Before I begin to even dive into the meat of this post, let me stress I AM NOT defending the Confederates OR the Nazis, they were both evil and needed to be defeated. However I am disturbed by the comparison because ironically they are politically opposites. I cringe when people say they are a like because that tells me people don't understand history at all and not understanding bad history makes it more likely for it to repeat itself. I wanted to break it down for myself so I could understand it better. I am disturbed by people taking statutes of Confederate soldier down by force
When people mention the United States Civil War most say slavery was the only cause and if the South won they would still have slaves in 2017. While nobody can tell what it would have been like if the South won, given the technology revolution and the advent of say farm equipment, it's a bet there would be less slaves. Kind of like how there are now more kiosks in fast food joints and even supermarkets, not to mention the advent of conveyor belts. Humans get tired, need food and even the live expectancy was horrible. Slavery would have ended eventually, it didn't end soon enough, but it would have ended. It wasn't economical for people doing work machines could accomplish in half the times There'a no telling if the Civil Rights movement would have been so dramatic, true blacks would still have an uphill battle with equality and there still would have been racial tensions an d mass killings. However the tensions were amplified because the Southern states lost the Civil War. Their resistance to change grew deeper with resentment. To most, even select Northerners, the Confederate General Robert E Lee, he was a general who fought for his side, and lost. Lee surrendered gracefully at the end of the war and help mend the wounds of one of the darkest times in our nation's history. Not exactly a man one would call "evil", is it? THIS man is represented with statues and paintings t hroughout the South
In 1939 when Adolf Hitler came to power he did so when Germany was in economic an social shambles. He need a scapegoat to blame, the Jews. He said these people needed to be exterminated in order to create a "master race" of white, blonde-haired people. Ironically, unlike the Confederates, who only targeted blacks, Hitler set his sights not only Jews, but gays, gypsies and anyone else who didn't fit into the "master race. Unlike Lee Hitler was a coward who used hate to spread his vile views and wouldn't stop until his "enemies" were wiped off the face of the Earth! Hitler NEEDED to be not only defeated, but committed suicide because /he WOULDN'T surrender. He wouldn't stop until every Jew was wiped off the face of the earth! He would have invaded the entire world if he wasn't stopped!!
At the end of the day Lee was graceful, Hitler was just evil. Lee knew he was defeated and slavery was coming to an end. Hilter never would ave accepted defeat. Both men were on the wrong side of an awful history. However one man chose to try to unite people, while the other did everything he could to divide them
Comments
Hitler was what we would call a versatile criminal.
The Charlottesville man has a disabled mother.
Yes - both very systemic and reactive.
And - yes - the Civil War was about so much more than slavery.