Michael Ramirez for June 22, 2020

The Taliban, Isis and BLM. Ramirez thinks they are basically the same thing. What does that say about him?

Michael Ramirez is utterly disconnected from historical reality.

The Buddhist statues destroyed by the Taliban went back 1,600 years and predated the existence of the Islamic faith that was perverted to justify their destruction (in violation of the standards of most Muslims, who are more moderate, such as Malala Yousafzai).

The ancient city of Nimrud goes back more than THREE THOUSAND years, certainly far longer than the Islamic faith that was perverted to justify their destruction (in violation of the standards of most Muslims, who are more moderate, such as Malala Yousafzai).

In contrast, the KKKonfederacy, and the flag created to represent it, existed barely FOUR SHORT YEARS. It is a shorter time than most popular fads. It is half the length of the Obama presidency. The statues were erected many decades after the end of the war, during the era of Jim Crow and the rise of the KKK, as a weapon of terrorism against African Americans.

The statues have nothing to do with heritage. They are ONLY about celebrating treason, armed rebellion against the United States, and the slavery on which the KKKonfederacy was based.

For Ramirez to try to equate these symbols of terrorism with true cultural icons from hundreds and thousands of years ago is a testament to the depravity of his own racist denial.

The original cancel culture was putting up all those statues of “heroes” to erase the fact that the Confederate traitors lost the Civil War.

“One of these things is not like the others…..”

Mr Ramirez supports an individual that would want much of that negative history to repeat.

Columbus started the tradition of slaughtering the native population out of greed and cruelty. This tradition lasted for centuries and saw the wiping out out of almost an entire continent of people and their history. Ramirez compares this guy to the Buddha. If this isn’t proof of a sick mind, what is ?

What you’re all missing is Ramirez defending art. Perhaps he could have removed the extremist tag and cited the great castration or the U.S. attack in Iraq, but is otherwise making a fair point.

More Payne level stupidity and false equivalence.

As long as all the lying, traitorous, Johnny Reb’s come down it’s all good.

I’m sure all the Italians are just thrilled to see what the liberal mob have done to the statues of the person credited with discovering America. If you don’t like Columbus, work towards having a discussion about what he did right, and what he did that you don’t like, in other words a fair and balanced presentation of the man. Is that so hard to grasp?

Confederate monuments to a failed insurrection in support of slavery are not “national monuments”.

An odd thing about the American Civil War; it’s the only war in history I can think of where the losers were glorified as much as the winners.

I couldn’t agree more. Only a child doesn’t understand that tearing down a statue of Francis Scott Key or Columbus or desecrating graves of Confederate soldiers shows the same ignorance and immaturity as burning the scrolls in Alexandria.

Sorry Mike, seems to me that folks are remembering Columbus just fine. That’s how they know Columbus isn’t worthy of a statue making a hero out of him.

And, of course, you remember Ramirez’s strong criticism of the Iraqis who pulled down and destroyed statutes of Saddam Hussein—not to mention his trenchant criticism of the removal of statues of Stalin and Lenin and his outrage at the renaming of Stalingrad and Leningrad. You remember when he cautioned us that those people were, by “erasing history,” dooming us to repeat it.

Oh, wait … I guess I missed those criticisms. Consistency, Ramirez?!

Snarkiness aside, no one is suggesting erasing history. How about teaching it honestly and not celebrating those who were, even by the moral standards of their time, horribly monstrous individuals? (Columbus was condemned and briefly imprisoned for his treatment of indigenous people in the Caribbean. And I don’t think that selling nine and ten year old girls into sexual slavery was condoned by the Catholic Church even in Columbus’s time.)

It says he drank the kool aid and needs to be canceled.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Attributed to George Santayana.

Ramierez bastardization turns it into nonsense. If Columbus, George Pickett, Bobby Lee, et al. were forgotten, their monuments would not torn down. These monuments are torn down by those remembering their sins.

Not exactly equivalent. But all three of these examples do have something in common. They are all groups who impose their views on others and take unlawful actions in doing so. They are no friends to civil democracy.

“Hi, I’m Michael Ramirez and I hate America.”

There is art and then there is “art”. Not everything made by men has to be (or can be) preserved. I would put much of the uninspired US statuary of the early 20th century in the category of not worthy of preservation. You don’t preserve refrigerator art forever.

You can’t destroy history. You can, however, be ashamed of it rather than glorifying with statues.

“Those who destroy history are doomed to repeat it.” Now that’s ironic.

Must have a lot of art dealers in the South?

The only legacy being destroyed Michael is that of the KKK. It is really presumptuous of you to try to group these lost historical artifacts with the bigotry and prejudiced that these Confederate monuments represent.

The Bamiyan Buddhas were a pair of 1,500 year old massive monuments, and a testament to human engineering.

The statues being pulled down are generic run of the mill statues. There is zero comparison.

If you want an American comparison, maybe you can speak of the Statue of Liberty, or Mount Rushmore. But you have a serious problem of valuing art, culture, and history if you call a handful of generic park statues “monuments”

Two are historical religious sites that represented the people of that culture. The third is a European man who represented the begininng of the violent colonization of other cultures, enslavement, genocide, and opportunist theft of their wealth in the New World. Yeah, I can see how Ramirez can defend the third monument.

The power of mob mentality.. And, afraid we have not seen the worst of it yet. trump, like Hitler.. has the oratory skill to engage his base.. and America is pushing back.. with both sides losing.

Yet as Republicans attempt to “correct” the history books, Ramirez and his ilk don’t believe that destroys history nor dooms them to repeat it…

Columbus was neither a religious symbol or an ancient archeologic ruin. had he simply made his voyage and returned with the findings, he should be admired. However, he immediately moved for making as much money from his efforts as possible and spearheaded a campaign of pillaging, genocide and one of the worst styles of slavery in the world. However, I cold be wrong and Ramirez might be one of those people who will forget WWII unless he has a stature of Hitler to look at. Without stature of Hitler, he may just start thinking that a Holocaust is the thing to do to solve our national problems.

One historian has come up with a workable compromise, I believe. Leave the Confederate statues, but put up memorials to lynched blacks where the lynchings occurred. Balance returns to the Force.

Nothing. He knows they are not alike but they do thing alike.

Columbus? Like Washington, Jefferson and others, they were men of their times. Only a few people today would support taking down their monuments. Most people know it is not fair to judge people in history by today;s standards.

Taking down monuments and statues, some made 50 years or more after the Civil war, to the Confederacy should be demanded by most Americans. The Confederate president and generals quit the U.S., attacked the U.S., Made war on the U.S., invaded the U.S., and killed U.S. soldiers. We do not make statues to Hirohito, Hitler or Mussolini. Nor should we to any enemy of the U.S.

What a surprise … Ramirez displays his cultural illiteracy!

What about the statues of Lenin and Stalin that were destroyed after the fall of the USSR? Are those not more similar to the actions of BLM, as opposed to the actions of terrorists? In that they target people who are more universally thought of as evil?

Huh? I’m not going to cry over freaking Robert E. Lee defending slavery, hell no!!!

It says he is smarter than you!

Exactly right!

I think anyone who has followed the comics of Ramirez has quite a bit of evidence that his message often tends toward racism and xenophobia. That’s a repetition of history, by the way.

Those who masturbate to racist history are doomed to forever be remembered as right-wing christian conservatives.

Hey, Ramirezz, our founding fathers tore down statues of English kings, burnt the houses of the colonial governors and tarred and feathered conservative people like yourself. How does that fit in your narrative, Oh, and the whole friggen South attacked the Federal government. So go and learn REAL history before you lie about the current one.

Because a terrorist is a terrorist is a terrorist. Pretty plain to see no?

Good point Michael. What’s the name of that German guy… the one that did the genocide thing? Mainly Jewish people I vaguely recall?If ONLY there was a statue of him somewhere… How am I supposed to remember who he was if there are no statues of him?

I’ve no fear we’ll be repeating slavery…

It’s hard to learn from history when it gets erased.

How about a panel of American tanks pulverizing ancient Iraqi artifacts?

You don’t need a monument to teach history. As it is, the history that I was taught (okay, I’m old) was of the U.S. can do no wrong, we are always winners variety. As I have read, listened and watched documentaries that cover different eras with economic and political nuance, boy were those history lessons white washed.