You know I thought that people like Baudrillard or Fisher or Zizek (long live the drip) had figured out postmodern Capitalism in the 80's, but I guess it's actually the fucking Civil War guy who really gets it. R*ddit libs and getting the wall, name a better duo.
I will grant that he has some insight to the problem of misinformation and white supremacy given he is the guy that made the documentary that effectively revived the lost cause myth in the mainstream.
It's apologetics for the South in the Civil War. Essentially it comes down to this:
- The civil war was primarily about states rights.
- The civil war was instigated by the North and Lincoln who acted without constitutional authority in the years leading up to the war, which essentially forced the South to secede.
It had nothing to do with slavery. Slavery was just an excuse for the North to exercise authoritarian undemocratic power.
Edit: I like this guy's videos. He parodies Southern apologist arguments and then debunks them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lac-8tTuyhs
It's a collection of myths that all make excuses for the Confederacy. I grew up hearing most of it. It's everything from claiming that slaves were happier and healthier than Northern factory workers to "the south was protecting our heritage" to gibberish legal defenses over "states' rights." All of it is a bunch of nonsense to excuse the CSA or outright claim they were the good guys.
I hate it all and the fun part is the myths didn't even exist until decades after the Civil War ended.
From a quick Google, basically that the Confederates were the good guys
Wow, didn't even realize that Civil War had such a shit effect.
It really pushed a "both sides" narrative and gave significant screen time to Shelby Foote.
Yeah I watched it again recently and was actually shocked how much it's lost cause apologia and really sort of skims over all the tension that lead up to the war. Like Bleeding Kansas is five minutes. I'd dare say the whole thing is genuinely a bad take.
"The best way to deal with all of these problems that stem directly from capitalism is to ignore capitalism completely and just focus on the problems."
Real symptom-not-disease mentality
hey wow, you cannot forget the small indie astroturfing groups spread to every inch of reddit too!
As opposed to the other dominant style of crappy CG and reenactments that would embarras your local high school? I only saw the civil war and vietnam war docus, but I actually enjoyed the slow pacing, the citing of eye witnesses and documents and just having experts talk. It's much better then the 300like swordfights with dramatic music you get from usuall history docus.
Yeah, I enjoyed them as well. Hard to live in this capitalist world without at least tolerating the mildly enjoyable shit libs put out even though it doesn't have the correct takes.
You really wanna shoot someone dead for believing in a man who makes sleepy time war documentaries instead of theorists they've barely heard of?
Yeah, Zizek is the only one of those guys who's alive and his main thing is saying provocative things for shits and giggles. I like him and all but if he told me the sky is blue, I'd check for myself.
Mmm not that so much as pointing out a prime example of liberals failing to develop for themselves useful explanations for...well pretty much anything. Leftists very much so have a problem disseminating better concepts. I think what is called for in the present moment is developing new methods for organizing and educating that are more likely to be successful. Neoliberals have found myriad ways of subverting themselves in order to strengthen themselves in late capitalism. I'm not sure leftists generally have found good answers yet.
"the civil war guy" as if he didn't ALSO know a lot about baseball. SMDH.
maybe shut the fuck up until you know what you're talking about next time.
I like how the comment has to qualify the transition to "my own thought" and away from the reddit group think.
You can get into a long chicken-egg argument over the role racism and capitalism play with one another.
Case in point, the South African Apartheid legislation enacted in 1948 was both a consequence of colonial occupation and a means by which to extend the waning authority of Afrikaners over an increasingly large native colored populace. By establishing a racial caste system, Apartheidists were able to divide and conquer locals for decades. What ultimately ended the regime was a cross-race coalition of young people, acting both domestically and internationally, to undermine the economic roots of the apartheid system. And the end of apartheid brought a host of socialist reforms
So while it is absurd to simply ignore capitalism as a social ill, it is not unfair to highlight white supremacy and the role it plays in forestalling both democratic and revolutionary social reform.
If you wanted to get really smug, you could assert that "Misinformation" is a direct product of the capitalist private information networks and march in there calling out the deplorables that plague every major news magazine and cable outlet in popular circulation.
