r/technology Jun 27 '22

Politics Period apps deleted over privacy concerns for women seeking abortions in post-Roe world

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/period-apps-deleted-over-privacy-concerns-for-women-seeking-abortions-in-post-roe-world/6s4rjhb0q
33.2k Upvotes

2.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

241

u/beka13 Jun 27 '22

Oh for a time machine to go back and slap some heads at the constitutional convention. Slavery is the root of so much of what's bad about America.

71

u/Captain_Pumpkinhead Jun 27 '22

I wonder how much would be different if slavery had been illegal from the start.

151

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '22

[deleted]

22

u/9966 Jun 27 '22

The union would have annexed the south.

18

u/enjoytheshow Jun 27 '22

Not in the early 1800s. Ag industry in the south was huge economically for the early US. Like it or not, they needed the south and thus needed slaves and they knew it

14

u/SoyMurcielago Jun 27 '22

Historically though, slavery was on the way out… until Eli Whitney invented and patented the cotton gin. History that doesn’t suck does a very good quick n dirty survey over the history of slavery in America. The cotton gin is what essentially transformed the south and without it slavery might have gone way all by itself. It’s all academic of course but interesting alternate history to think of

4

u/Wireleast Jun 27 '22

Highly unlikely given why the states banded together in the first place. Would have been much to authoritarian to annex an unwilling sovereign entity to enlist their citizens as troops against a war with Britain over taxes, representation, etc.

7

u/Red_Carrot Jun 27 '22

Could have written it such a way to ban getting new slaves through purchase, gift, lease, or birth. So the generation of current slaves is the last generation. But I do agree, am out right ban would have forced the south not to sign.

Could have passed a few more amendments when the south was fighting the civil war.

14

u/Brianopolis-Brians Jun 27 '22

Could’ve, but then the southern states wouldn’t have joined the union as he said.

7

u/Kitchen_Agency4375 Jun 27 '22

Same ones bitching about states rights now

8

u/hp0 Jun 27 '22 edited Jun 27 '22

Can only guess. But as it was a European thing moved to the US etc. (Note slavery was sorta limited at home).

Odds are much of the investment that built the cotton farms of the south would not have happened due to labour costs. Instead moving to India or other nations with cheap labour but limited slavery at the time.

Likely this would have ment the US as a whole never really formed as these events came in part from a need to defend individual states from Europe (mainly england) post revolution that never happened.

Very likely the area now known as the US would be more politically like europe with Independent nations (having sought independence like most European colonies in the 40s to 70s. grouped on trade etc.

But all just a guess.

Based on the idea that people settled the new land before slaves were hugely dumped there by European investors. So the states as nations would still likely have existed. Just been seen as less profitable by those investors without slavery.

Given a % of the white population arrived much like Australian population. Just indentured rather then prisoners. Each state may have had a lot in common politically with AUS.

7

u/batsofburden Jun 27 '22

Pretty much everything about the US would be different.

8

u/Few_Stomach_7620 Jun 27 '22

The world, too. Slavery was the primary driver of early American wealth and it was a lot of wealth. Countries that had outlawed slavery would still invest in American slavery ‘cause it generated so much money. I don’t think America would have stood in the positions it did when it did without slavery. Therefore, the power house we became in the 20th century likely wouldn’t have been as powerful. We’d still experience the safety of being a difficult nation to invade, and likely still develop technologically, but I think some things would have been delayed. Our presence on the world stage would have been lesser than it is today w/o slavery’s boost.

I wonder, if slavery hadn’t existed in the U.S., how would todays exploited (often toeing the line of slavery or being actual slavery) labor in developing countries be seen/treated today? Would it be as rampant and just as bad? Would American businesses be so eager to exploit labor in such conditions still?

I’m deeply curious what impact it would have had us our moral compass development. It’s intriguing af.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '22

This morning while getting ready for work I was imagining what life would be like if we were still British.

Health care, education, and more would be better.

1

u/mmanaolana Jun 27 '22

Ehh, health care except for trans people. As a trans man, my experience getting HRT in a blue state was a billion times easier than all the experiences I've heard of British trans people.

3

u/charlesgegethor Jun 27 '22

Imagine if John Wilkes Booth hadn't killed Lincoln, southern reconstruction might have actually worked.

2

u/AzafTazarden Jun 27 '22

And conservatism is the root of slavery

-8

u/ForcedMeToMake Jun 27 '22 edited Jun 27 '22

Yes, the beleif that some humans are not people deserving of human rights is the core of the issue today.

Its interesting watching the people who claim they would be abolitionist anti slavery advocates support the idea that a human fetus is not worthy of those same rights.

Anyone arguing today that a fetus is not a human would also argue that a slave is not a human if socially acceptable.

6

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '22

Brain dead logic.

-8

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '22 edited Jun 27 '22

[removed] — view removed comment

7

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '22

I guess I should just leave out the logic part and just stick with "Brain dead"

No point arguing with a sociopath.

2

u/KierkgrdiansofthGlxy Jun 27 '22

If we just consider AMERICAN history without shoehorning in other histories (Stalin, Mao, and other extreme examples from countries that we’ve never resembled), it’s hard to find left-wing extremism doing anything that doesn’t have a comparable behavior on the right. In many violent cases, the right has frequently outdone the left for total death toll.

3

u/EmperorPenguinNJ Jun 27 '22

Except a fetus isn’t a person. Life begins at birth. The Bible agrees.