Posted on 03/03/2008 10:37:49 AM PST by Rebeleye
They will tell you the Civil War was not about slavery. Remind them that the president and vice president of the so-called "Confederate States of America" both said it was. They will tell you that great-great grandpa Zeke fought for the South, and he never owned any slaves. Remind them that it is political leaders - not grunts - who decide whether and why a war is waged. They will tell you the flag just celebrates heritage. Remind them that "heritage" is not a synonym for "good." After all, Nazis have a heritage, too.
(Excerpt) Read more at sltrib.com ...
They will tell you the Civil War was not about slavery. Remind them that the president and vice president of the so-called "Confederate States of America" both said it was. They will tell you that great-great grandpa Zeke fought for the South, and he never owned any slaves. Remind them that it is political leaders - not grunts - who decide whether and why a war is waged. They will tell you the flag just celebrates heritage. Remind them that "heritage" is not a synonym for "good." After all, Nazis have a heritage, too. I wish I could say any of that will do you any good. Problem is, it's logic and we live in a time where people are less able to accept, understand or respond to logic. If you approach writing your column as I do mine, you see it as an attempt, not to hammer the other side down, but to persuade persuadable minds. Unfortunately, persuadable minds are an endangered species these days. You and I have the misfortune to live in a time and media culture when people think the loudness of the argument matters more than the coherence of it, when threats and intimidation substitute for logic and reason, a time of made-up "facts" and ideological "truth," a time when critical thinking is a lost art and ignorance is ascendant. By way of example: I guarantee you the three lines of argument I gave you above will earn me loud rebuke from Confederate flag fetishists. They will insult my ancestry and intelligence and throw hissy fits of indignation. The one thing they will not be able to do - this matters to me, though it will not matter to them - is refute a single word of what I said. I tell my column-writing classes that if ever you propound an argument and all the other side can do in response is have a tantrum, you may consider yourself the winner, by default, of that debate. It is, I grant you, small consolation, but I commend it to you anyway. If you insist on trying to be a reasonable person in an unreasonable time, you should get used to small consolations. You can find another in what you yourself wrote about the young man who disavowed his Confederate gear because of your column. People do still read us, we do still have an effect and, once in a very great while, we can even take credit for change. And you're right. That is the very definition of cool. --- Leonard Pitts is a columnist for the Miami Herald, 1 Herald Plaza, Miami, Fla., 33132. Readers may contact him via e-mail at lpitts@miamiherald.com.
It was about States’ Rights.
When Leonard Pitts loses his picture of the Olympic Athlete’s in 1968 holding up the black power fist, then I might actually consider what he has to say about such matters.
I’d bet he’s ok with those Che fashion statements though.
Well, States Rights certainly covered Slavery at the time.
And when you start the debate with a tantrum, like Pitts does here, what's that called?
I've always had issues with confederate revisionism but I've always been able to make my point without comparing the rebs with Nazis.
The National Socialist Workers Party of Germany, otherwise known as the Nazi Party, was indeed socialist, and it had a lot in common with the modern left. Hitler preached class warfare, agitating the working class to resist “exploitation” by capitalists — particularly Jewish capitalists, of course. Their program called for the nationalization of education, health care, transportation, and other major industries. They instituted and vigorously enforced a strict gun control regimen. They encouraged pornography, illegitimacy, and abortion, and they denounced Christians as right-wing fanatics. Yet a popular myth persists that the Nazis themselves were right-wing extremists. This insidious lie biases the entire political landscape, and the time has come to expose it.
Perhaps it is time to put the Battle Flag away. What else is going to be demanded that we put away? Our regional accents?
Of course, the fact that I do not own a Battle Flag or a Naval Jack of the Confederate States of America says something. That most of these puppies don’t know the difference also says a great deal about them.
He just likened the whole antebellum South to the nazi party. Godwin’s rule. He loses.
Don’t forget the smoking. No smoking in the clean, healthy nazi party.
States Rights had been an issue dating back to the very ratification of the Constitution. Slavery was a very small part of a very complicated issue (that still is being debated today).
Remind him all the Confederacy was Democrat.
Aside from slavery, it was about whether the US would end up as a British economic colony or have its own industrial and economic basis, and the South was on the wrong side of that proposition as well.
No, it wasn't.
If it was truly about States' Rights, then states wouldn't have been forced under the CSA Constitution to allow slavery.
The Civil War was about a lot of things, but States' Rights was not among them.
I just received my copy of the book “Liberal Facism” after hearing about it on FR. It sounds like you have read the book? The first few pages sounds just like your post!
whiney black liberal
such a rarity
It is worth mentioning that Robert E. Lee was morally opposed to slavery, and was originally asked by Lincoln to be the commanding General for the North.
The Nazis also destroyed an ancient symbol of good luck that was used for centuries by both Native Americans and Hindus.
What ancient symbol did the foolish Confederates destroy? That stars ‘n bars flag to me just symbolizes rebellion and treason against the United States.
The South was not seeking to conquer anything nor was it seeking to enslave new peoples unlike the Nazis.
Nor was it, unlike the Nazis, seeking to establish slavery. Southern slavery was an institution over 200 years old when the war started. It takes an unusually strong person to reject as evil the environment in which they and their parents and grandparents etc. grow up.
With that said, slavery was wrong, the Union was right and Lincoln was a great man.
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