So every time you buy something from Walmart, you're as guilty as they guy running the sweatshop in China. Got it.
That is a good point. Cotton based goods were an important product for the north. But the desire to retain slavery goes beyond "we need someone to pick the cotton" and explains why so many poor and middle class southerners supported slavery and were willing to fight to keep it. Black people were controlled by slavery. If slaves were freed, they would compete with poor and middle class southerners for land and resources not to mention presumably being free to defend themselves if necessary. IIRC, in South Carolina blacks actually outnumber whites. Also note that South Carolina was the first to secede. So the end of slavery would not only mean to find another way to "pick the cotton", it meant an end to southern culture and society as people had known it for nearly a century
Good point, and at least somebody took the bait! But it's true kids.......every fish swimming in the pond gets muddy. Trying to save money by shopping at Walmart does indeed enable exploitation of cheap labor in China PLUS make US labor obsolete. We are all stepping on somebody at some point to get over.
Makes the most sense to point the finger at the people who are actually cracking the whip, yeah. That's some pretty awesome slavery spin though, bro. It's like Muad's ghost has his hand up your ass and you're his puppet.
So if you directly profit from slavery but don't actually crack a whip it's all good? Whatever helped the north sleep better at night I guess.
Well it seems like the North eventually did something about it while you still have people in the South today wishing for a return those grand old days. I'd wager that's probably why the North is able to sleep better at night. So yeah, that's why the South gets the finger pointed at them, one of the many reasons really. Man, sitting here on a Sunday night trying to make the South look better when it comes to slavery, what a fucking piece of work you are.
It's worth noting that when Confederate apologists start shrieking about the flag being "banned," it's usually nothing of the sort. If South Carolina's government finally decides that it shouldn't keep insisting on a symbol of racism being its official emblem, that's not a "ban." Similarly, the recent Supreme Court case out of Texas wasn't a "ban." The ruling just stated that a private group, in this case Sons of Confederate Veterans, cannot force the DMV to issue a plate with its logo.
I'm just saying our entire nation was involved in slavery for many, many years. You are aware of that, right? It seems most people conveniently forget that.
Even though it's so obvious that it barely deserves an answer, all right. The U.S. flag represents the totality of U.S. history. Certainly there are things in that history that we're less than proud of, but on balance, it's a positive symbol. The Confederate flag represents a government that, during a single four-year period, went to war against the U.S. for an evil and disgusting cause. It's like the difference between the flag of Germany, which dates back to the 19th century and was officially adopted during the Weimar Republic, and the symbols used by the Third Reich.
To some individuals and groups it is indeed! Symbols are interpreted from many points of view, and seeing as we are a big melting pot, there will be many points of view.
Which is, again, why I'd like to ask what some of the other, positive connotations are that people who want to fly that flag connect with it.
You'd have to ask them yourself. I'm a Yankee so I can't speak for them. But they have a right to fly it and that's what matters.
Post #99 covers most of it, I think. Every culture has built itself on the backs of others, but America has apologized for its sins, or at a minimum have enough embarrassment to downplay them.
Please tell me that's a photoshop and not an actual license plate. "Sons of Confederate Veterans" ?!?!?!? Gimme a fucking break.
There was a competition over what to put on that plate, and it beat out "Sons of Treasonous Bigots", and "We've killed folks for the right to own Negroes", but only by a slim margin.
Because the United States did not revolt against British rule for the express purpose of keeping slaves which is basically what the southern states did.
I don't know if you'd call this a positive connotation, but to me it's all about the resentment many feel over the South being seen as backwards and awash in ignorance. The pride a Southerner wants to express is a reaction to feeling like he is constantly told he should be ashamed of his home and heritage, not necessarily an endorsement of slavery or the Confederacy. Unfortunately, the flag has also been adopted by many, often with no Southern roots, who simply want to express racism.
The flag started flying over the SC capitol in 1961 in rsponse to the Civil Rights movement, so there's your connotation for that particular instance.
It shouldn't be banned, though I have no use for it. But the social stigma attached to it should be considerable. A 2013 poll found that less than 8% of Americans would put that symbol on anything associated with them. As far as the flag at state capitals, it should have been done years ago - withhold federal funding while a symbol associated with slavery, repression and taking up arms against the United States is present.
Maybe they need to talk to the History or Discovery Channels - whichever ones run those "rednecks doing stupid shit" shows like Swamp People and Moonshiners. Those aren't exactly shining examples of Southern enlightenment.
Using a symbol with a lot of negative baggage... It would be like Germans flying the Nazi flag to honor fallen Nazi soldiers, in other words a fucking stupid idea... Wasn't there a Confed regiment that did something both sides think was good ?!? Maybe use that regiment's flag for it...
