[Forgeties79]

You can’t divorce his politics from the discussion. The people who he politically/ideologically agrees with on the right fly this flag specifically. Other groups also fly it. It can mean different things to different people. My argument is not nearly as myopic as you’re making it out to be.

[skissane]

You keep on assuming his politics is the same as his wife’s. Even if they are both on the right, the right is a very big place, where people have different positions on various issues. Even assuming that flag tells us where exactly on the right Martha resides - and I’m not sure it does, maybe she flew it because she liked how it looked as opposed to as an exercise in political expression - we still can’t assume that Samuel resides in the same political location.

[Forgeties79]

I don’t need to assume, we have a lot of insight into why those flags were flown.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/show/former-neighbor-disput...

Their bogus excuse is very damning. Or at least real event they used as an excuse, but the timeline doesn’t make sense, so they’re lying.

[skissane]

There are two different flags at issue here–the upside-down American flag, and the "Appeal to Heaven"–the former was flown at their main residence, the second at their vacation home. Both have long histories of being used all over the political spectrum (both right and left), to mean lots of different things.

The article you are citing is relying on the claims of an angry former neighbour. Why assume that the Alito's are lying or mistaken, when it seems just as possible that their ex-neighbour could be.

In any event, even if we assume the ex-neighbour's claims are 100% true, they still don't prove (1) that Martha Alito flew the flag with intention to express a highly specific political message, (2) even supposing that was her intention, it still doesn't prove Samuel Alito was supporting her expressive act, as opposed to simply allowing his wife to do what she wants to do.

[Forgeties79]

unfortunately I think we have both made up our mind on the subject and it’s not going to be productive to discuss this further. Have a good weekend.