When it comes to tearing down Confederate statues, I’m an agnostic. I don’t see how a chunk of metal that was put up before any of us were born can hurt anyone, unless you push them against it or something. These things are just inanimate objects. But if everybody has decided to get worked up all of a sudden about some stupid statues that have been there our whole lives, fine. Tear them down. Heed the will of an angry mob. The Democrats can’t win elections anymore, but at least they can erase the history of what they did to America over 150 years ago.

Or maybe I’m just being glib. Maybe a bunch of statues are actually a threat to national security. David Rutz, Washington Free Beacon:

Former Obama administration official Jeh Johnson said the removal of Confederate statues was a matter of “public safety and homeland security” on Sunday.

“A number of Americans, rightly, Republican and Democrat, are very concerned and very alarmed. And I salute those in cities and states who are taking down a lot of these monuments for reasons of public safety and security. And that’s not a matter of political correctness. That’s a matter of public safety and homeland security and doing what’s right.”

Statues are dangerous. They threaten public safety and homeland security.

The statues are doing this. Somehow.

This is ridiculous, of course. It presupposes that all these neo-Nazis and “anti-fascists” battling in the streets aren’t responsible for their own actions. But they are. No statue or flag or any other inanimate object is making them do any of this.

The people who agree with Johnson on this are the same people who think destroying a Koran is a hate crime. And for the same reason: They’re paternalistic and they think the rest of us can’t control ourselves.

I think they’re wrong. I think we can teach people to put up with things they don’t like. I think we can convince everyone to control their emotions, no matter how angry they get at other people’s beliefs.

Jeh Johnson and the rest of the Democrats don’t believe in you, America. They don’t think you can control yourselves without being nannied. How about we start proving them wrong?

Banning bad ideas doesn’t make them go away. It just makes them harder to spot.

(Hat tip: Matt Vespa)