[OFF TOPIC] Politics Thread

[dcro 10,210]

10 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

Statues aren’t history. I don’t know when people started thinking that, but it just simply isn’t all that true. I don’t visit a statue to learn history; I visit a statue to honor the person it’s of. We shouldn’t have statues of people who killed thousands of natives, traded thousands of slavers for profit, fought to keep slavery as an institution, etc. In the 21st century we should have advanced far enough as a society to realize what these people did was incredibly wrong.

 

Yeah, things may be a little different where you come from (although I doubt it), but here in Europe statues mostly get visited by tourists, and of course they are there to learn about history rather than pay respects.

[Olympian1010 8,230]

Just now, dcro said:

 

Unfortunately, it's not how the mainstream media works. Good vs evil sells, while the notion of people having multiple sides to them usually gets left behind. Just like nobody is all-good, no person is all-bad either.

I agree that people should absolutely be looked at from all angles. However, I also understand that we shouldn’t honor people who traded slaves, or killed natives, or fought to keep people enslaved.

 

Its important to remember that even history is political. A lot of us were taught the version of history the state wanted us to know, but they often leave out the parts that make them look bad. “History is written by the victors.” Slaves, natives, and refugees are often overlooked in history because people want to forget the “bad times.”

[Olympian1010 8,230]

3 minutes ago, dcro said:

 

Yeah, things may be a little different where you come from (although I doubt it), but here in Europe statues mostly get visited by tourists, and of course they are there to learn about history rather than pay respects.

Right, so maybe we should teach those tourists about the people who fought against slavery, or native leaders, or people who actually came up from the bottom to become successful.

[Monzanator 4,769]

6 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

I agree that people should absolutely be looked at from all angles. However, I also understand that we shouldn’t honor people who traded slaves, or killed natives, or fought to keep people enslaved.

 

Its important to remember that even history is political. A lot of us were taught the version of history the state wanted us to know, but they often leave out the parts that make them look bad. “History is written by the victors.” Slaves, natives, and refugees are often overlooked in history because people want to forget the “bad times.”

Yeah, like when those Medals of Honor awarded for the Wounded Knee massacre will be revoked? My answer: NEVER

 

 

24 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

Not a Democrat anymore, not my problem 

Well, you still got a problem since the two-party system prevents any reasonable "third way" in US politics Bernie Sanders might have won the elections on twitter but not in real life

[Olympian1010 8,230]

Let me just stress that HBO didn’t banish “Gone With the Wind” from it’s platform. It took it down for the time being, and it will be returned with a prompt that examines and explains the historical context of what is shown/not shown. No one is censoring anything. We should actually be happy that company is being proactive about this issue, and is aiming to educate the populous more on the matter.

 

Again, it’s a little upsetting that people are more upset about a movie being temporarily taken down from a service, than the humans rights abuses that led to company to make that decision.

[Monzanator 4,769]

5 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

Let me just stress that HBO didn’t banish “Gone With the Wind” from it’s platform. It took it down for the time being, and it will be returned with a prompt that examines and explains the historical context of what is shown/not shown. No one is censoring anything. We should actually be happy that company is being proactive about this issue, and is aiming to educate the populous more on the matter.

 

Again, it’s a little upsetting that people are more upset about a movie being temporarily taken down from a service, than the humans rights abuses that led to company to make that decision.

 

Don't you teach about Civil War & Reconstruction in schools? I would have thought it's a very important there especially that USA doesn't have a long history so you don't have to bother with ancient & medieval era like in European history classes. Gone with the Wind is too well known for trying to spin this "history lesson" excuse IMO.

 

If HBO had taken down some LGBT-themed show with no-name actors involved then social media would be raging mad about censorship. It's not that hard to imagine people are upset with censoring Gone with the Wind here IMO.

[Olympian1010 8,230]

1 minute ago, Monzanator said:

Well, you still got a problem since the two-party system prevents any reasonable "third way" in US politics Bernie Sanders might have won the elections on twitter but not in real life

That is probably so, but I can’t be happy with myself if I continue to endorse a clearly broken system. 

[hckošice 15,525]

meanwhile Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh turns 99

 

 

 

[Olympian1010 8,230]

1 minute ago, Monzanator said:

 

Don't you teach about Civil War & Reconstruction in schools? I would have thought it's a very important there especially that USA doesn't have a long history so you don't have to bother with ancient & medieval era like in European history classes. Gone with the Wind is too well known for trying to spin this "history lesson" excuse IMO.

Like @Agger said, “Gone With the Wind” doesn’t really paint a realistic picture of our history. I did learn the history about our Civil War & Reconstruction Era. However, many incredibly important details are left out of history books. We also don’t spend enough time on discussion of those events in history classes. 

[Monzanator 4,769]

1 minute ago, Olympian1010 said:

Like @Agger said, “Gone With the Wind” doesn’t really paint a realistic picture of our history. I did learn the history about our Civil War & Reconstruction Era. However, many incredibly important details are left out of history books. We also don’t spend enough time on discussion of those events in history classes. 

 

We know Hollywood doesn't tell the truth and it's only a dramatised version of events. If US people treat Hollywood movies like the "ultimate and only truth" then it's a bigger problem and has little to do with the subject itself. Ted Bundy & Charles Manson are on the rise again and I wonder how many people thought about watching the Tarantino movie and the Zac Efron role that these guys maybe weren't that bad after all. Hollywood & US media in general have a long history of glorifying crime & murder so I don't expect censoring Gone with the Wind will have any significant impact on how the slavery is viewed IMO.