this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2025
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History Memes

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"Oh, but Robert E. Lee was such a Southern Gentleman!" (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 weeks ago by PugJesus@lemmy.world to c/historymemes@lemmy.world
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[โ€“] wetbeardhairs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

We had slavery for thousands of years because the enlightenment occurred only a few hundred years ago and it brought about the concept of liberalism (not like liberal/conservative but liber like short for liberty or liberate - meaning freedom). Up until that point there was only basic pathos that would allow people to feel bad for a slave's conditions but usually not to the extent that it would lead to a full abolition movement.

[โ€“] yeahiknow3@lemmings.world 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Yes. There were countless folks of every generation since time immemorial begging their fellow humans to use basic reasoning to see the evil of their actions. To no avail. It took thousands of years of social progress and education to convince (a plurality of) people of the most rudimentary and blatant moral facts. Because the average human is dumb as shit about everything that matters.