News HBO draws ire after 'Confederate' announcement

[Jayson1]

It's on HBO, so sponsors aren't really an issue. However, if the show was dependent on sponsors, content and execution would likely be even more critical than it usually is for potential sponsors.

I don't think there is any way we would have seen white people as slaves. Dehumanization was one of the most important excuses used to justify slavery and it was made that much easier because of the difference in looks (and culture) between Black people and White people. Since other minorities came to the country voluntarily, as opposed to being kidnapped as were most Black people, I don't think any would have been slaves in the same way.

I agree that white people wouldn't become slaves but at the same time I feel like those at the top would still want to create a divide between the rich and the poor. I'm curious as to how they would use slavery to do that. Wouldn't poor white people be complaining about how their is no jobs because they are being filled by slave labor?. I just had a thought but what if this world had things that liberals usually see as good things like a mandatory wage,free health care etc, but it has been perverted to help keep any kind of public outcry over slavery from ever going beyond the ethical reasons to end slavery.

Jason

 

[Gaith]

Game of Thrones' Benioff and Weiss, who are also working on a new series of Star Wars movies, have just signed a large contract with Netflix, which, as The AV Club points out, is a strong indicator (as if any were needed after the past two years of silence) that this here Confederate project will never be realized.

Myself, I stand by what I said before: I wish that HBO was giving the actual Civil War era a lavish, grunts-to-heads-of-state treatment à la Rome.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I think it’s possible that the automation of the work force would have been what ultimately reduced demand for slave labor, had the Confederacy won. It would not have ended on moral grounds, but maybe when maintaining a slave workforce became more expensive and less efficient than maintaining machines, the same plantation owners who fought for slavery would look for an out and try to take moral credit for their economic decision.

I picture some plantation owner going “You mean, I can make more profit if I stop using slave labor? You know what, you’re right, slavery is just WRONG! Make an immediate press announcement that, we are so caring and virtuous we can’t in good conscience keep slaves anymore!”

It’s at the very least an interesting thought experiment, maybe more appropriate for a one off TV movie than a series.

 

[crookeddy]

I think it’s possible that the automation of the work force would have been what ultimately reduced demand for slave labor, had the Confederacy won. It would not have ended on moral grounds, but maybe when maintaining a slave workforce became more expensive and less efficient than maintaining machines, the same plantation owners who fought for slavery would look for an out and try to take moral credit for their economic decision.

I picture some plantation owner going “You mean, I can make more profit if I stop using slave labor? You know what, you’re right, slavery is just WRONG! Make an immediate press announcement that, we are so caring and virtuous we can’t in good conscience keep slaves anymore!”

It’s at the very least an interesting thought experiment, maybe more appropriate for a one off TV movie than a series.

The Southern Confederacy supporters I've spoken to during my trip to Louisiana all say that the Civil War was a scam and that slavery was inevitably on the way out. They are convinced that the end of slavery would have been cleaner and better for the ex-slaves than it turned out.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

The Southern Confederacy supporters I've spoken to during my trip to Louisiana all say that the Civil War was a scam and that slavery was inevitably on the way out. They are convinced that the end of slavery would have been cleaner and better for the ex-slaves than it turned out.

Unlikely. Even if the majority supported abolishing slavery, I doubt it would have been abolished until it were no longer profitable.

And cleaner, hell no. Those routes to abolishing slavery would have still left them without political rights and probably with less demand for paid labor.

 

[Professor Zoom]

The Southern Confederacy supporters I've spoken to during my trip to Louisiana all say that the Civil War was a scam and that slavery was inevitably on the way out. They are convinced that the end of slavery would have been cleaner and better for the ex-slaves than it turned out.

Fantasy.

 

[EnderAKH]

The Southern Confederacy supporters I've spoken to during my trip to Louisiana all say that the Civil War was a scam and that slavery was inevitably on the way out. They are convinced that the end of slavery would have been cleaner and better for the ex-slaves than it turned out.

Everybody (or their ancestors) thinks they're righteous.

 

[theenglish]

Unlikely. Even if the majority supported abolishing slavery, I doubt it would have been abolished until it were no longer profitable.

And cleaner, hell no. Those routes to abolishing slavery would have still left them without political rights and probably with less demand for paid labor.

Exactly. The Jim Crowe era pretty much proves that beyond question.

 

[Gaith]

Even if the majority supported abolishing slavery

The CSA Constitution was mostly a copy of the US Constitution, with the notable exception of a prohibition against ever abolishing slavery, even via amendment. Had agrarian slavery become unprofitable, the likely result would have been a mass forced expulsion to the USA, if not a full-on Final Solution.

 

[Markonian]

The CSA Constitution was mostly a copy of the US Constitution, with the notable exception of a prohibition against ever abolishing slavery, even via amendment. Had agrarian slavery become unprofitable, the likely result would have been a mass forced expulsion to the USA, if not a full-on Final Solution.

That what happens in Harry Turtledove's Timeline-101 novels. When the USA conquers the CSA in the mid-20th century, they find death camps in the South.

 

[Turtletrekker]

The Southern Confederacy supporters I've spoken to during my trip to Louisiana all say that the Civil War was a scam and that slavery was inevitably on the way out. They are convinced that the end of slavery would have been cleaner and better for the ex-slaves than it turned out.

And I suppose that these southern confederacy supporters also like to pass on the equally bullshit claim that the Civil War wasn't about slavery.

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[Noname Given]

I mean, I guess I get the fears of worsening divisions, but in specific terms is this really all that different than Man in the High Castle? And I'm not sure where the claims of this show being a 'mess' are coming from, except that people just don't like that it exists at all. Honestly the only thing that bothers me all that much about it is the idea that (I'm assuming this takes places sometime in the 20th century, maybe even modern times) the CSA would still be a fully slave-holding nation despite the massive international pressure to end slavery that the British put on the world in the late 19th century. (Britain being literally vital to the Confederate economy)

It does suck that a show like Underground isn't getting a real chance, though. That's an important subject that doesn't get enough attention and is actually incredibly unique in the tv landscape (not to mention ripe for drama).

IDK - "man In The High Castle" depicts NAZIs winning WWII, and the result. Overall the world pretty much agrees the NAZIs and their ideals and philosophy were wrong/evil.

There's NOT the same feeling in many areas of the U.S. WRT the U.S. Civil War and its result. Thus depending on how the series is executed, it could serve to stir up various feelings in those who still believe the Civil War was a just cause and the country would have been much better today if the results had been different.

 

[crookeddy]

And I suppose that these southern confederacy supporters also like to pass on the equally bullshit claim that the Civil War wasn't about slavery.

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All of them say it was 100% states rights - and that the civil war ended that concept.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Which, as the video illustrates, is complete bullshit. Some southern States complained that northern states had too many states rights, an example being the fact that if you brought your slaves into New York they were no longer slaves, they were free people. It seems that the southern states didn't appreciate New York exercising their states rights at all. The only right the southern states were worried about was their right to own slaves.

 

[theenglish]

There's NOT the same feeling in many areas of the U.S. WRT the U.S. Civil War and its result. Thus depending on how the series is executed, it could serve to stir up various feelings in those who still believe the Civil War was a just cause and the country would have been much better today if the results had been different.

Pretty much the only people in the world that think this come from the American South. The same people who like to play semantics with the term "racism" today.

 

[Professor Zoom]

All of them say it was 100% states rights - and that the civil war ended that concept.

It was 100% about the right to own people.

And if they think the Civil War ended the right of States to make their own laws that don't contradict federal, they are 100% wrong and need to go back to school.

 

[crookeddy]

It was 100% about the right to own people.

And if they think the Civil War ended the right of States to make their own laws that don't contradict federal, they are 100% wrong and need to go back to school.

Wasn't the original idea that states could make laws that don't violate the constitution? When did it become "don't violate federal laws"?

 

[Awesome Possum]

All of them say it was 100% states rights - and that the civil war ended that concept.

Yeah, a state’s right to allow its citizens to own human beings. Saying it was states rights is dodging the issue.

 

[gblews]

The Southern Confederacy supporters I've spoken to during my trip to Louisiana all say that the Civil War was a scam and that slavery was inevitably on the way out. They are convinced that the end of slavery would have been cleaner and better for the ex-slaves than it turned out.

All of them say it was 100% states rights - and that the civil war ended that concept.

All of this sounds like part and parcel of the lie southerners who have written their own customized version of history that supports the lie that the south wasn't fighting for the right to own slaves. What southerners want us to believe is that slavery would have ended if the south had won the war. That is laughable.

I think it’s possible that the automation of the work force would have been what ultimately reduced demand for slave labor, had the Confederacy won.

I disagree. In fact, I think there is a good chance that the continuation of slavery might actually have retarded research and development of automation. One of the main things that has driven development of automation has been the cost of labor, still prohibitive in America.

Without the motivation provided by labor costs, the urgency to automate lessens considerably.

 

[Professor Zoom]

Wasn't the original idea that states could make laws that don't violate the constitution? When did it become "don't violate federal laws"?

Since the beginning.