Southern-Fried Doublespeak and the “Land of Gracious Living” 2
At Talking Points Memo, Tony Horwitz explains how the South lost the war and won the peace. If you have not yet figured out that the South of Gone with the Wind is a lie and a fraud, it might be a good place for you to start. Here’s a bit.
In the 20th century, mass culture and commerce spread the Lost Cause nationwide, most notably in movies like Birth of a Nation and Gone With the Wind. The moonlight-and-magnolia virus grew so strong that the U.S. Senate approved the construction of a Mammy monument in Washington in the 1920s, and after World War II the rebel flag became a faddish adornment on vehicles, beach towels and other products, a generalized emblem of independence, Southernness or good ol’ boyism.
Here’s a tidbit: the presence of the Stars and Bars on the South Carolina Capitol grounds has nothing to do with tradition. It was placed there in 1961, reputably in recognition of the Civil War Centennial, and retained there in defiance the Civil Rights movement.
The Confederate battle ensign was the darling of racists and symbol of racism then, it is so now, and it will be so forever.
June 24, 2015 at 11:09 am
Ted Nugent, who’s been known to wear the Confederate flag, today: He wouldn’t fly the flag now BUT, “I have to acknowledge — I think we all do — there’s an awful lot of information, an awful lot of people out there that believe the stars and bars, the Confederate flag, represents something heroic and something worth standing up for.” Perhaps he will write something even more despicable tomorrow.
We expect the worst from him, and those of like mind, because it’s their unchangeable nature.
June 24, 2015 at 12:59 pm
No argument here. I’m a Southern boy; I know a bigot when I see one.