4 ms·

> It did work out quite well, Southerner here. In my opinion the reason that "it worked out quite well" is that the Union caved and ended Reconstruction in 187

> It did work out quite well, Southerner here. In my opinion the reason that "it worked out quite well" is that the Union caved and ended Reconstruction in 1877. This was followed by the "Redemption" period in which Jim Crow was set into place and white supremacy was entrenched. For Southerners, both white and black, things were in many ways similar to pre-1861. White people had relatively little to complain about, and black people who shook up the status quo were subject to reprisals up to and including murder. Meanwhile, my impression is that one thing valued in the contemporary South is "pleasantness". This showed up, for example, in the myth that slaves were happy. Today, conversation tends to be more indirect. For example, if you want to tell somebody that they're an idiot, "Bless your heart" will do the trick. That said, despite having grown up here I never really identified with the culture, so I can't really answer the question all that reliably.

082349872349872 6y ago
I had been sceptical about the Iraq adventure in part because my observations tell me the US attempted nation-building, in its own back yard, in 1866 and still hadn't fully managed it by 1966[1]. Looking for mid-nineteenth century civil wars, I find https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutions_of_1848 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutions_of_1848 and maybe I'm just too ignorant of domestic politics in these countries, but it doesn't seem that any of them still have divisions rooted in those conflicts, or even still had in the mid-twentieth century. It's unclear how much geographic sectarian division there is in the current US. I would hope most yankees would agree that Sherman was an arsonist, and most southerners would agree that lynching is despicable (and most memes I run across on the internet to the contrary of either originate in a relatively small community of trolls?). As to the original question, try a web search on "you know you're a southerner when". There are definitely cultural differences which can be, and usually are, celebrated without any reference to the Lost Cause. (In some ways, southern culture may be more familiar to europeans. A german[2] colleague of mine once asked me "how do you confuse an american?". "How?", I replied. "Answer them, when they ask you how you're doing.") [1] there is hope for 2066: compare George Wallace with his grandson https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23574675 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23574675 [2] Wessi oder Ossi? mox nix.

082349872349872 6y ago

I had been sceptical about the Iraq adventure in part because my observations tell me the US attempted nation-building, in its own back yard, in 1866 and still hadn't fully managed it by 1966[1]. Looking for mid-nineteenth century civil wars, I find https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutions_of_1848 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutions_of_1848 and maybe I'm just too ignorant of domestic politics in these countries, but it doesn't seem that any of them still have divisions rooted in those conflicts, or even still had in the mid-twentieth century. It's unclear how much geographic sectarian division there is in the current US. I would hope most yankees would agree that Sherman was an arsonist, and most southerners would agree that lynching is despicable (and most memes I run across on the internet to the contrary of either originate in a relatively small community of trolls?). As to the original question, try a web search on "you know you're a southerner when". There are definitely cultural differences which can be, and usually are, celebrated without any reference to the Lost Cause. (In some ways, southern culture may be more familiar to europeans. A german[2] colleague of mine once asked me "how do you confuse an american?". "How?", I replied. "Answer them, when they ask you how you're doing.") [1] there is hope for 2066: compare George Wallace with his grandson https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23574675 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23574675 [2] Wessi oder Ossi? mox nix.