"What are the limits to which we go to avoid offending people?"

In the case of statues/carvings/public art etc I agree with Joe, each one has to be looked at on a case-by-case basis by local people, although we also need to consider how our wider society wants to remember the past.

Knowing that a number of our fellow countrymen would consider the statue of a person that was involved in oppression in the past very offensive, we have to decide whether that statue should remain or if choose to accept some responsibility for the actions of our ancestors and remove the offending object. If we don't care about offending others in our society, then keep the statue or carving or whatever.

Why is heartening is the way people have been galvanised into action by the presence of the extreme right on the streets. It might seem that with Trump and (in the UK) Farage plus Brexit the right are resurgent. Luckily there are enough people who won't forget that will go out on the streets to stop that happening.


"Do we judge them on artistic merit?"

Their artistic merit is irrelevant to the discussion.