The best time to move North was 160 years ago. The 2nd best time is now.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/51/Undergroundrailroadsmall2.jpg/600px-Undergroundrailroadsmall2.jpg
@paninid @billseitz I agree with you about Northern racism and its effects, past and present. However, were there to be a split, I believe not much would change in the Blue country, but the practical effects of racism in the Red country would get considerably worse.
@paninid @billseitz Ben Winters’ /Underground Airline/ is an alternate history novel where Lincoln died before inauguration, the Union didn’t split, but a handful of states got to keep slavery as a compromise.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_Airlines
I doubt it, or a current split, would work out, because what Lincoln said about slave state leaders is true of modern GOP leaders: it will not be enough for the “coastal elites” to leave them alone; we must submit.
the plantation elite 
knew that their political economy was immoral and unsustainable if it did not expand.
The formed to provide physical security and escort Lincoln through towns while campaigning.
As a group, the Wide Awakes never even made their way to the South, but that they existed at all made plantation reactionaries form militant groups.
As they say, .
@paninid @billseitz I think that “the plantation elite knew that their political economy was immoral” doesn't capture the dynamics. I might be wrong, but I think they extrapolated from “this is my situation" to “this is the universally right situation”, then added a heavy dose of “how dare that out-group claim I am a bad person?”
The horrible – horrible – thing is that “they knew" explains little behavior.
@paninid@mastodon.world
@marick @billseitz It was not just the political economy, it was also the civil religion.
This is why the word “abolition” was equivalent to heresy.
@paninid @billseitz Yes, which is why I find “anti-wokeness” alarming. It feels like another civic religion.
@paninid @billseitz What alarms me is that I’ve seen people become fuckheads, triggered by the culture wars.
