A retired Tennessee law enforcement officer was held in jail for more than a month this fall after police arrested him over a Facebook post of a meme related to the September assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Prosecutors eventually dropped the criminal charge brought against Larry Bushart, but his stint behind bars came to exemplify the country’s tense political and legal climate following the tragedy, when conservatives sought to stymie public discourse about the late controversial figure that it saw as objectionable.

Now, Bushart is suing over his incarceration.

  • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    Our new government['s]…foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.

    Saying the civil war was about states rights is like saying the Holocaust was completely legal.

    Both positions are factually correct, but it completely misses the inhuman and immoral pretexts that lead to those actions. The American civil war was about slavers trying to prolong their lifestyle of abusing other human beings regardless of what the laws of the country were. They saw that slavery was going away, and they responded by starting a war of secession.

    • Madison420@lemmy.world
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      22 hours ago

      It was. Read a book, no one is saying they weren’t also racists or that they the state right they wanted preserved was property rights over people in interstate travel.

      positions are factually correct, but it completely misses the inhuman and immoral pretexts that lead to those actions.

      Duh, I went over that specifically and at length.

      • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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        7 hours ago

        I literally quoted Jefferson Davis Alexander Stephens (VP of the Confederacy) a month into the Confederacy. You should go read a fucking history book. Racism and slavery was the foundation of the Confederacy, as stated by the people that started it. States rights is a bullshit excuse. The confederate states wanted to force non-slave states to return escaped slaves, despite them have the rights (specifically a state right) not to return human beings to slavers. Fuck off with this fake ass daughter of the Confederacy propaganda.

        Edit : Fixed cornerstone speech attribution.

        • Madison420@lemmy.world
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          21 hours ago

          And I quoted him before in the legislature and after the war both specifically referring to states rights.

          Racism and slavery was the foundation of the Confederacy, as stated by the people that started it.

          No shit?

          States rights is a bullshit excuse.

          That does not change it from being the framework for succession and their main complaint.

          The confederate states wanted to force non-slave states to return escaped slaves, despite them have the rights (specifically a state right) not to return human beings to slavers.

          Ah you mean they challenged state sovereignity which is… A state right!

          Fuck off with this fake ass daughter of the Confederacy propaganda.

          You just admitted it was fact, when I was taught in school they would specifically tell you it was not about states rights when in fact it was. The federal government did not intercede because of slavery they interceded because of state sovereignity.

          You fuckoff, as I recall you chose to interject yourself. Did you not?

          • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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            19 hours ago

            Ah you mean they challenged state sovereignity which is… A state right!

            Exactly. The slave states didn’t care about states rights at all. All they cared about was keeping slaves. If the believed in what they were saying about states rights, they wouldn’t have tried to force non-slave states to turn over freed slaves. The entire “confederates wanted states rights” argument is bullshit. They used the states right excuse to uphold the practice of slavery, and completely ignored these rights when they were used against slavery.

            The Confederacy was about keeping slaves, and it was not about upholding the sovereignty of states. That was myth invented after the war was lost to whitewash the people who fought for the “right” to own and abuse human beings.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Cause_of_the_Confederacy

            The Lost Cause of the Confederacy, also known as the Lost Cause Myth or simply as the Lost Cause,[1] is an American pseudohistorical[2][3] and historical negationist myth[4][5][6] that argues the cause of the Confederate States during the American Civil War was just, heroic, and not centered on slavery

            You can keep arguing after this I guess, but from this point forward, you would be knowingly promoting and defending a racist slaver-apologizing fraudulent piece of revisionist history.

            • Madison420@lemmy.world
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              16 hours ago

              I would love to see your evidence about that one. I’m quite sure free states cared very very much about state sovereignity hence their objections to shave owning states attempting to exert their authority in free states what with the war about it and all.

              They used the states right excuse to uphold the practice of slavery, and completely ignored these rights when they were used against slavery.

              No shit? I wonder if we went over this already? Oh yes, we did in fact already talk about this and simply disagreeing with the framework they chose to make their argument does not make it any less of a fact.

              That was myth invented after the war was lost to whitewash the people who fought for the “right” to own and abuse human beings.

              I already provided pre war evidence that directly refutes your feelings on the matter.

              This isn’t lost cause theory, it’s stating a series of facts you simply don’t agree with.

              I’m not promoting anything you buffoon, you’re simply trying to call me a racist because you can’t win the argument because the facts simply aren’t on your side.

              • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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                7 hours ago

                I would love to see your evidence about that one.

                Since you are unfamiliar with Wikipedia, there were 6 sources cited in the quote alone.

                I already provided pre war evidence that directly refutes your feelings on the matter.

                I didn’t see it, I still don’t see it, so go ahead and quote it back to me your support of Lost Cause Confederacy talking points.

                This isn’t lost cause theory, it’s stating a series of facts you simply don’t agree with.

                Read the Lost Cause page, or even better, I’ll put the relevant section in here for you since you clearly won’t bother to educate yourself.

                Unimportance of slavery

                The movement that took The Lost Cause for its name had multiple origins, but its unifying contention was that slavery was not the primary cause of the Civil War[8][18] and would have naturally perished.[1] This narrative denies or minimizes the explanatory statements and constitutions published by the seceding states—for example, the wartime writings and speeches of CSA vice president Alexander Stephens and especially his Cornerstone Speech. Lost Cause historians instead favor the more moderate postwar views of Confederate leaders.[19]

                Confederate president Jefferson Davis wrote about the place of the South’s enslaved African Americans in his The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government (1881)

                [The negro soldiers’] servile instincts rendered them contented with their lot, and their patient toil blessed the land of their abode with unmeasured riches. Their strong local and personal attachment secured faithful service … Never was there happier dependence of labor and capital on each other. The tempter came, like the serpent of Eden, and decoyed them with the magic word of “freedom” … He put arms in their hands, and trained their humble but emotional natures to deeds of violence and bloodshed, and sent them out to devastate their benefactors.[20][21]

                I’m not saying you’re a racist slavery-apologist historical revisionist btw, but I am saying that you keep repeating and defending racist slavery-apologist historical revisionist propaganda materials, despite being provided ample evidence and resources to know that what you are saying is racist slavery-apologist historical revisionist propaganda.

                • Madison420@lemmy.world
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                  5 hours ago

                  Then you should be able to quote one directly that says “no one cared about states rights”.

                  Jefferson Davis to Congress feb2 1860, almost exactly 1 year before seceding. You’ll notice it’s all about states rights because that’s the legal framework they chose to use since owning people was legal at the federal level.

                  https://jeffersondavis.rice.edu/archives/documents/jefferson-davis-resolutions-relations-states

                  3. Resolved, That the union of these States rests on the equality of rights and privileges among its members, and that it is especially the duty of the Senate, which represents the States in their sovereign capacity, to resist all attempts to discriminate either in relation to person or property, so as, in the Territories–which are the common possession of the United States–to give advantages to the citizens of one State which are not equally secured to those of every other State.

                  Point to where I said or implied slavery was not the primary cause of the civil war. I won’t hold my breath because that isn’t something I’ve said nor would say. What I have said is that you’re wrong to say started rights weren’t involved or weren’t the primary reason the federal government got involved. Hell, Lincoln specifically campaigned on not getting involved in slavery.

                  Yes Jefferson Davis was a slave owner and a racist, that isn’t news. It’s also something I’ve not argued against but you simply won’t stop reading into my words things that simply do not exist in them.

                  You’ve quite literally said I’m stuck in lost cause theory which would make me an apologist and likely racist. Save the bullshit.

                  • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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                    4 hours ago

                    Point to where I said or implied slavery was not the primary cause of the civil war. I won’t hold my breath because that isn’t something I’ve said nor would say.

                    Are you fucking serious?! Took me less than 10 seconds. Unlike you, when I make a claim, I can back it up with direct quotes and sources.

                    Take your ball and go home.