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The President of the University of Texas at Austin released a letter regarding the removal of statues on the campus.
[...] The University of Texas at Austin is a public educational and research institution, first and foremost. The historical and cultural significance of the Confederate statues on our campus — and the connections that individuals have with them — are severely compromised by what they symbolize. Erected during the period of Jim Crow laws and segregation, the statues represent the subjugation of African Americans. That remains true today for white supremacists who use them to symbolize hatred and bigotry.
The University of Texas at Austin has a duty to preserve and study history. But our duty also compels us to acknowledge that those parts of our history that run counter to the university's core values, the values of our state and the enduring values of our nation do not belong on pedestals in the heart of the Forty Acres.
The issue isn't a new one, they first looked into the issue in 2015, and had a wide range of options including effectively turning the mall into an open air museum, which they eventually decided against. Should the statues be relocated from their historical context just because of the attitudes and behaviour of noisy minorities? (Your humble editor cannot forget the local riots when a historical but hostile-themed statue was relocated.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 22 2017, @11:20PM (3 children)
Eh, you just try and repeat your point like there is more validity to be had. You're incorrect about the timeframes, there is a wide spread of when they were put up. Beyond that though it doesn't matter when they were put up, what they represent is still antithetical to the stated values of the USA. There is nothing dangerous with removing the statues, save that outrage for book burning assholes or vandals that destroy these statues.
To me yours are the mindless screams saying "keep these around!" when they fly against modern values paired with the fact that cities aren't destroying anything and are moving removed statues into museums. Whiny children that got a grape flavored popsicle instead of orange.
I worry much more about the rabid god-emperor sentiment that has some people calling for martial law, along with the president threatening the press and everyone else. Or rabid liberals calling for censorship of "hate" which would send us down a dystopian rabbit hole. Statues? Pfffft, not even on the list.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 23 2017, @01:41PM (2 children)
Antithetical to the stated values of the USA? The most absolutely fundamental value of the United States is liberty. Statue culling is one step away from book burning. I have no idea what country you think you live in, but freedom does not mean we destroy things or hide them because they be offensive to some.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 23 2017, @03:56PM (1 child)
Statue culling? You do realize they are being put in museums and other locations and not destroyed right?
Also, slavery is pretty antithetical to liberty wouldn't you say? Oh right, "civil war wasn't about slavery" lololol
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 24 2017, @02:41PM
The stated purpose of the civil war was an issue of states' rights to self determination. Of course you're right it really was about slavery, but slavery is not an institution that people -the people that actually fight wars instead of start them- would be willing to fight and die for. But states rights and the freedom of self determination are. The stated cause differing from the real cause is of course a regular occurrence in life. Here too, you are convincing yourself that the statues are being removed for "scholary study" (literally the phrasing I found in one news report). But the reality of course has nothing to do with "scholarly study" and is instead little more than a culling. Imagine instead of a book burning, I instead collected all copies of a book and kept them in a warehouse for "scholarly study." Perhaps I even wrote a few documents around the collection.
Cognitive dissonance is incredibly powerful. Obviously nobody wants to support in a culling of any sort, so we rename it. And now suddenly you can feel good about yourself. You're not the frenzied extremist one step away from book burning, you're just a concerned activist facilitating enhanced educational access. The hundreds of thousands that died in the Civil War undoubtedly went to the grave convincing themselves of similar falsehoods. They were not fighting to enrich a tiny proportion of sociopaths, but fighting for freedom - justice - the right to self determination. All lies, but it's a handy way to make yourself feel better about partaking in horrible actions isn't it?