Regarding The Flap Over Confederate Statues

[bennyboy]

Let's see what you find, then. And in the meantime, you can offer your opinion from, what is it, Korea, right?

See what I find? I would assume that since one of the dominant memes of this thread is, "It's their city, if the people of Charlottesville want to remove statues from public space, let them do it," that the people making this claim actually have information that the people of Charlottesville, for the most part, DO want that. I have to say that given the overall opinion in the US, and given where Charlottesville sits in that picture politically, that seems highly unlikely indeed. Frankly, I was expecting someone to immediately quote numbers demonstrating that position to be true-- but since nobody has, I'm attempting to get as close to real numbers as is currently possible.

As for where I live, that's a pretty clear genetic fallacy.

I grew up in the States as well as Canada. I'm also surrounded by Americans all the time, currently mostly black, with whom I can discuss things like this. But even if NONE of this were true, I have plenty of experience with statues, with cultural sensitivities, and with the idea of free speech. I'm a true enough Scotsman for this debate, buddy.

I didn't say that the residents of Charlottesville wanted it gone. I said that their feelings should be considered -- all of their opinions. I offered my opinion on the matter, which is that such statuary is a needlessly obnoxious intrusion into public life which works to deepen rather than shrink the divisions in our society.

Are we clear now?

Yeah, and I said that statues of Custer, Columbus and even Lincoln serve the same function for natives-- to demonstrate that their land is permanently lost to them, and that many of the ones most instrumental in that loss are still counted among America's heroes.

I then said that since there is a clear double standard, we need to find a way to resolve this. The two completely unbiased approaches I personally can think of are:
1) Take down all statues. Fuck them, we don't need them, and every statue will probably offend SOMEONE.
2) Treat statues of famous people as protected historical artifacts, and just leave them alone. I think the law in that state currently takes this position, actually, and that the Charlottesville city council had to do some pretty creative semantics to get around it.

I'm pretty clear, now-- are you? Or are you going to tell me that I'm ugly and my mother dresses me funny, so my opinion is irrelevant?