Steel Manning Soliloquies on the Saturday Political Open Thread

[Z is for Zangie]

Good Morning! Have a sensational Saturday!

[Randi]

I’ve always been of the opinion that statues to anyone person ( as opposed to statues as art). are a waste of money and material. A plaque informing you about what happened in a particular area is just as informative
I have a friend that worked for FEMA in Mississippi. She told me that discussions of the civil war went on so much, you would think it was still going on. Talk about not being able to move on with your life.
Instead of naming military bases after Confederate generals, they should have provided sports teams for the populace to obsess over

[Slip Shod]

Are we talkin about removing statues in general, all statues ? or only 'someone else's' statue. Is that in any way principled ? Shall we begin to remove Martin Luther King statues as well ?
Sounds like we're going down the totalitarian road with mine acceptable but not yours. Here's a novel idea, how about freedom for all forms of expression within the limits of common decency of course. Control of thought and expression is the foundation of any fascist or communist style government and under the guise of being offended this so-called 'wokeness' mentality hasn't the sense enough to see where this is leading.
As a people, right/left/center, we should all embrace each other's freedom . It is government that fears it.
And we are being played, one against another

[Mike]

Are we talkin about removing statues in general, all statues ? or only 'someone else's' statue. Is that in any way principled ? Shall we begin to remove Martin Luther King statues as well ?
Sounds like we're going down the totalitarian road with mine acceptable but not yours. Here's a novel idea, how about freedom for all forms of expression within the limits of common decency of course. Control of thought and expression is the foundation of any fascist or communist style government and under the guise of being offended this so-called 'wokeness' mentality hasn't the sense enough to see where this is leading.
As a people, right/left/center, we should all embrace each other's freedom . It is government that fears it.
And we are being played, one against another

Why am I not surprised by your statement here!? But thanks for acknowledging that Lee is your guy, and that you see him as a legit hero choice vs MLK in America in the 21st Century.

The principle here is that public veneration in the USA of a man who was the epitome of a traitor to the USA, of a man who engaged in that treason in order to perpetuate the enslavement of millions of Americans, SHOULD NOT BE HAPPENING. That continued veneration of the prominent figures of the Confederacy serves no use whatsoever except to perpetuate systemic racism.

After the Allies crushed Germany, they collectively eliminated the statues of Nazis and the symbols of the regime. The iconic image is of the destruction of the swastika above the Zeppelinfeld arena in Nuremberg. According to the ‘logic’ you are deploying here, the US and Britain were, in the process of destroying German public veneration of fascism, engaging in fascism. That if we destroyed statues of Himmler and Goering in Germany, we should also eliminate statues of Washington and Lincoln here.

[Slip Shod]

For Mike - no, Lee isn't my man, in fact my people weren't even here at the time of the Civil War. We migrated and crossed big pond legally around 1900.
It's too bad because you are a pretty smart fella, but you're also intellectually dishonest - you knew quite well I was all about Freedom, everyone's..
Turn up the music, Chubby Checkers Let's Twist cuz Mike's going to dance for us. He's going to take what's really been said and twist like a pretzel. We got your number

[Mike]

No, you’re not about freedom. You know full effects of systemic racism… yet you refuse to acknowledge them. If an individual wishes to erect a statue of Lee on his front lawn, you are correct that he has the freedom to do that and thereby express his support of insurrection and of slavery. But for there to be statues venerating Lee in public squares, purchased and maintained on the public dime? That is NOT “Freedom, everyone’s…”. No, I’m not the intellectually dishonest one here.

Speaking of intellectual dishonesty, and lack of principle: Gov.Abbott of Texas signed into law that is a massive intrusion into the private businesses that run social media platforms. Remember when the GOP sued for the rights of private businesses to discriminate against people for any reason at all? Remember when they supported food suppliers in refusing to put ingredients on labels? Remember all the noise they used to make about these things? Well…. now the Slave Republic of Texas is demanding access to virtually everything about those businesses. Go read the law as it was passed. It’s clearly unconstitutional. And clearly shows their lack of principle.

[Slip Shod]