US Authoritarianism

Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth. This truth has been slow in the process of its development, like all other truths in the various departments of science.

• Alexander Stephens, vice president of the Confederate States of America

This is the "heritage" that they value.

I love telling them that the eight years of the Obama administration was almost twice as long as the lifetime of the Confederacy, making it a much bigger part of their heritage.

"Heritage" lmao

Americans are funny

I saw more Confederate battle flags running around Indianapolis than I did in Atlanta. It's not about muh heritage.

Also, fuck Indianapolis. Atlanta, you're cool.

Their logic is so stupid.

You know for fuck sure that if I flew an Iraqi flag (hell, it could be a Italian flag with "scribbles" in the center), they'd pitch a fit, even if I try to defend it as "Middle East heritage".

I'd argue that it's not even about racism.

It's about them wanting to trigger blacks and libs. They don't know shit about the history of their Confederate flag. I'd even venture to say they don't know shit about the Confederacy but I'm not about to debate "history" with a bunch of racists.

I think that defining the heritage of a group of people in political terms is always a fascistic idea. Commonly, we don't really do that.

To use a classic "muh Western huritage" example, when someone talks about ancient Greek heritage, they mean cultural heritage - food, music, art, theater, sport, architecture, religion, philosophy - and cultural values like democracy, patriarchy, social hierarchy including class-based slave ownership, etc. A specific ruling group, governing document, or even a specific war doesn't really belong in that category - those are a part of the history of that group, but not core to their identity as a group.

"Southern" US cultural heritage is made up of music (jazz, rock, blues, country, just to name a few), regional cuisines like BBQ & Cajun, maybe some historical ways of life that had a lasting impact - like cowboys & ranching culture, landed gentry like plantation owners, chattel slavery & black sharecropping, white sharecropping, Mexican settlers, etc., protestant christianity (specifically Baptist christianity) and cultural values like racial hierarchy and apartheid and its lasting impacts, an old-world sense of chivalry, and rugged individualism - stuff like that.

What doesn't really make sense is to say that the Confederacy itself is a core component of the culture. Not just because it only lasted for 5 years and non-white Southerners weren't willing participants, but also because the ideas/beliefs that shaped the Confederacy were a part of the culture of the most powerful group at the time. In other words, it was part of the culture of the South that allowed and enabled the Confederacy to exist, not the Confederacy that created the culture.

Yep, it's stupid, and nearly all of them have no awareness of the fact that the Confederate Flag was only truly adopted as a cultural symbol as a backlash against the Civil Rights Movement.

But it doesn't matter.

The last two generations of southerners have taught their kids that that awful flag is, in fact, a symbol of Southern heritage, so the bell can't be unrung. For many, it is now a fact.

Westerner, then Northerner, checking in to say I strongly support Southern American cuisine. Please, please, honor some of your (y’all’s? 😁) less violent heritage.

You want a flag with a picture of some collard greens and sweet potato pie instead of some sleeper stars and bars? Please have at it.

The problem with "Southern Heritage" is that pretty much all of it is stolen from folks they had previously enslaved.

funny how my planned obsolescence phone has had a longer lifetime than your "heritage".

Funny thing. The phrase 'cracker' was invented by rich whites as a slur against poor whites.

Back in the day, cracked corn was used to make hominy grits and corn liquor. Rich folks used cracked corn to feed their pigs. Since they were eating and drinking cracked corn, the poor were 'crackers.'

The people flying them are well aware of the reputation. You don’t see civil war collectors flying them

Amazing take.

I forgot to say- yesterday we were in southern Illinois and I saw a big pickup truck with a huge confederate flag painted on it and I wanted to go knock on their door and tell them that they were living in the LAND OF fucking LINCOLN.

Its a easy way to spot the losers.

Heil Hydra!

Most confederate soldiers were not slave owners. You needed land and a lot of credit to afford slaves. That flag really represents a suicide charge up a hill into a hail of gunfire, motivated purely by racism, and dying solely for the benefit of the ultra wealthy, fighting to your last breath against a system that would benefit you.

So yeah, it does sound like their past, present, and future. Muh Heritage!

Fuck 'em.