[sugar and spice]

Originally posted by KSig RC
Let's not pretend that the North actually went to war to free the slaves, either - that's an even worse post-hoc generalization.

But where did I say that?

Clearly the slavery debate was not what the Civil War was all about. There were a lot of factors, of which slavery was not the main concern. The aforementioned money issues and disagreements on how government should be run were, of course, a major part. But most of the time when people say the Southerners were going to war because they disagreed with the form of government at the time, part of this involves the fact that they wanted an unregulated slave trade. Let's not kid ourselves.

Nor do I think that the majority of white Northerners were chomping at the bit to end slavery. There were white abolitionists, of course, but they were an extreme minority. The majority of Northerners didn't really give a isht.

Bottom line: the Civil War was about a lot of things, and to simplify to being just "about slavery" or "about money" or "about government" is silly. But let's not pretend that slavery was not part of the issue, because it was. (And conversely, let's also not pretend that slavery was the whole issue, because of course it was not.)

Originally posted by Coramoor
So the majority is always right?

Also, I don't really care much about the Confederate Flag. I just think that people should know the entire issue rather than have a narrow view and make incorrect statements.

I didn't say that one side or the other is "right." I said that there are two sides to the issue which may be equally valid (or not equally valid -- but that's something I'd rather not debate), and that I hope that each side takes a look at the other's point of view before promoting their own. You have every right to be proud of your culture, but when part of that culture is associated with destruction of other cultures, you should be sensitive of how you promote that pride. I think that's pretty straight-forward and common sense, right?