Confederacy: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

[bathroommonkey76]

[TexasBushwhacker]

1. I love the bit about Weinstein

I had no idea he blamed his behavior on "growing up in the 60s and 70s". I grew up then too, and it wasn't okay for men to expose themselves and masturbate in front of a woman then either. He did it because he was powerful and knew he could get away with it. Ugh!

[longship]

2. Fantastic!

And Colbert, too!

[Bradshaw3]

3. This was a great lesson for anyone who makes too much of their "heritage"

Whatever that heritage might be. Just because your ancestor or those from your country of origin did something 100 or 500 years ago stop trying to justify it, or minimize it with "things were different then" or "everybody did such and such." There were hundreds of thousands of southerners who didn't want to secede so not everyone thought alike on the subject and they were right historically. The vast majority of southern politicians did and, as Oliver pointed out, enshrined slavery into their laws and constitution - putting lie to those current revisionists who want to make the southern cause about states rights.

I have southern ancestors; for all I know they fought for the south and may have owned slaves although I doubt it since they were not wealthy. But if they did I see no reason to try and defend them or justify their actions like the guy in the town hall meeting who talked about his courageous great grandfather fighting for the south, even though he died before this guy was born. Why the hell does he care so much about someone he never met? I would just say my ancestors who did such things were on the wrong side of history and we should try to do better.

What is this current obsession with heritage? We are, all of us, descended from one woman in Africa. Most of my ancestors came from Ireland and the UK. I enjoy Irish music and a Guinness every now and then and appreciate the great contributions of Irish writers but am I supposed to feel "pride" in something I did not create and a cultural heritage that was just a happenstance of birth? It's silly to me.

[marlakay]

4. We found out the guy we thought was my husbands grandfather wasn't

His dad has been gone many years, I never met him and we have been together almost 20 yrs. He was raised by his moms sister and husband and the pic we had of them we thought were his grandparents. Then we came to find out the reason he was raised that way was because his mom got pregnant in the early 1900's when that just didn't happen before marriage and the father was a nazi officer and on his way up.

When we followed old german letters after finding someone to read old german, we found out he was a nazi general who worked with Hitler and died early in the war in Poland.

It was horrifying to find that out but it explains a lot, like why when my hubby took German in high school his dad wouldn't help him speak it at all. We found out Hitler send him a personal letter signed by him asking him to fight for the fatherland and my husbands dad angry threw it in the fire.

He was sent over here as a teen because his family didn't want him to become a nazi.

It was 10 yrs ago we found this all out after discovering the old german letters. History is interesting, not always what you want but you can't hide the truth.

We found a old video of his grandfather riding a horse in a victory parade with Hitler. The whole thing was so surprising as we had no idea at all. My hubbies whole life his dad never mentioned his father once to him and now he knows why.

For the stupid people who want these statues up it would be like Germany wanting one of Hitler up, and thats insane. It may be history but like Lee said himself we don't need to see it.

[SunSeeker]

5. K & R

[Gothmog]

6. I love John Oliver