Raising the flags: the performance of grievance politics through national symbols

This paper examines how grievance politics was articulated through the Operation Raise the Colours (ORC) movement, a UK-based campaign promoting the increased public display of national flags. Drawing on a qualitative thematic discourse analysis of 150 posts on the platform X, it examined how narratives of grievance and national identity were constructed through discussions of flag-raising. Informed by the anti-social triad of grievance politics (ressentiment, reactionism, and collective narcissism), the findings identify three interconnected patterns. Perceptions of institutional unfairness and cultural marginalisation framed flag-raising as resistance; narratives of national decline positioned it as cultural restoration; and concerns over insufficient recognition made flag visibility a means of asserting collective worth. The article argues that flag-raising connected these dimensions through a shared symbolic practice. In doing so, the study builds on the concept of the anti-social triad of grievance politics by showing how interconnected grievance orientations can become translated into visible collective action.