My take is basically this, in bullet points:

• It's fucking dumb to be a part of any kind of group. Nazi...black panther....some religious CULT (all religions are cults...I don't care how many followers it takes to be considered not a cult. Kill a man, you're a murderer...kill many, you're a conquerer) or whatever the case may be. Once you're in a group, the individuality is gone. It's a hive mind.
• People, whether you agree with them or not, should be allowed to say whatever they want to say. The way I feel, and I see more and more people saying the same thing....is that over the past two decades true freedom of choice has been getting stripped away little by little. When you take away someone's right to say something and then punish them for it...you're going down the road to zero freedom and a world full of censorship, just to make sure everyone is PRETENDING to feel and think the same. Hive mind again. So many people think freedoms should only apply to others that think exactly like they do....how is this freedom? As long as you're not killing someone or beating someone up, you should be allowed to say what you want without being crucified for it.
• Like usual with any kind of shit like this, I'm willing to bet 90% of the argument on all sides is being flamed by people who just need to stir the pot and have no real knowledge of what in the hell they're talking about. Every protest that gets out of hand, the ones who cause it to get out of hand are always these morons who just want to start trouble. Many people go down to a protest site JUST to start shit and nothing else.

I find the whole thing just hilarious. Whether you're for or against the confederate flag, the past is the past. You're not changing anything by removing a flag or a statue either way so who cares? Also, the idiots in America who think only America had slavery. LMAO...I hate to tell you but slavery has been around since the dawn of man and it's affected every group of people on the planet at some point. Time to get over it.

I'd argue there's still slavery..only it's not skin color or ethnicity based anymore. It's paid slavery, rich vs poor. So as long as you're getting paid a shit amount of money to barely be able to survive, it's not REAL slavery.

Yeah making comments about other people in one's life really shouldn't be made if they aren't actually known. Getting second hand information is always a problem because the more it gets passed around the more it can change, get misinterpreted, and get other things added into the mix from other people's perceptions. The internet has just multiplied things 1,000 times over in this regard.

In most cases I like to think that someone is at least afforded the opportunity to learn and grow from things so while I don't think people should tolerate these kind of things it can be disappointing when these lynch mobs don't give these people a chance. Hopefully this could be something that would inspire her to change however from what you have said it doesn't really sound promising and that I think is the real shame.

People who were once on the sidelines no longer being on the sidelines is a terrible thing. Political apathy turning to activism is the first step to violent activism, which is an important part of the creation or the perpetuation of tyranny.*

Totalitarianism does not begin unopposed, but only gains power when it has an opponent to crush and people are fearful enough once it has been crushed to accept the new order on the basis of it ending the conflict it itself created. Fear created by internal conflict is key to this. The political apathy of a totalitarian society is actually the active support, out of fear, of the political status quo. Just as political apathy in a democracy is passive support of the political status quo.

A nation’s censoring of its own history, is usually related to evil it is presently or planning to commit. In Australia, understanding of our colonial and immigration history is a joke, and our oppression of aborigines and punishment of illegal immigrants is exceptionally cruel. This censoring is actually very important. The history of aboriginal oppression has been historically justified by mercifully saving a group of people from themselves. So it's important to either censor completely the historical oppression, or to censor the justification of it. Thus, the scholastic side of history ignores it completely, and intellectuals think of it in terms of colonialism being sadistically and knowingly cruel. Both sides are thus implicit in the application of the same oppression today; one side not knowing it exists, and the other justifying it as mercifully saving a group of people who, after many years of oppression, are incapable of caring for themselves.

Lastly, justice is a synonym for justification. That is, justice is the justification of cruelty. The action of a person or a people too stupid to respond to cruelty with anything but cruelty itself.

Poetic justice is the justification of schadenfreude.

All signs point to America imploding, but it's done that before, so it's easy to read things like that into it.

P.S. Real slavery still exists, including in first world nations; albeit it's rare in the latter. But this was also often the case during the height of slavery. The richest nations didn't need slaves to do their work at home, but in their colonies. Thus we have England using African slaves in America and other colonies, but not in England, and King Leopold’s pet colonialism killing 12 million Congolese, but Belgium not having a significant Congolese population today but a lot of sweet, sweet rubber money! Interesting sidenote, the English also enslaved their own people in the same way America does today—particularly after abolitionism became popular—slavery as criminal punishment. Much of Australia was built with the slave labour of English convicts, for instance.

*Mmm, the classic "slippery steps" argument!

Hate speech is a gray area with our Freedom of Speech right. There are limits to it, and that one rides right on the line. You're not allowed to say anything that could put a person directly in harm (i.e. shouting "FIRE" in a crowed movie theater). Direct threats upon individuals are also not allowed, and will also get you a visit from the police. I suspect we're not far away from further clarification of the law to curb hate speech.

I'm a pretty big freedom of speech advocate, so I'm never a fan of seeing it restricted, but over the years social media has really shown me that there really is a large swath of the population that is way too easily influenced. Definitely makes me rethink things.