I'm not moving goalposts, I think you've completely misunderstood the argument. Specifically, my point isn't that we shouldn't build statues for keyboard warriors, it's that the logic of presentism defies sensibility--presentists would say that woke college students are more moral because they adhere to the moral standards of the present than the imperfect-by-present-standards abolitionists of yesteryear.
> Nobody ever suggested that.
This is exactly what presentists believe.
> And while we can absolutely evaluate historical figures on their cultural context that doesn't mean we should lionize them on public property.
Well, if you believe that admirable people should be lionized on public property (about which presentism doesn't have an opinion), and if you believe that history has admirable figures (which presentism effectively denies), then it makes sense that you would lionize those figures on public property.
> Forrest was the Confederate general who founded the KKK and was honored with a ridiculous statue on public property in Nashville.
Right, but as he fails the moral standards of his own day as well as the present, he oughtn't be venerated either way.
"presentists would say that woke college students are more moral because they adhere to the moral standards of the present than the imperfect-by-present-standards abolitionists of yesteryear."
No they don't. Idk who even talks about this kind of thing. Certainly nobody in office that I've ever seen. I'm sure you could find a few people who think this, but it's nowhere near the state of the actual public debate.
"Right, but as he fails the moral standards of his own day as well as the present, he oughtn't be venerated either way."
Right, this is currently a position held by liberals and strongly opposed by a lot of conservatives who want to preserve monuments to things that were despicable even 150 years ago. Mind you, the infamous Forrest statue was erected in 1998, not 1870! It's not just a matter of reevaluating in present day, there are people evaluating the Confederacy in present day terms and still calling it great and getting support from elected officials. Those are the people in in power who are sending the signal that explicit racism is still very much prevalent in the halls of power and require explicit counteractions like DEI.
> No they don't. Idk who even talks about this kind of thing.
It's pretty commonly talked about whenever woke people want to tear down statues of historical progressives or when they want classrooms to stop teaching "dead white men" and so on. The whole claim is that these historical progressives fail to live up to today's rapidly-changing left-wing morals and thus they oughtn't be celebrated or taught (e.g., tearing down a Lincoln statue because Lincoln didn't accomplish more than abolition).
> Right, this is currently a position held by liberals and strongly opposed by a lot of conservatives who want to preserve monuments to things that were despicable even 150 years ago.
Yes (for some value of "a lot of conservatives"), but again I don't know why you keep bringing conservatives up when we're talking about woke progressives and liberals. Similarly, I don't know why you're bringing Forrest up when we're talking about presentism.
> Those are the people in in power who are sending the signal that explicit racism is still very much prevalent in the halls of power and require explicit counteractions like DEI.
DEI doesn't actually work though[0][1][2][3][4], and woke progressive politics are driving the resurgence in right-wing identity politics, as liberals predicted roughly a decade ago ("fixating incessantly on everyone's racial identity is going to strengthen right-wing white racial identity", "left wing illiberalism is going to legitimize right wing illiberalism", etc). In addition to increasing the amount and intensity of anti-minority racists, woke progressive politics on things like policing have driven crime rates (especially violent crime rates) through the roof disproportionately affecting minority communities.
If you want to minimize right-wing racism, you have to minimize all racism--in other words, you want liberalism, not left-wing illiberalism.
> Nobody ever suggested that.
This is exactly what presentists believe.
> And while we can absolutely evaluate historical figures on their cultural context that doesn't mean we should lionize them on public property.
Well, if you believe that admirable people should be lionized on public property (about which presentism doesn't have an opinion), and if you believe that history has admirable figures (which presentism effectively denies), then it makes sense that you would lionize those figures on public property.
> Forrest was the Confederate general who founded the KKK and was honored with a ridiculous statue on public property in Nashville.
Right, but as he fails the moral standards of his own day as well as the present, he oughtn't be venerated either way.