What if I told you: Tearing down statues isn’t erasing history. Tearing down statues *is* history.

These statues should be placed in a museum after they come down, or be relocated to a 'graveyard' like ex-soviet states have for soviet monuments and statues. Then people can learn about the history related to these statues and why they are no longer standing in their original locations.

I'm primarily referring to Confederate statues, however this also applies to other historical monuments such as those that originated from the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany.

I could be wrong, but I would bet that most statues that originated in Nazi Germany have long since been... repurposed by way of melting down.

Yeah, I know. Was just using the regime as an example.

The tearing down of statues is not erasing history, period. History is in books, where it can be properly understood. If BLM or Antifa were burning all legitimate history books, I'd fight them. Tearing down statues is a rejection of proposed idols, gods, heroes, or threats against populatios. In the cases of Stalin, Hitler, Hussein, or Confederate slaveholders, I say melt them down and make them into chamber pots.

KF, you can't seriously be suggesting that were #BLM and/or AntiF(irst)A(mendment) to take over, that we'd be more free... are you?

Please don't say that you think we're currently in a transition from a dictatorship to a free country.

Actually, imo your meme would make more sense, more accurately reflect reality, were its message oriented in the opposite direction: Looting is a natural consequence of the transition from a free country to a dictatorship.

To be clear: I don’t think Rumsfeld’s quote on riots is 100% accurate, but it sure is deliciously ironic these days

MLK’s statement on riots is my go-to and I pretty much back it fully.

What the hell, Vagabond Douché? Suddenly you can comment in a thread that includes a post from me, and not post one of your childish, misogynistic, sexist, xenophobic, racist memes aimed at belittling me? What...? Are you becoming... mature? I am confident your reply will nix that notion...

Did you say something, insect?

Well, it's good to know you're now going to be insulting the exo-skeletal, along with women, foreigners, and minorities. Way to go, Douché!

I think they are missing a lot of the nuance here

CIVIL

DISOBEDIENCE.

GOOGLE

You can practice and promote civil disobedience and still not be an ignoramus when it comes to understanding the root causes of rioting.

Mind blown yet?

No, it's not, as you've been bullshitting that MLK advocated rioting.

Lying ass imploded yet?

This is what I actually said above.

I know you’re the type who is handy with those screenshots, so feel free to dig up any evidence that I ever said MLK advocated rioting.

Read the last line of your screenshot, dummy.

I said I pretty much back MLK’s statement on riots fully.

Does he advocate riots in this passage?

For the nth time, Vanilla Rice, no, he doesn't, despite how much you've been trying to pretend he does.

Well, in that case, imo, you can't get too upset with people who interpret what you believe, based on your memes (or at least this meme) as they see fit, based on their interpretation. If you're gonna be that loosey goosey in your meme-making.

No, I’m not upset. Just thought I’d clarify.

It was a good question. :)

Kamikaze? Good lawd, is this KylieAlt with a new handle? I can't keep up... grumble grumble...

Also KF, I forgot to mention that you're 100% correct when you say tearing down statues is history, because that's exactly what Mao did during the cultural revolution. It's what the Taliban did to Buddhist status in Afghanistan.

Yeah, those are a couple of forms of govt that we really should be trying to emulate.

Indeed, and then Mao had statues of his own erected.

And so we come to this point:

Erecting statues *or* tearing them down are flip-sides of the same coin: Making or unmaking history. Making or unmaking narratives about who we are as a nation. And whatever choices we make in our times in turn then become a part of our history.

There are reasons why the Confederate traitors got the royal treatment during the Jim Crow era while black soldiers and slaves weren’t commemorated and were buried in unmarked or poorly-marked graves to be forgotten.

So what do we have to do to properly assess whom to commemorate — or de-commemorate?

We have to take a stand for something. We have to decide what our values are.

And as Thomas Jefferson might say, we have the chance to do that every generation.

Using Mao's actions to make your point is fine for a country as old as China. Tearing down statues might objectively be viewed differently in a country as young as ours.

Which brings us to current affairs. We don't have a winner, yet. Perhaps once we do, the CHOP founders will be memorialized in statue form, or maybe president Trump?! (stop gasping, KF!)

Obviously it's not as simple as deciding 'Confederacy bad, slavery bad' and removing those statues, via mob rule, because now the mobs have come for the founding fathers, Abraham Lincoln, other abolitionists, Columbus (no complaints from me about that, although I would like to keep that holiday at work!), and even John Muir is being cancelled. As a country or culture, we all are certainly not in agreement that those people are bad and need to be de-commemorated. Besides, It's clear that the idiots in the mobs just don't like statues. I prefer not to have the history of my time determined by people like that.

A prudent, reasoned approach would be best, imo. Not just current generations, but all generations should be cautious about what we/they do in terms of updating history to suit our/their current values. Those, who by force, are making those judgments now, are seemingly unaware that their actions are just as likely to be cancelled by future generations. Would they even care?