What is your reasoning for thinking his anger is based on anything OTHER than a kinship for the Confederacy (which, again, is the cause they were protesting)?
It seems like every time some angry jackass stands up for a symbol of racism and human bondage there are countless commenters demanding we give him the benefit of the doubt.
Would you do the same if someone directed a similar angry rant at a couple of people protesting a monument built to honor the Third Reich?
I am not assuming anything. He could still be unaware of the racist implications of those monuments. And I agree that there’s a good chance that he’s racist. But maybe he’s not. Maybe he’s just ignorant. Again, he hasn’t done anything racist in the video.
And in case of ever encountering someone rasict or neo nazi or whatever: instead of mocking them on some internet forum, maybe show some compassion. That might actually solve your problems.
The protesters in this encounter WERE the ones showing civility and compassion. They even told the (presumably Christian) man “Jesus loves you!” and he threw it back at them with hatred and profanity.
I respect anyone who has the patience to try to engage the bigots who are actively calling for their eradication abd enslavement, but I’m not sure why the onus always seems to be on progressives to understand where the racists are coming from instead of the other way around.
And the rest of us think he is an asshole.
Yes, but I wasn’t talking about the protesters. I was talking about the OP and the commenters here. Hence the " instead of mocking them on some internet forum" remark.
Yeah, but when God made those stories up, the audience was way less savvy.
If someone actually wants to engage me in a good faith discussion about the pros and cons of the Confederacy then I’m more than willing to do so.
But in general my position is fuck slavery, fuck the Confederacy, fuck the Nazis and fuck the apologists who refuse to acknowledge how fundamentally evil all those things were.
You forgot to mention ‘fuck the angry man in the video’.
He falls into the latter category.
Well, there we differ in opinion. I think the man can be turned to the light side of the Force. I sense there’s still good in him.
Good for you, go change his mind. I’ll wait over here.
I have my own problems here with all these Zwarte Piet proponents.
So this monument is still being built?
If that dude “loves his country”, the USA, then why is he in favor of a monument being built to another country, the CSA? Texas is in a weird position with regards to the Civil War, but for the rest of the south they need to stop pretending they are something other than the United States, and stop the nostalgia for a country that no longer exists-- you can’t be a rebel and a patriot at the same time.
And die quickly.
I beg to differ. I’m pretty sure Jesus was just a hipster with a spray on tan.
Well, sure, he may be ignorant of all of that. But do you think it’s likely that’s the case, and, if so, why on earth is he this upset and vitriolic toward the people peacefully protesting? I’m all for the benefit of doubt, but I don’t think it serves us to ignore context.
But of course you’re right, there is certainly some good in him, as there is in everyone. Or nearly everyone. But there is also obviously bile and anger and nonsense in him, which is why he is being made the target of mockery.
It’s the same reason why urban and/or Democratic voters were supposed to bend over backward to understand and empathize with the rural areas who voted for Trump instead of the other way around. They’re the “real” America we’re supposed to better understand.
Yes, that’s part of what makes this appeal to “erasing history” even more absurd. The protesters aren’t even trying to get some late 19th/early 20th Century monument removed, they’re just trying to prevent a brand-new monument to the cause of slavery from being built on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in the year 2018.
I mean…yeah, he didn’t beat the protestors to death with their own signs, but apart from that, what in the man’s behavior convinces you that he’s amenable to a frank and equal exchange of ideas?
Nobody with that level of investment in the issue is unaware of the racist implications of Confederate monuments.
It’s profoundly fucked up.
The shouty gentleman is behaving as if he believes he is personally under attack by forces inimical to his way of life (Democrats, immigrants, people holding signs, etc.). It’s not the USA or the CSA he loves, it’s an imaginary country where he is powerful and everybody agrees with him. He’s enraged by everything that threatens his fantasy.
Yeah, or “your” dick…
