> BUT, would you honestly say this in Iraq with SoDamn Insane? Were those people bad in tearing it down? How about various communist leaders around the world and their statues? <
That is a great question! I would apply two tests:
1. Was the person moral within the context of his time?
2. Did the person do more good than bad?
So Thomas Jefferson gets a pass. Yes, he owned slaves. But within the context of the times that was not considered an evil thing. And of course, founding the country was a very good thing to do.
Saddam Hussein obviously fails test #2. But I freely admit that test #2 is very subjective. (Some people in Russia today argue that Stalin did more good than bad!)
I think it also depends on the nation.
This is where absurdity takes over. By all the toppling right now, here, you’d think the US is a very bad place. Thus, an uprising just begging to happen, etc. But these were here over many decades, open to all, lawfully placed, yet no one really bothered to graffiti them. Suddenly it all changes.
Leftists are absurd because THEY think the US is bad (EXCEPT during the Civil War, which they think the federals were all good); they HATE this country and cannot say “I love America” - definitely not without a qualifier “but....”
People with common sense don’t see it as bad. So no real reason to wantonly extra-legally knock down statues.