Not a fair comparison. The confederate flag, like the swastika, is freighted with specific connotations. There is just no getting around the fact that it came to represent a predominantly southern, reactionary, "good ol' boy" attitude which supported segregation and white supremacy - regardless of the additional anti-Yankee sentiment (a clear residue of post-Civil War resentment). That dominant aura of discrimination and racist hatred explains, as I see it, why Sarnia Saint removed the flag as his avatar so quickly. A step too far - even for him.