Thread for statue vandalism of anti-slavery figures and other random persons

[Fuzzy Bear]

The complaining about statues being destroyed is really silly. The artists who made them were paid. Statues don't teach history. This is an effective way of keeping the media's attention, and unlike the destruction of businesses, it doesn't ruin anyone's livelihood.

Would I prefer the statues not be destroyed? Sure. But the way people are reacting to this, it's like the human being represented was murdered rather than an artistic rendering of them being removed. This is the cultural equivalent of crying about some flowers being trampled.

C'mon, if white nationalists were vandalizing statues of abolitionists and AIDS memorials no one would be brushing this off.

Random destruction like this is just stupid and accomplishes nothing.

That's why I can't take his posts seriously. If its "just a statue" why in the hell do these mobs tesring them down care so much?

All of these people tearing down statues need to be punished. It's destroying property.

Absolutely correct.  These statues are public property, or someone else's private property.  They are not the property of the rioters.

All of this also begs the question of iconoclasm.  How healthy are iconoclastic societies?  How healthy are iconoclasts?   When did iconoclasm become a national virtue

https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2020/06/of-statues-and-symbolic-murder?fbclid=IwAR3nCiI8vKonWfsHtylEGY_-0V3G-YJKweYQ3jFayR5FbNlsww4uqNpZXXw

But I think the most disturbing aspect of this episode, which perhaps indicates how deep our societal rot goes, has less to do with the rioters than with those in positions of authority. Rioters and miscreants we will always have, but that is why we have authorities. Ours, however, seem to have utterly abdicated. In city after city, mayors and governors decline to act against vandals, the police stand down, and the devil is allowed to take the hindmost. Corporations fall over themselves to advertise their virtuousness, and give what looks very much like protection money to organizations whose goals are openly subversive of the fundamental American political and social order. University administrators are all too willing to side with those who suppress free inquiry, and routinely cave to protestors rather than defend even the most fundamental tenets of academic freedom.

That it's a "Confederate Statue" doesn't make the act of destroying public property any more morally defensible.  Because if that's the case, I would ask if you'd be OK if I round up a group of right-to-lifers and vandalize Planned Parenthood clinics.  Not OK, huh?  Then why is trashing any other property not their own acceptable.

[Fuzzy Bear]

The complaining about statues being destroyed is really silly. The artists who made them were paid. Statues don't teach history. This is an effective way of keeping the media's attention, and unlike the destruction of businesses, it doesn't ruin anyone's livelihood.

Would I prefer the statues not be destroyed? Sure. But the way people are reacting to this, it's like the human being represented was murdered rather than an artistic rendering of them being removed. This is the cultural equivalent of crying about some flowers being trampled.

C'mon, if white nationalists were vandalizing statues of abolitionists and AIDS memorials no one would be brushing this off.

Random destruction like this is just stupid and accomplishes nothing.

That's why I can't take his posts seriously. If its "just a statue" why in the hell do these mobs tesring them down care so much?

All of these people tearing down statues need to be punished. It's destroying property.

Absolutely correct.  These statues are public property, or someone else's private property.  They are not the property of the rioters.

All of this also begs the question of iconoclasm.  How healthy are iconoclastic societies?  How healthy are iconoclasts?   When did iconoclasm become a national virtue

https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2020/06/of-statues-and-symbolic-murder?fbclid=IwAR3nCiI8vKonWfsHtylEGY_-0V3G-YJKweYQ3jFayR5FbNlsww4uqNpZXXw

But I think the most disturbing aspect of this episode, which perhaps indicates how deep our societal rot goes, has less to do with the rioters than with those in positions of authority. Rioters and miscreants we will always have, but that is why we have authorities. Ours, however, seem to have utterly abdicated. In city after city, mayors and governors decline to act against vandals, the police stand down, and the devil is allowed to take the hindmost. Corporations fall over themselves to advertise their virtuousness, and give what looks very much like protection money to organizations whose goals are openly subversive of the fundamental American political and social order. University administrators are all too willing to side with those who suppress free inquiry, and routinely cave to protestors rather than defend even the most fundamental tenets of academic freedom.

That it's a "Confederate Statue" doesn't make the act of destroying public property any more morally defensible.  Because if that's the case, I would ask if you'd be OK if I round up a group of right-to-lifers and vandalize Planned Parenthood clinics.  Not OK, huh?  Then why is trashing any other property not their own acceptable.

There is a difference between good and bad things

You are certainly correct.   Abortion at a Planned Parenthood Clinic takes an innocent human life in real time.  A Confederate Statue is a form of idolatry that may anger people and offend people, but no human lives are endangered merely by that statue being there.  Millions of Americans agree with me on the relative virtues of these.

Abortion clinics are bad things.

So, you would say, who appointed me Judge over these things?  In this case, I could clearly say the same thing back:  Who gave you (or the Mobs in the streets, for that matter) the right to decide what happens to private or municipal property?  Indeed, is Mob Rule (as we're getting a taste of in America today) a good thing?  Who appointed the BLM/Antifa Axis as the final authority as to the Goodness and Badness of the American Nation?  (Hint:  They're self-appointed Marxists.)

It's a GOOD thing when differences are resolved through the Rule of Law.  It's a BAD thing when Mobs decide that their Judgments will carry the day, regardless of all else.