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The defaced statue was a conservative media misunderstanding: We traced the photo back to the conservative website the Daily Wire, where “The Michael Knowles S

• nwienert 6y ago
  That specific one was, but there are others being called to take down, and this: https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-memorial-steps-vandalized/fact-check-lincoln-memorial-steps-vandalized-during-george-floyd-protests-idUSKBN23G25O https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-memorial-steps-...
• cactus2093 6y ago
  How about the statue of Ulysses S Grant in San Francisco? Same level of absurdity as Lincoln. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/20/san-francisco-statues-ulysses-s-grant-junipero-serra-francis-scott-key https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/20/san-francisc...
  • epistasis 6y ago
    Grant also sent Custer to South Dakota to wage war and steal land. Once gold had been discovered it was a foregone conclusion that white settlers would therefore get the land, no matter what treaties had been signed. Which lead to a white supremacist eventually carving four presidents visages into Mount Rushmore, in violation of treaties made between the Lakota and the US, and today's arrest of Lakota who were protesting this theft. I doubt the people who tore down the statue of Grant knew any of this, any more than they know the rest of Grant's history. But it's pretty fucking hard for me to get upset about a statue like that being torn down. It's not like it's a one of a kind piece of art, it's just another monument of little significance or interest as an object, only as a symbol of our conquest and unjust killing. When the American revolutionaries tore down statues that were symbols of the the English empire, they were working towards a slightly more just and free society. Tearing down Grant's statues continues in this rich tradition. In a hundred years, it's likely that the majority of people that know about the early 2000s will look back at Obama's drone strikes that killed innocent families with similar dismay to what we (or is it just me?) see in Grant and his contemporaries. With running an imperialist nation, it's going to be awfully difficult to avoid doing some really awful things. That doesn't make the evils they perform in our name acceptable.
    • vulcan01 6y ago
      All the things you said about Grant are correct. But it can be argued that the good things he did outweighed the bad. In that case, is it ok to tear down a statue?
      • epistasis 6y ago
        Why not? It's not like statues are some sacred principle. And in the Fourth of July, as the US celebrates declaring independence from its past status as a colony, of rebelling against an imperial monarch that no doubt did lots of good, but also taxed them without representation, let's also celebrate our current revolutions against injustice. We should not idolize people, not even if they did good things. And if in the revolutionary throes of fighting for justice, the wrong statue gets taken down, that is so unbelievably tame and minor compared to what we celebrate on Independence Day.
      • adamsea 6y ago
        One right doesn’t cancel out a wrong, or vice versa. The problem with a statue is that it literally sets something in stone; perhaps these particular statues are being torn down because people don’t think the conversation is over; that there is more to be said, more to be heard, and more to learn.
• pjungwir 6y ago
  I don't know any Lincoln examples but here in Portland they have pulled down statues of Washington and Jefferson: - https://twitter.com/hungrybowtie/status/1273859657447006208 https://twitter.com/hungrybowtie/status/1273859657447006208 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V29opdHt-M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V29opdHt-M
  • indigo945 6y ago
    Well, Jefferson owned hundreds of slaves and Washington raped his daughters, so there's that.
• rayiner 6y ago
  Lots of Lincoln statues have been defaced. Obviously not the Lincoln memorial, because federal police are protecting major monuments in DC.