What did British officers think of the American civil war as it was happening?

Re:What did British officers think of the American civil war... by triceratops on Friday May 20, 2022 @09:08PM (#31454368)

> it took a long time to figure out it was false

Yeah I mean you have to first ignore what those Southerners themselves said were their actual reasons for secession (slavery), and what they wrote down on paper (we're leaving 'cuz we want to keep our slaves). It obviously takes a long time to learn how to ignore actual facts.

> push the narrative

Those dastardly schools, pushing Confederate states' constitutions at young impressionable minds to convince them that the Confederacy was evil. We have to stop them! /s

EDIT: I misunderstood the parent poster. Apologies.

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Re:What did British officers think of the American civil war... by ModernMech on Friday May 20, 2022 @09:12PM (#31454386)

Indeed, we went to great lengths to avoid confronting actual primary sources. It's not enough to just teach alternative history, you also have to teach learned helplessness, that only certain authorities are trustworthy, and to promote a general climate of proud ignorance (looking up things in books is for losers and caring about education is for suckers).

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Re:What did British officers think of the American civil war... by triceratops on Friday May 20, 2022 @09:18PM (#31454434)

> we went to great lengths to avoid confronting actual primary sources

So you're saying you looked up the primary source documents for Southern secession and you still believe slavery wasn't a cause?

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Re:What did British officers think of the American civil war... by XorNot on Friday May 20, 2022 @09:47PM (#31454592)

I think you're picking a fight here that's not there: its relatively uncontroversial that there's been an aggressive campaign since the civil war to minimise slavery as a factor, particularly in the South - you will easily find "war of northern aggression" types because that is what they are taught.

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Re:What did British officers think of the American civil war... by triceratops on Friday May 20, 2022 @10:10PM (#31454689)

Thanks for explaining. I didn't think Southern schools were still teaching the Lost Cause as history so recently.

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Re:What did British officers think of the American civil war... by abawany on Friday May 20, 2022 @10:55PM (#31454879)

All of the current FUD in the southern states against CRT etc. seems like another attempt to take control of the historical narrative to once again start feeding lies to the young and mint a new generation of unquestioning voters that believe in a false history.

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Re:What did British officers think of the American civil war... by myko on Friday May 20, 2022 @10:03PM (#31454657)

No, poster is saying the schools taught them not to look at those sources, because the lost cause lie was to be taught and could not sink in if the primary sources were available (which 100% contradict the "states rights" argument taught in many schools in the US, mostly in the south)

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