How does the World view America these days?

[Rubin Farr]

9 minutes ago, joshuatxuk said:

Regarding all these statues being pulled down and places being targeted for renaming I'm all for it. Not as some edgy woke radical but the fact that they are tangible testaments to the great lengths of historical revisionism and faux national mythology that so many leaders cater to, so much so it's quite absurd that we've tolerated it so long. They aren't historic. They aren't warranted or misunderstood.

- Most Confederate statues were erected by rich socialite groups and pro-segregationist and KKK allied "Lost Cause" leaders and politicians decades after the war, many on the 50th anniversary or later. Same revisionism and appropriation lead to the normalization of the Confederate Battle Flag becoming the "Southern Heritage" flag that most older folks cherish because it was in Dukes of Hazzard and at NASCAR races. It was intended this way as well to prevent poor and working class white solidarity with poor and working class blacks. Racism in the south has always been oriented that was in terms of power, LBJ summed it up well:  “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”

- The vast majority of people supporting the statues literally have no context of actual history in any sense, it's completely reactionary. Juan de Oñate statues in Texas and NM were literally placed there in the last couple decades and we expensive pet projects of Conquistador mythos nuts with little public interest. Many of the "statue defenders" had the same knee-jerk reaction as the militia nuts who've perpetually shown up at the TX Capitol, Alamo, and San Jacinto monument with paranoid hysterical assumtions that Texas Revolution and Tejano statues were targeted too...(FYI they aren't - and neither are those of the U.S. Founding Fathers)

- People also forget much of the confederacy, especially beyond the deep south, had major populations who were pro-Union. Take Kentucky for example, 48 of it's 59 Civil War monuments are Confederate oriented. The actual state had 100,000 Union volunteer soldiers versus 20,000 (maybe 40k, estimates vary) fight for the Confederacy. 

- We literally have a dozen major US military bases named for Confederate generals and leaders. Bases named mostly in the 20th century. Literal traitors who fought against the U.S. government and it's constitution so they could maintain slavery and the status quo hyper-class based economy dependent on it. These might actually be renamed fairly soon, especially since there are literally hundreds if not thousands of well-deserving Medal of Honor recipients and other noteworthy veterans.

- Columbus Day was created as a shitty apology to Italian-Americans after 11 of them were lynched in 1892. It remained a local and community based holiday (similar to Cinco De Mayo or St Patrick's Day) until relentless lobbying by Mariano A. Lucca in 1966. 

To sum up, the whole goddamn "debate" is ridiculous. We don't need statues of Ho Chi Minh and Bin Laden to remember the Vietnam War or 9/11. We don't need statues and monuments to Nazis and SS generals in random pockets of the UK or Europe to remember WW2 happened. You know the site where Mussolini was killed by a mob? It's a fucking McDonalds and that's fitting.

So yeah, bring on the Dolly Parton replacement statues and all that. Kitsch Americana should be scattered all over the Southern US, not bullshit statues and monuments installed on behalf of some turn of the century racist Karens.

 

 

IMO, Confederate and racially insensitive statues belong in museums, to teach the young about the past, so as not to repeat its mistakes.  I'm all for moving these shits off public property.

[joshuatxuk]

17 minutes ago, Rubin Farr said:

IMO, Confederate and racially insensitive statues belong in museums, to teach the young about the past, so as not to repeat its mistakes.  I'm all for moving these shits off public property.

Totally and they've done that with actual historic materials (flags, letters, etc.) that were displayed in public places like state capitols and buildings.

That said a lot of this stuff is arguable though as "historic." It's similar to Lenin and Stalin statues being pulled down from former Warsaw Pact and Soviet states. Hypothetically if the HIAG installed a bunch of Nazi and SS statues and monuments in Germany in the 1960s and 1970s and those were being pulled down they would not be needed to be preserved or moved. They are just props.

Edited June 17, 2020 by joshuatxuk

[J3FF3R00]

10 minutes ago, Rubin Farr said:

IMO, Confederate and racially insensitive statues belong in museums, to teach the young about the past, so as not to repeat its mistakes.  I'm all for moving these shits off public property.

I think those particular “museums” should also essentially be big trenches or pits that everyone could piss/shit into. 

[ignatius]

6 minutes ago, J3FF3R00 said:

I think those particular “museums” should also essentially be big trenches or pits that everyone could piss/shit into. 

could probably carve a urinal out of a statue. put that in the museum bathroom. 

 

Edited June 17, 2020 by ignatius

[Rubin Farr]

For God's sake, they better not pull down the Lucille Ball statue!

[Braintree]

This stature deserves to be put in every major park in America.

[chenGOD]

6 hours ago, Braintree said:

There's a petition to rename Columbus, Ohio and, frankly, I'm in support of it: https://www.change.org/p/mayor-ginther-columbus-city-council-change-the-name-of-columbus-ohio-to-flavortown

Why not Cumtown?

[Rubin Farr]

6 hours ago, Braintree said:

This stature deserves to be put in every major park in America.

How do you shop for shoes with two peg legs?  Parrot food bills bankrupted his ass.

[joshuatxuk]

[ambermonk]

Just now, joshuatxuk said:

You'd think he'd be in front of the horse and not on top of it...

[hijexx]

Tennessee legislature keeps voting to keep the bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest in the Tennessee State Capitol too:

https://www.wbir.com/article/news/local/bid-to-remove-nathan-bedford-forrest-bust-from-state-capitol-fails-in-house-committee/51-28498eca-8394-44db-b408-7a7a19781687

I would hate to be the Governor of Tennessee right now:

Quote

In a separate measure, Gov. Bill Lee is asking state senators to relieve him of having to recognize a special day in Forrest's honor every July. House members, including the Naming Committee, have endorsed it.

By law he or any Tennessee governor currently in office is required to sign a proclamation every year recognizing Forrest.

Maybe he'll do the right thing and practice some civil disobedience if the state senators won't let him off the hook.

Tennessee: Birthplace of the KKK. Some things never change.

[Braintree]

9 hours ago, chenGOD said:

Why not Cumtown?

We can't have two Daytons.

[ignatius]

[Nebraska]

political and social climate in chaz chop turn into an industrial rock music video

 

[ignatius]

banana whip it guy is the mascot!

[prdctvsm]

[Nebraska]

this lady came prepared with all kinds of props

[luke viia]

LOL. ah yes, the great foam mountains of america.

[chenGOD]

3 hours ago, Nebraska said:

this lady came prepared with all kinds of props

She says she's not a sado-masochist but she's going to vote for Trump again?

[Silent Member]

Haha, well she's more coherent than the current president, so there's always that

[goDel]

I feel terrorised watching that. But sure, she's not a terrorist. 

[Zephyr_Nova]

I was impressed with her sense of pitch and strong vibrato.  Tone could use some work.

[Hugh Mughnus]

Somebody should shittyflute over that clip

[Nebraska]

"candy ass" expletive refuses to take a patriot home because he wasn't wearing a mask (doesn't believe in that shit) and exercising his right to free speech

[ignatius]

americans are quick to take the attacks to a personal place and talk about appearances or spout some racist bullshit.. calling that guy "boy" and shit like that. wtf. so aggravating. white supremacist fuck.