[WaPo] After a petition called Gandhi ‘racist,’ his statue was removed from the University of Ghana

That is true for all of us on a lot of these subjects, but it is a discussion site....

 

I didn't get this from Sweet Lou's post and it wasn't obvious to me. Maybe I should know my history better, but I was glad to read that Ghandi evolved over time.

 

Again, Africa is not a single nation.

 

What he did was weird, but definitely not pedophilia. He was a puritanical celibate. He had a massive guilt complex due to missing his fathers death because he wanted to have sex with his wife and grew to see sex as a temptation that was impure. But because he felt urges he conducted experiments by asking young women if they would sleep in the same room to test those urges and it did evolve into them sleeping naked next to him.

The reason this is known is because he wrote about it in his autobiography! The two women he conducted these experiments with said it was like being next to an old mother. He never touched them.

So take it for what you believe. He was a strange man. But he certainly accomplished great things.

 

You tellin me that whatever goes on in El Salvador doesn't directly reflect on the USA? We're all Americans damn it!

 

Et tu, Prada?

 

The hell you say?

 

You really should. People on this website aren't well read and just come on here to agree with their friends, or whoever runs in the same tribe as them. Maybe it's indicative of your average voter as well. We really need to teach autonomous thought in school based on real evidence, it might be what gives the American middle class it's edge back.

 

The disaster of teaching kids critical thinking was that it made them better at supporting bad arguments rather than more sceptical of them, and today's humanities professors and students are our penance for that insanity.

Generally speaking we need to give them back their autonomy, as helicopter and worse yet bulldozer parents are removing that leading them to have no emotional fortitude.

 

Nah. What will get it's edge back is kids not being afraid of fields that have "hard maths" in it like your engineering and science fields.

 

You sometimes indulge in what I consider to be a bad habit. I have to fight against it myself. You have a tendency to make overly broad statements about "groups" or "topics" or "individuals." It happens to us all at one time or another. It can be hard not to be lazy about that sort of thing. The "Left" is not a homogeneous group. Far from it. In fact, it never has been, in my experience, which goes back to the 1960's. I would say the same about how the the "Right" is often characterized. Today, both may be more fractured than they have ever been, another broad statement, this time from me. To lump either side of the political spectrum together is a mistake made far too often.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about -

Had you said, "some on the Left," I wouldn't have said anything. That would be largely accurate. Implying that it's a monolithic view would not be, not in my opinion.

 

I'm just glad that we have you to set us straight.

 

You are talking to a person who lumps all of Africa into one group. It shouldn't be surprising that he would do the same thing with those on the left. I suspect that he knows he's doing it, and that his arguments are flawed. But, he does it anyway.

 

Again, you're trying too hard.

People in Nebraska have very little in common with people in Oregon, but we refer to America as America based on traits common to a region.

Deciphering the macro vs micro theme requires nuance, and you have shown your cards.

 

True, but with regards to STEM, I think a lot of it is a billion people in Asia really raising the competition for those who aren't stand outs.

Then you have the scientists at Harvard / Yale, putting money into the idea of slowing global warming by putting chemicals in the air to block heat while we pillage the earth.

What's the point of science without common sense? Where's the field that teaches what's really important?

 

You have to admit, the mediums the left dominates (media etc.) are indicative of the group as a whole. There are always going to be outliers on both sides, but I think I am doing you a service by pointing out the broad themes the MAJORITY on the left have tendencies towards that hurt their own cause. Look at all of Hillary's excuses for why she didn't get elected. If you want a chance at beating Trump in 2020, something I hope happens, then you have to be able to look in the mirror and be honest with yourself..

 

You know, that's quite condescending towards him for no reason at all. And believe me, when you have one of the biggest A-hole posters calling you out for being condescending, it's pretty bad.

 

Being direct and honest with myself + others has allowed me to make a life for myself from very humble beginnings. Anyone who does something worthwhile with their life appreciates it.

 

Back to the main point, on why nitpicking over the statue is a waste of time:

People are not celebrated from where they came from (unless you're royalty), but where they aspired to go and what they did. Gandhi strived every day of his adult life to better himself and his world, and ultimately did so.

A racist mentality was the norm at the time from an educated perspective, as was marrying at 12 in Asia. Anyone, and everyone, can be tore down after a century of time looking through things from a globalized perspective. If you're taught the Earth is flat in a book growing up, and don't have the internet, you're going to think the Earth is flat.

When you fail to identify these things, particularly in a man who was Mandela's primary influence because he understood the context of Gandhi's initial ignorance, it makes you look backwards.

It's no different to a Physics department tearing down a statue of Newton in 2018 because his initial theories weren't correct. It doesn't prove a point, and it makes them look bad.