I genuinely don’t understand the modern defense of the Confederate flag. Can someone explain the reasoning?

I genuinely don’t understand the modern defense of the Confederate flag, and I’d like someone to explain it in a way that actually makes sense.
Before anyone says “heritage, not hate,” hear me out.
The Confederacy hasn’t existed for over 160 years. It wasn’t just another country with a random flag. It was a government that broke away from the United States, and preserving slavery was one of the central reasons for its existence. That’s not just a modern interpretation—that’s reflected in the secession documents written by several of the states themselves.
So when people say, “I’m honoring my ancestors,” I don’t really understand what that means. Most people don’t personally know the beliefs or motivations of their great-great-great-grandparents. Maybe an individual soldier fought for reasons like defending his home, maybe he was drafted, maybe he genuinely believed in states’ rights. History is complicated on an individual level.
But that’s not what the flag represents.
Flags represent governments, causes, and movements—not every individual who lived under them.
If someone flew a flag from another historical regime that no longer exists, people would naturally associate it with what that government stood for, not with every individual citizen. Why should the Confederate flag be different?
The other explanation I hear is, “It’s just anti-government.”
Okay… but if your message is simply that you don’t like the federal government, why choose a flag whose entire historical identity is tied to the Confederacy? There are countless ways to express distrust of the government. You could create a new symbol or use one that doesn’t come with the baggage of slavery and later associations with segregation and white supremacist groups.
That’s what confuses me the most.
If your goal is to communicate “leave me alone, I don’t trust the government,” why use a symbol that so many people reasonably associate with racism? Even if that isn’t your intent, you know that’s how it’s going to be interpreted.
Seeing videos of groups like Patriot Front marching made me think about this again. Whether or not every individual in those groups has the exact same beliefs, they’ve embraced symbols and rhetoric that many people associate with racial exclusion and white nationalism. It raises the same question for me: if your message really isn’t about race, why keep choosing symbols that are so deeply tied to that history?
I’m genuinely asking because I’ve never heard an explanation that answers that question. If someone can explain why the Confederate flag is the best symbol for modern “heritage” or anti-government beliefs—rather than simply saying that’s what it means to them—I’d honestly like to hear the reasoning.