Many flags around the world are iconic, think the ones of France, Canada, South Africa, the Nordics, etc.

However, there are some that aren’t as good, like the Australian and New Zealand flags, both of which still retain the union jack with little Indigenous symbolism. Speaking as an Australian myself, our flag isn’t all that great! The Southern Cross is cool, but there is no hint of green/gold, and the union jack just looks tacked on. There are also many flags that look good, but the symbolism represents ideas that you’re against. Think Iran’s flag that draws heavily from their sect of Islam and the theocracy, or the PRC’s flag having the smaller stars representing the people surrounding the larger star representing the one party state. There’s also some that are okay, but a bit boring and hard of distinguish from the rest, and an additional element would make it stand out more.

And purple should be on more flags! Republican Spain during the 1930s had some purple, but they lost the civil war and the flag was replaced.

If you could change the national flags of the world, what would be your flag proposals?

  • FinjaminPoach@lemmy.world
    112·
    8 天前

    great post

    Let’s make a tierlist sbout how urgent it is for them to change:

    S:

    • Poland’s flag is supposedly derived from a white bird against a setting sun. To me it would make sense to include that imagery on the flag, or a historical coat of arms.
    • I think places like Syria, Egypt, Libya, Iraq need to agree on a different colour scheme for themselves. At the moment they’re confusingly similar
    • Russia’s current flsg i bslieve it’s literslly just copying the french and netherlands colours because Peter the Great was so inspired by them.
    The old fashioned, imperial russian flag was beautiful:

    But even better is with a crest:

    Which can be simplified for a stylish modern design (as i bekieve all credts should be when possible)

    Alternatively, a bear could look good on their flag:

    A:

    • Israel (changing flag after a hopeful regime change would be prudent because it’s like a symbol of genocide now.)

    B:

    • Luxembourg (too similar to Netherlands),
    • China (i find china’s flag really dull even if it is iconic. They surely want to invoke their historical longevity rather than just Communism. Stars represent the key chinese regions, which seems like a good feature - the red does not.)

    F:

    • I don’t think i’d change it, but Canada seems as/more close to britain than Australia so it makes more sense to give a little Union Jack in the top left corner.
    • NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de
      12·
      8 天前

      Petition for you to add flag emoji to each country mention, e.g. “🇵🇱 Poland”, for those of us (me!) who are vexillologically challenged and don’t remember any flags.

      Edit: an attempt, based on gboard’s emoji search functionality and with zero verification:

      great post

      Let’s make a tierlist sbout how urgent it is for them to change:

      S:

      • 🇵🇱Poland’s flag is supposedly derived from a white bird against a setting sun. To me it would make sense to include that imagery on the flag, or a historical coat of arms.
      • I think places like 🇸🇾Syria, 🇪🇬Egypt, 🇱🇾Libya, 🇮🇶Iraq need to agree on a different colour scheme for themselves. At the moment they’re confusingly similar

      A:

      • 🇮🇱Israel (changing flag after a hopeful regime change would be prudent because it’s like a symbol of genocide now.)

      B:

      • 🇱🇺Luxembourg (too similar to 🇳🇱Netherlands),
      • 🇨🇳China (i find china’s flag really dull even if it is iconic. They surely want to invoke their historical longevity rather than just Communism. Stars represent the key chinese regions, which seems like a good feature - the red does not.)

      F:

      • I don’t think i’d change it, but 🇨🇦Canada seems as/more close to britain than 🇦🇺Australia so it makes more sense to give a little 🇬🇧Union Jack in the top left corner.
      • NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de
        6·
        8 天前

        Note: some flags (like 🇸🇾Syria) were changed recently enough that the emoji could look different depending on your operating system and which app or browser you’re using for Lemmy. Gboard shows me the new flag (green on top, 3 red stars), but Voyager/Android 16 shows the old flag (red on top, 2 green stars). It’s unavoidable when Unicode is used to encode things that can change, like flags. But it’s better than nothing!

        The only way around it is to embed pictures of flags, but that takes more effort. And data.

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
        4·
        8 天前

        A correction on the PRC’s flag: the 4 smaller stars each represent one of the classes in New Democracy:

        1. The Proletariat
        2. The Peasantry
        3. The Petite Bourgeoisie
        4. The National Bourgeoisie

        The fifth, largest star, is for the CPC itself, which unites and guides the 4 classes, itself dominated by the proletariat.

        The old, five stripes flag is the one that represented the 5 major ethnic groups of China, which is often confused as the reasoning for China’s current 5 stars.

    • sbeak@sopuli.xyzOPEnglish
      111·
      8 天前

      Canada seems as/more close to britain than Australia so it makes more sense to give a little Union Jack in the top left corner.

      What is this blasphemy

      • Evkob (they/them)@lemmy.ca
        9·
        8 天前

        Seriously, our flag is like the best thing Canada has going for it.

        Although as much as I loathe little corner Union Jacks on flags, I have to admit I’d probably get a kick from the reaction of the entire province of Québec if it were to happen.

    • Gorilladrums@lemmy.world
      3·
      8 天前

      Israel (changing flag after a hopeful regime change would be prudent because it’s like a symbol of genocide now.)

      I actually like Israel’s flag. It’s simple, it’s bright, and it’s instantly recognizable. It’s unique and doesn’t follow a trend, it’s doesn’t have clashing colors, and the symbolism is neither absent or overloaded. It’s a really good flag. I think it’s the second best one in the Middle East after Lebanon’s flag. I think they should keep it.

    • NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de
      42·
      8 天前

      A reply for one that hits too close to home… Israel’s flag, it was our flag long before and I don’t think it necessarily represents the atrocities of the past few years. I definitely hope for (and try to work towards) a “regime change”, by which I mean more of a regime resuscitation as it is kind of a democracy on its death bed, which has always been flawed to some capacity but isn’t unsalvageable. I think. (Honestly though, what do I know about regime change…)

      Getting sidetracked, but back to the flag. Israel has flown this flag basically since its first independence, and while it never actually was at peace (welcome to the middle east…), there have been long periods where it actively sought peace and even made great concessions to try to achieve it. It seems wrong to disregard that history, and only associate the flag with what the state has done in recent years. The flag doesn’t need to change for the state’s policy to change. If it did, then it would already have been changed.

      As a point of comparison, the flags used by the British Empire are not so tainted by the atrocities of imperialism that they can’t be used today. England has changed, but its flag doesn’t have to. It carries its history, the good and the bad.

      • FinjaminPoach@lemmy.world
        2·
        8 天前

        That’s fair enough. I don’t see the star of David going out of fashion as a symbol anyway. Point about England is good.