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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 2, 2023

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The monument to Catherine was demolished because Catherine the Great is associated with Russia. One should not look for some philosophical or historical meaning here. It's just a symbolic gesture against a pile of copper.

Again, she is the founder of Odessa. This is yet another farce.

What does that have to do with the people of Odessa wanting nothing to do with her today?

A lot, as otherwise they wouldn't have their city.

This is such a goofy argument that's pretty clearly a result of motivated reasoning. Does ordering a city be founded at a particular location give a person some unassailable claim to have their statue there for all eternity? If you honestly think it does, you need to do a lot more work to back up that assertion. Statues aren't just some note in a history book. They're meant to glorify a particular historical figure. Given Cathy's association with Russia, and Russia's current actions against Ukraine, it ought to be pretty understandable why the people of Odessa don't want to glorify the leader of a nation that's currently terror bombing them and engaging in war crimes left and right.

Yes, any city dedicating a statue to its founder and leaving it to stand is a completely self-evident course of events. There's no need to back that up.

Yes, any city dedicating a statue to its founder and leaving it to stand is a completely self-evident course of events. There's no need to back that up.

People disliking people murdering them is very natural. Disliking things associated with murderers is also generally obvious.

completely self-evident course of events. There's no need to back that up.

As demonstrated by Odessa residents it is not, where it was removed with broad local support.

That's just great. So the founding of Odessa was an irrelevant sidenote to Catherine's rule, and what's actually important is that she is "associated with murderers" (huh?). This is basically comedy level. Was the Russian government supposed to condemn the dissolution of the Zaporozhian Sich (which is supposedly Catherine's main great crime committed against Ukraine) in order to undo that association, or what?

By "associated with murderers" I meant "associated with Putin and modern Russia as she was also a leader of Russia"

For quite clear reasons Ukrainians are disliking anything Russia-adjacent more and more as Russia continues to bomb them and murder their friends/family members.

Former leader of Russia is clearly Russian-adjacent.

Was the Russian government supposed

Russian government is supposed to stop their invasion of Ukraine, give back invaded areas and stop murdering people and vandalising Ukraine and kidnapping people. For start.