Since @NAChristakis asked, a couple principles I have no problem defending on names/statues/institutions — in question form.

1. Was the person retrograde on a clear moral principle at the time. Woodrow Wilson was clearly a reactionary on race for his time.

2. Is the renaming/removal being done in a thoughtful, deliberative and lawful way? Hard to find many examples of this right now, given that everybody is responding to a moral panic.

3. Was the statue/institution erected/created in an act of spite rather than commemoration or celebration? (Many confederate statues in th e 60s were put up as a middle finger to the civil rights movement. They should all go, per point 2).

There are other considerations I think are important, but I just don’t think they’re universally applicable. There are a lot of Sui generis cases out there. But I don’t think they should all be settled in a time or near hysteria.