Guess what? I agree with you, which is why I don't give a rat's ass about the KKK. They can go make their stupid PEACEFUL marches, people look at them with a mix of pity, dislike and humor - and they go on their way. No, they won't go away, but they are irrelevant, and IGNORING them is what keeps them irrelevant. However, when they are attacked, it only encourages people to consider joining their cause.
However, there is a liberal movement to label ANYONE who disagrees with the socialist agenda as a "HATER". Plenty of people, myself included, do not agree with the KKK, but also don't agree with removing these statues - yet somehow what makes me a 'hater', and therefore 'acceptable' to commit violence towards, because of my opinion, NOT my actions. No, that makes me a student of history. Those who fail to study it are doomed to repeat it. This is all being done to stir up crap. I sincerely doubt most black people gave a second look at the Lee statue until someone TOLD them that it was intolerable. There will always be someone offended over something; some of them need to grow the hell up and zip up their __. There's plenty that offends me, but that does not give me leave to go assault it...
I don't agree with the KKK's rhetoric. I don't agree with the Occupy, Antifa's or BLM's rhetoric either. Both are equally stupid. But I signed the dotted line and served 26 years to defend their right to peacefully express it. So anyone who wants to label me can kiss my lilly white tailpiece. And I'm not too old to defend it again...
Antifa and BLM was and has been the aggressor in EVERY SINGLE ONE these incidents. EVERY SINGLE Trump rally, EVER SINGLE protest from the Right ("alt-right" or not). The fights at the DNC over Bernie were between competing LEFTISTS. The only reason there aren't more of them DEAD is because of RESTRAINT on the adult side of the street...however, I fear that, sooner or later, someone is going to get sick and tired of it, and they are gonna fight back with something stronger than a rock. I don't really want a piece of the mindless drone on the street, but I'd give a arm or a leg to get my hands on WHO is REALLY behind this...and anyone who comes for me had better eat their wheaties first...
Well I may have to rethink my position. If you agree with me then I must be missing something! Ha Ha!
Anyway I think people are missing something here (everybody, not white or black people).
1. The people in these protests are mostly white. Even the BLM protests are mostly white, Charlottesville was mostly white. The inner city protest about specific cop shootings were black, but still the protesting is not actually racial if you look at who is participating. I think these people are the disaffected Wall Street protesters looking for a cause. But a lot of people just know something is going wrong. They don't know what to do or who to be mad at, but they are very mad. The right would like to channel that anger as racial, because that's the best way to deflect from the real issue - economic inequality.
2. I think many people voted for Trump as a racial reflex to Obama (at least 20-25% I think) but a lot of people voted for Trump because Hilary sucks. A lot of Dems still want to believe it was the Russians, it was the Clintons.
3. Most of the confederate monuments were erected to reinforce Jim Crow. Most were erected during the period between the 20's - 50's. That is fact. It's also why minorities want them taken down, because they were not erected as monuments to heritage. People like the KKK and Nazis are rallying around them as symbols of white power, which after all is why they were erected in the first place. That's why it's time they come down.
4. KKK marches were always intended as intimidation. Early KKK activity was done with the hood covering the face. When caught, they would claim it wasn't them and the courts would agree. The rallies were a warning to the masses they wanted to intimidate that they had infiltrated the police force and the courts, and now they could proclaim their allegiance to the KKK in public. So I don't really see their protest like other groups that are trying to raise the awareness of their cause. These marches are what I call passive terror incidents, not free speach.
5. Confederates exploited & killed and wanted the right to continue exploiting & killing people like me. I'm sure many of them had their positive moments, but they were still evil people and they did evil things. Germans do not have statues to Hitler, in fact it is against their laws. A lot of Germans have parents and grand parents (even they themselves in some cases) who were Nazis, but they banished this period from their culture because they are acknowledging this evil in their own history. The fact that we want to call our country's slavery period "heritage" and erect monuments to it says we aren't acknowledging the evil (our perspective of course). I don't care what you think, my kid should not have to graduate from General Lee High School. These statues are not history, history is much more complicated.
6. What is happening here is not new. When there is social uncertainty, white people act out racially. People are worried about a shrinking job market. They are worried about demographic shifts. Nationalism and racism are typical results. Look back at all major race riots in America and they were sparked by a majority white system treating minorities unfairly (fact by the way).
7. Finally, white people represent a fairly small minority of the people in the world. We cannot be an island, the world is a global reality. How do you think people see us making this open move to racism and nationalism? the USA was the only first world country that was not destroyed in WWII. We inherited the luxury of having an industrial economy waiting for the war to end that materialized the world. Now countries are becoming more competitive. We have to understand we need to be a part of the global community or the USA will be a thing of the past in the next 40-50 years. (fact too).
:bounce:
