I don't know. By much the same token ("mob" justice), The Berlin Wall was officially demolished beginning in June of 1990--ending an era in European history that was pretty bad for a lot of people. However, parts of it had already been wrecked by ordinary citizens as early as November of 1989. I don't think those ordinary citizens were just a pack of "vandals". There was no official vote on taking down the wall at that time and, at first, the border guards tried to repair the damage. It seems to me that what those people did was justified. Over the course of months, as with city commissions and the Confederate statues, East Germany had been dragging its feet on the change. Finally, they gave in to the "mob".Gloominary wrote: ↑Mon Jul 13, 2020 11:25 pm If you unlawfully tear down a statue, you're not a peaceful protestor, you're a vandal, and you should be imprisoned.
These things must be decided democratically, not by a mob.
I'm not a black person, however, I can understand if some black people, to whatever extent or degree, would rather not have Confederate statues up in their home cities and towns. The transatlantic slave trade was a horrible atrocity, accounting for the deaths and servitude of millions. Local governments haven't been forthcoming in taking the statues down. So, as with the Berlin wall, some people took it on themselves.There's nothing necessarily offensive about confederate statues or the confederate flag, they fly the flag to celebrate their culture and states' rights, not to celebrate slavery.
Many of the statues were erected during the Jim Crow era. Most of them were of cheap construction so they could be put up quickly and inexpensively, which is why so many of them break up into pieces when they hit the ground. They're not exactly quality works of art. And while they technically don't "celebrate slavery", they do honor the deeds of men who rebelled against our nation in order to preserve something that was contrary to our very Constitution.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary online, "redskin" is considered offensive. I'll go with what they say. Technically the N-word is simply derived from the Latin word for "black". Surely the term "black" is not offensive. However, it seems to me that the N-word is pretty offensive regardless.As for team names like the redskins, there's nothing necessarily offensive about them either, anymore than the Minnesota Vikings is offensive.
There are definitely some elites who are liberal, however, it's a bit like asking which you would prefer, an elite person who has some compassion toward minorities and poorer citizens or an elite person who thinks everything is as it should be and doesn't have much compassion? Granted some of the liberal elite probably just pay lip service to a lot of things but occasionally they are compelled to act on it.But the liberal elite and their goons don't care about anyone or anything but themselves, so why should anyone care about them, what they think or value?
As far as other names of sports teams like the Chiefs, Braves, Indians, and Blackhawks, they're not defined in the dictionary as offensive, so I would agree with you there that it seems kind of petty to me to demand changing them. So I do agree that some stuff that is going on right now seems to go too far, to the point of just being divisive and counterproductive for no good reason.