— Musings —08.30.2020 10:46 PM
Statute of my limitations
I wish people would give as much of a shit about people as they do about statues of people.
— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) August 31, 2020
— Musings —08.30.2020 10:46 PM
I wish people would give as much of a shit about people as they do about statues of people.
— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) August 31, 2020
Far too many people spend more time thinking about what they will wear to a protest than what the protest is about, let alone about workable solutions to the underlying problems. After all, social media “gold stars” matter.
Who knew right wingers were so fond of statues?
https://twitter.com/kinsellawarren/status/1300453885652471809?s=21
Who knew that protesters had so much time and energy to tear down statues to meet some flavor-of-the-day that caught their fancy? Wonder if that time would be better spent volunteering at a homeless shelter, or obtaining gainful employment in an area that actually helps people?
Nah, that would involve actual work, and be much less fun.
Who do you think actually works in homeless shelters pal? I’ll give you a hint. Not your typical right winger.
Who actually works in homeless shelters? Religious people. Not known to vapid leftists.
You just demonstrated your limited knowledge. So called leftists are the vast majority of social workers and homeless shelter worker types. If you stopped trying to impugn anything you perceive as left wing you’d have more credibility.
Exactly. The problem is, there are a lot of people who just love to get frothed-up about anything. They are actively seeking outrage, and love to feel “empowered” by destroying statues, businesses, etc… They get a thrill by being part of the mob.
It is just a statue for now, in Canada, but the destruction occurring in Portland and other places is the natural extension of this same mindset.
Talk about not getting the point and getting it ass backwards. I imagine if you were black or an indigenous person you might feel differently.
I am indigenous, so don’t assume you speak for me or assume to know how I should feel. We are not a homogeneous group that all thinks the same.
It’s not about the statue, it’s about bands of thugs deciding what’s allowed and what isn’t with no regard for the laws of the land.
There’s a lot of brutal history among my own people and the tribes we fought with that make John A look like a choirboy, but I don’t want to see their cultural displays of today all destroyed because it may or may not upset me.
Personally I took Warren’s comment to cut in multiple directions. I thought it was a particularly good take on things.
Imagine, on the other hand, if you were out with your kids in that park when the vandals came rolling along. People on both sides of today’s arguments need to start drawing some lines about.
And caring for one another.
If I was black or indigenous I would not feel liberated by knocking down a statue of someone who died 130 years ago… further, a person who was elected to represent his contemporaries, almost all of whom probably held exactly the same or even harsher views than he did.
After the Residential Schools report came out, a huge number of ordinary Canadians were on board with the whole truth and reconciliation program etc. Shit like this will result in significant numbers of those ordinary Canadians forming a negative view of these protestors, and by extension, the cause they purport to advance.
There are legal means to get public statues removed.
Mob violence never works out well for anyone.
Mob violence by spoiled upper class children like this will work out even less well than that as the mid and long term consequences invariably fall on others.
I agree. All statues should be removed. As Stalin was fond of saying, “No person, no problem”.
Part of my ‘professional’ career was teaching-I wasn’t particularly good at it.
I continue to opine that these statues are opportunities to learn and should never be removed or destroyed. The written records on them should be expanded to provide more depth into the subject including references about racism and all forms of abuse. Using this as an example, what would have been lost if the Concentration Camps were demolished? What would happen if history was expunged. Destroying the past rather than illuminating it, is the work of the stupid or ignorant, and/or simpletons such as vandals.
This is another example of disingenuous conflating in the North American context: those with one agenda delight in conflating BlackLivesMatter with Antifa and other anarchists, while those with another are all for conflating Trump supporters with the KKK and Neo-Nazis. The intellectual hypocrisy is beyond mind boggling.
So are you saying the KKK and neo nazis are not Trump supporters and Trump is not encouraging and condoning their behaviour and that a majority of Trump supporters are okay with that?
And these so called anarchist are mostly a bunch of very young people with too much time on their hands. They are not these heavily armed much older militia types.
William,
Maybe so, but how many of them are reflexively anti-government and anti-establishment? I don’t know for sure but it strikes me that most of them are.
Well, yes they are mostly anti-establishment. But the right wing militias are anti-establishment and armed with high powered weapons. I’ll take the kids with with typical youthful idealistic ideas over the moronic militias.
William,
Can’t argue with logic like that. Agreed.
William,
Nope, certainly almost all KKK and Neo-Nazis are Trump supporters but most Trump supporters are neither. Seriously, do you really think that most of his supporters are out there applauding the KKK and NN? Most of my American relatives, much to my regret and dismay are in fact Republicans.
Another thing is who will win in November? Pandemic, economic and other dissatisfaction and disillusionment favours Biden while law and order misrepresentation of the facts is manna for Trump. Who wins? Depends on who bothers to turn out.
Unfortunately, the Howard Beales of this world vote. They may be totally misinformed, misguided or just plain looney but they’ll vote in droves…
Yes this tearing down history could be problematic for those that make a public display of making common cause with the protests.
Folks may start to take a dim view of them and think the only cause the protest was about was vigilante justice.
Here’s a point to make about the statues. There’s a huge market for indigenous cultural or traditional history and activities – in terms of tourism, and specifically there’s a German fascination. It’s an area that could pay off with increased tourism if we pay and invest in Indigenous cultural activity and history across Canada. Also, we aren’t in a bubble, and I’ve seen a lot of stuff about Canadian history in the UK, in terms of atrocities and the real story behind some of out historic figures –
Bye, bye, Bardish. Back to the backbenches.