[Greybird]

On the other hand, there is probably more hatred between the opposing sides today than there was during the First Civil War.

Clueless. Utterly clueless. Go to the microfiche, or any of a host of scholarly books, and actually read some of the vitriol that poured out of newspapers of the 1860s, before, during, and after the war. That was before shibboleths of "objectivity," honored more in the breach, took over and made journalism into pious posturing.

Newspapers had viewpoints then, and made no hypocritical bones about them. And John Brown could have been goaded into the Harpers Ferry raid from a few New England anti-slavery papers alone.

[Qwinn]

"On the other hand, there is probably more hatred between the opposing sides today than there was during the First Civil War."

I think he overstates the case by saying "during". But "before"? From my own reading, in terms of the level of vitriol, I don't think we're -before- the war, not during. It's heating up quickly now though.

What makes the current situation so different is that due to mass media, the two sides aren't really separated by geographic regions anymore. Where people were generally influenced mostly by their neighbors, it's much more likely now that people will be influenced by more distant sources. I personally live in New Jersey, and have -no- allegiance whatsoever to any old feelings for the Confederacy, but I'm a hard core conservative, and according to Southerners who want this to be a North-South thing I should be siding with them.

North-South won't be the nature of this conflict. It's all interspersed now, and if there is any geographic boundaries to it it's Coastal vs. Heartland. Which means I'll be having to move, I guess. Not that I'm complaining.

Qwinn