Stay With Me On This....

Recently (January 22), Kevin Levin posted the following at his Civil War Memory blog:

"...why, in the minds of some, has my blogging and other activities been interpreted as reflecting a hatred for the South and I assume Southern/Confederate heritage. Perhaps you’ve seen comments in this vein both on this blog as well as other places around the Internet....

For those of you who do believe that I harbor some kind of hatred for the South and its history here is your chance to share it. You can post whatever you like as long as it is not insulting or merely a rant. What I want is something that approaches a reasoned explanation however difficult that might be for you.

I note that he prohibits responses that are insulting but ends his invitation with an insult -- however difficult that might be for you.  In any case, I posted a few things I remembered from his blog that, to me, indicate his hatred for the South and its history.  My reply: 

Hate is perhaps too broad and nonspecific a concept to characterize the attitude you exhibit toward the South and Southerners, past and present --at least, white Southerners. Contempt and scorn, ridicule and mockery, might be more accurate. Some examples:

~ saying slaves should be honored for surviving the Confederacy, when slavery was no worse during the four years the CSA existed than it had been for generations in the USA.

~glossing over the fact that abolitionist Julia Ward Howe's beliefs about blacks revealed in her book, A Trip to Cuba, were almost identical to the ones in Alexander Stephens' Cornerstsone speech.

~ridiculing Southern heritage advocates when they perhaps get history wrong (or even for just seeing it differently than you do) because your real problem with them is that they honor a heritage you think they should abhor and reject.

~holding Southern heritage advocates responsible for the misuse and abuse of historical symbols by people who have nothing to do with them...or...

~seeing the misuse and abuse of Confederate symbols as a way to ridicule Southern heritage (an example seen recently in the wrestling video posted on CW Memory).

~your scorn for history that comes to Southerners through family stories passed down from generation to generation.

~passing judgment on sponsors of things like Secession Balls ... ridiculing events such as the Stephen D. Lee Institute's recent meeting in Florida.

~smearing, scorning, mocking Southern heritage folks with things they have nothing to do with and have zero influence over (the Franklin Mint's "Confederate Village," for example)

I could go on -- I've seen this sort of thing countless times on your blog -- but this should give you an idea. If it doesn't clear it up for you, just say so, and I'll post more of the disparagement of white Southerners you've showcased numerous times on your blog. You'll no doubt present some lame explanation -- a claim, perhaps, that your comments are misunderstood, taken out of context, whatever. The fact is, most people have no trouble recognizing smears and ridicule aimed at them, and we are not an exception. We *clearly* see exactly what you're doing and how you think of us.

(One correction. The "Confederate Village" was sold by the Bradford Exchange, not the Franklin Mint.)

The main thing I want to call your attention to, dear readers, is this (highlighted above): 

~ridiculing Southern heritage advocates when they perhaps get history wrong (or even for just seeing it differently than you do) because your real problem with them is that they honor a heritage you think they should abhor and reject.

I will be addressing this in future blog posts that relate not only to Kevin Levin but to other *floggers hopefully in the next day or so....

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*Floggers -- contraction for "flogging bloggers" -- i.e., "civil war" bloggers who expand their blogs' focus far beyond the civil war in order to create more opportunity to verbally flog those who disagree with them, particularly people in the Southern heritage and Southern independence communities.