The actor Chris Pratt is apparently in trouble for wearing a shirt that says “Don’t Tread on Me” and has a picture of a rattlesnake — the imagery from the Gadsden flag. This is bad, says the woke Left, because the flag was adopted by the Tea Party about a decade ago, and because racists have used it on occasion.


The flag is a symbol of American defiance from the Revolutionary War, and lots of different groups, individuals, and military branches have flown it over the years. No one owns it.

For a lot more detail about the flag and its history, with a focus on its role in the tea-party movement, see this piece I wrote in 2010.