Compare it to the US's secession from Britain all you want, but (1) the US's reason for seceding was not as reprehensible as upholding the institution of slavery; and (2) Britain never erected statues of "honorable colonial leaders" who fought a war against Britain.
They started their own country because they were afraid their slaves were gonna be taken away. It doesn't take propaganda to realize that these people were shitheads. Go read the primary antebellum sources on the reasons for secession. John C. Calhoun and his progeny of southern intellectuals were very clear. Sometimes they frame it in terms of anti-federalism, but what are they trying to protect? Spoilies: It's slavery.
Sedition is a serious thing, and Mocat's comparison to Washington is a perfectly apt analogy. Why the hell are we honoring traitors? Maybe it would be one thing if there was some actual merit-based reason for their secession (i.e. "sure they seceded, but they had a point and a lot of good men died"), but really, they just wanted to keep having slaves.
Your argument sucks.
Well I would agree if that were my argument. Before you pivot too far here, let's remember the point I was originally responding to:
Why certain municipalities have statues dedicated to traitors who raised arms against the Republic and killed American soldiers is beyond me.
And my point:
We can talk about how they had pretty perverse motives for trying to split from the U.S., but give me a break with this "raising up arms" talk.
You're drawing a distinction between a war we glorify and a war we detest (both in which tons of good people died) by saying the motivation was different. Sure, a lot of folks pushing for secession in the South were POS's, but you can be a POS and not be a murderer. Pan's post--which said nothing about slavery--implied racists=murderers, without regard to the fact that most of the actual fighting in the South was Southerners defending their own territory. And I do not have to say anything about their motivation for doing so to make my point.
If we start treating terrible beliefs the same way we treat terrible actions, then it is basically the end of free speech. Every single murderer should be prosecuted, but we cannot start putting people on trial for their beliefs, even if 99% of Americans believe they are disgusting.