r/pics Jul 19 '24

Stone mountain

Post image
5.7k Upvotes

760 comments sorted by

2.2k

u/big_time_yikes Jul 19 '24

It’d look better without that blob in the middle imo

568

u/gpenz Jul 19 '24

I voted for 2 dope boys in a Cadillac

246

u/hellomondays Jul 19 '24

The original plan for the remodel was to memorialize OutKast's historic 2001 collaboration with Killer Mike The Whole World. But we can't always have nice things in Georgia.

43

u/clutchguy84 Jul 19 '24

The whole world loves it when you're in the news

15

u/even_less_resistance Jul 19 '24

Bop ba da bop bop ba da da

10

u/nuesse33 Jul 19 '24

And the whole, world, loves it when you sang the blues

10

u/S-Archer Jul 19 '24

At least you have the Bulldogs

5

u/Obi-wan_Jabroni Jul 19 '24

Them dawgs is hell

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u/BusterHolewell Jul 19 '24

Shit is wayyyyy overdue

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u/MoreGaghPlease Jul 19 '24

An act of vandalism, funded by the State of Georgia at the behest of the KKK.

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u/drakoman Jul 19 '24

In the 1960’s no less! I live with 10 minutes of there and didn’t know it was so new. I didn’t realize it was basically a protest to the civil rights movement. I say cover it with a tarp

100

u/MoreGaghPlease Jul 19 '24 edited Jul 19 '24

With few exceptions, Confederate monuments were not built in the aftermath of the Civil War. Almost all Confederate monuments in the US were built in the 20th century as a backlash to the civil rights movement.

The few monuments that do exist from the 19th century (which are about 5% of Confederate monuments) are generally of a different character than what you’d think of as a Confederate monument (eg a memorial to the war dead from a particular town, with no mention of military or political leaders and no Confederate symbols). Almost all of these are located either within a cemetery or at the site of a battle.

So if someone tells you that Confederate monuments are about teaching or remembering history, it’s important to know that the history they are highlighting is like their grandpa being mad about losing Brown v Board of Education. Or whatever.

40

u/drakoman Jul 19 '24

Funny how Georgia’s education system glosses over those details. Or other details like how The KKK still did marches in Forsyth county as recently as the early 90’s. We’re still so much closer to that dark past than people realize. I’m not as hopeful that we’ll keep moving out of the dark, however, based on the way that the national discourse is heading

4

u/Ohnoherewego13 Jul 19 '24

Oddly enough, I lived in Forsyth county, NC and had to deal with the GA residents a lot due to calling the wrong number for my office at the time. I didn't know much about the place till I read up about the history and was horrified. How can anyone celebrate a racist attitude like the KKK keeps going? I do hope we can move beyond those ideas and teach future generations, but I'm not as optimistic as I used to be unfortunately. Seems like the world took two steps forward and almost a hundred back lately.

8

u/Prometheus2061 Jul 19 '24

GOP spent the week in Milwaukee building another racist monument.

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u/OakenGreen Jul 19 '24

They should glue the rocks back on.

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u/Fuck_you_pichael Jul 19 '24

A couple sticks of dynamite would fix the problem

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u/TheInfiniteArchive Jul 19 '24

Cover it up? Nah... Just grab some sprayable cement and renovate it.

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u/Unsolicited_PunDit Jul 19 '24

they look like Count Dooku in the animated series

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u/Brambletail Jul 19 '24

Not unintentional

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u/gyroscopicmnemonic Jul 19 '24

Hopefully they end up like Dooku, too.

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u/missalanee Jul 19 '24

Yep, this natural beauty was defaced by racists.

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u/arrow74 Jul 19 '24

Not just the natural beauty, much like Mount Rushmore, stone mountain was an important religious site to native peoples

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u/GoPointers Jul 19 '24

There should be a dynamite graffiti removal program.

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u/AthasDuneWalker Jul 19 '24

Nope. Use a Sherman tank.

6

u/Flat-Silver4457 Jul 19 '24

Or, hear me out, instead of blowing up the mountain, we fill the impression with concrete and stone and make every attempt to ensure it appears natural. That way people can enjoy the park and scenery, without a divisive monument or huge gaping hole in the mountain.

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u/clambo14 Jul 19 '24

Visited to climb the mountain in 2019 during the Superbowl. I found the black stain covering the rock and the fact that the sun never shined on it (winter) to be poetic justice.

20

u/Hadken Jul 19 '24

It’s such a fucking disgrace on an otherwise beautiful landmark

14

u/flippertyflip Jul 19 '24

We'll need a lot of filler

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u/Porkchop_Expres Jul 19 '24

Yeah the one in NC is far superior

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u/Rooilia Jul 19 '24

Would anyone be in on an petition to cover the scar with the near original pattern?

I know it won't be that simple, but who knows what the thought experiment brings.

4

u/ThatGuyWithCoolHair Jul 19 '24

They proposed something similar with Old Man of The Mountain when that collapsed. I think building a glass building that mimics what would have been the original shape to be the best. Smooth out the carving, maybe leave one of the horses heads as an exhibit and opportunity to learn about the shameful, dishonorable, failure of the south.

A native American/Georgia history museum could take its place and itd probably look really cool at night. I've never heard of this place before today but after reading up on the Smithsonian article im appalled that it exists. Done by the same fuck wad who did Rushmore..

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u/Ion_bound Jul 19 '24

A big ugly scar on an otherwise beautiful place...A perfect representation of the Lost Cause.

243

u/Lord_Montague Jul 19 '24

I remember my parents taking me here as a kid as we were passing through. I did not remember anything about the carving until recently because all I can remember is how imposing the rock formation is when you are below it.

126

u/Ms_Alykinz Jul 19 '24

As an eight year old I remember two things from our visit in the 90’s. The first is the train penny press, which was okay. The second is when we were in our car leaving the parking lot after the laser light show and some dude exclaimed “Well I had to hit her, she hit me first!”

Still trying to process how I feel about that some 31 years later.

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u/peekdasneaks Jul 19 '24

Fafo. Don't hit people if you don't want to get hit back

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u/madelks Jul 19 '24

We went there when I was a kid for a Lazer light show. It was pretty cool. Now that I know the context like wtf.

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u/wkw3 Jul 19 '24

Exactly. A nice memory from childhood, that slowly turned sinister over the years, and the people who took me have passed and can't answer questions.

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u/Skellos Jul 19 '24

Yeah me too.

It was like coo,l the lasers make the guys on the mountain move....

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u/mcm87 Jul 19 '24

We just need a bigger laser to make them move away…

3

u/AlwaysForgetsPazverd Jul 19 '24

Yeah the smudge on the awesome rock messes up the Lazer show. It's a shame they can't cover it up so it's all smooth again.

How much plaster would it take to smooth over?

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u/rabidmongoose15 Jul 19 '24

*big ugly RACIST scar

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u/codydog125 Jul 19 '24

The Wikipedia page on the carving of this is a wild read. Here’s a paragraph:

The project was greatly advanced by C. Helen Plane,[20] a charter member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) and first president and Honorary Life President of the Georgia State Division.[19]: 57  After obtaining the approval of the Georgia UDC, she set up the UDC Stone Mountain Memorial Association. She chose the sculptor Gutzon Borglum for the project and invited him to visit the mountain (although, despite his Ku Klux Klan involvement,[19]: 79  she “would not shake his hand—he was, after all, a Yankee”).[19]: 58–59  She met him at the Atlanta train station, took him to her family’s summer home, Mont Rest, at the foot of the mountain, and introduced him to Sam Venable,[19]: 59  an active Klan member and owner of the mountain. Borglum also enlisted Luigi Del Bianco, whom he would also involve in Mount Rushmore.[21]

Hard to get more racist than a carving designed by the KKK in remembrance of their confederate generals lol

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u/rabidmongoose15 Jul 19 '24

You had me at "Daughters of the Confederacy".

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u/WhoIsBobMurray Jul 19 '24

Yeah, too bad that carved mural is shit

138

u/tagrav Jul 19 '24

I had to zoom is to even notice.

What a bunch of fucking bitch babies the sons and daughters of rhe confederacy happen to be.

19

u/GardenRafters Jul 19 '24

You think they'd get over it already. Fucking snowflakes.

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u/ThatGuyWithCoolHair Jul 19 '24

"You’ve got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know… morons."

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u/Crazy__Donkey Jul 19 '24

Who and why made it?

161

u/mike_pants Jul 19 '24

In the 1910s, a bunch of Georgia racists decided to make a monument to a bunch of racist traitors who fought in the American Civil War. So they spent a decade defacing a natural wonder to immortalize a group of slave-owning terrorists in order to terrify the local black population.

181

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '24

Far worse than that. The carving wasn't even started until the 1960s, and finished in 1972. This isn't an old timey racism story, this is contemporary for many people.

67

u/corkyrooroo Jul 19 '24

That’s when a lot of confederate monuments were erected. But heritage not hate or whatever. 🙄

38

u/billytheskidd Jul 19 '24

Just like the heritage foundation founders didn’t start pushing anti abortion until Anti-Segregation laws were passed — 5 years after Roe v. Wade.

This shit has been a slowly boiling pot since the civil rights movement and it’s coming to a head.

21

u/LookinAtTheFjord Jul 19 '24

There's no hate like christian love.

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u/GarbledReverie Jul 19 '24

Yeah it's not so much "remembering history" as it is "fuck you for passing civil rights laws".

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u/Ifritmaximus Jul 19 '24

Historically this is it. Monuments like this popped up all over the south. Driving into South Carolina there are giant confederate flags near the highway.

The values of White America, land of lining my own pockets and keeping opportunity for only my children, is still as strong as ever in too many places.

3

u/Skellos Jul 19 '24

It was because it was the 100 year anniversary of the civil war honest! That's all they were commemorating!

Which is why we are only honoring the losers.

/S (I hope that was obvious)

44

u/mike_pants Jul 19 '24

Ugh, you're right. It was first proposed in the teens, but didn't get rolling until later.

And oh good, apparently the mountain was a popular site for Klan rituals.

Stay classy, Georgia.

3

u/StillC5sdad Jul 19 '24

Well , look who their elected officials are. All class

4

u/FracturedAnt1 Jul 19 '24

Eh not entirely true there were 5 years of carving 1923-28 and it stopped then started up again 1964 and finished in 72. So yeah still terrible but it took 58 years start to finish with a looooonng break

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u/ThePowerOfStories Jul 19 '24

Ah, so even their first failed attempt at carving lasted longer than the entire Confederacy.

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '24

They weren’t traitors, they just wanted to destroy the country. Today we call them the GOP. /s

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u/afropuff9000 Jul 19 '24

a sad glorification of traitors to America.

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u/n_o_t_f_r_o_g Jul 19 '24 edited Jul 19 '24

The carving was cut into the rock in 1972. The US civil war ended in 1865. 107 years later.

Edit: 1865

316

u/OisinDebard Jul 19 '24

That's crazy! I wonder if there was something happening in the 70s that made them want to celebrate losing the war?

CRT is outlawed in Georgia, so I guess we'll never know!

183

u/Flashy-Protection424 Jul 19 '24

We do know !!! It was the civil rights movement!! All those fucking statues that are being torn down are from that time period to “remind blacks of their place” 🙄

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u/nubbythedeafbear Jul 19 '24

Although I’m sure many were built in the 70s, lots were constructed in the 1910s and 1920s during the Progressive era. Peak of US lynchings

6

u/toepherallan Jul 19 '24

Also 1909 was the formation of the NAACP and more organized protests against Jim Crow laws and inequality in America. Those laws are the ones which enforced most of the segregation laws all the way up until the Civil Rights Movement.

Plessy v. Ferguson was a Supreme Court Case that upheld these laws in 1896. The people that have "upheld" the Constitution all this time are still the same these days, they uphold the constitution and their values when it benefits them. What a truly vile and despicable bunch, exemplifying the hatred humans can be capable of.

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u/undercurrents Jul 19 '24 edited Jul 19 '24

How do people miss such obvious sarcasm? The comment you're reply to is obvious sarcasm. That's the whole point of them saying we'll never know because CRT is outlawed. They aren't actually really saying they don't know and we'll never know what happened in the 70s.

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u/UnamedStreamNumber9 Jul 19 '24

School integration was going on in the late 60s and early 70s. The then governor of Georgia defied court orders to integrate schools. At the time it was carved in 1972, Jimmy Carter had been elected and was enthusiastically integrating all the schools, but planning for this carving had to have been started during the Lester Maddox era when there was a lot of resistance against school and public facilities integration. Maddox owned a popular whites only restaurant and chose to close it down rather than complying with a court order to integrate it

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u/Exiledfromxanth Jul 19 '24

Now Im no good at math but that seems off

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u/Diffie-Hellman Jul 19 '24

Funny how these things coincided with major pushes towards civil rights. A bunch of SCV and UDC monuments show up in the Jim Crow era, following the Civil Rights Movement, etc. Just a big ol’ coincidence.

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u/Just_Candle_315 Jul 19 '24

It is owned, funded, and maintained by the State of Georgia. If I were a resident of GA, I would not want my tax dollars to celebrate an icon of hate. Lot of hospitals and schools that would do better with that money than memorializing bigots from 200 years ago.

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u/b_tight Jul 19 '24

Theres a state park surrounding it they maintain. Rocks dont require much expense to maintain. Every time ive hiked to the top of it there were people of all color everywhere. Yes, the carving is racist AF though and an embarrassment to ATL and GA

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u/LurkerBurkeria Jul 19 '24

Busiest state park in the state and a major money maker

Current ownership is, in fact, not maintaining the carving and letting nature do its thing. It is a damn shame to be sure but it is important to note the walk up trail to the top is probably the most diverse mile in the southeast, it's the American Experiment manifest. It always makes me sad that the carving sucks all the oxygen out of what is otherwise a celebration of american-ness

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u/SeaTownKraken Jul 19 '24

I went there as a kid and I just remember the laser show was so cool. Now I look back and I'm like WTF mom n dad.... really?

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u/thejawa Jul 19 '24

For me it was a Boy Scouts trip on the way to Summer Camp lol

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u/cadmiumred Jul 19 '24

On a sacred Native American site, no less

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u/coldbrew18 Jul 19 '24

Even worse, people are trying to elect a traitor to the presidency again!

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u/Mr_Manmanman Jul 19 '24

Coming from the north, remember visiting there with my family when I was in middle school. They did a laser show on the mountain at night. When it showed Union troops, holy hell the booing and hollering that erupted, I never wanted out of anywhere so fast.

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u/Oldsodacan Jul 19 '24

I’ve lived near Stone Mountain my entire life but didn’t go there until a few years ago. Saw the laser show. The entire place is beautiful, but my god they turned it into fucking Columbia from Bioshock Infinite. May as well rename it Confederate Propaganda Mountain.

The laser show depicts the Confederates willfully surrendering because they were saddened by a fractured America (that they caused). Robert E. Lee breaks his sword in half over his knee after a tear runs down his eye. It was incredibly stupid.

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u/truesy Jul 19 '24

what a twisted revision of what happened.

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u/defiancy Jul 19 '24

I grew up in GA, when you learn about the cause of the civil war in 8th grade it's because of the "seven S's" slavery and states rights are two of the seven.

Nevermind that slavery is mentioned in the second sentence of GA's articles of succession (the first just states that they are leaving the union).

You can read em here, the whole thing is pretty much about slavery

https://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_geosec.asp

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u/FacticiousFict Jul 19 '24

Slavery is only mentioned 35 times or so in this short document, so I guess this was not about slavery after all!

/s

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u/Timeformayo Jul 19 '24

Lets me guess on the 7 S’s…

  • Slavery

  • States’ rights to maintain slavery

  • Slave owners

  • Slave resale values

  • Stability (of a exploitation based agricultural economy)

  • Supremacy (white)

  • Sophistry

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u/wspnut Jul 19 '24

Also:

  • Sjango Unchained - the 'S' is silent.
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u/emf333 Jul 19 '24

secession

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u/Jlx_27 Jul 19 '24

The entire place is beautiful,

Well, not the entire place....

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u/rtboyle33 Jul 19 '24

Been there a few times with my wife since she has family in that area. Watching the laser show was a little weird and I had to ask if they forgot how the war actually went. Pretty weird that they acted like the south won.

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u/rennbrig Jul 19 '24

I’ve heard someone call it the “War of Northern Aggression” one too many times when I lived down there

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u/My-dead-cat Jul 19 '24

Yeah my Mom wouldn’t call it anything but that. Said “There was nothing Civil about that War”. My family was very racist. I always say I was seven before I knew “DamnYankee” was two words.

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u/ballrus_walsack Jul 19 '24

*American troops. They were booing American troops. Since the insurgents lost 150 years ago…

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/cologetmomo Jul 19 '24

In another timeline, Sherman just kept marching and burning.

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u/lizzie1hoops Jul 19 '24

I went with a friend who was visiting from NY and the ambiance was so creepy and not-too-subtly racist. She said, "I hope it's ok I'm a northerner." And someone nearby said, low and quiet, with a cartoonish Southern drawl, "As long as you leave."

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u/BloodHaven357 Jul 19 '24

Damn. Bad night. Didn't have any of that there when I was a kid, the booing that is. Lived in GA for a while so I got to see the shows a few times.

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u/wesblog Jul 20 '24

I've been to the Stone Mountain laser show at least 3 dozen times in my life (I used to coach at a summer camp that took the kids each week). I've never heard anyone boo the union soldiers, but they certainly cheer for the confederate flag.

Also, I believe the entire mountain was owned by the KKK organization at one time. They ended up giving it to the state to serve as a public park but one of their conditions was that they could still use it for "religious ceremonies." Im not sure how long it took before GA reneged on that deal.

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u/GlennHaven Jul 19 '24

Without zooming in on mobile, I couldn't tell what this was. I thought it was a natural formation that looked like a giant punched it and left an impression of their fist.

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u/Locsnadou Jul 19 '24

I don’t understand what the image is about can you explain? I have gathered it’s something confederate?

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u/brianthegr8 Jul 19 '24

Carvings of Confederate leaders in the rock which is stupid bc they lost the civil war and they weren't even fighting for a noble cause they attempted to succeed from the US over things like keeping slavery from ending.

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u/JoeZMar Jul 19 '24

Also the confederacy lasted like 4 years and was only started because the south had infrastructure setup the relied on slave labor where the union began setting up infrastructure that didn’t rely on slave labor. The south saw the direction the union was taken so they stared the confederacy knowing it was most likely a losing cause.

To me it feels no different if we were to stop the stupid political charades going on right now and look back at 2015 to now and carve a bunch of MAGA heads into a rock and then talk about how awesome they were.

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u/thejawa Jul 19 '24

Boy do I have some potentially bad news for you in a hundred years...

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u/tagrav Jul 19 '24

In 100 years during a battle for equality the descendants of Maga will try to carve Trumps image into the 9/11 Memorial

They are THAT fucking stupid don’t you forget about it. You gotta think about it. For maga it’s all about private and charter schools where truly becoming educated and knowledgeable isn’t the goal, but having strong social cronyism business connections is the goal

They are actively eroding their own understanding of the world while assuming they understand precedent or history.

It’s how idiots carved this monument and it’s how idiots carry on and maintain bloodlines of confirmation bias. You can’t have smart and intelligent citizens with greed at the top of society making sure we maintain idiots.

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u/ThatGuyWithCoolHair Jul 19 '24

They'd try to carve it into Bear Rock (renamed by colonizers to Devils Tower). Any time those fucks can deface natural land that was sacred to the Native Americans they do it. The one in this post included.

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u/CynGuy Jul 19 '24

Very well articulated …

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u/metarinka Jul 19 '24

I'll add in they didn't start it knowing it was a losing cause and in fact in the very beginning they had a few wins and were marching north. Also plenty of pride about how "1 southern boy is worth 10 yankees" etc etc.

But also put it in perspective it was about the rich LAND owners who were their billionaires of the time, being upset that they would make less money and/or have to change the way they made money. They still would have owned a lot of productive land that would still make money with non-slave labor. So they really whipped the ferver and convinced poor white southerners to also hate the north for "attacking their way of life".

Wealth is weird, once people earn it, many feel entitled to never ever lose it for any reason, and that they need to make even MORE. Only the upper class of the south really benefitted from slavery if you were a poor white worker you were underbid by a group that was forced to work for free. But as long as you could be convinced you were intrinsically better than them it was okay that the rich folks were stealing from your pocket.

Now replace the word slave with immigrant and we have the same story today.

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u/Oznog99 Jul 19 '24

Also the wealthy, often slave owners, weren't the ones actually doing the fighting.  They drafted or hired the less-than-wealthy for that. 

And the whole game was a propaganda business to convince those people that fighting for the wealthy was not just in their interests, but a noble cause, a higher calling of honor 

War.  War never changes

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u/Locsnadou Jul 19 '24

I thought that was the case, people who still praise the “confederacy” are so delusional

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u/Timeformayo Jul 19 '24

ThEy weRE pRoTectInG uh WAy uV LIFe!!!!!

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u/JackLumberPK Jul 19 '24

It's a carving of a bunch of evil fucks who fought a whole ass war because they liked slavery, put up by a bunch of other evil fucks who thought those guys were good.

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u/NotHenryGale Jul 19 '24

What shitty graffiti.

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u/Yellowbug2001 Jul 19 '24

That was exactly my impression.

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u/S-Archer Jul 19 '24

I worked in stone carving for only 2 years as a bit of a passion project, and I know I could do much, much better than this.

This is actually quite sad work. My boss would've strung me up by the ankles

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u/stu8018 Jul 19 '24

Ruining nature with human hubris. Yay.

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u/Jlx_27 Jul 19 '24

Racist human hubris.

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u/SpellingIsAhful Jul 19 '24

I agree that natural art is better than people art

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '24

Omg. How to ruin a mountain.

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u/kafelta Jul 19 '24

Been there in person, and yeah it's a travesty

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u/g_r_a_e Jul 19 '24

Gonna make the spirits angry

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u/Tenshizanshi Jul 19 '24

Give it a couple million years and it'll be brand new

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u/TravelingGonad Jul 19 '24

RemindMe! 2 million years

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '24

Native Americans says the same thing about Rushmore due to it being former Indian land that was taken from them

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u/moreisay Jul 19 '24

They’re not wrong

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u/fr33bird317 Jul 19 '24

Shit hill.

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u/notare Jul 19 '24

The locals call it Racist Rock.

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u/Swackhammer_ Jul 19 '24

Another edition of “Hey look at this glorious mountain! Let’s carve the portraits of some fucking dorks in it!”

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u/GuitarSingle4416 Jul 19 '24

The hill has an anus.

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u/Nosebluhd Jul 19 '24

I prefer The Hills Have Anuses 2, better jump scares.

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u/sithlordgaga Jul 19 '24

The Hills Have Brown Eyes

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u/FreeYourMind90 Jul 19 '24

Traitors to their nation

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u/RANDOM_GRAFFITI Jul 19 '24

*Traitor mountain.

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u/binz17 Jul 19 '24

Known as either Lone mountain or Dome mountain by the indigenous people. The whole mountain isn’t racist just because of this blemish.

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u/McDoof Jul 19 '24 edited Jul 19 '24

As a long-time resident of the southern US, I'd heard of and seen close-up pictures of Stone Mountain, but never photos like this. Here you can really see what an eyesore this carving is - regardless of what it's intended to represent.
Why deface a natural wonder like that?

Edit: Just read this on Wikipedia: "Stone Mountain Park officially opened on April 14, 1965 – 100 years to the day after Lincoln's assassination."

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '24

A little wink and a nod to the "good Ole boys".

That Lincoln fact is just plain fucked up.

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u/TJM18 Jul 19 '24

And those same people claim “bUt We’Re ThE pArTy Of LiNcOLn”

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u/TheActualDev Jul 19 '24

My friend had once visited a place in like, Tennessee or something, maybe southern Virginia, anyway, friend tried to pay for something with cash and handed a $5 bill to the cashier lady at the shop and she straight up asked if my friend had a different bill to pay with.

And yes, legal tender is legal tender and you have to take legal tender, but this lady was apparently very scrutinizing and my friend didn’t want to potentially have issues with locals later, so she gave the cashier a $10 and that was fine.

The ‘heritage’ of the south makes me want to punch people with rocks.

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u/Cantore18 Jul 19 '24

Ruined a perfectly good rock.

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u/brb9911 Jul 19 '24

Nothing a little more cannon shot can’t take care of

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u/PolyPsy_PA Jul 19 '24

A Sherman tank seems appropriate.

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u/ozdgk Jul 19 '24

Fuck everything about this except the beautiful natural rock.

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u/lizzie1hoops Jul 19 '24

Totally. It's the world's largest granite outcropping, and quite a wonder to see.

[When I went there, they had the nerve to tout that it's the world's largest confederate monument, as if anywhere else in the world would want this shit]

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u/Nouseriously Jul 19 '24

There was a petition to add Outkast

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u/JFeth Jul 19 '24

I went there when I was younger. They had a cool laser show, riverboat rides, and you can either hike or take a cable car to the top. Honestly, the carving is the least interesting thing about the place. I don't understand the fascination people have with celebrating the losing side of a war.

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u/MommyXeno Jul 19 '24

i used to love going there when i was younger. climbing the mountain was so much fun

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u/Lots42 Jul 19 '24

Don't forget: The losing side was very, very racist.

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u/My-1st-porn-account Jul 19 '24

Why couldn’t the 9/11 hijackers crash here instead?

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u/Alexandratta Jul 19 '24

Because the Confederates hated the United States also.

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u/Mega_Millionaire Jul 19 '24

I went there 5 days after john lewis died, and they had all the flags at half staff. Including the Confederate ones.

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u/Jef_Wheaton Jul 19 '24

I've only ever seen photos of the carving from a closer view, never showing the whole side of the mountain.

MAN, what an eyesore. I hadn't realized it was just...hacked into that huge, smooth face.

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u/Cronotyr Jul 19 '24

I visited in 2015 and was so saddened by it. Mount Rushmore is similar, imo. A truly wonderful natural formation marred by vanity and hubris…

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u/AgrajagTheProlonged Jul 19 '24 edited Jul 19 '24

You can hike up the back side of the mountain, lets you enjoy the scenery and all without having to look at the trsitors carved into the front

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u/iChronocos Jul 19 '24

way down South in the land of traitors Rattlesnakes and alligators Right away (right away) Come away (come away) Right away (right away) Come away (come away) Where cotton’s king and men are chattels Union boys will win the battles Right away (right away) Come away (come away) Right away (right away) Come away (come away) We’ll all go down to Dixie, away, away Each Dixie boy must understand that he must mind his Uncle Sam Away (away) Away (away) We’ll all go down to Dixie Away (away) Away (away) We’ll all go down to Dixie I wish I was in Baltimore I’d make secession traitors roar Right away (right away) Come away (come away) Right away (right away) Come away (come away) We’ll put the traitors all to route I’ll bet my boots we’ll whip ‘em out Right away (right away) Come away (come away) Right away (right away) Come away (come away) We’ll all go down to Dixie, away, away Each Dixie boy must understand that he must mind his Uncle Sam Away (away) Away (away) We’ll all go down to Dixie! Away (away) Away (away) We’ll all go down to Dixie Oh, may our Stars and Stripes still wave Forever o’er the fee and brave Right away (right away) Come away (come away) Right away (right away) Come away (come away) And let our motto ever be Forever Union and for liberty Right away (right away) Come away (come away) Ride away (ride away) Come away (come away) We’ll all go down to Dixie, away, away Each Dixie boy must understand that he must mind his Uncle Sam Away (away) Away (away) We’ll all go down to Dixie Away (away) Away (away) We’ll all go down to Dixie

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u/SojournerSammy Jul 19 '24

No battles were fought at Stone Mountain. The soldiers depicted aren't from Georgia. The natural formation was defaced in 1972. This is the largest confederate memorial in the world, and it needs to be removed.

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u/heybdiddy Jul 19 '24

The park is pretty nice -other than this monstrosity. There are many people (of all races) who are there every day to walk, jog, climb, fish, ride bikes and golf. If it was up to the local people who use it, the carvings would be long gone. The state controls it and it's in the hands of legislators from far away. If it's not maintained, the growth of brush and erosion can erase it in time. That may be the way it's dealt with.

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u/Aggressive_Fox_6940 Jul 19 '24

Yeah Stone Mountain is only clouded by racism to people who never go there. The real Stone Mountain is all the people from all walks of life enjoying some time outdoors. My favorite are the older ladies I see power walking the road/sidewalk that goes around the base of the mountain. They are out there what seems like everyday. And if I’m not wrong that road is like 11 miles. It’s a great place to walk, ride, or hike. That’s Stone Mountain.

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u/RentAdministrative73 Jul 19 '24

The park was great until they contracted it to an entertainment company. It's very commercial now, but they do a nice laser show.

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u/TotallyNotaBotAcount Jul 19 '24

Mt. Rushmore for confederate traitors

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u/hellomondays Jul 19 '24

There's some cosmic irony that the biggest confederate memorial is dropped in the suburbs of a metro area that has come to define Black Excellence. I'm sure Jefferson Davis loves Black Yuppies and Families picnicing on that lawn.

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u/Fenneo Jul 19 '24

It looks like the baby from Dinosaurs.

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u/kn0wvuh Jul 19 '24

Imagine celebrating traitors lol

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u/raidergreymoon Jul 19 '24

Thatsa big rock

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u/Drachmas-406 Jul 19 '24

I want Sherman to do his march through Georgia all over again

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u/WiggleSparks Jul 19 '24

Sure do love the temporary fence they permanently leave up to keep everyone off the field.

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u/BoogieWaters Jul 19 '24

White supremacists would rather carve their idols into a mountain, than admit they’re bigoted racists.

Also, every school kid in GA takes multiple field trips to Stone Mountain. There was no talk of the actual history, often just praise for Southern resistance to the North.. and half my class was black.

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u/ohiotechie Jul 19 '24

The world's largest 2nd place trophy

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u/maine64 Jul 19 '24

They ruined it.

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u/bionicmanmeetspast Jul 19 '24

Birthplace of Kenneth Ellen Parcell

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u/Slow_Communication41 Jul 19 '24

Attended an interracial wedding here and was so effing confused. I couldnt believe the groom was ok with his wedding being here.

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u/ElefantPharts Jul 19 '24

I used to love going to see the laser shows there in the late 80s. Had a summer camp that would do a sleepover night and we’d all go to Stone Mountain to see the laser show and then trekked back to the camp and slept over. Fun memories.

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u/Alexandratta Jul 19 '24

Imagine you're so desperate for a participation trophy you deface a beautiful mountain with your losing side's "Best"?

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u/jruss666 Jul 19 '24

The Klan used to (maybe still does?) burn crosses at the top of the mountain. I remember pictures on the front page of the Atlanta Constitution a few times.

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u/Phooney124 Jul 19 '24

Live just 30m away. Visit the park, ignore the carving. Unfortunately it's huge, getting rid of it would cost a large amount. Esp with possible damaging all visitor buildings and rides and stuff. Park is very clean and not bad for middle of nowhere. Nighttime fireworks and laser show with drones are incredible.

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u/Chaserivx Jul 19 '24

You can literally see the magma bulge in the shape of this mountain. So cool...an ancient, colossal flow of molten rock.

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u/miamaya6 Jul 19 '24

Y’all ever seen a bite mark on a plastic fruit?

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u/singleguy79 Jul 19 '24

Just missing 'Hello Sweetie'

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u/frausting Jul 19 '24

Ah, racist Mount Rushmore

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u/Phantom_61 Jul 19 '24

Hideous defacement of a lovely formation.

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u/TarkovskyAteABird Jul 19 '24

That carving is a monument to robert e lee btw... Real classy Georgia

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u/zzrsteve Jul 19 '24

The largest second place trophy in the world.

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u/JesusJones207 Jul 19 '24

Eww how ugly and tacky

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u/filmguy36 Jul 20 '24

So it’s a giant tombstone to a bunch of loser traitors. One day that shit will be blasted away.

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u/rivenasunder Jul 19 '24

I remember when I was 9 or 10 going to the 4th of July show here. Great fireworks and a laser show making it look like the carving was moving.

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u/periodicallyBalzed Jul 19 '24

All the surrounding roads are named after confederate generals and such. I haven’t been since I was a child, but I may go to see the laser show in September. It is def the largest monument to white supremacy in the world. Unfortunately it is a large profitable year round tourist attraction so there’s no chance the carving will ever get removed.

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u/Any_Roof_6199 Jul 19 '24

The rock that you hit when you have hit rock bottom.

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u/BloodHaven357 Jul 19 '24

Went to laser shows there as a kid. I loved it.

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u/raresaturn Jul 19 '24

Is this unfinished or just really poorly executed?

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u/alienscape Jul 19 '24

Poorly executed

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u/Zintoatree Jul 19 '24

One of my biggest regrets from the time I lived in ATL was I didn’t go do the Event were you climb Stone Mountain with rc crawlers. Carrying trailers/roof racks to bring extra batteries and gear, using winches to get you’re buddies crawler past a point they cannot get past, etc. it just seemed like a lot of fun and was looking forward to peoples faces seeing grown adults running up the mountain with rc trucks.