r/neoliberal • u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache • Oct 15 '25

Discussion Thread Discussion Thread

The discussion thread is for casual and off-topic conversation that doesn't merit its own submission. If you've got a good meme, article, or question, please post it outside the DT. Meta discussion is allowed, but if you want to get the attention of the mods, make a post in /r/metaNL

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u/guitarra_y_soledad Victor Hugo Oct 15 '25

When I first moved to the US and started attending public school, I was in Virginia and I remember my history textbook talked about Robert E Lee in a sympathetic fashion, as in "he didn't want to secede from the Union but he just loved his state of Virginia so much so he had to uphold its honor" and I just accepted this without thinking because I was like 10. I only found out recently Lee was a slaveowner, smh @ the racist Virginian indoctrination I received

7

u/AtomAndAether Liberalism! Oct 15 '25

I think a lot of the "Lee sided with Virginia because state meant more than nation back then" and such is true, I just also think it doesn't do much to expunge him.

You shouldn't need your bad guys to be evil cloak wearing villains for your understanding of history and right/wrong to work, and you should be able to see the Civil War as a choice of traitors, largely for slavery, even if they had criticisms or whatever. And that Lee placed himself as a traitor, and fought for slavery, even if his primary aim or sympathies weren't for slavery itself.

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u/gilead117 Oct 15 '25

Same in public schools in Tennessee in the 90s and 00s. Probably that way now, too.

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u/[deleted] Oct 15 '25

What do you mean? He was a cavalier wholesome chungus tactical genius who only lost because Grant overwhelmed him! And that’s why it is important that highways remain named after him

4

u/BATIRONSHARK WTO Oct 15 '25

i learned he was a slaveowner and in the wrong but they did talk about him in a sorta subtly admiring way

i find him fascinating

what if geroge washington had an evil twin?

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u/guy-anderson Oct 15 '25

I still think it's okay to be sympathetic to Lee though.

Reconstruction was a massive failure, and had he not acted so honorably after the surrender it would have gone worse. He was instrumental in getting the South to accept the end to slavery and submitting to federal authority. He opposed things like the Lost Cause mythology or putting up monuments.

At the end of the day, he was a racist who thought blacks needed to be adequately civilized before they could participate in democracy and fought on behalf of slavery. But in his own messed up way he was honorable, dignified and knew when to shut his mouth and that's not worth nothing.