>>5896565 (lb)

“U.S. Civil Flag” myth

http://www.loeser.us/flags/american_note_2.html

Myths and misunderstandings about flags, both real and fantasy based, abound in the vexillogical world as they do in most fields in our modern world of the internet. Conspiracists, kooks, politicians, religious leaders and scholars all vie to "prove" the existence of their own pet version of reality without filters or actual facts and real research. Basically, you can post almost anything on the worldwide net and not only will some believe and accept it as fact, they will spread the nonsense far and wide. The myth of the existence of a "civilian" national flag is a prime example of how this works. This short essay is an explanation of how these falsehoods are spread. The quotes examined are directly from the internet, and continue to be propitiated and expanded upon. The so-called United States "Civilian" flag, which seems to have started by an erroneous identification of the Customs Flag, apparently is not a recent phenomena, as the clipping from the 1870s attests. Basically, there never has been a different civilian version of the national flag, yet this urban legend continues to be believed by many.

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Creating the myth of a United States Civil Flag

The trick of getting an urban legend believed is to make statements that are true, but connect them to unrelated or false facts, thus making the whole thing seem possible. The existence of a separate "civilian" version of our national flag is a perfect example of this strategy. Here's how you do it.

Strategy One: Show a pictures of the flag, and then change the caption. […]

Strategy Two: Cite factitious information from unverifiable experts. […]

Strategy Three: Distort true facts by mixing in unsupported opinions. […]

Strategy Four: Add untrue statements that sound reasonable. […]

Civil flag” proponents need better sauce. Until then, it’s just a MYTH