Things represent what the people using them intend them to represent. That doesn't mean that at times it might not be wise, when you us a flag etc, to take into account what other people might see it as representing, but it is also wise to hold off from from making assumptions about what people might intend when they use such a symbol.

Most people displaying the Skull and Crossbones are not actually pirates. Most people wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt are not revolutionaries.