[quote=@mdk]
So... thought experiment here. We're talking about the tearing-down of statues, lots of Robert E. Lee good-guy fee-fees, I get it, brilliant commander, brave guy, etc. I'm just gonna list a few quotes.... give 'em a read and riddle me this: [i]would you really want a monument to this guy?[/i] In your state capital -- no, wait, fuck it. In your nation's capital, prominently displayed, we're gonna build a monument to the guy who said this:

[quote=Robert E. Lee]"There is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality."

"You and we are different races. We have between us a broader difference than exists between almost any other two races. Whether it is right or wrong I need not discuss, but this physical difference is a great disadvantage to us both, as I think your race suffers very greatly, many of them, by living among us, while ours suffers from your presence. In a word, we suffer on each side. If this is admitted, it affords a reason at least why we should be separated."

"And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race."

“I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races.”

“There is a natural disgust in the minds of nearly all white people to the idea of indiscriminate amalgamation of the white and black races … A separation of the races is the only perfect preventive of amalgamation, but as an immediate separation is impossible, the next best thing is to keep them apart where they are not already together. If white and black people never get together in Kansas, they will never mix blood in Kansas…”

“Our republican system was meant for a homogeneous people. As long as blacks continue to live with the whites they constitute a threat to the national life. Family life may also collapse and the increase of mixed breed bastards may some day challenge the supremacy of the white man.”[/quote]

The question: [i]would you really wanna let a monument to THAT GUY to stay standing in your capital?[/i]
[/quote]

Well I was gonna wait for more response on this, but it's a whole new page now and let's face it, the opportunity came and went. 

The Robert E. Lee lines I quoted are fake news. They are [i]actually[/i] attributed to Abraham Lincoln. His memorial attracts 7.9 million (presumably racist) visitors each year, about 7.8 million more than the Robert E. Lee statue ever got. If we're quantifying which monument does more to promote a racist, hands down it's Lincoln. 

So the [b]actual[/b] question is, are we gonna tear down the Lincoln Memorial, or are we gonna stop pretending this is a moral issue?

And just to clarify, now that I'm not playing pretend anymore -- [i]I don't care what you do with your statues.[/i] If the people of Poughkeepsie want a statue of Dig 'Em the Smacks frog, that's their business. Wanna tear it down, tear it down. I do not care about statues. Of all the things we've had riots about this year, statues seem like one of the more ridiculous options. But I guess we had to have SOMETHING controversial to riot about, now that the Russia narrative is dead.