Fellow southerner, and I think you’ve about nailed it. There’s the obvious bigots and racists that know what they’re doing when they fly it, but then there’s another group of people that don’t truly understand all the history behind that flag. Just like you said, growing up I felt the same way, it was just a symbol of southernism, as a kid I couldn’t even begin to contextualize all the fucked shit that flag stands for. I’m sort of reminded of the legal precedent as to why we still have in god we trust on our money despite the first amendment seemingly being at odds with that. Basically, the argument is is that it’s been on our money for so long that it’s meaning has been divorced from the religious context and now it just serves as a motto instead of a declaration that we trust in god. And I think that’s similar to how a lot of people view the confederate flag. Nobody alive today experienced the civil war, so I think in a lot of peoples heads it’s become detached from the what the confederacy stood for and is now just a symbol of southern pride. But some symbols have too dark a history to be able to just forget about.