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Confederacy: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

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EdibleKnife

Member
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Oliver discusses the matter of fact reality of the Confederacy, the Civil War as a traitorous coup against the United States, the real reason for creating Confederate monuments, the myth of the Confederacy being about anything but people killing other people for the sake of owning black humans as property; all while elsewhere people block their ears and repeat the word "history" until their throats are raw and bloody.

VIDEO

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...#CONFEDERA-SHE

EDIT:
Spectone said:
VIDEO

Alternate link fo those outside the US
Click to expand...
 
At the cost of spoiling the ending, I have mixed feelings about the special guest.
Colbert was funny but I haven’t forgotten the Spicer shit at the Emmy’s
 
Whew. This was a great segment. It infuriates me that people feel a need to coddle these mutants. I grew up in South Carolina and I remember the hubbub about the flag being at the state capital and it pissed me off then. This was the symbol of a treasonous group-and their descendants are carrying on the tradition of being the biggest sore losers in history.

“I have a bit of a rebel in me.”

Get fucked, asshole.
 
I still don't get that obsession that Americans have to change/downplay what the war was about.

On the other hand i loved
Cooper and Larry David reactions when they find out about their ancestors.
 
The best part was that guy claiming that his family didn't own slaves to work on their farm because they were "too expensive". Didn't run that thought through your head before you said it did you?
 
curi0usBystander said:
I still don't get that obsession that Americans have to change/downplay what the war was about.

On the other hand i liked
Cooper and Larry David reaction when they find out about their ancestors.
Click to expand...

It's not just the US that down play their history, but it's a lot more apparent in how the US does it, if only for the fact that it's a younger nation.

We had a thread recently about this. Things like the Burning of Greenwood or the massacre of Native Americans are covered up or downplayed. The Burning of Greenwood never happened. The Native Americans agreed to give room for the European settlers.

Wasn't there a politician that said Africans were brought to America so they could get jobs?
 
It always boggled my mind how so many Americans are ok with celebrating literal traitors.

I've came to realise it's mostly due to all the brainwashing that comes from sanitising history.
 
This was a great segment. It really puts those things into perspective when you see the figures that illustrate when so many of those statues were made and the rest of the historical context that surrounds them.
 
'My ancestor for his rights!'

'What the rights he was fighting for, I have no idea, I wasn't there'

It's sad, because growing up in the South I've heard a lot of stuff like that. It's infuriating on so many different levels.
 
Anderson Cooper is that dude.

It’s crazy that there’s s giant stone monument to racist traitors and people still want to play like America’s not a white supremacist nation lmao
 
I wonder how they make the statues for Last Week Tonight. The first two, of course. Ginormous 3d printers? Paper mache for the gator probably.
 
Volimar said:
I wonder how they make the statues for Last Week Tonight. The first two, of course. Ginormous 3d printers? Paper mache for the gator probably.
Click to expand...

I wondered the same thing. Maybe they're just painted mannequins, but I don't know how accurate the faces are.
 
On the topic of history, are American children being taught about the bad stuff? Like the internments of japanese-americans during WW2?
 
Majine said:
On the topic of history, are American children being taught about the bad stuff? Like the internments of japanese-americans during WW2?
Click to expand...


Most of them not through textbooks. Shout out to Mr. Anders in junior high for telling our class about that shit on his own though.
 
Majine said:
On the topic of history, are American children being taught about the bad stuff? Like the internments of japanese-americans during WW2?
Click to expand...

depends on the books/teacher/school

there's lots of whitewashing of us history though
and the idea that schools should basically be patriotism factories
 
Majine said:
On the topic of history, are American children being taught about the bad stuff? Like the internments of japanese-americans during WW2?
Click to expand...

Yes the bad stuff is covered but I find the problem is that U.S. history classes are always far too broad. Each bad thing gets a meager single paragraph in the textbook because the textbooks give literally everything just a tiny paragraph (except the most dull, blatantly patriotic nonsense). There is no push for reflection or deeper understanding. U.S. history classes are just lists of facts and dates that zip by faster than students can process them.
 
Majine said:
On the topic of history, are American children being taught about the bad stuff? Like the internments of japanese-americans during WW2?
Click to expand...

The quality and depth of public school education varies wildly from state to state and even between school districts. Depends on money and teachers’ individual motivations as well.
 
Majine said:
On the topic of history, are American children being taught about the bad stuff? Like the internments of japanese-americans during WW2?
Click to expand...

I was certainly taught about that in school. America is a huge country so experiences probably vary wildly depending on where you live.
 
Oliver is right on the money when he said that the statues should be moved into museums alongside historical context. The fact that these statues were built far after the Civil War is sickening and it astounds me that people will defend this stuff.
 
Well presented. At some point we will have to come to better grips with the purpose of the Confederacy and the impact of slavery. Antebellum fantasies need to give way to truth.

Also, polls like the 38% one shouldn't surprise anyone. It's been well documented how the Civil War is taught in many classrooms. People are actively being taught from a young age that it was about states rights. It isn't a coincidence that so many people chose that as their answer. Texas is doing the nation a disservice with their influence on and colored take of the hard parts of American history.

Honestly, people just need to take a visit to either the African American history museum in DC or in Detroit. That would be the start most Americans need.
 
StrategyFan said:
depends on the books/teacher/school

there's lots of whitewashing of us history though
and the idea that schools should basically be patriotism factories
Click to expand...

Yeah teaching of U.S history is such a crapshoot. When I was in High School my teacher pretty much had to put down the textbook every so now and then to tell us shit that went uncovered or was severely downplayed. Slavery was treated like a footnote.
 
Donald Trump Jr recently tweeted that it's finally great to have someone who loves America in the WH again because his dad wont stand for players kneeling. To all these chucklefucks who think patriotism is about loving America unconditionally, I ask three questions:

1) Are you proud to be American?
2) what are some of the things that make you proud?
3) Is there anything about America or its history that doesn't make you proud?

Because they think they know what patriotism means, but it's false. It's false as their entire worldview.
 
Man, the amount of statues made post-Civil War. Traitors to the country being glorified, just so folks can reminisce how good their grandparents had it when it came to owning slaves to work their farms.

Fucking awful.
 
Its sad that we have such powerful arguments and evidence to put a spotlight on the hypocrisy and yet it will be ignored

Honestly.. these people want to live in a white supremacist world I am thoroughly convinced
 
Majine said:
On the topic of history, are American children being taught about the bad stuff? Like the internments of japanese-americans during WW2?
Click to expand...
Depends a lot upon the type of school and where it was located. I went to a private, almost entirely white private school in Memphis from grades 4 to 8, and they taught us that the civil war was fought over state's rights and severely downplayed the role of slavery in the conflict. Wasn't until I went to a public high school in another state that I learned the reality of the situation. Memphis is a highly segregated and racist part of the South, so it's not surprising...just sad.
 
It takes a British immigrant to point out the absurdity of having statues and monuments of people who wanted to betray the Union of the United States in order to preserve the institution of slavery. How has no one pointed that out anytime people talk about the Civil War?

I constantly rely on John Oliver and his writing staff to point out the ridiculousness of it all. Great episode.
 
UserNotFound said:
It takes a British immigrant to point out the absurdity of having statues and monuments of people who wanted to betray the Union of the United States in order to preserve the institution of slavery. How has no one pointed that out anytime people talk about the Civil War?

I constantly rely on John Oliver and his writing staff to point out the ridiculousness of it all. Great episode.
Click to expand...
White people didn't really gave a shit what was happening to the South post civil war.
 
Majine said:
On the topic of history, are American children being taught about the bad stuff? Like the internments of japanese-americans during WW2?
Click to expand...

In my school, I believe it was 6th grade when we were given a list of topics to write a paper on. I, loving Japanese media and videogames, chose the thing with Japan in the title. Maybe it’ll be fun? Whoops! It’s very possible nobody would’ve otherwise picked the topic to cover and I don’t remember it coming up in history class for another few years but it was eventually covered. Maybe 10/11th grade?

I also remember a history teacher throwing out how the Civil War was actually about states rights. It stood out as it was not how it was presented for years. This was a new history teacher who was from the south, I don’t think anybody really understood what she was trying to do well enough to publicly object (as compared to another teacher I had who once told a story where the overall moral was “don’t hang out with black people” - which led to a big kerfuffle between students and the staff)
 
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