It’s absolutely impossible not to read this in his incredibly distinctive voice

Yea I don’t know that I particularly like this. The Rock is a wonderful guy and seems really nice but I think this ventures into some tricky territory. This article explains it well

Huh? Slavery was communism?… care to show how you reached that wild conclusion?

I feel like you are saying exactly what I am saying and then telling me I’m saying it wrong. I’m a bit baffled as to how I’m somehow bastardizing history.

My original point was that the oppressed cannot alleviate the yoke of their bondage by appealing to the morals of their oppressors. Which is completely true, no slave or indigenous person ever “convinced” a slave owner of the wrong of slavery or indigenous land theft that I can guarantee. Slaves themselves had to fight for it themselves and when the truth of this fact threatened to upend the union, a war happened. Were there sympathetic northerners like abolitionists and sympathizers to the plight of black peoples? Absolutely. But freed and escaped slaves like Fredrick Douglas had to speak truth to power and ONLY when the security of the union was in danger did the president free the slaves. Period. At no point before that did any legislation pass to free slaves because…

The oppressed (slaves) cannot appeal to the moral virtues their oppressors (United States government in general and the confederacy in particular) to free themselves

They had to fight, plead and advocate for themselves

Even AFTER empancipation there was STILL sharecropping, vagrancy laws, sundown towns, lynchings, redlining, segregation, Jim Crow laws, anti-miscegenation etc etc.

Which spawned the civil rights movement to improve the living conditions of African Americans in the centuries after emancipation, and who lead the civil rights movement? African Americans

Emancipation was not a “gift”, slaves fought and died for it for themselves.

Freedom is not a gift of patience, but the reward of determination and sacrifice, it must be taken.

I’m totally confused at what is your argument here, not even trying to be rude. My original point was that you cannot secure freedom by appealing to the moral sense of your oppressors. To which I used the example of American slavery. My evidence is slaves revolted, rebelled and committed suicide for centuries before there was ever and inkling of a changing “moral compass”. Slaves routinely escaped only to be branded with “drapetomania”. They cried screamed and pleaded for release for centuries to no avail

The ruling class only thought it was important to free them when the security of the union of the democracy was also on the line. Otherwise nothing would’ve happened. Slavery existed in America for 400 years before anyone in government thought “freeing slaves is too important to let it continue we should free them right now and not a moment later”

How is it a moral shift? The war was only to maintain the union. I’ve used the quote three times already but here ya go

“If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.”

-Abe Lincoln

And further even if one half of the country wanted to end slavery, which is a generous estimate because most northern whites were ambivalent and freedom by no means meant equality, the entire other half of the country was fighting FOR slavery. By the time of the civil war England had already abolished slavery so America was LATE and STILL hesitant to give up the practice

Slave rebellions were too costly too let continue. And y’know… the war

History is not spurred by power but by the demands of people. People in power do not move until they are moved

“If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.”

-Abe Lincoln

Former slaves, current slaves and sympathetic communities like Quakers lead abolition movements. Slaves typically lead slave uprisings. Most rich people were content to sit idly by

Uh no, most slavery ended because it was too costly to continue. Due to wars, slave revolts and widespread abolition movements

Not impossible but very difficult. Like the old saying goes no one has ever liberated themselves by appealing to the moral character of their oppressors