Holding 18th century political figures to 21st century standards is infuriating and naive and misses the point about why their statues are up in the first place. If every single historical figure were held to the modern standards of perfection, we wouldn't have any statues at all.
For those that think this is an absurd point, would you want to be held to the standards of a 24th century ethos? Of course not...... and just because you inevitably wont fit in to that society does not mean that your life and story are incapable of contributing positive things to it and that includes the mistakes you made.
I'm going to assume that whoever did this was simply intoxicated and nothing more.
==> Implying that people in the 1700s and 1800s didn't know that slavery was wrong
To pick one example, we, today, know that pollution is wrong. Mercury, plastic, fertilizer and other stuff in the oceans. CO2 and other emmissions that contribute to global waming in the atmosphere. Radioactive waste with only vague plans for dealing with it. And so on.
But how many of us today live with zero tolerance for pollution? Do you want to be judged in 2250 entirely based on your carbon footprint and how green you are? Should gross polluters like the Kochs, and their powerful and wealthy enablers and apologists be judged exactly the same as people just living their lives, however imperfectly, or those who speak out against the status quo and do what they can to change it, even while living as part of it?
Big wrongs that have become an integral part of society aren't trivial to set right. Lumping together people whose lives were perfect but who moved in the right direction with those whose fought for evil, injustice, and harm to their fellow human beings is itself stupid and wrong.
