You guys understand that models don't really stand in front of entirely shadowless walls the exact color as the paper the catalog is printed on right?

And we've finally gotten around to Hitler and Nazi Germany, albiet via a tangent of a tangent. Gods of the internet satisfied.

If you want to have that particular fight, go look on Fox News for someone who you actually contradict. You just keep arguing my own points back to me and claiming they refute the argument, the point of which you have yet to even touch.

I'm not sure who you intended to direct that at, but it obviously wasn't me, because your quote from a vice president of the Confederacy does not even contradict the point that was under discussion. No one except the people who keep posting without reading has made one mention of the Confederacy's motivations.

I am not arguing that the US Civil War wasn't "about slavery." The word "about" is hopelessly vague. I am stating that the Union did not wage its end of the war in a bid to free the slaves. The Emancipation Proclamation didn't even free the slaves in the Union's own territory. Prior to the war, the North had been…

I know enough about US history—then and now—to know why Lincoln and the morality tale of the North is largely fictional. The original point, before this spiraled into a 35+ post slam session on American history, was that Lincoln's role in ending slavery is largely mythologized, just like George Washington's role in…

If the anti-slavery movement had been as big as you suggest, it would not have taken approximately 100 years for the formal Civil Rights Movement to occur.

I'd venture to guess they wouldn't, because only a small fraction seem to be grasping what I'm even talking about. Most seem to think this is some kind of argument about the reason for the Confederate secession, which has never been in question. It's the reason for the eventual Northern invasion/occupation/declaration…

Good post. I agree that the North didn't "start" the war (well, technically not. The tension had been building for some time.) I would maintain that they did declare war by virtue of sending militias in to seize ports and burn down cities. Declaring war doesn't necessarily mean starting it.

Anyway this thread has made…

I am convinced Perez Hilton exists solely to give straight "allies" an opportunity to safely snipe at gay people as a whole. Watch this thread. "Gay men are the worst" comment coming in 3, 2,1...

EDIT: And they're here!

Suuuure. And the US's embarrassing showing in Vietnam didn't count either, because that was also "just a conflict."

You're playing semantics on two counts. The phrase "declare war" is used for any number of armed conflicts, regardless of whether a formal declaration was written, or whether the intent to invade or occupy is announced prior to the arrival of troops. On the count of the US not being able "invade" itself, that hasn't…

Other internet person, please try reading what I have actually written instead of arguing with some phantom slavery denier because you will find it comports exactly with what you just posted.

That's a technicality. By virtue of moving troops into a territory and seizing control of it, you have by definition declared war. The entire conflict is called "The Civil War" precisely because it was a war. We could retroactively rename it "The Civil Conflict" but that would IMO be even more revisionist than trying…

Followed not long after by a full scale invasion that resulted in the occupation of the entire region by Union troops at the behest of the Union leadership. By this measure, the US never declared war on Japan either.

Which is why half is not the same as whole.

Yes, it is definitely true that the Confederates were idiots when it came to war strategy. And, well, just about everything else. Thank God for that, because a more evil modern nation is hard to recall.

Care to look up the quotes for the causes of the Philippine war? Iraq? Afghanistan? Any war fought in modern history. They are full of quotes about the supposed reasons for the declaration.

Slavery most certainly was a core reason for the conflict. The South feared slavery would be outlawed or limited due to Lincoln's…

But he's half right: Lincoln's role in ending slavery is largely mythologized. The principal reason that the North declared war on the South was that the Confederacy had made off with land and resources belonging to the US government. Slavery was the factor that caused the South to split, but the Union didn't declare…

Thank you for making this point.