I go back to sports associations:

Each team has "their" fans. Some fans are loyal to one team and one only. One guy I work with pulls only for New England Patriots (American Football) and Boston Red Sox (Baseball). Like some are members of one clan only and wear one tartan only. While others pull for several teams. I pull for Atlanta Falcons and then for Carolina Panthers (odd as their the Falcon's big rival), Green Bay Packers, and Washington Redskins. Each for different reasons. Likewise, I consider myself tied to several clans and feel a "right" to wear several tartans. I have different reasons for the tartans. Most are by blood (MacNeil, Wallace, Wilson/Gunn, Gordon/Todd) or residency (Georgia, Carolina, American), while others are out of historical respect (MacGregor-> Rob Roy), friends (Stewart, Campbell, etc), in-laws (Loud MacLeod/Lewis), or memberships (MacBubba/Culloden) to name a few. I have a reason to want to where a particular tartan, just as to pull for a certain sports team. To many, green and yellow stands for either Green Bay Packers or Oakland A's, though it is/was also the colors of Team Lotus and the livery colors of MacNeil of Barra.

One is "free" to wear what he or she wants, but these patterns have associations that virtually call for explanation. To wear these colors is tantamount to wearing a sports team colors in that one is associated with that team. If I wear Green Bay stuff, I respond that I have a lot of respect for a team that is from an area the size of "Greenville/Spartanburg" (approx. 100,000), but owns the franchise and is sold out for my lifetime, besides the great history and image of the team. In a sense, the Packers are Wisconson. Both clan tartans and sports teams have a sense of belonging that draws in "locals" and outsiders who want to share the "association" with the "insiders." The same is true of real football (soccor), baseball, racing (red and black in NASCAR->Dale Jr. and light blue and yellow in F1->Renault), and ANY other team sport.

No one wears tartan for no reason, unless it is a flannel shirt. To most, "I like the colors" is a laughable and idiotic answer. The clan would be offended at that. While a better answer is: "I am facinated by the life and the myths about Rob Roy MacGregor, especially how the myths diverge from reality, so I wear MacgGregor in respect for him, his clansmen, and their descendants." Few, but the most arrogant, MacGregors would look down at the second answer.

It is a mix of association and respect, except by the most idiotic of tartan wearers who have NO SENSE of what they are doing. (This does not apply to any I've met here, as far as I know. Interest in the history and a sense of respect is a large part of the reason most of us are here. Otherwise, none of us would have bothered.)

That is the "middle ground" and what ACTUALLY happens.