this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2024
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Fire Memes for Traitor Haters
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Where we meme (joking in tone and detail, serious in sentiment) about General Sherman, the Civil War, and how the secesh traitors had it coming.
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No bigotry. The Union, or at least the part of the Union WE support, fought AGAINST that shite. We are anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-homophobic, anti-transphobic, and in general anti-bigot here, even if not all the lads in Union blue uniforms were.
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No Confederate sympathizing. Anti-democratic racist slaver traitors don't deserve shit.
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Your logic's kind of circular here. You're arguing that the war was really over the role of the Federal Government and its size. But the soul and only reason why the South wanted that stronger government was slavery as you pointed out. So it's not easier to say slavery it's still the accurate answer. Slavery is behind every single aspect of the Civil War. It is the one true origin point of the entire issue.
Also it is important what the vast majority of Confederate generals said, just as it's important what the vast majority of normal Confederate citizens said. Because those feelings indicate truth. They reflect the views of the society. They reflect the populace that was behind the Civil War because of slavery. It's important we listen to them because one of the false arguments made by Confederate revisionists is that the people were dragged into the Civil War even though they didn't approve of slavery themselves. We know that is complete and utter fiction. Though I've noticed that argument seems to have fallen somewhat in popularity in the current political climate.
It's a particularly questionable take considering that the Southern states were often against a strong Federal government when it opposed their interests - see, the nullification crisis. It wasn't "North wants weak Feds, South wants strong Feds", the cause of the Civil War came down overwhelmingly to the issue of slavery any time the causes are traced back to the root of the complaint, again, and again, and again; almost exclusively.
Well yes and no. That's certainly the rhetoric they used. They like to say they didn't like a strong federal government. But the original poster was correct in that they really wanted a very strong federal government in regards to pursuing slaves. The Confederacy was also very much in favor of a very strong federal government when they created their government. The makeup of the Confederacy had a lot of strong federal powers. More so than the US government in some ways. It just really comes down to them being Hypocrites. Like in most things.
They wanted a strong Federal government when it suited them, and a weak Federal government when it suited them. It wasn't a matter of a general principle - it came down to economic interests, and the economic interests of the South were built almost exclusively around slavery. The Confederacy was more centralized in some ways - such as the absolute prohibition against states' rights to regulate slavery - but in others, it was weak, such as the right of individual states to nullify Federal (or, rather, Confederal?) officers in their state.
Sounds familiar. Regressives just being themselves.