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Comment by celticninja | Hacker News Reader

You are still keeping statues of people who don't deserve statues though. Why would you put a Confederate general statue anywhere as opposed to a union general statue, given they freed the slaves. Unless of course you want to remember those who tried to keep slavery because you hold racist views.

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Well some people think Robert E. Lee handled the defeat of the war in a noble way. While I’ve heard many perspectives, I’m not sure of the origins of the war or the implications. President Lincoln was a legitimate racist, so his opinion compared to a slave owner’s mind are both horrific representations of humanity. If it was solely for slavery, and there was no other way to end it, then it was worth 600,000 Americans lives.

I am, however, for keeping all statues. They aren’t the reason for wealth inequality or racism. It’s a diversion than only helps the powerful.

Other parts of the world ended slavery (when?) without civil wars, which strongly suggests there were other ways to end it.

Exactly. First of all, if you look at the history of those statues, you'll find that virtually all of them were put up not to remember history, but they were put up during the height of Jim Crow to glorify a history that never was, and as a reminder to "who was back in charge" after Reconstruction.

Also, as has been repeated many times, "There are no statues of Hitler or Nazi generals in Germany. There are memorials to the victims of their ideology of racial supremacy."

There's plenty of statues of other generals from history who were far from angels. Napoleon, Genghis Khan, statues dedicated to Viking conquerors, conquistadors, etc. Putting the statues on a historical battlefield is a good compromise that doesn't erase history. It puts it in a educational, historical setting. Then we can focus on the future, which is important. We have to move forward.

museums exist

You would do well to understand that all of those mentioned were the 'winners' or 'victors', the US has statues of the losers. Statues of people who wanted to subjugate and own other people. There is no redeeming people who fought to retain the right to own other people.

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