Backsass: Answering the Anti-Confederate Bloggers

At one time, I was amazed by the interest two academic Civil War bloggers show in an anonymous social networking group and other discussion/chat groups on the internet.

You see, at some point in my life, I had acquired the notion that academics sat in their ivory towers thinking lofty thoughts, far above the rest of us common folk with our conventions and contentions...

Boy, was I wrong. I've learned they can be as petty and thin-skinned as any plebian down here on the sidewalk of life.

Before my recent computer crashes and resultant time lost online, I had planned to address some posts and comments made by these guys and their myrmidons, but ... time moves on, and there's a whole new crop of lies, half-truths, idiocy and egoism -- and an infrequent honest question -- to address...

Stay tuned. I may or may not post what I'm replying to. If you get curious, consult the Index below and follow the links to the blog posts in question. My comments, replies and observations are in no particular order -- just whatever I feel like addressing at any given time.

I'll start here with some comments to/for/from/about Crossroads:

Professor Simpson, Connie is my given name. Chastain is my maiden name (also my author name). Have you ever heard of the convention in western culture of women who marry taking their husband's surname? That's where Ward comes from. It is my married name. Connie Reb is a nickname.

You're trying awful hard to be condescending and you're only making yourself look foolish in the process.

More information for those to whom this subject is unclear:
Given name: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/given+name
Maiden name: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/maiden+name
Married name: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/married%20name
Nickname: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nickname

The GROUP believes there was a Confederate regiment of black cooks? There are over a thousand people in the group, and they all believe that? They're all mental clones? They would all HAVE to believe it for the GROUP to believe it, wouldn't they? Maybe that's how you group-think people operate, all thinking alike, so you attribute it to others but I see a great deal more discussion, diverse ideas, and even disagreement in SHPG than I do from the sycophants who post at your blog and Kevin's.

I know about that mistake Ann made, you know I know it, because we discussed it on Andy Hall's blog. What you're doing by unnecessarily bringing this up over and over is known as piling on, "... a phrase used in American football, where defenders throw themselves onto a pile of other defenders, under which is the ball carrier. It's a needless activity, since the ball carrier is already down and the play is over." (Found in an online forum.) The whistle has blown, Professor. Show a little class, a little gentlemanliness. Let it go.

So, you doubt the WPA Slave Narratives? You think Prince Johnson ought to be "worked"? Did you actually mean "worked over"? That's slang, btw, which means to inflict severe physical damage on; beat up. (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/work+over) Perhaps Prince needs a severe academic beating -- to show he's lying? Since he presents ideas you slavery-focused anti-Confederates disapprove of, he needs to be run through the academic wringer, beaten into submission and come out "proving" what you all believe -- or at least come out neutralized....

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Simpson told one of his commenters: "Connie’s had her say (and can continue to have it on her own blog). Among those who appreciate her message is Michael Hill of the League of the South, an organization Connie holds in high esteem. Connie waffled about her feelings about the League when I confronted her with this material, although she gladly links to it … but when Hill complimented her work, she did not object. I don’t think anyone’s fooled about how she feels about the League of the South, even if she lacks the courage to just come out and endorse Hill’s view of matters."

This is incredible! Truly astounding! Professor Simpson knows all this just from seeing a link on a blog. Isn't that amazing? He can just look a link on the Internet and know what the person who put it there thinks and feels... Doesn't have to consult a crystal ball, doesn't have to call Miss Clio, doesn't have to throw chicken bones -- He. Just. Knows.

This post from him illustrates the truth that you don't have to have common sense to be an academic. He apparently doesn't realize that I didn't waffle or lack courage when he "confronted" me (smirk) several weeks ago with this material -- "this material" being a link to the League, which you can see by scrolling down and looking on the righthand side bar for "Interesting Websites." There, you will also find links to Patriot Press Books, Black Confederate Soldiers, Discriminatory Freight Rates, Douglas Harper's Civil War Essays, United Daughters of the Confederacy, Sons of Confederate Veterans and Author Nancy Brewer. (Wonder what THOSE links "tell" him.)

The fact that Simpson ignored them all to focus solely on the League tells you a whole lot more about him than it does about me. At any rate, my response, or non-response, was not from waffling or a lack of courage -- it was from my extreme contempt for his ludicrous demand.

However, since it really isn't an earth-shattering revelation, I don't mind providing information about my involvement with the League and my thoughts on its principles.

If memory serves, I have been a member of the League twice, possibly three times, in the past twelve years. I once served as the chairman and webmaster of a small, local chapter. I am not currently a member.

I originally joined the League after observing it for 18 months. Shortly after I discovered DixieNet on the web, I came across a claim that the League was a "racist hate group" and I wanted nothing to do with one of those. The claim came from a wholly unreliable source and I suspected it was dismissible, but I wanted to make sure, so I read League literature and observed League activities both online and in person, for a year and a half. I concluded that the claim was not true, so I joined for the following reasons:

1. I believe in the right of secession, as articulated by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence (the right of the people, endowed upon them by their Creator, to alter or abolish their government and to create another that suits them better). I believe it is the only way to keep a government from becoming tyrannical. (Well, revolution is another way, but I prefer peaceful secession to violent revolution.)

2. I believe the South would be better off as a nation on its own.

3. I believe the South has always been culturally distinct from the rest of the United States (which is why it has been known as "a nation within a nation") and I support the cultural strengthening required to keep it that way, particularly in the face of efforts, deliberate and inadvertent, to amalgamate and homogenize it into the rest of the country.

The League of the South supports the right of secession, and particularly the right of the Southern states to secede and form their own nation, and the renewal and strengthening of the South's unique culture.

And I certainly do not object to Dr. Hill's compliment about my writing.

~TO BE CONTINUED~

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INDEX