Banning Nazis didn't make anyone in Europe forget about WW2, and taking down these statues won't stop the south from bitching about how it lost. The stakes are not that high.
To anyone who says these monuments celebrates their Southern Heritage: The Civil War was an attack on the United States of America, very close to an act of treason, and really no different than the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. If you condone such attacks, then you are certainly Anti-American, but also probably a racist.
I'm so happy some of the monuments have been given to museums and groups. We need to make sure to preserve history, even if we don't like it. If we forget our history, we will repeat our history. We need to learn from our mistakes. If we erase our mistakes completely, we are doomed to repeat them. is a future anthropologist
I understand the arguments on why the statues should come down, but just getting a rope and ripping them down is a crime and is not the right way to do things. the police are already rounding up those people and charging them with the appropriate crimes. leveler heads need to prevail here. if you destroy the past, you can't learn from it.
reminds me of the lenin statues that we toppled in 1991, communists also like to bring up the historical value of these monsters, as if these statues were some history lesson and not the symbols of oppressive regime.
Anyone know of any statues of Hitler and his cronies in Europe?…..no? didn't think so. But yeah just put them in museums as a reminder of past bad times, and for gods sake start educating your damn people properly.
i dont mind having statues around as long as the person is not praised for his beliefs or what he represents, more than just history, which in this case it is, racists are idolizing and rising up to it because these statues make them feel like they still have power.
I understand why we don't have these kinds of non-hero's as statues. Jeez it's not hard to get come on people!
Face facts okay they act as an iconic symbol to those that support right wing views, therefore they shouldn't exist in the same way we view our true good heroes
It's not 'erasing history' it's showing – hey as a society in the twenty first century we all agree that was an awful period of history n we're not like that anymore…
Removing them doesn't prevent the history being taught or learned from here on out so stop trying to spin that pathetic line
I would just like to point out that quite a few of the generals were like the Rommels of the civil war. Athough they did fight for slavery and treason, they fought respectably and well. The south and the country can honor their performance in the same way Winston Churchill praised Rommel. Many, including Lee, fought in the Mexican American war. Speaking of world war 2, two tanks were named after Confederate generals. The Stuart and the Lee.
Leave the Confederate statues that are on battlegrounds alone they are a part of our nations history. Everybody knows they lost, the dominant narrative is they fought for slavery. The statues being there is absolutely necessary for us to understand what actually happened during the battles and when.
The logic is simple: regime falls, the shit praising it gets removed. You don't own people – get rid of symbols having anything to do with that (South was prospering basically from owning people). We were and are gettimg rid of Nazi and Communist regimes' symbols in Europe and only "nostalgic" idiots are against that.
I swear white people hate themselves so much. I'm not even white I'm a second generation American but even I see the historical value these monuments have. Racist or not they are part of American culture and should remain. Does the left not have any pride whatsoever. They are so self destructive I'm not surprised at all in the surge of white nationalism. In the end this is what the overlords want… The American people in fighting. We should not forget that being an American comes before race all day everyday.
Take them all down but don't destroy them. Put them in museums, write about why we took them down, teach school children why these represent hate and bigotry. They're more valuable being used in the future to teach about our present day than they are being used to teach about the civil war at this point.
Germany doesn't erect Hitler or SS soldier statues just because it's a part of their history, that excuse is completely illogical. Statues are for honoring people and people who fought so slavery could be kept should never be honored, anywhere.
On Wikipedia, there are over 700 confederate monuments listed in the United States, but not even 100 union monuments. It makes you wonder who erected all of those confederate monuments. Why so many if it was just a battle of states rights and not slavery?
i cannot put my disgust over this into words. this is absolute bullshit. not only is this a perversion of history, against the direct words of Churchill himself, but they're blaming those people for the actions of the white supremacists of today who use them to symbolize beliefs that are nothing like what the Civil War was really about. this is fucking propaganda!
Is it entirely split between "tear them down!" and "we loves the Confederacy"?
We shouldn't be trying to hide or destroy the Civil War stuff, we should be shoving them in museums. They're evidence of a shameful part of American history, but one that we should still be aware of and acknowledge. Destroying monuments only makes us feel better about having done something anti-racist, but they still have a place in teaching us history and reminding us of our potential to fail as human beings.
You know what's funny? Colbert and so many others say screw these statues, "they supported slavery!" But so did the bible you fucking hypocrites. Trash the Confederacy, I do, but throw that fucking Christian dribble out with it.
If you want to preserve history, do it with stuff like photographs, video footage, textbooks, museums; you don't need a statue to remember what happened.
Canada removed a confederate plaque that honored Jefferson Davis from a building in Montreal this week, Great news! https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/08/15/plaque-honouring-confederate-leader-jefferson-davis-removed-from-montreal-building.html
The problem with America right now. Technology. Hicks in rural America now have the internet, and we are all now seeing the REAL country we live in! They can now "comment" on the Blacks, and Jews, and Woman, and Gays, and Blacks, and Commies, and Muslims, and Porn, and Taxes, and Blacks, and Blacks, and Blacks… that they have been blaming all their problems on?
The Daughters of the Confederacy erected a most beautiful monument at the battlefield in Shiloh Tennessee. It's amazing to look at. While they do have views I don't agree with, they do a good job at portraying both people at events from the view of the South before, during, and after the war.
https://www.nps.gov/resources/place.htm%3Fid%3D79 – This is the Shiloh monument, standing there since 1917. It's a tribute to the fallen, and as an Boy Scout, I went to many historic sites and hiked MANY miles along war trails. This stood out.
P.S. – I don't think they are twins….. There's something about the eyes that gives them away.
For those people that are saying you need statues for historical purposes. Read a book. Statues glorify ideals, people, or events. An example. You know that statue of soldiers hoisting a flag pole up? Most people would not know what event that statue immortalized. A history book will tell you that it depicts the US marines raising the flag on mount surabachi during the battle of iwo jima.
Hey let's tear down all the roman memorial statues in Europe and the colosseum and the roman aqueducts hey they were a slave empire and that stuff was built by slaves. Oh wait what about the pyramids tear down those as well. By letting those pyramids stand we are supporting slavery. Actually anything anywhere where any civilization had anything to do with slavery we should destroy it.
And there we have it, often from something bad comes something good. You have to love the irony that the racist and fashist protests outcome is to get rid of their symbols. Make america great again ! =)
What would you expect from liberal late night show hosts. Would these same people complain if we removed the Washington monument because he owned slaves? Most of the Founding Fathers were slave owners you know.
You cannot change the history of America by removing these monuments or the Confederate flag from prominence. Do you see the idiocy of this BS?
People are constantly carrying around pictures of Slave Owners every day. George Washington, Andrew Jackson, and Ulysses S. Grant. Their on your money.
If you're tired of your old, racist money, please send it to me for proper disposal. Help end racism.
Take them down give them to the NAACP and United Negro College fund. They can auction them off and the white nationalist can buy them or whomever else can purchase them.
Every time i look at the pyramids they remind me of the many slaves that lost their lifes building them, if only taking them down would solve things that already happened, i have an idea, maybe keep them there, serving as a reminder…oh wait, that's what historical monuments are for
imo tearing down those monuments makes those people no better than Isis tearing down priceless artefacts in the middle east. They're an important piece of history that can be used to remind people of how that way of thinking is outdated and irrelevant and that way of thinking is.
Those protesters tearing down statues are still in the wrong. They're not any better than the rioters looting shops and burning cars. I know that Stephen didn't outright applaud them, but he didn't outright condemn them either.
Irony is the most missed used word, not counting the teens who literally die of embassment. But this is sweetly ironic. Those rasict idiots who protested the removal of one monument are the cause for a lot more being removed. Well I guess through an ignorance that Trump stupidly supports, in a way. By these becons of rasism going away, it is making America great again.
Yea, removing every piece of bad history will make it all go away.. Instead of trying to cover yours eyes, maybe should just embrace and learn from your past.
Any plans to remove monuments of George Armstrong Custer and the like or are they okay, because you treated the indians well 😛
A southern white man walks into a bar and yells, “These damn left wing Zionist want to take down our statues. That’s our heritage, I tell you. If they take it down, we won’t know who we are. That’s past, I tell you. Our past!” A black man at the end of the bar says, “Yeah, and my people were slaves. We had our history stolen from us and we’re lost as a people. We want some form of reparations.” And the southern white man says, “Oh shut up, that’s the past.”
we better get rid of Coca Cola it was invented by Dr John Pemberton a civil war soldier and Spam , cheese biscuits , chicken pie that's racist food 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 they ate these foods back then
We need to get rid of aunt Jemima hot dogs are white sausage is dark marshmallows white chocolate brown Uncle Ben's it's all racist ……….😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
Most of those people at Charlottesville aren't white supremacists, they're just people who know their history and don't like it when politicians try to smear the legacies of great historical figures for the sake of promoting their own petty political agendas.
I'd like to clarify a detail about the Civil War which is commonly misunderstood due to an intentional oversight by certain politicians and historians of a particular disposition. Whereas secession was about slavery, the war itself wasn't. Secession and the Civil War are two separate issues as it was three whole months between the time the last of the first batch of southern states, Louisiana, seceded on January 26th, 1861 and when confederate artillery fired upon Fort Sumter on April 12th the same year – which started the war.
The Confederate government viewed this sustained military presence by a "foreign" government (they now saw the U.S as being a separate country) in South Carolina as an act of military aggression by the United States and thus a direct attack on what they believed was a constitutional entitlement to leave the union. In short, the state's belief in their right to secede propelled the first shot at Fort Sumter. Hence, the Civil War was about a states' rights to independence.
Now, some might argue that if they wanted independence over slavery, and they started the war over independence, than they started the war over slavery. This is incorrect. You didn't have to be a proponent of slavery to recognize a state had a legitimate claim to secede over it or any other reason. The colonists started the war against Great Britain once King George started shooting their taxes through the roof, does that mean the American Revolution was about a desire for low taxation? No, It was about their desire for independence stemmed from the fact that they no longer consented to King George's rule.
When Abraham Lincoln refused to let the southern states go, he struck a blow to the face of everything the founders laid out with regard to self government. The government derives it's power from the consent of the people, and the people down south didn't consent to Abraham Lincoln's rule so they saw fit to break away from said government. The "grand experiment" of self government failed that day the confederates surrendered at Appomattox on April 9th, 1865.
100 Comments
Mathenaut
Banning Nazis didn't make anyone in Europe forget about WW2, and taking down these statues won't stop the south from bitching about how it lost. The stakes are not that high.
James Harris
To anyone who says these monuments celebrates their Southern Heritage: The Civil War was an attack on the United States of America, very close to an act of treason, and really no different than the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. If you condone such attacks, then you are certainly Anti-American, but also probably a racist.
Frederic Bouchard
In jacksonville, FL we have a Robert. E Lee high school. can it go too?
grodard9
Erratum : It was Jefferson Davis' plaque that was removed in Montréal.
Mimi Ebisuya
Take all the disgusting confederate monument down!!!
xue 717
That's supposed to be funny?
Angel Rose
I'm so happy some of the monuments have been given to museums and groups. We need to make sure to preserve history, even if we don't like it. If we forget our history, we will repeat our history. We need to learn from our mistakes. If we erase our mistakes completely, we are doomed to repeat them. is a future anthropologist
IrishRebel92
I understand the arguments on why the statues should come down, but just getting a rope and ripping them down is a crime and is not the right way to do things. the police are already rounding up those people and charging them with the appropriate crimes. leveler heads need to prevail here. if you destroy the past, you can't learn from it.
Mark Simons
The sketches are a load of $h*te compared to the withering monologues. Must be the cultural difference between US and UK.
Cameron Alexander
I don't think those captions are accurate..
Ellie Bean
Why isn't there a Bin Laden statue at the WTC, right-wingers? Honest question.
Arturas P
reminds me of the lenin statues that we toppled in 1991, communists also like to bring up the historical value of these monsters, as if these statues were some history lesson and not the symbols of oppressive regime.
Enzo 8mmSA
Removing them is stupid. Keep them there and and learn to get over them. Once you're over it, it won't matter.
knavishknight
I can always make do with a history book.
melvoid01
Anyone know of any statues of Hitler and his cronies in Europe?…..no? didn't think so.
But yeah just put them in museums as a reminder of past bad times, and for gods sake start educating your damn people properly.
Alejandro Roman
i dont mind having statues around as long as the person is not praised for his beliefs or what he represents, more than just history, which in this case it is, racists are idolizing and rising up to it because these statues make them feel like they still have power.
Deb Libra
Let them guard the confederate grave yards. Perfect problem solved.Pull them down.
Jonanice
reading comments like 🤦♀️
I understand why we don't have these kinds of non-hero's as statues. Jeez it's not hard to get come on people!
Face facts okay they act as an iconic symbol to those that support right wing views, therefore they shouldn't exist in the same way we view our true good heroes
It's not 'erasing history' it's showing – hey as a society in the twenty first century we all agree that was an awful period of history n we're not like that anymore…
Removing them doesn't prevent the history being taught or learned from here on out so stop trying to spin that pathetic line
Tulip Dew
Just put all the statues inside a "Confederacy Themed" museum, and donate most of the entrance fee proceeds to the UNCF 👍🏼
tscream80
Those Kopelski twins are into a lot.
Ben Grosz
I would just like to point out that quite a few of the generals were like the Rommels of the civil war. Athough they did fight for slavery and treason, they fought respectably and well. The south and the country can honor their performance in the same way Winston Churchill praised Rommel. Many, including Lee, fought in the Mexican American war. Speaking of world war 2, two tanks were named after Confederate generals. The Stuart and the Lee.
ilovefunnyamv2nd
They stopped being lawyers when the received a call from the white house asking for legal council
title1pro
Why are we trying to hide the past here?
User Name
Leave the Confederate statues that are on battlegrounds alone they are a part of our nations history. Everybody knows they lost, the dominant narrative is they fought for slavery. The statues being there is absolutely necessary for us to understand what actually happened during the battles and when.
Corbin Eiler
"The Racist Erasers!!" ?
bladerj
lol that is some cheap statue.almost look fake
Sean M
I just got confederate flag toilet paper made, now wiping my ass is my favorite part of the day.
weismeister121
damn, those 2 guys lack of enthusiasm while acting is AWESOME…whoever they are
Philip Godsworth
White people want to tear down the statues to hide evidence of their collective sins.
Sorry shitheads, you aren't fooling anyone.
Margarita M.
#NotHorsesFault
Margarita M.
The logic is simple: regime falls, the shit praising it gets removed.
You don't own people – get rid of symbols having anything to do with that (South was prospering basically from owning people).
We were and are gettimg rid of Nazi and Communist regimes' symbols in Europe and only "nostalgic" idiots are against that.
Tyler Zutell
Tearing down these pieces of history will do more for the recruitment of fascists than it ever will to heal division.
Daniel Flores
I swear white people hate themselves so much. I'm not even white I'm a second generation American but even I see the historical value these monuments have. Racist or not they are part of American culture and should remain. Does the left not have any pride whatsoever. They are so self destructive I'm not surprised at all in the surge of white nationalism. In the end this is what the overlords want… The American people in fighting. We should not forget that being an American comes before race all day everyday.
fitnik2
god these comments are pure cancer
No this is Patrick
B…B…But mah huritage is bein ruined!
shmaveyea
Kopelski Brothers logo kinda looks like a hammer & sickle
shmaveyea
Take them all down but don't destroy them. Put them in museums, write about why we took them down, teach school children why these represent hate and bigotry. They're more valuable being used in the future to teach about our present day than they are being used to teach about the civil war at this point.
sapphyrus
Germany doesn't erect Hitler or SS soldier statues just because it's a part of their history, that excuse is completely illogical. Statues are for honoring people and people who fought so slavery could be kept should never be honored, anywhere.
Doug Pender
On Wikipedia, there are over 700 confederate monuments listed in the United States, but not even 100 union monuments. It makes you wonder who erected all of those confederate monuments. Why so many if it was just a battle of states rights and not slavery?
Tucker Bowen
i cannot put my disgust over this into words. this is absolute bullshit. not only is this a perversion of history, against the direct words of Churchill himself, but they're blaming those people for the actions of the white supremacists of today who use them to symbolize beliefs that are nothing like what the Civil War was really about. this is fucking propaganda!
OrionoftheStar
Is it entirely split between "tear them down!" and "we loves the Confederacy"?
We shouldn't be trying to hide or destroy the Civil War stuff, we should be shoving them in museums. They're evidence of a shameful part of American history, but one that we should still be aware of and acknowledge. Destroying monuments only makes us feel better about having done something anti-racist, but they still have a place in teaching us history and reminding us of our potential to fail as human beings.
martin colar
Stephen will never be half the person Robert E. Lee was..
orclittleboss
The people taking down these statues are no better than ISIS or the Taliban.
tenacious645
You know what's funny? Colbert and so many others say screw these statues, "they supported slavery!" But so did the bible you fucking hypocrites. Trash the Confederacy, I do, but throw that fucking Christian dribble out with it.
Boba Is Awesome
Just put the statues and monuments in a museum alongside explanations of their treasonous acts against the US, problem solved.
IShallNotSubmit
Why take off statues? Everyone hates racists but why take off art?
Telaranrhiod
Captions for this are wrong :/
Xyce Bedet
So Colbert is implicitly promoting the destruction of property by the general public. The fact that this asshole has a platform on CBS is disturbing.
freshair3451
Humor…One of this country's greatest strengths.
Clash Bandikute
If you want to preserve history, do it with stuff like photographs, video footage, textbooks, museums; you don't need a statue to remember what happened.
Kyle Edwards
Guys watch this video with subtitles NOW
J L
Canada removed a confederate plaque that honored Jefferson Davis from a building in Montreal this week, Great news! https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/08/15/plaque-honouring-confederate-leader-jefferson-davis-removed-from-montreal-building.html
thura3
The problem with America right now. Technology. Hicks in rural America now have the internet, and we are all now seeing the REAL country we live in! They can now "comment" on the Blacks, and Jews, and Woman, and Gays, and Blacks, and Commies, and Muslims, and Porn, and Taxes, and Blacks, and Blacks, and Blacks… that they have been blaming all their problems on?
Dr Phot
Robert E. Weeeee!!!!! #ThatIsAll
Inversionary
Captions are wrong
Inversionary
So deadpan
aciarduce
The Daughters of the Confederacy erected a most beautiful monument at the battlefield in Shiloh Tennessee. It's amazing to look at. While they do have views I don't agree with, they do a good job at portraying both people at events from the view of the South before, during, and after the war.
https://www.nps.gov/resources/place.htm%3Fid%3D79 – This is the Shiloh monument, standing there since 1917. It's a tribute to the fallen, and as an Boy Scout, I went to many historic sites and hiked MANY miles along war trails. This stood out.
P.S. – I don't think they are twins….. There's something about the eyes that gives them away.
Bill Kong
This is going to fuel more violence.
rebecca sabet
Dont understand why Kentucky would have confederate statue. They were a union state.
Inquisitor Blizzard
For those people that are saying you need statues for historical purposes. Read a book. Statues glorify ideals, people, or events. An example. You know that statue of soldiers hoisting a flag pole up? Most people would not know what event that statue immortalized. A history book will tell you that it depicts the US marines raising the flag on mount surabachi during the battle of iwo jima.
HamelinSong
I don't know… watching this from the other side of te world, looks like a bit much. Every statue has an historical value…
josh Unknown
Hey let's tear down all the roman memorial statues in Europe and the colosseum and the roman aqueducts hey they were a slave empire and that stuff was built by slaves. Oh wait what about the pyramids tear down those as well. By letting those pyramids stand we are supporting slavery. Actually anything anywhere where any civilization had anything to do with slavery we should destroy it.
kinn grimm
And there we have it, often from something bad comes something good. You have to love the irony that the racist and fashist protests outcome is to get rid of their symbols. Make america great again ! =)
jayla moore
south trunk life gotxx expense know hidden asian favorite chairman wind pair.
RationalLllama
Well in that case let's bomb Mount Rushmore. Those presidents were slave owners.
546 cowboy
What would you expect from liberal late night show hosts. Would these same people complain if we removed the Washington monument because he owned slaves? Most of the Founding Fathers were slave owners you know.
You cannot change the history of America by removing these monuments or the Confederate flag from prominence. Do you see the idiocy of this BS?
Leslie Robert
Repurpose the statues for gravel and spitoons.
Daniel Gregory
People are constantly carrying around pictures of Slave Owners every day. George Washington, Andrew Jackson, and Ulysses S. Grant. Their on your money.
If you're tired of your old, racist money, please send it to me for proper disposal.
Help end racism.
Christopher Shankle
Take them down give them to the NAACP and United Negro College fund. They can auction them off and the white nationalist can buy them or whomever else can purchase them.
Fade Out
Liberals using the same tactics used by ISIS in the middle east, interesting.
No Filler Gaming Knight
I say put some of them in musuems. Partially destroyed that is. Like a triumph against tyranny.
ManiTati
THe American ISIS bent on destroying and rwriting US history and monuments
Brubigo
Every time i look at the pyramids they remind me of the many slaves that lost their lifes building them, if only taking them down would solve things that already happened, i have an idea, maybe keep them there, serving as a reminder…oh wait, that's what historical monuments are for
一心
Am I witnessing a "cultural revolution" happening??? The tearing down looks so familiar.
gap949
Monuments of the Losers !
Jacob Willis
I hope they get rid of the Andrew Jackson's statue in New Olean's. I just hope they keep Joan's.
bobidou23
I love how the "Twins" are so different in height 🙂 Love the little details
Shadowrun
Lol why do they talk like RedLetterMedia?
true American
the mansions in Newport Rhode Island on Bellevue Boulevard was built with the blood of slaves as the main import in United States
Tmanaz480
Confederate statues are the "participation trophys" of the Civil War.
DSAK55
They must be from New Jersey
Bobbeh Mcstuffinshire
imo tearing down those monuments makes those people no better than Isis tearing down priceless artefacts in the middle east. They're an important piece of history that can be used to remind people of how that way of thinking is outdated and irrelevant and that way of thinking is.
Nobody Interesting
They should replace them with statues of Slavery and make it as a memorial site for all that died in slavery
Kieran Saul
Those protesters tearing down statues are still in the wrong. They're not any better than the rioters looting shops and burning cars. I know that Stephen didn't outright applaud them, but he didn't outright condemn them either.
Duane Shields
Irony is the most missed used word, not counting the teens who literally die of embassment. But this is sweetly ironic. Those rasict idiots who protested the removal of one monument are the cause for a lot more being removed. Well I guess through an ignorance that Trump stupidly supports, in a way. By these becons of rasism going away, it is making America great again.
MavenDeo
That crowd from North Carolina deserve medals. True Americans.
Happy Canuck
RIP USA……..Can't lead your own country right now let alone the world. All credibility has been lost.
Milo
WOW!!! that was amazing!
Daniel Wang
历史虚无主义。不过把痕迹抹掉，然后假装这个事情没发生过，确实是白人常干的事儿。从文艺复兴开始，到大航海时代，到殖民时代，都是如此。
Khadras
Yea, removing every piece of bad history will make it all go away..
Instead of trying to cover yours eyes, maybe should just embrace and learn from your past.
Any plans to remove monuments of George Armstrong Custer and the like or are they okay, because you treated the indians well 😛
Nigel Dowdell
Your monuments should remain (in museums), but your idiot president has to go.
Damothedevo
Trump just announced he is moving all confederate staues to out the front of his buildings.
Otto Boldin
A southern white man walks into a bar and yells, “These damn left wing Zionist want to take down our statues. That’s our heritage, I tell you. If they take it down, we won’t know who we are. That’s past, I tell you. Our past!”
A black man at the end of the bar says, “Yeah, and my people were slaves. We had our history stolen from us and we’re lost as a people. We want some form of reparations.”
And the southern white man says, “Oh shut up, that’s the past.”
Dr Johnson Hungwell
we better get rid of Coca Cola it was invented by Dr John Pemberton a civil war soldier and Spam , cheese biscuits , chicken pie that's racist food 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 they ate these foods back then
Dr Johnson Hungwell
We need to get rid of
aunt Jemima
hot dogs are white
sausage is dark
marshmallows white
chocolate brown
Uncle Ben's
it's all racist ……….😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
bella sanchez
One of my favs
Helpful Helper
The captions at 0:36.
Buzzing Sign Diner
"Lose the guy, keep the horse!" This is one of the funniest cheesy commercial parodies I've seen in quite a while.
StrangeLove
Melt them down into toilets.
J.A. Bristol
Most of those people at Charlottesville aren't white supremacists, they're just people who know their history and don't like it when politicians try to smear the legacies of great historical figures for the sake of promoting their own petty political agendas.
I'd like to clarify a detail about the Civil War which is commonly misunderstood due to an intentional oversight by certain politicians and historians of a particular disposition. Whereas secession was about slavery, the war itself wasn't. Secession and the Civil War are two separate issues as it was three whole months between the time the last of the first batch of southern states, Louisiana, seceded on January 26th, 1861 and when confederate artillery fired upon Fort Sumter on April 12th the same year – which started the war.
The Confederate government viewed this sustained military presence by a "foreign" government (they now saw the U.S as being a separate country) in South Carolina as an act of military aggression by the United States and thus a direct attack on what they believed was a constitutional entitlement to leave the union. In short, the state's belief in their right to secede propelled the first shot at Fort Sumter. Hence, the Civil War was about a states' rights to independence.
Now, some might argue that if they wanted independence over slavery, and they started the war over independence, than they started the war over slavery. This is incorrect. You didn't have to be a proponent of slavery to recognize a state had a legitimate claim to secede over it or any other reason. The colonists started the war against Great Britain once King George started shooting their taxes through the roof, does that mean the American Revolution was about a desire for low taxation? No, It was about their desire for independence stemmed from the fact that they no longer consented to King George's rule.
When Abraham Lincoln refused to let the southern states go, he struck a blow to the face of everything the founders laid out with regard to self government. The government derives it's power from the consent of the people, and the people down south didn't consent to Abraham Lincoln's rule so they saw fit to break away from said government. The "grand experiment" of self government failed that day the confederates surrendered at Appomattox on April 9th, 1865.