The authoritarian left is determined to control as much of our lives as possible. To do so, they manufacture outrage about the most benign things. Currently, they’re waging a war on the Confederate flag.

For example, a car with a Confederate flag was recently on display at a festival in Canada. Unsurprisingly, the flag triggered one of the festival goers, who subsequently had a public meltdown and demanded the car be removed. Since it’s Canada, instead of standing up for speech, the organizers immediately apologized and suggested that it wouldn’t happen again. Thankfully though, she at least had the sense of mind to record her freak-out and post it online for the world to see.

In the video, which was taken by Ybia Anderson at the 32nd annual Highland Creek Heritage Festival, a bright orange muscle car with two Confederate flags can be seen. “This racist car, with not one but two Confederate flags on it, is front and center — it’s the first thing that people see when they walk into this festival,” narrated Anderson while filming what appeared to be a replica of the vehicle from The Dukes of Hazzard television series.

Shortly after Anderson started filming, a man wearing a black t-shirt asked her to not make a spectacle. “I’m not making a spectacle,” she countered. “Let me tell you what I want. I want the car gone! I want it out of sight! It does not belong here!” she added. “You’re not winning here. That’s the side that lost,” she continued. “It represents lynching and death of black people. They hung out people from f****** trees until our eyes bugged out,” she explained.

The man in the black shirt then tried to calmly explain why he thought it wasn’t racist, but she simply laughed in his face. “Oh my god!” Anderson exclaimed. “In Canada, people are defending Confederate losers…Anyone who went to high school [knows it’s racist], you f****** numbnuts! [The flag] is racist. They lost. This does not belong here in a festival full of people of all colors!” she shouted.

To try and reason with her, he mentioned that plenty of other people aren’t offended by the flag. “I don’t care who is or isn’t offended, it’s wrong and it doesn’t belong here,” she argued. “[And] as a white man you have absolutely no place to tell me whether or not I should be offended,” she stated, causing him to push back against her attempt to bring his race into the conversation. Outraged, she screamed, “absolutely because of your race!” noting, “this is about race.” She added, “the fact that you can erase race from the Confederate flag shows your privilege. Only to white people does the Confederate flag mean nothing.” After screaming at anyone who will listen for several more minutes, Anderson then repeated her demand to have the car removed and ended the video.

In an interview shortly after the incident, Anderson explained why she reacted the way she did. “I was in shock at first [when I saw the vehicle with the Confederate flag], she recalled, noting, “my heart started beating [quickly].”

Anderson also spoke out against the city’s mayor, John Tory, for attending the festival but not doing anything about the car. “He could not have missed [that vehicle],” she claimed.

When asked, however, Mayor Tory insisted that he never saw the Confederate flag, which he claimed, “has no place in Toronto.” Specifically, he said, “the Confederate flag and what it was represented historically, and represents a lot of people today, has no place in Toronto.” This is because he believes that being intolerant of the Confederate flag is “the reason that [they] have avoided the kind of hatred that leads to the things that have happened elsewhere.” He added, “we have to be so careful…and keep sending the message that everybody is embraced here and that historic things that symbolized behavior that we never encouraged here, are not welcome.”

Shortly after the video went viral, Paul Maguire, the head of the street festival’s organizing committee, begged for forgiveness. On Facebook, he wrote, “we regret that any person was made to feel unwelcome at our event. It has always been inclusive, with committee support roles open to all who would volunteer their time,” noting, “[we] recognize that symbology can be profoundly evocative. We did not, and would not, choose to present any element that brings to mind one of the ugliest periods of human history.”

Maguire, who promised “greater sensitivity and preparation in the future”, claimed that the committee had no idea Confederate Flags would be on display at the festival. “[The] offending symbol was present without the committee’s foreknowledge,” he explained.

“The committee uniformly decries all actions of hate, past and present. We committee members individually and collectively undertake that future committees will strive to avoid all representations of hate.” continued Maguire, adding, “hate deserves no place anywhere in our hearts, much less in a family festival. The diverse committee volunteer their time without any thought of personal reward and should not be tainted with unfounded accusations of bias.”

If the left’s problem with the Confederate Flag is that it hurts people’s feelings, then the solution to that is more exposure, not less. Since they aren’t calling for more exposure, it’s likely that they are really just trying to control the lives of others. Conservatives must not let them succeed.