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General Chat / Removing Confederate Monuments
« on: August 16, 2017, 07:39:14 AM »
The idea of removing monuments being erasing or revising history has come up in topic about the white nationalist protest violence, and it has come up in the news lately. I've heard it discussed among friends and family too. Here are a few points I wanted to make for its own topic:
1) Enemies and traitors of a nation typically do not get monuments. Exhibits in museums? Sure, that's normal depending on how well known they were. Excerpts in history books (both in schools and for sale to the public)? Absolutely. Bookstores are loaded with books about terrorists, wars, and enemy states... usually WWII and Civil War in US bookstores due to popularity.
But monuments? No. Iraq doesn't keep Saddam Hussein statues in public. Germany does keep Hitler monuments in public. I'm sure Germany also isn't big on Stalin statues. You don't glorify your enemies, and monuments are intended to glorify generally. We don't need to build an Osama bin Laden statue near Freedom Plaza (or anywhere in the US) to remember an enemy of the state. That's absolute bullshit nonsense.
2) The Confederate monuments were historical revisionism. Way after those traitors were defeated, the southern states started to attempt revising history as a "fuck you" to the Civil Rights movement by glorifying traitors who fought to maintain slavery. Those southern states also started to revive use of the confederate battle flag, adding it to their state flags while they renamed streets after famous confederate traitors.
This was revising a history of treason, slavery, and racism into "southern pride" or "heritage". It wasn't remembering the past; it was an attempt to rewrite history in the most favorable light to traitors who went to war to break this nation apart. And it was done primarily as backlash against the efforts to promote civil liberties for black Americans.
Fixing that revisionism is NOT itself revisionism. It is a return to a more accurate historical depiction of events where confederate traitors are not glorified like heroes.
3) Pulling down traitor monuments is not a slippery slope to pulling down every monument that has ever existed across the world for all of time. I don't recall outrage when news showed Iraqi citizens yanking down Saddam's statue.
Deciding who gets/deserves a MONUMENT is something to decide based on popularity and glory-worthy achievement. Confederate monuments went up for shit reasons and are now being removed for historical accuracy.
1) Enemies and traitors of a nation typically do not get monuments. Exhibits in museums? Sure, that's normal depending on how well known they were. Excerpts in history books (both in schools and for sale to the public)? Absolutely. Bookstores are loaded with books about terrorists, wars, and enemy states... usually WWII and Civil War in US bookstores due to popularity.
But monuments? No. Iraq doesn't keep Saddam Hussein statues in public. Germany does keep Hitler monuments in public. I'm sure Germany also isn't big on Stalin statues. You don't glorify your enemies, and monuments are intended to glorify generally. We don't need to build an Osama bin Laden statue near Freedom Plaza (or anywhere in the US) to remember an enemy of the state. That's absolute bullshit nonsense.
2) The Confederate monuments were historical revisionism. Way after those traitors were defeated, the southern states started to attempt revising history as a "fuck you" to the Civil Rights movement by glorifying traitors who fought to maintain slavery. Those southern states also started to revive use of the confederate battle flag, adding it to their state flags while they renamed streets after famous confederate traitors.
This was revising a history of treason, slavery, and racism into "southern pride" or "heritage". It wasn't remembering the past; it was an attempt to rewrite history in the most favorable light to traitors who went to war to break this nation apart. And it was done primarily as backlash against the efforts to promote civil liberties for black Americans.
Fixing that revisionism is NOT itself revisionism. It is a return to a more accurate historical depiction of events where confederate traitors are not glorified like heroes.
3) Pulling down traitor monuments is not a slippery slope to pulling down every monument that has ever existed across the world for all of time. I don't recall outrage when news showed Iraqi citizens yanking down Saddam's statue.
Deciding who gets/deserves a MONUMENT is something to decide based on popularity and glory-worthy achievement. Confederate monuments went up for shit reasons and are now being removed for historical accuracy.