Okay, I want to address my previous two videos because I’m sure that many of you have noticed that I got quite a negative response to what I said in those two videos about the DA’s flag burning advert. Firstly, before I go on to say anything else, I do want to say that I am sorry for the kind of flippant way that I did speak about the burning of the flag. I definitely should have like been most sensitive. The fact that this is something that is, causes like a very emotive and visceral reaction in many people, as I’ve now come to realize, and that I should have treated that part of the video with a little bit more strict and maybe not being so flippant about it. And now I’m going to explain myself and I don’t want anyone to think that I am explain myself to try and like avoid accountability or to deflect from the criticism that I’m receiving. I just personally really hate when I feel like I’m being misunderstood or mischaracterized or misrepresented. And I feel like that’s happening a little bit in the comments and some other video responses to my video. So I’m going to explain just so that I can get it off my chest.
This explanation comes with no expectation. You can take it, you can leave it, you can still hold whatever opinions you have of me. You can unfollow me if you want. I do also wanna say that I do appreciate the discourse in the comments. Like it is tough to deal with sometimes, but I do appreciate that I have an audience that is not afraid to kind of come like say it in the comments when they disagree with, take a mind when they think that I’m not been on it.
So on the note with explanation, I saw a couple of people criticizing me for the fact that like saying, no, we perfectly understood the da ad. You didn’t need to explain it to us. That was condescending of you. We didn’t need that explanation. We are just upset with it. And I think people might have thought that I was explaining ad because I thought that there was no reason to be upset at the ad and that through explaining the metaphor that the da we’re trying to use, that means that people shouldn’t be upset. And that’s not really where I was coming from, why I explain the ad in the way that I did, and I kind of broke it down, was because I think there were some people in my like view of some of the criticism that I was seeing on Twitter and other places. And I think it’s my bad for not like explaining this fully, but I think some of the criticism that I saw made me think that people had maybe only seen the first, like a clip, maybe just seen it well out sound without voiceover or just seen the clip of the flag burning and then made their criticism based on that, not made their criticism based on the whole context of the da video. And I like, I do actually think that was maybe not the base point for me to bring up because I do actually think it’s fair to just criticize the da on the fact that a flag was put into in the advert, full stop.
Like I do think the da deserves criticism for that as an independent point. But then just some of the things that I was seeing and some of the criticism that I was seeing. And even from like my comment section now, like I could see that some people were commenting things like, why didn’t the da, they could burnt the ANC flag instead. And it’s like a gateway that is coming from, but also I think in that, you know, changes the message of the ad. And that kind of to me indicates that maybe that person hasn’t watched the full ad and maybe didn’t understand the message that the da was trying to put across. It’s definitely not me saying that if you understood the ad, you can’t have a problem with it. No, like I fully understood, like I understood the ad and I had a problem with it. I also think this brings me to my next point, is that people think that I didn’t have a problem with that. I have a problem with the ad. I think it’s a terrible, atrocious ad that the da should not have made. I don’t think the da should be putting out ads like that. Like, I don’t agree with the ad at all. I cannot reiterate that enough.
I do not think that this was a good ad from the da, where I think some of the confusion comes in is that like for me personally, I do not have a strong visual reaction to the burning of the flag. And this is like a meeting. This is something that like, I have never really been the type of reason that like symbols and stuff like that can like, like affect me that deeply. And that David is coming from a place privilege that I can see an ad like that of the AC flag burning and not be emotionally, visually affected by it. And I do even more so now recognize that is coming from the place of extreme privilege, that I’m not going to have that reaction. I don’t think that anyone who has that extreme visible reaction is wrong. I don’t think that you’re wrong to have that response. And this is the part where I think I was slipping. I was like, it’s not, I said like, it’s not that deep for me. I don’t have that reaction. And that is coming from a place of privilege. I can acknowledge that. It doesn’t mean that I don’t think anyone else should have a reaction. Like if you are very upset and offended by this da, yeah, yeah.
Ad, I think that is like fully within your rights. I think like, yes, like you must be. And on an intellectual level, like I can understand that. I’m just saying like, I don’t have that visual emotional reaction and I’m not going to tamed to you. I think it would be very dishonest and very just ungenuine. One of me doesn’t genuine of me to like come on here and pretend to be like very worked up about it. And I have like a very like emotional response to the flag building. And that is not the case. And that’s for like a variety of reasons, including the privilege that I have and also just because I have never been one to respond to kind of symbols in that way. That being said, like intellectual and understand what an important symbol even more so now seeing the comments, like I can understand and appreciate what an importance of our flag is and how I don’t think that a political party should be treating our flag in that way, no matter the context. I can agree on that.
I was just like explaining the message for the ad of the ad. Because like separate from the criticism, I do think that there were some people that were missing the point of the ad. Not everyone and not everyone who was unsafe as the ad was missing the context. That’s just what I was explaining. But then so on to why did I bring up that? I think some of the criticism of the ad and like say that I was gonna defend the da a little bit because I thought some of the criticism was extreme. I do still stand by that. I think some of the criticism was extreme.
One of the things that I don’t think I explain well is the first tweet that I showed. So that was this tweet. I said I had an issue with they’ve saying that the da should be deregistered for it and that it was treasonous. And I’m gonna be honest, I stand by that.
I do think that this ex like saying that the da should be registered and saying that it is treasonous. I think that is extreme because, look, it’s, saying it’s treasonous is an accusation in and of itself. And this is the same issue that I have President Robert statement saying that it’s treasness. That is an accusation. And no matter whether you agree or disagree that South Africa should or should not have laws against flat burning, we currently do not have any laws against flag burning. So to call it treason as when it’s not actually a treasiness in that sense. So as discussing and adorable as the ad is, I don’t think we like we should be throwing that accusation of treasonous around.
And then the second point, which I actually realize I completely forgot to make, and it was the specific reason why I chose this tweet is because like specifically why I chose this as like unfair criticism and like my like defense of the da is because of this picture in the bottom right over here, which I didn’t actually like. This is my fault. I didn’t explain myself well for this section of the video at all. But this is a Photoshop picture of John Cnas and holding a burning South African flag, which is trying to make a point that the da should not be using imagery of a burning flag in their advert. So to me, this is someone who can see that in certain context to make certain points, they’re okay with the burning of a flag, but then they are like upset for the da for an advert of a burning flag. Like when you’re, they’re literally doing the same thing. It’s just in picture form, not in video form. So that’s why I kind of like specifically took this as an example of unfake criticism. And I don’t know this person or why they’re making this prism. Put in my mind, I thought, okay, maybe it’s just because they’ve just seen the image of the flag being burnt and they didn’t actually, you know, like watch the full video. Like I know some people respond to things without watching them fully, which means we see. Another point that I wanna make is that I do feel like some of the now responses to my video have been like a miscarrictization or like misinterpretation of what I’m trying to say. And I do think some of that is me, that I cannot explain myself well, which is why I’m making this entire video. But I also like there was one response video that I watch where the person said like something about like, and maybe I will go back and watch the full video showing that they didn’t watch the full video of what I said because what I said in that video is that like for me, what I had an issue with more so than the burning of the flag.
Again, this is personal to me. Like I’m not saying you can’t have an issue with the burning of the flag and that it can’t be like a very like s touching, like touch point for you. But I say like I had an issue with the voiceover, which some people would like saying to me like, oh, like, but do not hear the voice over and how terrible. I say I have an issue with that voiceover and how it’s just engaging in this like da swath of our narrative that they always do. Like I think the DA’s marketing like an advertising like this is always like on that age of racism where they like saying all these black quantity, black parties are going to destroy and burn the country. And this is something that they’ve been doing for a while. And it’s just like now with the addition of the burning of the flag that now there’s like more outrage about it. I’ve been outraged about this da messaging from like the beginning. Like I can promise you can go back and look at some of the criticisms I made of the da in the past, like this sort of advertising from them has always irritated me. So again, it’s not that I don’t have an issue with the ad. I have a major issue with the ad. I don’t like the ad. And specifically, I also have an issue with that because they did this deliberately and they did it to be divisive and they did it create outrage. They knew what they were doing with it. But that being said, I will defend the da on that. I don’t think that this ad should be banned from ASPC. The ad is gross. It is distasteful. It is a lot of things like it’s not good. I don’t think it’s something that we should be promoting. But burning a flag is not illegal in South Africa. And it is that way for a reason. And this is where, again, like we might disagree and have different opinions on this, you might think that the flagman should be illegal in South Africa, but currently it is not. And therefore, I don’t think that from a poser, the minister of Sports, Arts and culture and the ASC should have come after this ad in the way that they did by calling a trees and saying they’re looking into people’s action and banning the app. I don’t think that’s okay. I do think that there is a definite argument for the like freedom of expression side of it when it comes to the legalities of flaggrading them, whether it should be illegal and I do think, I mean more towards the side of like freedom of expression of it, but I am willing to be open minded on that point. And there is the potential then my mind could change on that part of it later on, and I explain that more in the second video I made on this topic. But with that all being said, I do apologize for not handling this topic with the sensitivity that I should have. And I appreciate all the people in my comments and in my responses willing to engage in constructive criticism and dialogue with me on this.