Apart from the confederate flag itself, this show was pretty much anarchist. They spent every episode humiliating the cops and breaking any unrighteous law they could. The show treated the flag as set dressing.
They also came from a family that canonically resisted the Union during the civil war. And there's very few black people in the show whatsoever. So.
I know the hate symbol has always been a hate symbol, but if there's any show where you could say "it was a product of its time" (the 70's, btw) I think it's this one.
Just imagined it or don't understand it. There's zero incest in the show, and zero hate crimes. Other than the flag and name of the car, there's nothing racist about it at all, and that flag wasn't perceived as a racist symbol back then, as illogical as that may seem. When black people do appear in the show, which admittedly is rare, they're always equals to the Duke boys. The show is just good fun. If there's any theme to it at all, it's that it's cool to make money with moonshine, and flaunt the law, while making fools of law enforcement.
I definitely support that we've pushed this show out of the forefront, but this is where a lot of the arguments for the flag as a 'symbol of southern pride' come from. It's a weird argument, and it is definitely not a fair one, but there's very fond associations in the south with that car even from people who had no clue where the flag came from. Super successful attempt to help the confederate flag be seen as acceptable, whether on purpose or not.
It's a weird show too for someone who isn't from the south... Racial diversity is non-existent in the show, but that's also pretty accurate for its location... It had some awesome car scenes, but no depth. The only hot take in the show beyond the flag painted on top (which wasn't even a hot take then) was that the government was widely seen as corrupt and it was more than a bit sexist.
Don't forget the rather unfortunate usage of a bunch of people cruising around in the Confederate car all being named "Duke."
See, there was once a man named David, who was the leader of a wacky little group of goofballs back in the '70s. That li'l jokester even went so far as to get everyone to call him a grand wizard, which is such a zany thing to ask people to do, but people totally did it with a straight face
Anyway, I wonder if it's a coincidence. Who knows?
Ummm thighs
Man.. gotta say, I'm really glad I got to enjoy these old skool shows.
Pssst... I'm Latino, this show didn't offend me then and it doesn't offend me now.
Loved it. I had the curtains/drapes set. We didn't know about the connection as kids.
Oh, so this wasn't a wholesome series about a cute couple that wanted to destroy every car that has racist symbols painted on the roof? Bcs they were really good at it. And destroying the cars as well.
Conservatives are known for repurposing symbols to fit their narrative. So, let's take the Confederate battle flag and repurpose it into an Anarchist symbol.
General Lee is just a badass name for a car to drive fast around while you run your moonshine because fuck the police.
its like that because the show is literally just the movie "moonrunners".
the car is called the general lee because the car in moonrunners is called traveler, the historical general lee's horse.
moonrunners is a crazy movie, btw, and the first few seasons of the dukes of hazard are good too.
We know more now than we did before.
I guess you have quite the imagination.
Ummmm thighs 😋
Well to be fair I was a kid and didn't watch it - didn't care.
