RE: [Autism] Prof. Hans Asperger Collaborated With Nazis
Some really good points there bud, I hadn't really thought about it from that perspective. I'd read somewhere that some of the statues were put up during the 1950s/60s as a result of the civil rights movement, although looking it up now, that seems to apply to only ~25% of the monuments. Your point of bringing up the discussion on why would still be applicable to that 25% too as the more recent monuments would still be part of history now. I guess the point of "just because you're offended, doesn't mean the object is offensive" is valid here.
I think with Asperger and AS, the act of phasing the name out had already begun anyway because of the confusing mess that autism diagnosis became. His contributions to the field shouldn't, and probably won't be ignored though. Sorry if this is a bit incoherent!
I understood you just fine! I think this topic is very thought provoking as it delves into symbolism. There's also a new movement among historians to re-examine the past through researching new sources that have arisen out of discovery. For instance one of my classmates did a paper on how Cortez, the explorer, really lied a lot in his memoirs that people held up as the truth for so long. Recently some writings of one of his captains surfaced that documented a very different course of events. Since these are primary sources one simply can't say well that is fake or not true but it certainly changes Cortez's story as far as history goes. In the end though even though Cortez is shown to have lied and be an asshole about a lot of things it doesn't discount the fact that he was in Mexico and defeated the Aztecs. That's what concerns me is this kind of... erasure of some figure from the past because they were villainous (sorry if that's sounds simplified). I see this a lot in genealogy research as well. People just have a strong aversion to avoid and cover up the "bad" even if it was true. We need it all in order to learn. Whew soap box! haha
I read this this other day and thought you might like to know:
Hey that's a great example thank you so much for sharing it with me. She does a great job with the narrative.
Absolutely, it's definitely a topic that needs discussing. I've noticed this recently, there's been a run of good documentaries re-examining events in recent history, including Hitler's death or escape from Germany (Hunting Hitler), the JFK assassination (JFK Declassified: Tracking Oswald), Charles Manson (Manson Speaks: Inside the Mind of a Madman) and so on. To be honest, Cortez and the conquistadors isn't a topic I know very much about, but I'll be looking into that this weekend I think.
I totally agree with you about the erasure of certain figures, and it's like you've already said, if we ignore or forget about these events and people, we'll be doomed to repeat the same mistakes. In the past it was the victors who wrote the history books, but now in the information age, hopefully the facts will instead speak for themselves.