American Talibantifa

There is very little philosophical difference between the 2001 demolition by the Taliban of the ancient Buddhas in Bamiyan and the recent destruction of Confederate statues and monuments across the South.  Nor is there an appreciable difference between the desired destruction of the Giza Pyramids and the demand to do the same to the Confederate Stone Mountain memorial in Georgia.   Both represent the Orwellian imperative to remove unpopular or inconvenient history.  Both were/are perpetrated by violent, thuggish, ignorant mobs who are collectively and individually too brainwashed or stupid to understand the portent of their actions.

As the Taliban declared such monuments "ancient sites built by infidels", so now the American version is that monuments to the sons of the Confederacy were built by treasonous and hateful racists.  Of course, the Civil War, in which my great grandfather fought for the North, and died a young man of his wounds, was about much more than slavery.  The issues surrounding the war are, as any student of history knows, incredibly complex.  But, like so many other things, the Left desires a "bumper sticker" explanation that plays to emotion rather than understanding and knowledge.  

Some things don't fit on a bumper sticker.  Slave owners were exclusively Democrats.  Southern secessionists were Democrats, supported by pro-slavery "Peace Democrats" in the North.  After the war and through the last century, the Ku Klux Klan was comprised entirely of Democrats, one of whom served in the US Congress until 2010.  Despite the unquestioned cruelty of slavery, more Black Americans fought for the South than the North.  Confederate Veterans were declared US War Veterans in 1958, despite the "Institute for Southern Studies" trying to convince us otherwise.  

Perhaps the alt-left would like to forcibly collect repayment of the VA benefits of the last surviving Civil War pensioner, the disabled child of a Confederate soldier?  Or sue the descendants of Sylvester Magee, a black man who fought for Mississippi, and believed to be the last living freed slave (he died in 1971).  

Funny, the American Talibantifa seems to be rather ambivalent toward modern slavery, nearly the exclusive purview of their besties, the muhammedans.  (Though there are some black professional athletes that claim themselves to be slaves, or at least indentured servants, to the tune of being paid several hundred thousands of dollars per game, it might be worth noting.  Oh the humanity.)  

So what is the end game of this?  Ask Marcuse and Alinsky.  And Brother Barack and Sister Hillary.  Demonizing of the Founding Fathers as hateful, bigoted slaveowners who could not possibly have built a proper model for government.  Replace the Constitution, of course, with a new document full of Social Justice and Economic Justice.  Where the heterosexual white male is persona non grata, guilty of all manner of oppression and hate just for being white and male and straight.  

Ponder these:  We can be subject to lectures about how hateful anyone must be who does not condemn everything Southern and Confederate, by none other than Albert W. Gore Jr., whose father was a proud Segregationist and Dixiecrat.  

And today, in Boston, where there is a university  named after the great champion of free speech, Justice Louis Brandeis, Mayor Marty Walsh and other city officials are actively suppressing the Constitutional free expression of law-abiding Americans because they label those with contrary views "hate groups," and declare them unwelcome in their city.  

The ability to speak one's mind, to challenge the political orthodoxies of the times, to criticize the policies of the government without fear of recrimination by the state is the essential distinction between life in a free country and in a dictatorship. 

If only.   By the way, what's the latest on those Russian hacks?  And any word on the IT managers for the DNC?  URR here.  

Comments

[Abe]

When I think about my many years working with what some call "ethnic' peoples, with few exceptions, the rest of them will create as big a disaster in the US as happened in Zimbabwe and other places without us terrible "whites".

[Quartermaster]

The left has gone insane. The facts matter not. All that matters is their fantasies.

[SFC Dunlap 173d RVN]

@QM - totally agree

[SFC Dunlap 173d RVN]

...and is it me or does the taliban look like Jerry Colona (Bob Hope sidekick), in a green turban. Just sayin'.

[Paul L. Quandt]

Thanks for a thoughtful post.

Paul L. Quandt

[Steven Vina]

What is the source for your statement that more blacks fought for the South than the North. I would love to site that as it turns so many sacred cows on their heads.

[ultimaratioregis]

@Steven Vina,

James MacPherson provides the number of 10,000 black combat troops under arms out of 60,000 that served in the Confederate Army officially. This number is almost certainly low, as there are anecdotal accounts of blacks serving alongside whites in Rebel forces since the war began. While technically illegal, the accounts remain, and are far to numerous to be discounted.

While the Union had a large number of what became "US Colored Troops", the numbers allowed to serve in combat were a small fraction of that. Few of the USCT regiments were allowed to serve in combat, though the famous action at Battery Wagner depicted in the movie is certainly one of them. The 54th Massachusetts mustered less than a thousand there, however. The Crater at Petersburg is another noteworthy action. The USCTs fought heroically, though often handicapped by abysmal officer leadership. But even the in the famous battle at Petersburg, Ferraro's Division only comprised a few thousand men. The overwhelming majority of USCTs were employed in support, guard, stevedore, and non-combat duties. This was even true of units raised and equipped for combat.

The March 1865 Confederate authorization for 300,000 black troops to be mustered into service was never implemented because Lee surrendered a few weeks later. But it is interesting that the South was almost as willing (perhaps more at the end of the war) to allow black soldiers to fight as was the North.