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Monuments, Memorials, and the Mob Mentality
Townhall.com ^ | June 18, 2020 | Evan Berryhill

Posted on 06/18/2020 4:57:59 AM PDT by Kaslin

We’ve reached a breaking point with cancel culture.

We’ve seen extremists topple and deface historic statues of Christopher Columbus and Sir Winston Churchill. Thousands have signed a petition to remove a statue in Boston featuring Lincoln and a freed slave. Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben are now canceled.

Cancel culture has come for the children’s show “Paw Patrol.” They tried to cancel Domino’s Pizza simply for tweeting thanks to White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany 8 years ago for a compliment she tweeted at them. Next on the list will be classic shows like Seinfeld, characters like Barney Fife, and monuments for Washington and Jefferson.

Don’t be mistaken, actions like the banning of the Confederate flag by NASCAR was a move in the right direction. That flag is commonly viewed as representative of hatred in America. It’s entirely fair for businesses and companies to decide that allowing the Confederate flag to fly allows the wrong message to be perpetuated.

The same goes for the removal of statues dedicated to Confederate generals. For those on the right who claim to hate the snowflake culture that thrives on participation trophies, isn’t that exactly what these statues represent? Rather than allowing Confederate monuments and statues to be brought down in protest, cities could peaceably take them down and place them in a civil war museum where their past display would be taught as a part of their history.

But where does it stop? The mob is no longer merely seeking to rectify racial injustice. They’ve commandeered a movement in favor of the preferred cancel culture. The short answer is, for the mob it will never stop. They have been indoctrinated to hate America and view it as the root of all evil.

We’ve reached the point of damnatio memoriae – a Latin phrase meaning condemnation of memory. It’s the total erasure of something from history as though it never existed.

What else could explain defacing the Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Regiment Memorial honoring the first all-volunteer black regiment in the Union Army? Think about that. A memorial was destroyed honoring black individuals fighting under the American flag and carrying the American flag in the Civil War.

Only the complete hatred of America could explain the defacing of a statue in Philadelphia dedicated to Matthias Baldwin, an American abolitionist. This was a person talking about black lives mattering 150 years before it became trendy to post a black square on social media. The destruction certainly wasn’t in the name of advancing African American causes.

We’re seeing the Lincoln Memorial defaced, yet a statue in Seattle of Vladimir Lenin, a man in the conversation with Hitler and Stalin when it comes to evil, completely unscathed. There’s no rhyme or reason for the destruction.

We’ve advanced beyond removing Confederate memorials, statues, and flags to a predominately white, uninformed group of liberals destroying any statue they come across with zero consistency. There’s an obsession with attacking history without realizing in many cases they’re attacking good history.

Would these people not have spray-painted graves at Arlington Cemetery if there wasn’t a fence? Would we be outraged if such a thing occurred? I can assure you that a gold star mother would not be pleased to show up and see the grave of her child defaced. If you think it’s far-fetched, just look at the World War 2 Memorial in Washington, DC or the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the American Revolution in Philadelphia.

Just as no person is perfect, nations aren’t perfect. That includes America. Luckily, we live in a society where those past and current imperfections can be discussed openly, reflected upon, learned from, and rectified in the future to help form “a more perfect union.”

It is an impossible standard to meet when you attempt to hold people from centuries ago to the current standards of today, which have evolved over those years. Heaven forbid we’re judged by the standards of the world 500 years from now when they look back on us.

Removing Confederate monuments is one thing, but if we continue down the current path of advocating for the cancelation of Paw Patrol and George Washington how far will it go?

Learning about our history, the way it has evolved, and what it represents is important. It’s important to understand our mistakes of the past. Yet, all of those capitulating to the mob hoping to be spared, will still become future targets. The mob has already canceled those simply for daring to offer a dissenting opinion. If we don’t reign in the cancel culture now, we risk having nothing left.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: 1stamendment; cancelculture; freespeech; monuments

1 posted on 06/18/2020 4:57:59 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Welcome to the Divided States of Amerika!


2 posted on 06/18/2020 5:01:33 AM PDT by HighSierra5
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To: Kaslin

But every damn TV commercial has a black promoting the product. What the hell is their marketing target?


3 posted on 06/18/2020 5:04:14 AM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: Kaslin

Here is the fault in his argument. When you say it’s alright to get rid of the Confederate flag and monuments the mob has already won. They have gotten you to take their side. It’s like the old ‘would you have sex with me for a million dollars joke’. The mob has already determined you’re persuadable now it’s just a matter of how far you can be pushed and what you’ll accept.

Some of us here said months ago they wouldn’t stop at the statues of Lee and Jackson. You either have free speech, a national history and laws or you don’t. The mob has won and decided they are the law and only their version of speech and history will exist while people like this guy are still negotiating. What he doesn’t understand is he’s not negotiating a compromise he’s negotiating the terms of surrender. Unconditional surrender.


4 posted on 06/18/2020 5:14:52 AM PDT by redangus
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To: Kaslin

Among the things that youngsters and teens do in order to feel grown-up:
stay up past their bedtime, put on makeup, smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol and take drugs, skip school, have sex,
go to music festivals, and protest marches with angry unison chanting, burn police cars,


5 posted on 06/18/2020 5:25:19 AM PDT by Montaignes Cat
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To: Kaslin
Some of the best information about this subject is “Crowds and Power” by Elias Cannetti

One of his (many) real, right-on observations is that ‘people will do things in a crowd that they would never do alone.’

Every day, looking at the rioters and looters... I remember this.

6 posted on 06/18/2020 5:31:53 AM PDT by SMARTY ("Nobility is defined by the demands it makes on us - by obligations, not by rights".)
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To: HighSierra5

The geographical entity formally known as the United States is no more. Three boxes are gone:
1. Soapbox- censored, see Google, YouTube & Facebook;
2. Ballot box - been corrupted for years, see Democrats;
3. Jury box - are you kidding?, see Judge Sullivan & little Johnny Roberts;
And now,
The mob has opened Box #4. They have started a war and they will not stop until we are destroyed forever. Lincoln had less provocation than President Trump to put down an insurrection.


7 posted on 06/18/2020 5:40:34 AM PDT by NTHockey (My rules of engagement #1: Take no prisoners. And to the NSA trolls, FU)
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To: redangus

“Some of us here said months ago they wouldn’t stop at the statues of Lee and Jackson. “

The statues are gone or will soon be gone. Buildings are also under attack such as the Market House town hall in Fayetteville, NC which served as a slave market in the early 1800’s. The next round of purging will probably see the removal of any historic building having any association with slavery and the elimination of Confederate cemeteries. Then the destroyers will go for the founding fathers. Twenty years from now I expect the Washington Monument to have been renamed and the Jefferson memorial leveled and replaced.


8 posted on 06/18/2020 5:41:57 AM PDT by Soul of the South (The past is gone and cannot be changed. Tomorrow can be a better day if we work on i)
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To: redangus

Agree with all you have said.

I would never have believed I would see the level of pure cowardice exhibited by people who are allegedly responsible individuals in positions of responsibility.

How on earth do they live with themselves.


9 posted on 06/18/2020 5:46:09 AM PDT by billyboy15
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To: Kaslin

If, as Santayana said, those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it, I think it follows logically that those hell-bent on erasing history have every intention of repeating it.


10 posted on 06/18/2020 5:53:22 AM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Qui me amat, amat et canem meum.)
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To: redangus

“”Don’t be mistaken””

I’m sure we’re all getting tired of the “don’t get me wrong” rhetoric...then knock it off already! Why does everyone feel honor bound to APOLOGIZE in advance for what they say or think or write? If they feel it’s necessary, then DON’T write the cotton pickin’ article!


11 posted on 06/18/2020 6:42:26 AM PDT by Thank You Rush
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To: SMARTY

Thanks for the mention.

Online at

http://www.asounder.org/resources/canetti_crowdsandpower.pdf


12 posted on 06/18/2020 7:03:51 AM PDT by pilgrim
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Bump


13 posted on 06/18/2020 6:59:48 PM PDT by foreverfree
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