• zifnab25 [he/him, any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Americans do love themselves a Lost Cause. I wonder when neo-confederatism comes back into style

    • MoneyIsTheDeepState [comrade/them,he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      It never went out of style where I live. Two of my coworkers are vocally white nationalist, and I didn't find out how extremely about slavery the civil war was until my late teens

      And my education was better than most available here - even my Evangelical sex ed books were way more direct than what's allowed in our local schools

      • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Oh sure. I'm in Texas and we still have our fair share.

        But under Bush and Obama, this sentiment had something resembling legs. Or, at least, it had that vocal contrarian clown car of people insisting its not fair that States don't really have Rights.

        Since Trump, I feel like the pivot to immigration politics and trade politics has killed a lot of the Confederacy energy. Even Biden hasn't really brought it back, since he's terrible on race politics anyway. Now we get a bunch of more traditional Cold Warriors who rely on Federalism to prosecute Foreign Enemies.

        You can't do a War On China in a nation divided. Texas and California can't go their separate ways. You can't do a War On Russia or Mexico or Venezuela, either.

        But I can see Q-types rediscovering Confederacy Fever if - after the midterms - they entrench themselves in a few big states (Florida, Texas) without winning either House or seriously threatening the Presidency.

        • viva_la_juche [they/them, any]
          ·
          2 years ago

          I think it’s bc It’s not like that stuff came from coherent or genuine belief in confederatism, reactionaries “ideals” are just whatever the path of least resistance to getting what they want.

          They used to like to bang on about states rights bc the federal govt would half ass do a minor thing they didn’t like and they wanted to have supreme authority under the state to do what they want, but since the republican project has a solid grip of the scotus and can basically dictate law as they see fit they of course are predictably moving away from it. In addition to the other stuff you said about China of course, there’s a lot at play

          I just mean that you see reactionaries ping pong around all kinds of contradictory positions bc ultimately the only thing they care about is that reactionary policy is pushed further and further

          • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
            ·
            2 years ago

            I think it’s bc It’s not like that stuff came from coherent or genuine belief in confederatism

            No. Even the original Civil War was just a failed military coup. There's a reason the Confederates ran all the way up into fucking Gettysburg. They didn't just fortify the Mason Dixon line and shout "Come and Take It" from the southern side of the border. If they had, they might have actually won a protracted guerrilla war against Northern Aggressors, rather than pissing away half the army playing cat-and-mouse with the Union generals.

            But it does illustrate a certain number of fault-lines in the domestic American Empire. Texas and California absolutely do not play nice with one another. Florida's been a kind-of Rogue State for years. There's definitely a real legal theory of confederatism that endures.

            I just mean that you see reactionaries ping pong around all kinds of contradictory positions bc ultimately the only thing they care about is that reactionary policy is pushed further and further

            Its all just old white dudes playing tug-of-war with the strings of power. I wouldn't call it contradictory so much as confrontational.

        • MoneyIsTheDeepState [comrade/them,he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Oh I see what you mean now. Yeah, they're definitely not talking as much Boogaloo and Dixian identity shit as they were around 2016 and 2020. I can't speak on how that compares to previous presidencies though, because I'd been successfully gaslighted about the presence of :lmayo: nationalists up until the Obama birther kayfabe

          Boy howdy was I pissed when I realized that almost everyone in my life was very racist

        • Fdos [none/use name]
          ·
          2 years ago

          . Or, at least, it had that vocal contrarian clown car of people insisting its not fair that States don’t really have Rights.

          I was always taught that states rights was a dead letter that had been decisively refuted by the Civil War. Then, Trump was elected and suddenly states rights were a critically important bulwark against fascism. California and New York were seriously looking into it. Now that Biden's in, it's back to being outdated again, and nobody remembers it was ever any other way.

          • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Its only outdated up north. Even during Trump, Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton were insisting Texas was as sovereign as they could get away with.

            • Fdos [none/use name]
              ·
              2 years ago

              Well it's Texas, I wouldn't expect anything else from them. :/

    • TrashGoblin [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      In some parts of the US, it never went out of style. In others, the current interstate legal conflicts over abortion are likely to bring it back.