This is a slippery slope that will lead to the left destroying everything that upsets their feelings or find slightly offensive. I've been calling this for years. This is a nasty can of worms. The right is starting to adopt leftist tactics, I imagine they will return the favor by destroying things like civil rights monuments and modern art installations. The cultural civil war is escalating quickly.
no, it did answer it. Like I and others have said, those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. If its not taught and the reminders are all gone...whats next? We already have people at schools advocating for literal separation of races so they feel safe. Also, its cute that you danced around my question by saying you aren't advocating for anything, but we all know the truth. So tell us why you think it is good these are taken down? Explain, please.
exactly. And the real, major problem here is, who gets to decide? Who? The SJW's because they call and call and protest? Antifa with their literal fascist actions? Who gets to decide what is offensive and what isn't? That is the biggest issue, and the scariest. Why should SJW's be allowed to enact social policy and change without my consent?
So, again, statues fall, amnesia happens, and people start segregating and enslaving. Perhaps segregation has continued in America throughout the decades. And what the right is pearl clutching about is the same thing that's been going on, but is getting picked up by the media. None of this stuff is new. People wanting the monuments gone isn't new. People wanting to segregate themselves isn't new. Hell even white nationalists protesting and rallying isn't new. But we sweep it under the rug and tell everyone America is great again, great always, great forever.
It's a matter of an attack on culture to subvert it. It is not much different than when the USSR destroyed churches, art and libraries. It's textbook communist tactics. What makes you think they won't petition to have what they find offensive removed from Academia as well? It's already happening with philosophy.
Culture is ever changing, especially in a melting pot such as this. I think there a vast difference between the USSR and this lol. And lastly, the curriculum at a school was asked to be less Eurocentric and include teachings from other places, namely Africa. The crux of the issue is that many seem to expect their "culture" to reign. Many others seem to prefer a balance.
Yeah, yeah, The Right has already declared ~war~ over statues. Already claimed a life, too. "And to everyone, know this: we are now at war. And we are not going to back down. There will be more events. Soon. We are going to start doing this nonstop. Across the country." Unite The Right: Live Updates
It's not simply over statues, it's result of shaming traditionalism, attacking our culture, history and being scapegoated for years.
There are never any bad histories only good ones. Trotsky never existed my friends, you're all delusional. Nobody ever stood against Stalin
Is your culture the only culture to experience this in the US? I can think of several cultures who feel their own traditional values get shamed, their history erased, and their culture scapegoated.
Erasing history is a slow process. First you take the statues down. Then you ban the books. And once enough time has gone by and a few generations have lived and died, history as we know it will be forgotten because we don't have those reminders. America, like any other nation, has a bad history, but we have come a long way since those very bad times. I agree, it's not exactly perfect, but we have made great progress. We need those reminders for the future generations, not the present ones. It might sound crazy that a history as rich as ours can be forgotten but not only is it possible, it's inevitable.
This posits a lot of what ifs, though. The fact is slavery/the civil war will not be remembered forever. "We" already have the reminder that slavery and the civil war happened. We can teach that to younger generations. Oral stories are a cornerstone of any society. Tbh, when I was in school, slavery was very rarely talked about in middle school and the only high school history teacher I had who openly discussed slavery in America was a black woman. In college, there were a total of 2 classes that discussed the civil war. So it's not like institutions were that keen on passing on the message anyway. Holding on to these monuments is not about preserving history. History will still be there. It's about preserving pride, lbr.
To be fair, what is your stance on this? For it? Against it? Indifferent to it? Personally, I am against it, not because I'm some confederate sympathizer that "wishes to go back to the good ole days of the south" but rather it's my history as both an American and someone who was born and bred in the South. I dislike the confederate flag but I have no problem with people flying it. I do have a bit of an issue with it hanging on federal flag poles, unless it's a state flag that has the flag within their flag. Monuments are essentially public, outdoor museums. Those should stay in my opinion. As far as race relations go, in my opinion, they appear to be the best down south. Georgia, the state I was born and live in, has a significant black population and we all get along great for the most part. I'm not denying that racism still exists down here, but that is a problem the entire country still has, it's not exclusive to the south at all. I don't believe it's good to remove inanimate objects because they might offend some people. If they're so offended by our history as a country, they're more than welcome to leave. I'm not saying they have to, but if they're this offended by a statue that is a mere representation of our history, then how are they expected to deal with the history itself? History, no matter how bad or ugly, should be out in the open. These are very important and iconic figures of American history.
Same here. As an originally-outsider to the US, I got a real bitter taste-change about its culture some 5 years ago. Anyone @ this point who isn't concerned about more and more being destroyed/banned/censored that is found slightly offensive by others, is not paying attention to basic ongoing in US culture. At worst, they are one of the people who actively wants everything torn down or PC policed, and thus they are part of the problem.
One queation: What is solved by removing these statues? It won't ease racial tensions or end racism, so I fail to see the point in removing these statues. The civil war and slavery should be discussed so we can figure out how to right the wrongs in our history, if possible.