Comments

  1. alixmo says

    Very good video, I could not agree more. Three Arrows` works are so far very solid and well researched. Highly recommended, especially since I see the right (some kind of fascism) rise again. Resistance and information is needed.

    Sad though that we (as a society) in 2018 still have to fight against racism, misogyny and scapegoating of migrants while there are gigantic problems like Climate Change (plus other ecological calamities) and the insanely wide Wealth Gap which do not get tackled.

    While we try to put all those fires out that racism and misogyny/sexism caused, the Trump administration continues its onslaught on the welfare and regulatory state (e.g. virtual dismantling of the EPA).

    In the end we all will suffer for it. Well, regular people will. The Koch Brothers and fellow billionaires could not care less. They laugh while they get what they fought for since the 1970ies: tax cuts and the unchallenged, unpunished right to pollute.

    The Republicans are experts in making even non-issues (like the “War on Christmas”) into a “Culture War”, distracting the populace and sucking the air out of global challenges like Climate Change and extreme wealth inequality. Their little stratagem works insanely well. Meanwhile: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/06/global-temperature-rises-could-be-double-those-predicted-by-climate-modelling

  2. quotetheunquote says

    Good vid; especially like the idea of putting up a big O. bin Laden statue in lower Manhattan – after all, we mustn’t forget our history!

  3. anchor says

    ThreeArrows also does a good job with this guy:

    “Jordan Peterson Doesn’t Understand: Nazism”

  4. Ed Seedhouse says

    Another YouTube channel you’ve forced me to subscribe to, dammit! Really, all I wanted was to watch chess videos…

  5. unclefrogy says

    it is amazing how many people seem to believe and try to sell things that are just not so?
    uncle frogy

  6. Phrenomythic Productions says

    I agree with basically every point in this video, but with regards to not having these statues moved to a museum, it seems to gloss over that a museum’s function is not only to serve as an exhibition. Its main function is actually collecting objects for documentation and research. The museum’s collections are hidden from public view and usually contain 75 to 99% of the objects in its possession, so thus only a fraction is exhibited. Surely, the statues could be considered artefacts documenting that particular part of history where southern activists tried to rewrite history and indoctrinate the public? Not saying we should keep them all, but a small number of them just to make sure we don’t erase *that* part of history.

  7. says

    Phrenomythic Productions @7:

    I think the practical side of things is this: those statues each occupy a large amount of physical space, even when you take them down off their plinths. Even if you put them into a storage space somewhere, like a warehouse, you’re looking at a large amount of cubic meterage taken up by holding onto them – storage space the museum has to pay for (generally out of a limited budget), and which could hold a lot of smaller, more relevant articles. Not to mention they’re heavy, and awkward to manoeuvre – they were designed to be installed somewhere and then left there, after all, so they’re not suited to periodic exhibitions. My take is this: if the neo-confederates and neo-Nazis and white supremacists are so keen on these statues being retained in museums “for historical reasons”, then they should also be willing to put their collective money where their mouths are, and pay for the storage space, right?

  8. methuseus says

    I think Germans have a unique perspective on this sort of issue. They have completely outlawed Nazi symolism, including the chants that were used in Charlottesville, VA. He even mentions seeing a Nazi statue in London, which would not be displayed in Germany, and getting no new information or experience from it. I agree with him; why do we need to display monuments for people like these?

  9. Saad says

    methuseus, #10

    I think Germans have a unique perspective on this sort of issue. They have completely outlawed Nazi symolism, including the chants that were used in Charlottesville, VA.

    But how are they able to know that eradicating disabled people is wrong if they don’t allow and protect Nazi speech?

  10. cartomancer says

    All too often when I see this issue rehearsed, it strikes me that the people doing the rehearsing are entirely unaware of the history and culture of public statuary in Western cultures that goes back at least three millennia. We’ve always taken down old statues from despised regimes and replaced them with something more appropriate to modern tastes. The Romans did it so frequently as Emperors were assassinated and their memories blackened that eventually the sculptors just made the heads removable, so as little effort as possible was needed in the modification.

    It’s not as if any of these 20th century American sculptures are great art. They’re the worst kind of imitative hack-work. Most of the classical world’s bronzes – treasures of inestimable value and prestige – were melted down for bells and armaments during the Middle Ages. I fail to see why these things should be an exception.

    It cannot be reiterated enough that public statuary is not about the recording of history at all – it’s about honouring, celebrating and lionising specific events and people in the present. We record history in books and museum displays. Monuments are for the present, not the past.

  11. cartomancer says

    I also think we need to get rid of both Churchill and Gandhi from our public spaces and social memory. They were both horrible racists and classists, particularly towards the peoples of the Indian subcontinent.