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Cake day: June 4th, 2025

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  • I’d really like to see a rework of terms that separates the corporate conglomerates from say the local pizza place. Yes both make money from the labor of others, but the average person has way more in common with a local buisness owner than Bezos.

    I personally thinks this is something people get caught up on. A small buisness owner could be less well off than say an electrical engineer. They struggle to hate someone they see as like them. Which is truthfully the case a small buisness owner is more like the average worker these days than they are like a national corporation.

    Truthfully I don’t know how this is navigated by modern theory. I think the distinction would truthfully only help warm people up to the idea of dealing with the wealthy




  • I think it’s a big problem how much we store that never gets to be seen. If we are going to curate objects they should be accessible and curated. Rotated in and out of display as necessary.

    I never see people arguing we should hide statues of Ceaser or any other Roman emperor away in a warehouse. Yet he did many many horrible things in his time. We seem to be able to acknowledge both his fundemental flaws and his impact on history.

    Scale this down to a local city, and knowing about those who founded it or influenced it is important too. Seems a waste to lock statues of those away forever. They don’t need to be placed prominently or honored. They need to be contextualized and appropriately placed.

    There’s a lot of info you as a viewer can get conveyed from historic statues. Was it built before or after death? Who commissioned it? How is the figure positioned? How does the symbology compare to the real history? It’s hard to capture these from photos and text alone.

    Now if we broaden this out to the discussion of other statues maybe we can get a better idea. The example of the UK town statues we’re discussing concerns statues that there are probably one copy of and that changes things.

    If we look at say Robert E. Lee, no I don’t think we need to constantly see hundreds of his statues from the 1950s. The 50s in many US states hits that line of historic by state legal standards, so destruction is not an option. I say 1 type specimen per state museum is all that is necessary and the rest could go in storage. Even then if you have an example that’s even older then by all means mothball the younger ones.

    We also need to tackle what you define as a monument. Displayed and contextualized in a museum isn’t a monument to me. That is where artifacts belong. In the case of the gardens, that may be the only place that city has, we would need more info, but removing it and placing it in a less prominent position may be the most feasible option for that city.

    Finally, history should not only be regulated to books. If you study history through literature only you lose the story entirely. For large portions of human history writing was for the elite and their administration. That is a very narrow view of history, and in many cases those writings do not give the more mundane details. Not to mention even in a history textbook you are relying on someone else’s interpretation of primary evidence. Usually an overview lacks the full nuance. Back to the statue analysis, the symbology of the piece is usually not written down by the makers. We have to analyze that independently. I don’t think this should only be accessible to researchers.



  • arrow74@lemmy.zipto Memes of Production@quokk.austates rights
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    2 days ago

    I’ve dedicated my life to history and will never encourage anyone to forget. While painful it is important to remember.

    The moving of the statues from a prominent place and the contextualization of their actions is the best way to handle it. Destroying or forgetting our history will get us no where. Understanding it is the way.

    As for the destruction of statues many of these themselves are also historic, and that is not appropriate to simply destroy. Remove them from prominent places and provide signage. Modern statues however can be trashed and new ones of these terrible people should not be built.



  • You know something that I found provided some context is the American Civil Rights movement began in 1954 and didn’t see the passage of the Civil Rights Act until 1964.

    This was a time when people were being murdered over the color of their skin and it took nearly a decade to achieve their goals. Also it wasn’t as nonviolent as reported either.

    But you are right things got really bad really fast. I protested at first, but have left my country and live in Europe now. I am only a student and will eventually have to go back, but I figured in 2 years when my masters degree is finished things will have either gotten so bad I can claim assylum or they have gotten better and I can go home.

    I didn’t want to risk being drafted into some bullshit war. When I do go back and see family I try to keep involved, but I’m afraid things have gotten too bad to fix. After following the recent ICE shootings, next time I’m back I plan on getting a weapons permit in my state and using it to open carry at protests from now on.


  • Please re-read this from my comment

    If you are saying this as someone outside the country that’s a bit different. Obviously if you are not there you are not responsible to organize.

    I don’t expect you to come here and fix things if you aren’t from here. Your rant was unnecessary.

    People are doing something and efforts have been increasing through out this term. Unfortunately Republicans control all branches of government and are morally bankrupt ghouls that will never go after their own. Mid-terms elections give a good chance to change that, if they happen. If they don’t happen I expected things to kick off, because then all hope of a peaceful resolution will be gone.

    But I’m not going to let you ignore the efforts that already exist either. People are protesting, more and more each week. People were out protesting at -12C. They are plenty determined. I’m not going to criticize them for not forfeiting their lives to start and armed rebellion. The people are mobilizing, our elected officials refuse to listen. Things will continue to grow as they have been, sorry this isn’t enough for you.


  • Kinda hilarious that you critique others for not organizing while you yourself also are not organizing.

    Your criticism is you asked if there were protests, nobody organized them, and now you complain no one has organized one.

    You can organize too you know.

    If you are saying this as someone outside the country that’s a bit different. Obviously if you are not there you are not responsible to organize.

    Anyway there are protests that have been happening, look at minneapolis. There have been quite a few protests, they need to go further, but they have been growing and increasing in frequency for a while now


  • Not “anywhere in the south” and no I’m not just talking about the cities. One of the blue-est parts of Georgia is the poorest and most rural. Not as blue as Atlanta of course, but still blue

    I recommend traveling to the south before making sweeping generalizations. Some of the most extreme views I’ve encountered in the South I’ve found in states like Pennsylvania and parts of upstate New York too.

    This isn’t a geography issue. It’s an education and culture issue


  • I grew up in the South and have reflected on this often. Growing up the history of the Confederacy was “white washed” (literally and figuratively). It was always taught as slavery was bad, but the war was about “states rights”.

    Obviously that is all untrue the war was about slavery, but this is what was taught for generations. The Confederate flag was of course tied to this lie, and companies ran with it. I remember seeing Confederate flag branded merchandise in Walmarts, it was at football games, and of course on TV. It wasn’t being displayed in a negative light by companies then, they saw dollars and helped push the symbol.

    Overall it’s a good change that the flag is being dropped. The Confederacy is not something to be idolized. I do understand why some people were so very attached to the “heritage” aspect of it though. That lie was pushed before my great grandparents were born. Some people are unwilling or unable to critically analyze their beliefs and change them with new information.

    It’s kinda interesting how people can be both incredibly adaptable and at the same time incredibly cemented in taught cultural traditions. And if you haven’t guess by now I do have an anthropology degree lol