Oh boy, someone volunteer to be my security.

Because I’m tired of seeing this:

On, like, everything.

When this flag started popping up everywhere in the States about half a year ago — from light shows to advertisements to people’s profile pics on social media to even graffiti — I was like, “oh, ok.” A country that the US doesn’t like attacked a country in Europe (the known world) for the first time in a long time? Pretty historic. Maybe many of the folks where I’m at were less caring when wars of similar or worse magnitude broke out elsewhere, but maybe they are genuinely not used to seeing a war like this. They were really shocked, to such a point where they felt like they had to do something, hence all the flags.

Understandable. I don’t carry that flag around like a bumper sticker because I don’t like expressing myself like that, but I didn’t really mind if others did, and to an extent I still don’t.

But over time, my reaction to seeing this flag at least somewhere on a regular basis went from “oh, ok” to “aw come on,” accompanied sometimes by a mental eye-roll. It’s one thing if the people waving this flag come from the country that this flag represents, or have some kind of personal stake in that country and all that it’s going through, which would make sense.

However, the vast majority of instances I’ve seen of this flag or its colors being sported come from individuals with no ties to that country whatsoever; whose knowledge of the issue associated with this flag rarely goes beyond a few soundbites they got from their influencers; who aren’t doing anything substantial for the cause they think they’re supporting with that flag; and are clearly doing this because they saw a bunch of other people doing it and think they’d look awesome if they do it, too. And again, I don’t recall this outpouring of emotion from them when places farther away from what they know experienced worse — though I guess that’s not too much of a bad thing, because I wouldn’t want them virtue signaling anywhere else.

Their absolutism (among those who could, to their credit, speak extensively about the issue at hand anyway) can be exhausting as well. You know, more than a few who are fighting for this flag can have questionable track records and are not worth supporting, regardless of who the head of state is. And not everyone who doesn’t believe in flooding a place with money and weapons (some of which don't end up where they are supposed to be) or beefing up exclusionary alliance systems as a means of resolving this conflict is an agent of the Kremlin or something. Not everyone who doesn’t feel comfortable taking clear sides in this conflict is an asshole; perhaps they studied the situation from another angle and don’t know what to say, or they have their own interests to look after.

Then there’s the spillover effect. Last time I checked, this flag is from Eastern Europe, and the conflict associated with this flag is in Eastern Europe. I don’t talk about Eastern Europe all that much, but I do talk about Asia from time to time. What’s with the high correlation between sporting this flag and, say, holding nonsensical/hawkish/prejudiced/sometimes racist views on the Asia-Pacific? Go on Twitter or even Quora and I guarantee you, every call for the destruction of China (something we totally need when there’s already a war in Europe, by the way) is ten feet away from the blue and yellow.

I have nothing against the flag itself, but thanks to how it’s being used, I’m beginning to think of it as the flag of literally everything I’m not or that I don’t like…much of which has nothing to do with the country represented by this flag, that I have nothing against either. I’d be lying If I say I’m not a bit annoyed by the omnipresence of the flag, and I suspect there are some others who feel the same way or eventually will.

OK, end of rant. Shoot me.