Althouse: "Blinded by the Flag" by Banksy.

May 2, 2026

"Blinded by the Flag" by Banksy.

I like the way The Associate Press keeps the soundtrack free of narration telling us what to think. Just stark statue against blue sky and inscrutable faces of people at the foot of the plinth gazing upward.

26 comments:

Michael Fitzgerald said...: Libtard (sh)Art.; 5/2/26, 9:34 AM
Achilles said...: Another globalist mouthpiece highlights some globalist propaganda.

You aren't allowed to be proud of anything in the world these people want to create.

Democrats are just following this hatred of nation and past accomplishment.

They are too stupid to ask why they are burning US flags. They just do it.; 5/2/26, 9:36 AM
Aggie said...: I like that Banksy has the courage to highlight the absurdities of modern culture, when many promote dissonance and even more go about in a befuddled way, not knowing what to make of it. His mural outside the High Court last year, showing a magistrate smacking down a free speech protestor with his gavel, was a masterpiece. More ! Go Banksy !; 5/2/26, 9:50 AM
Eva Marie said...: No kings. No flags.; 5/2/26, 9:53 AM
Meade said...: Why does that statue give me “feelings of rejection, abandonment, and self-doubt”? It’s like an “interruption of the healing process due to… sudden emotional cutoff.” Could
cause me “potential harm to future relationships, including trust issues” and “a profound sense of powerlessness and confusion for [being] left behind.”; 5/2/26, 9:53 AM
Paul Zrimsek said...: I wish he'd put it near here instead. I'd get out a spray can and go tag it.; 5/2/26, 9:56 AM
narciso said...: Like i say it wore a kaffiyeh he would be clever (and detached from his head soon after) see lee rigby; 5/2/26, 10:00 AM
Aggie said...: We were in Naples last year with friends who knew nothing about Banksy, and I was trying to explain the phenomenon of his guerilla art to them when coincidentally, lo & behold, right in front of us by a church, was a Banksy original mural (Madonna with a pistol) that had been enshrined in a way, covered in a glass case to preserve it. We had been approaching it for about 5 minutes as I was talking. Sometimes I amaze myself.; 5/2/26, 10:15 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I take the suit to be that of industrious, entrepreneurial man of business. Who has done more border and barrier braking than... industrious, entrepreneurial man of business.

I'm confused.; 5/2/26, 10:15 AM
Achilles said...: This is an interesting video that highlights the real conflict going on right now.

The Defense Production Act was more important than has been let on.

Susan Kokinda is an interesting historian. There are many wheels in the machine.

She is far more interesting than the idiocy in the national media.; 5/2/26, 10:19 AM
Ficta said...: Does he remind anybody else of Lenin?; 5/2/26, 10:22 AM
Fred Drinkwater said...: Cliche; 5/2/26, 10:36 AM
J Scott said...: How clever.; 5/2/26, 12:05 PM
Ted said...: I went to see a collection of Banksy's works (which had been gathered from the various places he did them and exhibited in one gallery). It was really interesting, but made two things very clear: 1) Almost all of his work has radical / anti-capitalist / anti-British/American themes; and 2) they've made him extremely wealthy.; 5/2/26, 12:25 PM
chuck said...: Well done socialist realism in a suit.; 5/2/26, 12:28 PM
Josephbleau said...: If it were a $100 bill instead of a flag it would be Congress.; 5/2/26, 12:45 PM
john mosby said...: I am still shocked/not shocked that a major construction project like that could be done without any curiosity from the authorities, in the heart of the British capital, in wartime. Shocked because of the security implications. Not shocked because British security has always had heaping helpings of smoke and mirrors.

Imagine an unauthorized statue installation in one of the traffic circles here in DC? You'd have truly bipartisan congressional hearings for years, no matter who the artist or what the message. Didn't we have a posting here about one of the classic DC graffiti artists getting hunted down? CC, JSM; 5/2/26, 12:58 PM
J Scott said...: In a highly bureaucratic state you can do wonders with high viz vests. That's assuming banksy didn't get approval which I think it's highly likely they did; 5/2/26, 2:10 PM
john mosby said...: The Westminster Council denies foreknowledge. CC, JSM; 5/2/26, 3:23 PM
gadfly said...: In the face of the Supreme Court's ruling preventing Trump's tarriffs, and the the beginnings of the return of $166 billion in illegal taxes paid by Americans, Trump is supposedly increasing tariffs on EU vehicles to 25%.

So he still doesn't know that he doesn't have this authority to raise taxes on American importers who pay the tarriffs on foreign-made goods.; 5/2/26, 4:01 PM
john mosby said...: Blinded by the flag
Wrapped up like a douche, another wanker on the rag
Blinded by the flag
Banksy shows us all that he's just an artsy f**

Madman, drummers, bummers
Rotherham in the summer with a teenage diplomat
In the dumps with the mumps
As the adolescent pumps his way into his hat
With a hi-viz on his shoulder, feelin' kinda older
Banksy brought the statue around
With this very unpleasin', sneezin' and wheezin'
Public order just crashed to the ground

Some silicon sister with a manager mister
Told him he got what it takes
She said, "I'll turn you on, son, into something strong
Make a statue with a lefty break"
And Charlie Windsor was checkin' out the weather chart
To see if it was safe outside
And little Sir Keir Starmer came by with a bankrupt farmer
And asked him if he needed a ride

But they were blinded by the flag
Wrapped up like a douche, another wanker on the rag,
Blinded by the flag, &c

CC, JSM; 5/2/26, 5:21 PM
mccullough said...: Banksy is the high point of Communist art. Gentrification is the high point of Capitalist art.; 5/2/26, 5:34 PM
Mary Beth said...: It's great there's no narration, but why have a soundtrack?; 5/2/26, 6:29 PM
Achilles said...: gadfly said...

In the face of the Supreme Court's ruling preventing Trump's tarriffs, and the the beginnings of the return of $166 billion in illegal taxes paid by Americans, Trump is supposedly increasing tariffs on EU vehicles to 25%.

So he still doesn't know that he doesn't have this authority to raise taxes on American importers who pay the tarriffs on foreign-made goods.

You are such a retard. You repeat the stupid things your globalist masters tell you to say.

Do you even try to think about why they tell you to say that?; 5/2/26, 6:30 PM
Aggie said...: Banksy is pretty much solidly anti-war and anti-establishment, and the best part of his art can be seen by the noses that get tweaked. This one seems to me to be making a point about populism and nationalism, but it seems odd that he's making it at a time when these forces are on the defensive and under the onslaught from organized efforts of globalists and the member states of the EU.; 5/2/26, 10:00 PM
Ampersand said...: I always look to contemporary art for my deepest insights.; 5/2/26, 11:41 PM