I “love” how the 13th Amendment carved out an exception for slavery for “criminals” and every red state runs schools like a pipeline to prison for young black folks…
I fact Alabama literally just built a prison complex (called Angola) on top of a slave plantation and to this day, unbrokenly since pre-abolition times, that cotton plantation is cultivated by predominantly Black slaves.
They also organize a ‘rodeo’ which is basically modern day gladiator coloseum with the Angola prisoners ‘incentivized’ to compete.
I think it’s useful to make note of the fact that life in the US has gotten progressively worse since the fall of the USSR. Basically the only reason anything got better was because they were afraid of people becoming communists. Those were concessions.
Expect everything old to be new again. All those bad old things that we got rid of will come roaring back. Like abortion bans.
The industrializing North had little use for slavery, which was unprofitable for manufacturing. Unending streams of European immigrants to the North (in large part sourced by enclosure acts like those in Scotland in the early 1800s)[3] provided a huge reserve army of labor cheaper than what it would cost to buy, care for, guard, and educate enslaved people.
Even agricultural regions in the North were ill-suited to slavery, as wheat crops were seasonal and enslaved people would need vital needs provided year round. In the North, slavery wasn’t abolished on a moral level, rather it was simply less economical than “free” labor from a reserve army of labor.
The Civil War began as a war against separatism, and Lincoln did not initially want to abolish slavery. Later, when slaves and freedmen entered the Union army, they turned the war into a revolution against slavery.[5] After many enslaved people had already escaped to the North, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and allowed them to serve in the Union army.
I didn’t say it was the moral high point because they were fighting against slavery, just that they were at least fighting someone who deserved it. It’s a low bar.
Yeah, but at least they weren’t invading some completely blameless foreign country just for their natural resources. Neutral is kinda the best you could hope for for America… It’s a low bar.
When was the mythical age where the US wasn’t horrible?
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The USA is better now than before in some ways.
Below are some changes that happened in the lifetime of my parents.
Most small towns no longer shoot minorities after sunset if they are still in the city limits unaccompanied.
Women do not loose their children and money if they divorce.
People live longer.
There are only a few legal ways to enslave someone, as opposed to the multiple traps many could fall into.
Mississippi-based civil rights group JULIAN identified 70 “modern-day lynchings” in seven southern states from 2000 to 2025 in a report released last month. https://www.axios.com/2026/03/07/lynching-south-black-americans-suicide-report
70% of Americans say they struggle to pay for food, housing and healthcare https://www.yahoo.com/news/videos/70-americans-struggle-pay-food-171319769.html
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You guys must have a lot of common ground on China huh
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Aw why isn’t this showing up in the modlog? I wanna know what they said T_T
I “love” how the 13th Amendment carved out an exception for slavery for “criminals” and every red state runs schools like a pipeline to prison for young black folks…
I fact Alabama literally just built a prison complex (called Angola) on top of a slave plantation and to this day, unbrokenly since pre-abolition times, that cotton plantation is cultivated by predominantly Black slaves.
They also organize a ‘rodeo’ which is basically modern day gladiator coloseum with the Angola prisoners ‘incentivized’ to compete.
Actually, that’s no longer true on a year-to-year basis. Life expectancy peaked in 2014.
I really should not have put that in there; it was not a political change.
I was comparing from the 1930s -now.
Life expectancy is political.
I think it’s useful to make note of the fact that life in the US has gotten progressively worse since the fall of the USSR. Basically the only reason anything got better was because they were afraid of people becoming communists. Those were concessions.
Expect everything old to be new again. All those bad old things that we got rid of will come roaring back. Like abortion bans.
Both of this still happens and is getting worse. Life expectancy is lower than any comparable country.
Considering imperialism/colonialism US is responsible for the overexploitation of more people than ever.
That’s fair enough, genuinely sorry for my overly hostile reply
There was a short period of time when America was at least at war against the right people…? 1861-1865 was kinda the moral high point of the nation.
Link
I didn’t say it was the moral high point because they were fighting against slavery, just that they were at least fighting someone who deserved it. It’s a low bar.
It’s a pretty neutral ground really since the other half was fighting at the moral low point, and then they got to dictate terms for the next century
Yeah, but at least they weren’t invading some completely blameless foreign country just for their natural resources. Neutral is kinda the best you could hope for for America… It’s a low bar.