I wouldn't compare Confederate soldiers to the groups you listed. I would however say that Antifa is nearly identical in comparison to those groups. None of that is the point I was making in my post. The point is I respect people who are willing to put it all on the line. Whether or not I agree with their personal beliefs is irrelevant. So far Antifa has put nothing on the line. Soon as they start getting killed in large numbers, should they stand up and fight, keep coming back for more, they'll have my respect for doing so even though I would obviously not support their reasons for fighting as they are fascists. Until then they are just a group of punks who have yet to meet any resistance.
Stop reading Breitbart, it's rotting your brain. So Nazis & Taliban who put it all on the line are like Antifa who don't put it all on the line? Do you even read your arguments before clicking "post reply"?
Antifa is nearly an exact representation of ISIS and Taliban. Goal is the same, tactics being pretty much the same with one major difference. Antifa isn't getting shot off those statues. It's a silly battle tactic similar to some lunatic blowing himself up in some cafe, but the dude in the cafe did die for what he believed in. They use the tools they have. We kill them, they keep fighting. Tip of the hat, we'll keep killing you, but tip of the hat. Now as soon as a few Antifa types get shot off one of those statues, shot dead while rioting and looting, and come back day after day for some more...tip of the hat motherfuckers, we're gonna keep killing ya, but tip of hat. Until then just a bunch of punks with no real skin in the game, no courage of their convictions. Want my respect? Put it all on the line. Win or lose, just cause or not, allies or enemies, you have my respect.
ANTIFA is not the point of this discussion so not sure why we are talking about some radical group that holds no military or political position in this country. Your respect and admiration for your enemy is one thing... ....building them monuments and naming schools and streets after them like heroes is quite another. Many U.S. servicemen in Vietnam spoke about the fighting spirit and tenacity of their enemy but they never said "We should build a monument to these glorious fighters and rename our bases in their honor. In 1777 I was not aware of Cornwallis Square or statues of the vicious British Generals who murdered any rebels or their supporters being put up all over the country.
I clearly stated in a post that it's time for the statues to come down. It's the manner in which they're coming down that I take issue with. Mob violence is not acceptable for the removal, simple as that.
If the protests were peaceful and all koombaya and shit you wouldn't be entertaining the idea of them coming down let's be honest.
People forget all the peaceful requests that were met with threats of violence: It was during the Virginia Festival of the Book, a series of readings and events held every year in Albemarle County, which includes Charlottesville. At a talk given by the author and historian Edward Ayers, a Charlottesville city councilor, Kristin Szakos, asked about the city’s Confederate monuments. She wondered whether the city should discuss removing them. People around her gasped. “You would have thought I had asked if it was O.K. to torture puppies,” she recalled during a 2013 conversation on BackStory, a podcast supported by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. The response to her comment was heated, and swift. Ms. Szakos said she received threats via phone and email. “I felt like I had put a stick in the ground, and kind of ugly stuff bubbled up from it,” she said.
If we are talking Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, as is the title of this thread, yeh, you can put me down as being opposed to removal regardless of how peaceful and kumbaya the process is.