But in a fundamental sense, Trump’s most disturbing remark over the past few days may have been his unprompted comment about Abraham Lincoln during an appearance on Fox News: “Lincoln was probably a great president. Although I’ve always said, why wasn’t that settled, you know? I’m a guy that — it doesn’t make sense we had a civil war.”

And if he is, here’s the thing: The Civil War couldn’t have been “settled” by moderating Northern demands that the South give up its slaves, because there was no such demand.

Yes, Northern states had banned slavery within their own borders and many Northerners considered slavery abhorrent. But outspoken abolitionists who sought to end slavery everywhere were a small minority. If the South hadn’t seceded, slavery might well have continued unimpeded for decades.

  • @Myxomatosis
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    1112 months ago

    The Civil War should have been settled by publicly executing every last Confederate leader. Would have saved us all a lot of trouble today.

      • @Dainterhawk999B
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        -62 months ago

        inbred? Is it some sort of colloquial slang or does it mean what it means for Southern states?

          • @CharlesDarwin
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            12 months ago

            Apparently there is a reason the expression “Sisterfuck, Arkansas” is used for a location in the middle of nowhere.

    • IHeartBadCode
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      102 months ago

      Except the idea wasn’t solely within those leaders. That was the major issue with reconstruction that followed. We weren’t just fighting people, we were fighting an idea. We’re still fighting it. We would only be so lucky to fully extinguish an idea by hanging a few thousand people from a tree.

    • @shalafi
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      -192 months ago

      Lincoln would have cut more slack, allowed the Southern states to reintegrate more fully. John Wilkes Booth, a Southern supporter, assassinated him and actually worsened his own cause.

      Go read some history.

  • Optional
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    272 months ago

    TL;DR: Trump doesn’t understand shit.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      82 months ago

      It’s not about understanding — it’s about making nice with people who wish the South had won.

      • Optional
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        62 months ago

        indeed.

        Don’t fight uphill me boys! But it was too late.

    • Riskable
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      22 months ago

      In the past he’s said it takes him six or seven flushes to get anything down.

      • @CharlesDarwin
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        22 months ago

        Is that why we keep trying to flush and this turd won’t flush?

  • @eran_morad
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    152 months ago

    If trump wins, my one solace will be that the cunts who voted for him will suffer.

  • @BeMoreCareful
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    112 months ago

    New Yorker: let me tell you about the war of northern aggression.

    ???

    I don’t even

    • @captainlezbian
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      22 months ago

      As an Ohioan let me tell you bout the war of southern aggression and how one of our boys had to go to Kansas and New York in response to that aggression…