I can't believe I'm getting a lesson on how not to offend people from eldricht
You are just saying this because you ascribe to a hyper nationalistic POV that puts emphasis on statism. You on more than one occasion have said far worse things about religion and respect to it, despite the fact religion performs a similar role in societal cohesion.
Sure, there's logic that respect to a symbol has a certain power and keeps a group bonded, but there's also a train of thought that giving too much power to a symbol causes those same people to begin to act irrationally.