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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 10, 2023

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Another casualty in the great Confederate statues war: the grave of General Lee's horse. Good riddance to this rebellious and traitorous ungulate.

What is more significant than the event is reaction on twitter - reaction consisting, as usual, of empty talk of revenge and even more empty threats, with no hint that posters intend to take part in their fight themselves.

"Someone shall do something!"

Narrator voice: "No one did anything at all."

As @MelodicBerries says below, a lot of this is LARPing that happened 50-100+ years after the civil war (this horse was buried in 1971, so more than a century after it ended). The high point of ‘Dixie pride’ was probably in the mid-20th century. The north was fine with this for decades since it provided a pressure valve for genuine resentment (which was and is minimal enough not to concern them). Eventually, though, memory of war faded and assuaging the (arguably justified) contempt of black Americans for symbols, statues and memorials of those who would have kept them enslaved was prioritized over avoiding another (ever less likely) north v south civil conflict.

In general, southerners should accept that America would be a much worse place if the Confederacy had won. Brazil is best case, although racial relations were usually better there than they were in Dixie. South Africa is arguably more likely, especially because a victorious confederate government would have likely strongly restricted immigration from Europe (just as the Boers did from the 1920s). Wignats should say a silent prayer of thanks to Lincoln before bed each night.

South Africa is arguably more likely,

South Africa was doing quite fine until the outer world decided to meddle in their internal affairs.