Would you have volunteered to fight in the American Civil War?

[TNF]

Yes, I'd have signed up with the Union to help wipe out the traitorous slaveholders and help free the slaves. (Normal)

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

Yes, I'd have signed up with the Union to help wipe out the traitorous slaveholders and help free the slaves. (Normal)

[H. Ross Peron]

Yes, I'd have signed up with the Union to help wipe out the traitorous slaveholders and help free the slaves. (Normal)

[Sumner 1868]

Yes, I'd have signed up with the Union to help wipe out the traitorous slaveholders and help free the slaves. (Normal)

[Peter the Lefty]

Yes, I'd have signed up with the Union to help wipe out the traitorous slaveholders and help free the slaves. (Normal)

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

Yes, I'd have signed up with the Union to help wipe out the traitorous slaveholders and help free the slaves. (Normal)

[Goldwater]

Yes, I'd have signed up with the Union to help wipe out the traitorous slaveholders and help free the slaves. (Normal)

[ElectionsGuy]

No (chicken who doesn't like war)

[bedstuy]

Yes, I'd have signed up with the Union to help wipe out the traitorous slaveholders and help free the slaves. (Normal)

I thought the US was imperialist and evil?

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

My ancestors (from the volunteer state) actually did volunteer to fight for the Union.  But I only believe in the use of violence in self-defense, so obviously I couldn't fight.

[Türkisblau]

I'll be honest here and say #3.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Considering my ancestors weren't in the US at the time and that I do have ancestors who had to hightail it to Canada after the Tax Revolt of 1775-83, probably not.  Might have signed up to defend Canada in case Seward's cockamamie plan to restore the Union by invading Canada ever got past the lame idea stage.

[dead0man]

1....preferably artillery or intelligence.

[TNF]

Yes, I'd have signed up with the Union to help wipe out the traitorous slaveholders and help free the slaves. (Normal)

I thought the US was imperialist and evil?

Again, Marxists have a different understanding of Imperialism than do non-Marxists. Whereas you guys refer to imperialism as a government policy, Marxists understand imperialism as the end result of monopoly capitalism, in effect, the highest stage of capitalist development heretofore developed. See V.I. Lenin, Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism for the most robust case for this argument, and Nikolai Bukharin's Imperialism and World Economy if you're interested in getting at the Marxist understanding of imperialism.

Imperialism in Marxism refers to non-competitive, monopoly capitalism. The United States was not a fully capitalist society in 1860 because half of it still engaged in slave-based production. Supporting the Union means wiping out slavery and allowing the full development of capitalism, which is the position that Marx and Engels took and the position that socialists at the time held up as the correct one, and rightfully so.

And get off this crap of implying I'm anti-American. Opposing the foreign policy of the United States in the here and now does not imply that I reject the country of my birth or the things that I has gotten right over the years. You'd do well to avoid such accusations, given that you're one step away from advocating America hitch itself to whatever Israel wants to do in the Middle East as it is. That's far more 'anti-American' that criticizing the post-Civil War foreign policy of the United States ever could be.

[bedstuy]

Yes, I'd have signed up with the Union to help wipe out the traitorous slaveholders and help free the slaves. (Normal)

I thought the US was imperialist and evil?

Again, Marxists have a different understanding of Imperialism than do non-Marxists. Whereas you guys refer to imperialism as a government policy, Marxists understand imperialism as the end result of monopoly capitalism, in effect, the highest stage of capitalist development heretofore developed. See V.I. Lenin, Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism for the most robust case for this argument, and Nikolai Bukharin's Imperialism and World Economy if you're interested in getting at the Marxist understanding of imperialism.

Right, you just use "imperialism" as a meaningless epithet to justify your gigantic cognitive bias.  4 legs good, 2 legs bad and such.  I get it.

Imperialism in Marxism refers to non-competitive, monopoly capitalism. The United States was not a fully capitalist society in 1860 because half of it still engaged in slave-based production. Supporting the Union means wiping out slavery and allowing the full development of capitalism, which is the position that Marx and Engels took and the position that socialists at the time held up as the correct one, and rightfully so.

Who cares what those hairy old krauts thought?  You say that like they're your religious figures. 

I think we agree that slavery was a moral evil and needed to be wiped out.  That is reason enough to say the Civil War was a just war, although one where the Union had its own major faults.

And get off this crap of implying I'm anti-American. Opposing the foreign policy of the United States in the here and now does not imply that I reject the country of my birth or the things that I has gotten right over the years. You'd do well to avoid such accusations, given that you're one step away from advocating America hitch itself to whatever Israel wants to do in the Middle East as it is. That's far more 'anti-American' that criticizing the post-Civil War foreign policy of the United States ever could be.

You're so sensitive about being labeled as "anti-Semitic" and "anti-American." Yet, you're totally comfortable accusing me of being anti-American.  And, isn't it an old anti-Semitic trope to accuse Jews of being disloyal citizens or caring more about Jews than their country? 

Of course, that's a complete misrepresentation of what I think.  I've never said that we should do whatever Israel wants.  I never suggested that or implied it.  But, I am Jewish, so you assume I'm disloyal to my country or somehow more interested in what's good for Jews than what is just or right.  Maybe this is why people accuse you of being anti-Semitic dude.  I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, but at least extend to me the same courtesy that you demand for yourself. 

To my original point:

It seems a tad silly to oppose US involvement in WWII, yet support the Union.  Because, if you think the evil of the opposing side justifies the war against the CSA, the evil of Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany ought to justify WWII.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

wait... Marx's dialectic means capitalists wiping out a pre-capitalist society is not imperialism??

Anyhow, if my home area was threatened I might sign up. Otherwise I'd submit to getting drafted and possibly desert at some point.

[Lief 🗽]

No, no; I'm a coward, you see.

[© tweed]

No, no; I'm a coward, you see.

yeah.  I get scared enough by daily life.

(I'd also have opposed the US invasion of the CSA as a policy matter... if I were myself in 1861.)

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

I'd strongly support the union and go if drafted, but I wouldn't volunteer. I'm not particularly cut out for military life.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

My ancestors (from the volunteer state) actually did volunteer to fight for the Union.  But I only believe in the use of violence in self-defense, so obviously I couldn't fight.

I've absolutely never understood pacifism or things that look like it. Is it a doctrine of simple and complete surrender to the evils of the world? Obviously, you wouldn't believe in violence to force someone into slavery, but you would also deprive yourself of some of the necessary tools to right that wrong. And why limit it to specifically "self" defense? What about defense of your wife or your children or your family as a whole? What about your neighbor, innocents in general, or your country? I'm not attempting to prescribe that one decide to take up a state of constant war against what they perceive as evil, but limiting your ability to impose force against others to only self defense can be quite harmful.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Option 3 (not an internet tough guy)

[ingemann]

Option three and four, I would have served in the Union if they had drafted me, I would have done anything in my power not to serve on the Confederate side.

[RosettaStoned]

  Option 1 (not a coward).

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

  Option 1 (not a coward).

Sure, sure you aren't...

[Comrade Funk]

Yes, for the Union. I'm a Northerner, believe in Federal power over State power, and want slavery abolished ASAP.