Gates summarizes. “I thought it could be fun, without even using the word, to do a postmodern Lincoln.”
*******
“All of a sudden I find out Lincoln used the ‘N’ word, Lincoln liked ‘darky’ jokes, Lincoln liked minstrel shows.”
Great googly moogly! How post-modern can you get?
“Race and racism havent’ gone anywhere,” says Mr. Gates.
No, I suppose they will always be with us…
My God. He is a historian and he couldn’t grasp that a great man is flawed, and that a great man is colored by his time and society? He couldn’t grasp that the greatness is in rising above those flaws and those times, and pointing the way to something else? To accomplish something great despite…
My.
God.
Party on!
Ever notice how guys like Gates never get around to deconstructing Marx, Lenin, Castro or Ho? It’s almost as if there’s an underlying pattern.
I don’t know what show they extracted that from, Dan, but I hope it was without anesthesia.
OH MY GOD!!! A NINETEENTH CENTURY MAN BEHAVED LIKE A NINETEENTH CENTURY MAN!!!
God, I hate lefties.
Che was racist. So was Lenin. Stalin definitely was. Ho was too. Frankly, Lincoln was not that racist, for his time, and progressive at that (in opposing slavery as being wrong). But hey, I thought Lincoln was gay and agnostic, which automatically makes him a secular saint in the eyes of the left doesn’t it?
You want some racial humor, here’s your racial humor…
Not the best quality, but this is your post modern minstrel show
“But as he dug deeper into his research, he unearthed a number of jarring insights. “All of a sudden I find out Lincoln used the ‘N’ word, Lincoln liked ‘darky’ jokes, Lincoln liked minstrel shows.”
No, you don’t say.
Holy fuck, what a stupid statement.
Linclon was not gay. That story is based on yet more misunderstanding of 19th century society.
Wm T. Sherman–well given your name you were around to know. I never met Lincoln, so what do I know for sure if he was gay or not. I will take your word as further proof in favor of Lincoln being straight.
The evidence suggests he was a sane guy married to an insane woman. That could fit about 25% of the married population. Then there are the 25% of sane woman married to insane men, the 25% where both spouses are sane, and the remaining 25% where both spouses are insane, but I digress. The point being, it is pure speculation to assume he was gay based on a few ambiguous letters.
I assume he was straight too, on a more probable than not basis, so I agree with you. But it is interesting how groups reach out to make Lincoln there own. Christopher Hitchens was commenting about Lincoln’s agnosticism, wishing Lincoln was in fact an athiest. That is okay. Lincoln was a very complex, talented, and admirable guy. Dan Collins is speaking of Shakespeare above. Lincoln may not have the volume of work the Bard does, but he could string a sentance pretty well himself. I can understand why people would want to co-op him.
All snark aside, this looks kind of interesting. The only fear I would have is that we’d end up, as the PoMo’s tend to pre-ordain, with Lincoln the Unknown. Which is as banal a truism as the pommies come up with, which is why its their favorite.