I don't like it, but I think if people want to fly a flag on their own property or vehicle, they should be allowed to. I'd rather they bring their racism and ignorance to the surface where it can be addressed, than let it fester in private. It's also easier for law enforcement to keep an eye on them.
Yes, but it was a cause that America once asked many of them to fight for as well. Was the cause any less evil when they marched on Mexico City?What we know is in the end they made a choice to fight for a cause whose explicit stated purpose was to perpetuate race based enslavement of other human beings. Whether they believed in slavery or not doesn’t really matter, the cause they fought for was evil.
No it does not alter it nor does it change the justification for removing statues erected to them.Complexity that does not and should not take away from the fact that the Civil War was fought because the South wanted to keep slavery. Just because they had economic reasons or Northern sympathizers provides context but does not alter the underlying reason for the Civil War.
Yes, but it was a cause that America once asked many of them to fight for as well. Was the cause any less evil when they marched on Mexico City?
No it does not alter it nor does it change the justification for removing statues erected to them.
It was fought for the express purpose of Manifest Destiny, as were the campaigns against the Native Americans, the motivating ideology being of white Christian superiority and supremacy. To claim otherwise is simply historically inaccurate, and it is the dark reality of our history. The westward expansion was not a noble campaign.The Mexican-American war was not fought for the express purpose of preserving slavery.
I am not talking about statues at this point. The statues are irrelevant. Every military history book on the Civil War, nearly every movie about the Civil War and just about every show about the Civil War on the History Channel does not portray Confederate generals as traitors or evil.No statues for people who fought for the Nazis, no statues for people who fought for the confederacy.
Yes, and that is why I support their coming down.The only justification is that black Americans shouldn't have to look up to these monuments looming over their cities & towns. The fact that they still stand tells black people that they're still serving the purpose intended by their creators, still telling them to keep to their (inferior) place. That's been the purpose all along.
It was fought for the express purpose of Manifest Destiny, as were the campaigns against the Native Americans, the motivating ideology being of white Christian superiority and supremacy. To claim otherwise is simply historically inaccurate, and it is the dark reality of our history. The westward expansion was not a noble campaign.
Not sure we should judge people who, early in their military careers, were asked to fight FOR something, and then judge them for choosing to continue fighting FOR that same thing.
This is not a rationalization for slavery. It is an acknowledgment of the societal changed happening around them that made the decision less binary than someone facing it today.
I am not talking about statues at this point. The statues are irrelevant. Every military history book on the Civil War, nearly every movie about the Civil War and just about every show about the Civil War on the History Channel does not portray Confederate generals as traitors or evil.
One of the most popular shows of my childhood contained a car with a Confederate flag called the General Lee. In Germany, you would never see a television show containing a BMW with a Nazi flag on the roof called the Rommel.
The correct answer to this thread is that the Charleston shooting caused our nation to reconsider the accomodation of Confederate symbols, because the shooting raised awareness that those symbols only exist today to rally white nationalists, racists, fascists and the alt-right.
Acknowledging this, and removing those symbols, does not require historical revisionism.
I don't like it, but I think if people want to fly a flag on their own property or vehicle, they should be allowed to. I'd rather they bring their racism and ignorance to the surface where it can be addressed, than let it fester in private. It's also easier for law enforcement to keep an eye on them.
It's different than the state government forcing these symbols into places of honor and prominence.
I appreciate you acknowledging that we should judge them within the context of their times. The original sin of our nation was to perpetuate slavery and hinge our economy to exploitable cheap labor. The south chose to stubbornly hold on to that economic dependency.I agree with you that we should judge people within the context of their time but it’s not like views on the immorality of slavery would have been news to these people. Basically the entirety of the western world had figured out that slavery was wrong but these people weren’t just unwilling to agree, they were willing to kill to keep enslaving people. They were immoral even for their time.
I appreciate you acknowledging that we should judge them within the context of their times. The original sin of our nation was to perpetuate slavery and hinge our economy to exploitable cheap labor. The south chose to stubbornly hold on to that economic dependency.
Do you extend that morality to the contemporary examples of human rights abuses brought about by globalization? Don’t need slaves when you can just plop down a factory and exploit cheap labor.