American civilization's zombie fetal conjoined twin

Yglesias:

Some folks were upset that I referred to a woman toting a Confederate flag yesterday as “pro-slavery” in a cheeky photo caption. For example, here’s Daniel Kuehn:

I challenge Yglesias to tell me: do you honestly, truly believe that woman is “pro-slavery”, or do you think she’s anti-slavery and simply has a different view of the Confederate flag? If you think she’s honestly pro-slavery then you’re not nearly as thoughtful as I’ve always thought you were. If you don’t think she’s pro-slavery but just think it’s funny to pretend she is, then you’re not as classy as I always thought you were. Either way I suppose I’m going to end up disappointed.

The answer is that I have no idea whether or not the woman in question favors enslaving black people, but I desire to live in a world in which the social understanding is that embracing the Confederate Battle Flag is an embrace of the cause of treason in defense of slavery.

Commenter SP adds:

How odd that prior to 1956 Georgia didn’t feel the need to display the confederate flag. I wonder what could have happened in 1956 that made them feel the need to take up a symbol of black oppression. It must have been something related to Southern Heritage, of course, and not about racism!

I think Yglesias, though he is right, is only getting part of the whole story here. SP hints at the rest.

The Confederate flag isn’t just a symbol of treason in defense of slavery (though it is that). It’s the symbol of a whole alternative civilization.

That “other America” grew up on this continent in the 1700s and 1800s, and was never really unified with the America of the North. It was a civilization that valued racial stratification, militarism, and close cooperation between religion and government. The Southern civilization was beaten down in the Civil War, but didn’t die (although that war assured that the Pacific coast became more like the North than like the South in most ways).

The Confederate flag stands for pride in that other American civilization, which still exists, still has basically the same values, and still thinks of itself as – and I quote – “the real America”. But its existence continues to be an albatross around the real real America’s neck – the South is a politically unified bloc with little regard for our national institutions, and it's an implacable force against improved race relations and a more tolerant culture. The Stars-n-Bars is a symbol not just of slavery, but of American civilization’s zombie fetal conjoined twin.