Confederacy: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

This is so cool!

Under the american flag the united states almost exterminated the native americans after the civil war

Under the american flag the united states almost exterminated the native americans after the civil war

It all started when Democrats took Abraham Lincoln off the presidential ballot!! Let's get it right!!!

Love it, Awesome!!!

Wanting Donald Trump to be this year's president, is worse than inviting the devils rejects over for Thanksgiving dinner...

Who's Trumps VP pick this year David Duke???

I’m 51 from Georgia and I grew up being taught it was states’ rights. Obviously it was the right to own slaves. But for the majority (poor), I think it boils down to ridiculous pride and a desperation to believe they were better than black people. Pull those statues down.

Trump probably defending the statues because he has visions of grandeur, somehow believing he should be glorified in a statue. I seen to recall that he thought mount Rushmore should have another face on it, as if hinting that he would like to have his face, up there. Similar to how he wanted to be on times magasine and thought he should also win the nobel peace prize, because president Barack Obama, a much better man, then Trump could possibly be, won one.

I'm slightly surprised he mentioned Dolly Parton's restaurant and didn't mention that, from 1939 to 2003, there was a "Christmas" NCAA football "Blue Gray" game featuring all-star players from the former Union and Confederacy states during the Civil War (and the game was held in the south)!

If that seems already horrifying, remember I mentioned the years and the place it was held? Yes, for decades, the game was held in segregated south, denying black players the ability to play in the game (a game that quite literally was advertised as "celebrating" the war that black people won their freedom in)! And even after segregation was ruled illegal, the inherent cringiness continued, with black players in the SEC and other universities in the southeast forced to represent the Gray team that literally was meant to symbolize the army that went to war to keep black people enslaved (and this fact was absolutely not lost on groups like the NAACP, who rightfully actively fought for decades to have the game cancelled. How did it take so long to listen?)! 🤦🏽‍♂️🤦🏽‍♂️🤦🏽‍♂️🤦🏽‍♂️🤦🏽‍♂️🤦🏽‍♂️🤦🏽‍♂️🤦🏽‍♂️🤦🏽‍♂️🤦🏽‍♂️

And yes, the game was only finally cancelled for good in 2003 due to sponsors finally deciding the whole idea was too poisonous to be associated with!

You get the picture!

The point being, when compared to the restaurant example, I feel like that is far more cringeworthy and far more telling about how American culture has whitewashed the horrors of the Civil War!

But that being said, I understand why the Last Week Tonight team went with the restaurant example instead. In addition to it being easier to explain, that entire college football tradition would almost require an entire segment of its own to do it true justice! Like, it would almost feel like an injustice to mention it and then limit the commentary on it to only a few seconds, so I understand why they went with another example instead.

But yes, again, if anything sums up the extremely naive and mind-blowingly ignorant common national attitude towards the Civil War and the Confederacy, it's the fact that that tradition existed in one of our major American entities for more than 6 decades - literally existing from the Great Depression and continuing to exist all the way until the after the start of the Iraq War!

I love the look on the black man's face in that town council meeting with the white man bragging about his confederate roots. "We all want to be independent".

Savile is creepy as heck with his wall eyes and touchy feely.

Larry David having ancestry that fought for the South is a little ironic considering he served 5 years in the US army AND extra ironic considering the KKK hate Jews also.

"Confederate monuments are part of our traditions!"

My middle school had a tradition to knock somebody's books out of their hands and run away singing Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah. Being a tradition does not make something remotely okay...

States rights to do what?

He has some good arguments there (statues celebrate people), and I follow John and like a lot of his pieces, but I gotta say this: Trump was right in asking where it stops. I read somewhere they have removed Thomas Jefferson from City Hall in NY; his legacy is undoubtedly positive for the U.S. (and democracy altogether, as a matter of fact), but they removed him anyway, judging it by today’s standards. This is really a dumb first-world problem, and that is my issue: the black guy offended by a statue of a long-dead racist and John Oliver caring so much about it and doing a piece – that is simply dumb for me. Just tackle real issues, find something meaningful to be offended by and defend. It’s like a lack of real problems makes the brain find trivial things important. Note: I’m politically independent and do not live in the U.S right now, but I remember this issue when I lived there for college.

Keep the statues because they are our history. But don't teach critical race theory in schools. Re-writing history from all angles.

They took down jefferson this week in 2024. So Jon where does it stop?

The Wise Arts "Being Above the Law"
Firstly, sometimes people fail to recognize the serious nature of the media. The problem with information is that it works above the law of any single nation. This is why communication during and after a major war event is so important. Graphic design and advertising, the movie and music industries, science and engineering, religion and witchcraft, fiction publishing, public oration, and journalism are all above the law because information works globally and historically, and this gives them a lot of license, especially for those who know this loophole well. Today's world is not Dark Ages Europe where the church and legal entities will chase you down and kill you for the wrong media, with the exception of some countries on the Eastern continent and where computers are controversial. While engineering products themselves are heavily regulated information can be used in any way, even as a potential weapon. Obviously, it only a simple mathematics to see that some would use this license in a dangerous way and as liberal as possible. Billions of dollars are invested in social neurosciences and art and design techniques. Does this make information a threat or a danger to society? All political regimes rely on secrecy and that means disinformation. One only has to look as far as WWII Germany or the Spanish Inquisition to see its potential effects. This is why education is vital to one's survival. The worldwide public courts work differently than formal litigation and are much more bloody. Fair warning!
Note* This is one reason the scribes were considered gods when given into the school of Thoth. The had language and paper at is root inception and taught the sacred arts.

“You can’t change history” “you can’t pick and choose history” cry the people trying to get CRT banned from schools and who work hard to whitewash curriculums.

I heard an interview from 1982 where Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols said Jimmy Saville was all of these horrible things. John Lennon hated Saville for the same reasons. Saville also hosted a music show. By the way, the BBC would not air J Rotten interview. Read about Saville, one of the worst humans ever

I'm proud of my ancestors for being willing to put their lives on the line for freedom.

If we need these statues to preserve history, then why don’t the plaques ever mention slavery at all? If history is what we want, where are the statues of Harriet Tubman? Give me a break. The statues don’t preserve history, they exist to whitewash it.

I wonder how long Colbert was under the sheet

Democrats love to erase their history as pro slavery

Sounds like your English. You should do a show on how you should take down all the statues and tributes to the British Monarchy. They have killed 100’s of millions across the world and they were prominent slave traders.
The hypocrisy is sickening.
While you’re at it talk about Gaza and what Israel is doing at the present time.

Also how did they convince so many people that didn't own slaves, to fight a war to own black people that they didn't own 🤔 the large majority of Confederate soldiers owned no slaves

Nah liberals definitely try to rewrite history all the time just look at how often Biden says The founding fathers wanted to limit the second amendment You couldn't own a cannon.
🤔 I've heard him mock conservatives several times while saying that and you could own a cannon from 1776 all the way till today with no regulations 🤣😂👌 not to mention liberals started all this erase southern pride from civil war history bullshit right after people started talking about a new civil war 😂🤣👌

Dude likes to hammer the slave owner shamming , universally saying anyone that has a difference of opinion, that they are automatically wrong.
That is probably true, IF history incidents happened in a vacuum.
I'm not going to bother a debate, with no one to debate with. But by fact if you know history, other seeming unrelated events . The Supreme Court ruling that a Corporation is an entity, then the Northern corporations were the impetus and money behind Abolition. But immediately after the civil war the Rich corporations found a glut of labor from freed slave and gave the newly feed slave as Pullman Porters, Waiters, who you don't have to pay them for work! And it was such a power move , after 140 years they still have this "upgraded" slave labor in most restaurants. Now, throw in Citizens United, where the Corporate entity can legally bribe your elected officials in what's called Lobbying.
Civil war was only a part of the story, and the Corporations hope you keep waving your flag and never this that the civil war could have become something else , after it was over.

There’s a difference between talking about a bad part of history and flat out glorifying and romanticising that part of history.

Oliver you're likely a S O youself!

As a Brit, I'm ashamed of this absolute c**t.

So it can not be about those States wanting the right to own slaves legal? The argument is the same, it was about State's rights and Slavery.

CNN and a British reporter. Typical.

I have done my research into history and I have found out that The United states military has done far worse than anything that the confederacy and the Nazis have ever done. Since world war 2 the United States military has murdered twenty to thirty million people since world war two.

It was not even a "civil war" because by definition, a civil war is when two people from the same country wage war against each other for control of the government. The south never wanted to rule over the north, they just wanted to be independent.

The confederacy had every right to secede under the tenth amendment, and Lincoln practically gutted the constitution. He's the worst tyrant this country has ever seen and the most powerful evidence that he's a tyrant is that Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Leon Trotsky all have positive things to say about Lincoln. If three of the worst dictators ever have positive things to say about one of our former presidents then he must be one of the worst tyrants in history....


And today, the United States has no official language, and no border. So its not even a real country. Slavery is also fully legal in the 13th amendment so it sure as hell was not about slavery.

And everyone should not only know that slavery is still fully legal in the 13th amendment but the United States has the world's largest prison population. Not let that sink in.

The North allowed it and generations grew up with it, like The SImpsons realizing the Apu was now racist 30 years into their run🤣

Why is the South so proud of that flag & statues? When I look at it I see “LOSER”😂🤣

Y'all do know that the democratic party is made up of the politicians of the Confederate states, that they came up with the 3/5 rule Jim crowe and the KKK?

This guy is completely missing the point didn't laugh a single time just another left-wing propaganda show

It’s insane that the best news reporting comes from comedy shows like Last Week Tonight, Seth Meyers’ A Closer Look and Jimmy Kimmel’s nightly monologues. Much better reporting than conventional news shows like CNN, Fox or MSNBC.

southerner: "im not ashamed of my history"

thats kinda the problem

Only 15% of the south were slave holders so what were the other 85% fighting for dummy.

Trump was right about everything

Foreigners raking muck about ancient scars. Then, they stand staunchly with the marxists spewing anti-white bigotry. Go home, limey!

What's sadder is too many people mainly think it was just one group that was slave's and it was not or act like it was just USA and it really Wasn't the US was one the first to end it and Africa was one of the last

The idiot is always the same. Trying to blame anyone but himself. He was a democrat until putin told him to ruin and divide us, so spare the given b.s. script to read, as he believes in nothing but the grift. because that is all he does. No laws passed, pure cheaters never prosper, and thus trumpy will still be evil crap.

When women's rights cam keyse into play in America it was to get women the right to vote?
No. Half of the population could not be taxed. And now they can send the kids to be indoctrinated