I burned the flag. I filmed it. I posted it.
And I have heard every version of the same response. You have the right, but. The issues are real, but. People do care, but. You did it the wrong way. The suboptimal way. The way that makes people tune out. The way that adds to division. The way that is shock value instead of real message.
Every time, the but is the same thing dressed in different clothes. It is discomfort looking for a reason to be my problem instead of theirs.
Here is what I actually said tho.The outrage is the lesson. Not the flag. The outrage. The fact that a burned symbol generates more emotional investment than the burned lives that symbol is supposed to represent. The fact that people will perform elaborate intellectual gymnastics to avoid owning that. The fact that the same people who say they care about veterans, about poverty, about government accountability, will spend their energy correcting my method instead of sitting with what my method revealed about their priorities.
That is the misplaced anger. That is the misplaced priority. A comfort object mattering more than the material conditions of the people it claims to stand for. And when confronted with that, the response is not self-examination. It is telling me I should have been more palatable so they would not have to feel this.
I am not going to modulate my expression so you can avoid sitting with your own reaction. There is no comfortable way to make people uncomfortable.
That is the point.
Your discomfort is not an argument. It is not a rebuttal. It is not evidence that I failed to communicate. It is just discomfort. And you need to learn to hold it without making it my job to soothe it for you. I am not available for that labor. I never was.
