Which is going to happen in literally any discussion of the Civil War and the Confederacy, in any context, even “Here’s what happened in the history of this country from 1861 to 1865.” And yet, I’m pretty sure you’re not going to be leveling this rant at history teachers, despite the fact that history teachers do not generally go out of their way to show the Confederacy a vile, depraved, or disgusting.
This one does. 
Sneak some mentions of evolution in there, and you’re my hero.
So, help me out here, man.
You’ve argued that, no matter how vile and despicable the Confederacy is shown to be in this TV series, there will still be people who take it as vindication of their support for the Confederacy. Therefore, the show should not exist, and the people making it deserve to be “outcasts” who “die penniless.”
How does none of that apply to you for teaching about the Civil War in school?
Perhaps they can use “The War of Northern Aggression” unironically in th show.
Does anyone know of any popcorn sales in the in the D.C. area? I’ll need at least two bags; one for watching the show, one to eat while reading the thread about the show.
I’ve already seen charges that white people have no business writing about ‘POC’* in 2017.
*So white people can’t write about Tibetans, Koreans, Filipinos, Indians…Indians…Hawaiins…etc…?
I am not broadcasting my opinions across the world’s airwaves, especially in a time where such supporters are finding their heinous views not only defended, but openly supported by major political groups in this country.
I withdraw the “outcast” and penniless" part of my screed. That was an over-reaction. But I still hope it craters, and I would still prefer that it not be made in the current political environment.
Better?
Drunky Smurf – huh – it’s a well-developed alternative-history novel, so it’d be hard to summarize in a comment. Still, I’ll try, assuming you’re interested.
Major spoilers for Underground Airlines follow.
[spoiler]In the novel, a constitutional amendment is passed after Lincoln’s early assassination that prevents any future federal abolition of slavery – a compromise that averts civil war. Over time, up to the present day, all states but four abolish the practice. Still, a version of the Fugitive Slave Act remains in force, so slaves who escape to free states live in fear.
The novel is narrated by an escaped slave who works for the Feds as an undercover slave-catcher hunting other escapees. He escaped slavery as a child, so his understanding of what slavery looks like today is limited.
Through the course of the novel, as he infiltrates himself back into the slave-holding South that still exists, he finds out how, as you ask, slavery has evolved. Lots of rape and really inefficient agricultural practices, is how I’d sum it up. The passages that take place in the slave states are truly disturbing.
And of course, in this alternative universe, black citizens living in free states are subject to constant harassment. They might be escapees, you see. Such a different world from the one we live in. [/spoiler]
That’s not a particularly exculpatory explanation, especially given the fact that you’re part of a profession that’s going to reach more people - by an order of magnitude - on this specific subject, then will ever see this TV show.
I also genuinely do not understand the idea that, in a climate where some negative thing - racism, fascism, what have you - is on the rise, means that you can’t create art related to that that thing. To the contrary, that’s precisely the circumstance in which art most desperately needs to address those subjects. Guernica matters because it was made in 1937. Uncle Tom’s Cabin matters because it was published in 1852. And the Band Played On matters because it was written in 1987. We need art that address the current political situation, and we need it today. Not thirty years from now, when we’re a safe distance away from the issues the work explores.
Honestly? Not much.
I wonder if some people are using “evolved” in the hippie new age sense, to mean, “changed and grown for the better; enlightened.” I dislike that meaning and wasn’t using it; rather, I was using it to mean “adapted to a changing environment.”
In the novel–and these are very minor spoilers–slavery is shown as “evolved” in many ways. A few ways include:
-Bar code tattoos on slaves’ necks (escaped slaves generally have a solid black box tattooed over their bar code, and a lot of abolitionists get the same black box tattooed on their necks in solidarity).
-GPS trackers on especially valuable slaves
-Use of modern corporate “motivational” culture to try to keep the enslaved in line
There are a lot of such details, and in a larger sense, it’s evolved to deal with the novel’s complex political situation.
Nothing in the evolution makes slavery look okay.
Maybe in America obviously but the official line in Japan is literally “Japan fought a war in self-defense and all war crimes including comfort women is greatly exaggerated if it existed at all”, which also permeates it’s culture as there’s a bunch of video games and anime that are very pro-Imperial Japan or white-wash Japan’s involvement in World War 2. Which then has some hooks in American culture as whole since there have been Japanese groups in America pushing to ban memorials for Korean Comfort Women as being solely to bash Japan.
So yes, there are people who look at works like “Man in the High Castle” and actually think that’s how things should have been.
Fuck 'em. They deserve every Godzilling that comes their way.
Ninjaed
And I believe that book was the first in a planned series.
I head it’s going to be a comedy.
Slavery porn? Yeah, no thanks. It’s a dumb idea for a show. Underground Airlines was a poorly plotted, badly written piece of crap. Is the show based on it?
CNN reporting on how HBO and D and D from GoT were expecting the backlash: 'Confederate' team knew backlash was coming
Fair. We’ll see how it goes.
:dubious:
Depicting something is not endorsing it. Holding a mirror up to the “Southern values” the show will no doubt depict can only be a good thing.
And beyond all that there is slavery right now in the world we live in. In America even. It didn’t end in 1865. The preemptive outrage about this is ridiculous.
So, Reign of Fire
If they wanted to troll people they should’ve done a “what-if” where whites were enslaved by black people.