I have become fairly interested in this matter, and I love history. Went in depth into the matter of the American civil war and I have a few points to make clear.
- Statues of confederates
How is it that statues have become the prime source of historical education now? I find this odd. We already have a useful tool to learn about history, it's called a book. It is pretty clear what the deal is. A statue has only one function, to honor a person or a group of persons. By erecting a statue of a general at the head of a slavers army, you are honoring that person. It's crystal clear in what the use of the statue is.
- The lost cause, or the loser cause is a myth
It came into being when a lot of ex confederate rebels came back home to find out that they had lost really bad, with no gain. What was it all for? And so the slow development of the lost cause myth started that culminated in racial tensions you see even today.
What is the lost cause? It is a certain set of beliefs set up to basically white wash the confederacy and their actions. primary examples of these are:
- Believing that that war wasn't fought over slavery.
- Believing it was a defensive war (often called the war of northern aggression).
- Believing slaves had it good in the south before the yanks set em free.
- Giving God status to its generals, like General Lee and Stonewall Jackson, while these were very flawed men, both personally and militarily.
- Believing that the soldiers in the confederate army didn't care about slavery, only about states rights.
- Believing the north only won cause of more men and resources.
- Misrepresenting Lincoln
So on and so on. But the thing is, in academical sense, there is no debate. There is historical fact, and they all disprove these lost cause myths and agree over one important thing, that the confederacy fought to preserve the institution of slavery.
Coming to present day, there are a lot on the right who talk of civil war. It is so far from reality that it is laughable. Several things have to come ahead for a civil war can happen. For the American civil war, there was a long period of hostility leading up to it, like slave powers trying to keep the administration in their hands to fight the abolitionists. Or the violence in Kansas, which is called bloody Kansas. There was so much leading up to it, and the US is nowhere near that.
The truth is that a lot on the far right are foaming at the mouth at the idea of a civil war. They are fash larpers of the highest degree and basically it's no different from a doomsday cult.
