It doesn't matter when we're discussing rhetoric. This is about communication. I know my history and you're arrogant to assume so.
I can't really compress an entire collegiate career in studying communications (and film, but that's beside the point), but what I'm saying is that you fail to alter the symbol of the flag into what you claim it is. If you've been unable to remove the offense from the symbol - especially in its use by racists in the 1950s and 1960s - then you're failing in your communication.
To ignore the perception of the audience - 50% of the process of communication - mean that you fail in your effort to communicate. To then blame the audience is yet a further failure of communication.
Here's how the process has worked:
I choose to show the Confederate flag.
You say, I find that flag offensive.
I say, I don't mean it offensively. I mean it as a show of regional pride.
You say, why do only Southern whites show the flag, then?
I say, I still don't mean it offensively.
You say, well, it's offensive.
I continue to fly the flag.
I'm - AT BEST - saying f*** you with it. If I continue to do something that you find offensive, I'm disrespecting you.
If the Confederate flag is merely about regional pride, why isn't it flown by Southern blacks?
If "redneck" is a racist term because it's only directed at whites, then the Confederate flag is racist because it's only flown by whites.
Once more, this is a game of you getting to decide everything and everyone else having to accept your interpretation or they can f*** off.
This isn't about the complex history of the Civil War and things like the Kansas/Nebraska compromise (see, I know my history as well). This is about communication. There is a failure of Southern whites to communicate the need to maintain a symbol that is offensive to many. When told they find it offensive, the response is basically a big f*** you.
You just called me "shallow and uninformed" for expressing my opinion. So, who's more shallow? The one who says "f*** you" when someone says, I'm offended - or the person who initiates the offense?