI, you’re mixing up right to work and at-will employment. Right to work has nothing to do with with being fired.

          • StupidBrotherInLaw@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            Did you read the article you linked to? Because it doesn’t support your point at all.

            again in a right to work state a boss could fire you because he is having a bad day

            In the United States, right to work has nothing to do with at-will employment. Succinctly, right-to-work laws prevent unionized workplaces from requiring employees who opt not to join the union (an option required by the Taft-Hartley Act) to pay toward the cost of union representation. That’s it. It’s all in the article you linked.

            Even the international law definition has nothing to do with at-will employment.