this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2023
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I don't know who this guy was and I'm not American, but I dissaprove of people vandalizing or destroying old statues. They should be removed from public view if they're controversial, but they should be kept (if they have historical significance). Destruction of history, no matter how dark it was, is a crime in my eyes. Nobody would think about destroying concentration camps or the likes, even though they represent the most horrific part of our history. And besides, pretty much everyone born more than two centuries ago were assholes and bigots by today's standard, it's hard to judge when most of them probably did not know better. Again, not cautioning what this dude did, probably slavery and a great deal of killing I imagine.
Most confederate statues are cheap crap bulk built all over the place sometime after the civil war as a sort of long term propaganda. They aren't historical, they are reputation management.
You should add that the "sometime after" was also often sometime after WWII, so they are not very historical, look ugly and take space.
I didn't want to be more specific than my memory lol, thanks for the detail.
like the lenin statues that used to be all over ukraine and other post-soviet countries.
I actually don't know anything about those. Were they put there while the soviet union still existed/built by the soviet union themselves, or were they put there later after by some fan of the soviet union? If the goal is to keep what is historical, regardless of political context, that would be the key distinction in my opinion.
soviet union (mass-produced and) placed them literally everywhere.
there's at least one lenin or stalin statue per major street, some countries are just starting removing them, but it's a really long process due to sheer amount of them, regulations and stuff.
the amount of these things is somewhat absurd
I'd argue most statues are some form of propaganda that likely don't tell whole stories.
Just to add some context, the statue was on private land. The decision to pull it down was by the owner.
And it was installed in the late 90s. That's not history: it's a gaudy, racist lawn ornament.