"Don't Read The Comments At Youtube."

[DemocratSinceBirth]

My buddy and I were discussing the obnoxious comments at youtube or really the comments that follow just about anything on the internet. Is the internet a place where a repressed and very small minority are given voice to spew aberrant nonsense or is it a place where a inchoate majority is given voice. I say thank God it's the former.


I was listening to "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" on youtube and wished I would have just skipped the comment section. If you read them you would believe there is overwhelming sentiment in favor of Jeff Davis, Bob Lee, and the boys and all they wanted is for states to be free in a loose confederacy.

[rbixby]

1. Apparently they don't listen to the lyrics very well

[hlthe2b]

2. If that is the Band's version from The Last Waltz with Levon Helm singing...

I'm not surprised. I'm certainly not a proponent of the Confederacy and have had my own issues with dealing with all that unbelievable "South Will Rise Again" attitude during my own fore's into the deep South, but the way Helm's sings that song is extremely emotion-filled. I can sort of understand why it would incite the regional "pride" and sentimentality.

That said, I haven't seen the comments, so perhaps it is more than that. But, I will say that Helm's rendition of that song did have a bit of an impact on me too--softened the harshness of my criticism towards those (specifically those with "heritage preservation" as their motivation), for sure.

It is a complicated situation for descendents of the "vanquished".... I can sort of appreciate that now.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

3. The Band Is Great

The Last Waltz was great. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down is great.

It's not confined to any one song. It's emblematic of the net. What did people who hold these views do before the net.

I'll give you an example. Whenever there's a crime involving an African person, posters will inevitably make it an indictment of the entire race and President Obama.

Or whenever there's an article on Israel it devolves into a diatribe against all Jews.

[JHB]

8. What did they do?

In backwards rough chronological order:

Dial-up BBSs
Newsletters
pamphlets & tracts
"Wallace for president" rallies
cross brunings
lynch mobs
heyday of the Klan
Confederate army
catching runaway slaves

naturally, this covers more than one generation, but the type perpetuates.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

11. We're Making Progress

Because now all those folks can do is talk isht on the internet.

[Scuba]

6. The Confederacy lasted four years. Just how much "heritage" do they have?

[hlthe2b]

10. Look, as I said I am not here to provide a "southern defense", so take what I wrote at face value.

I"m a westerner, for Gawd's sakes. The whole civil war thing means very little out here.

Sure there are plenty of racist RW fanatical assholes as well, but Helm spoke to those whose feelings are far more benign. For the latter, it appears to be more a Southern Heritage than Confederate Heritage that many there seek to preserve/protect.

[Whovian]

4. Joan's cover.

&feature=colike

[DemocratSinceBirth]

5. Takes Me Back To The Seventies

Last edited Tue Nov 27, 2012, 11:49 AM - Edit history (1)

I knew a young woman who played guitar. Her cover of Diamonds And Rust was chilling.

[Whovian]

7. I was so in love with her those years.

&feature=colike

[Webster Green]

9. I've been in love with her since 1964.

'The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down' is my favorite song that she does.