system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: The recent shunning of the confederate flag is not due to some sudden revelation of the horrors it represents.

Suddenly, it has become popular for companies to halt sales of their flags and for organizations to remove flags from their premises. There are thousands of political organizations and churches, along with Walmart, Amazon, Sears, and eBay, that are jumping on this moral bandwagon even though we've known about the historical implications of the confederate flag for over 150 years. 

These are not actions done out of nobility, or they would have rejected the flags before the craze had taken place. Corporations that stop sale of the flag are acting opportunistically. They see this as an opportunity to present their company in a good light.
gpt
A lot of time it takes an event to trigger a change. 

Let's say there is an overweight person who doesn't care about their health. Now they have probably known the dangers of being overweight and unhealthy for years but didn't care. Then one day some stranger makes a joke about, "that whale over there". This could hurt them so much they turn their life around and get healthier. Now you could argue, they only lost the weight to make sure nobody makes fun of them and doesn't really care about the health benefits. 

So back to the flag issue, yes people have known it's history for awhile and could have stopped selling years ago. But it wasn't until the recent event in SC that causes the companies to look internally and say, "this isn't right that we sell this flag".