I’d argue that an educated person pushing “states rights” is engaged in moral turpitude. There is no evidence to support the “states rights” bullshit, except repeating talking points drilled into them since they were children. But examination of the evidence is required of an educated person. Examination of the secession statements alone demolishes that the underlying reason was anything other than slavery. An examination of the historical context of independence through the civil war would show that just about every public discussion about the entire nation was centered on slavery, foreign relations over slavery, or a central bank, or wiping out Indians.
And I’m not trying to scold those on the other side of the debate. But I would like them to read what the Southern proponents of secession and war actually said and wrote at the time.