The recent fabricated controversy surrounding President Donald Trump’s Civil War comments has once again illustrated the mainstream-media’s raging hypocrisy.
Trump’s claim that the Civil War could have been avoided has been belittled by almost all major news networks, with critics saying even grade schoolers would recognize Trump’s comments as ignorant and bigoted. Frankly, we have a serious problem with our education system if students are taught to jettison historical skepticism and are accused of racism for having a differing perspective.
I am no historian, but there are legitimate theories for how the Civil War, the bloodiest in America’s history, could have been averted. All other countries ended slavery peaceful, and we could look to Brazil, where most slaves escaped to nearby abolitionist districts, as an example of how the practice would naturally become unsustainable. Meanwhile, Europe was opting out of Confederate cotton for cheaper and more ethically sourced Egyptian cotton. It’s very likely an independent South would have collapsed under its own weight, which would have freed the slaves without war. We will never know what could have been, but it does not diminish the plight of slaves or soldiers to ask. The best way to honor the more than 700,000 who perished in the Civil War would be to avoid revering unnecessary death.
It’s a shame that the progressive left, which claims to stand for scientific skepticism and against wars, would completely contradict themselves for political gain. By politicizing history simply to disparage Trump, the left has become the very thing it hates.
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Adam Barsouk,
State College
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