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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
I agree with all of the above. We can discuss history without glorifying it. Museums are perfect for that.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Well, point out that the Confederate Statues were erected as a direct response to black people getting closer and closer to equality. A lot date back to the sixties for example (I wonder what was happening then?) and so it would serve as an effective reminder to future generations of how Confederate symbolism have very racist meanings and usages.
"...in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach."The thing is that musems don't actually ''want'' these statues either.
Edited by DrunkenNordmann on Mar 20th 2019 at 4:43:59 PM
We learn from history that we do not learn from historyA lot of them are cheaply produced garbage erected as a kind of protest against civil rights, and have very little historical value. I guess we could preserve particularly notable examples and junk the rest.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"We don't need to keep all of them, but let's not throw four in a storage container, the rest in the paving machine, and pretend racism is solved forever because we got rid of the objects the racists made.
If any of them have particular historical value, by which I mean in what they say about the society that made them, then I say keep those and put them in museums to discuss the society that made them. The rest of them, especially the ones that were mass-produced, can probably be destroyed with little issue.
Edited by RedSavant on Mar 20th 2019 at 11:45:08 AM
It's been fun.![]()
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Some of them definitely wouldn’t want them, but that aside there definitely isn’t enough museum space to house all of these statutes. A large number of them will simply need to be destroyed, and frankly most of them should be considering that the bulk of them were mass produced by the daughters of the confederacy to intimidate minorities, thus making their artistic or historic value dubious at best.
Another thing that I’m afraid would happen is that a bunch of those statues get bought up by Daughters of the Confederacy type organizations in order to be placed in “Civil War” museums that ultimately serve the same purpose of glorifying the confederacy and intimidating minorities.
Edited by Mio on Mar 20th 2019 at 11:52:45 AM
A German YouTuber named Three Arrows actually did a video about Confederate statues:
He goes over why these statues are not actually representing history - so removing them doesn't erase anything - and why putting them in museums isn't really worthwhile either.
Edited by DrunkenNordmann on Mar 20th 2019 at 4:52:30 PM
We learn from history that we do not learn from historyAuction them off and have the proceeds to towards actual museums about American history.
Found a Youtube Channel with political stances you want to share? Hop on over to this page and add them.The statues are history.
Trying to erase a denial and whitewashing of history is stupid. It's the exact same bullshit that the statues represent.
Screw that. Demolish them or melt them down. Maybe have a small display with photos of notable awful statues.
I was initially for preserving these statues in museums, but after hearing more of the arguments I would have to agree that this is the best thing to do.
I'm just concerned that "Here is the little photo album of pictures Steve took of the statue before it got turned into a steel portapotty 20 years ago" is going to be much less impactful than "here is a giant statue people paid good money for to venerate and whitewash someone who bought and sold human lives". The message that will (ideally) be preserved and taught in museums is that the descendants of the Confederacy put a lot of money and time into the Lost Cause myth - not what the statue itself wants to say, but what the creation of the statue says.
It's been fun.I don't think anyone is under the impression that merely getting rid of the statues would solve all of the problems with the Lost Cause mythology. My main concern is just getting rid of them ASAP because they distort history, waste public space and make people of color (especially black people) deeply uncomfortable. Take a few pictures/preserve a small handful of them at most, but then torch the rest.
The statues are actually lies about history. Removing them corrects the record rather than distorting it. Sure, keep a few so we can point to them as evidence of the lies, but that's as far as we need to go.
Edited by Fighteer on Mar 20th 2019 at 12:13:08 PM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"To my understanding, the problem with a lot of these statues is that they are quite recent creations. They don't have much historical value, thus. Some of them might have artistic value, but I bet it's not many.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

“And over here kids are the dozens of statues venerating white supremacy, most of which look very heroic and noble, but actually these are evil.”
Screw that. Demolish them or melt them down. Maybe have a small display with photos of notable awful statues.
Edited by wisewillow on Mar 20th 2019 at 11:38:20 AM