Why do I keep seeing distinctions being drawn between “evil
and morally repugnant members of the alt-right” and “participants of the
Unite the Right rally who were there to protest the removal of a statute of
Confederate general Robert E. Lee.” THOSE CATEGORIES OVERLAP 100%. If you tried
to draw a Venn Diagram of these two groups of people, you would have one single
circle. The Civil War was fought by Confederates for the explicit and singular purpose
of maintaining the practice of slavery. That is a fact. [1]
All Confederate generals, Robert E. Lee included, dedicated their professional
lives to upholding the morally indefensible practice of enslaving other human
beings. So, if you think removing a statute of a person who dedicated his life
to that cause is something to be PROTESTED, YOU ARE AN EVIL, MORALLY REPUGNANT
HUMAN BEING. NO FURTHER SEMANTICS OR RHETORICAL TRICKS TO PRESERVE YOUR
WHITE-FRAGILITY REQUIRED.
[1] Unfortunately,
our public education system has in many ways failed to teach this FACT for
generations. Thus, it is possible (although not really defensible, because
hello, the internet exists, so you have access to education, if you seek it
out) that some people believe the false narrative that the Civil War was fought
over “state rights.” (Again, hardly defensible, in that it would seem to
require almost zero critical thought to connect the “state rights” theory to
slavery... I mean, what “state rights” exactly do you think the country was
divided over, if you are buying the “state rights” bullshit?). Under such
circumstances, the people protesting the removal of a Confederate statute are not
so much evil and morally repugnant as they are unforgivably ignorant. In my
world-view, on this particular topic, this is a distinction without a
difference.
