The Confederacy’s main goal was to keep the right to own slaves (Ofc now racist MAGAts will claim it was about “sTaTEs RiGhTs”) because slave labor was (and still is, unfortunately) the cheapest labor around and having a drive to get the cheapest most exploited labor you can is what happens with capitalism.

This may come as a shock, but slave labor predates capitalism, and the capitalist development of the Northern states quite explicitly undermined the viability of slave labor (hence the rebellion).

Nazi Germany’s rise was fueled by widespread misery and discontent among the German populace because of Capitalism-based ‘war reparations’ like the burdensome payments mandated by the Treaty of Versailles, which crippled the economy and fueled resentment that the Nazis could exploit.

No. This is a common misconception - the economic effects of the Treaty of Versailles were minimal on Germany, with even the famed short period of hyperinflation coming from an attempt by the German government to wiggle out of paying in a legalistic sense (it, obviously, did not work). The Nazis rose because they exploited the sense of nationalist grievance which the monarchist right had cultivated in response to losing WW1 and losing their precious monarchy with it. The German economy was not in particularly dire straits compared to other European nations of the time - but only Germany was nursing wounded pride over their 'glorious' empire being cut to ribbons.

Had it not been for capitalism, there might have been little desire to ruthlessly pursue monetary compensation like that and WWII might not have ever happened.

... capitalism is certainly not the cause for the Entente demanding war reparations, man.

Yeah, slave labor is cheap, but have you ever picked cotton? It's a special kind of hell. Grew some because I thought my daughter would love it. Nope, she didn't care.

When it's ready to pick the boll pops open and the leaves turn hard and sharp. First time I stuck my finger in there, the edge instantly slid under my skin 15mm. So sharp it hardly bled vs. damage done. I couldn't replicate that wound so quickly with a pocket knife. It's like a flower surrounded by scalpels.

Despite immediate and modern first aid, antiseptics, antibiotics, changing bandages, etc., it was so infected it took three weeks to heal and I couldn't bend that finger for two. For comparison, I can heal a deep scratch in 3-days (with a hydrocolloid bandaid).

Dad was a bouncer, told me the trick was to never get hit because 5 fights a week, 5 small wounds, shit adds add up because you can't heal that fast. Imagine catching one cotton-picking wound a day. By the end of the week you won't be able to make a fist.

Seems like you could just be careful? Nah, forgot to mention, you often can't see the blades. Also, you have to gather enough, fast enough, to make a buck. Takes me a couple minutes to clear one raggedy plant, imagine football fields worth of tall, healthy plants. Now how are you gonna pay someone enough to pick it fast enough? You're gonna need slaves because you can't whip a free man into doing that shit fast enough.

On top of that, getting the seeds out was hell before the cotton gin. I invite you to try it for yourself, and please don't waste the cotton threads. In that second pic, there are easily 25 seeds in there. Again, shitloads of labor for small gain. Slaves were the only way to make a buck. In supreme irony, the cotton gin jump started the South's cotton plantations and gave them a reason to acquire more slaves.

Do this fast, bent at the waist, from just before sunup to just after sundown. Every day. Until you die.

tl;dr: Slavery was worse than most think for the cotton picking alone.

Let's lighten the mood! This shit has had me howling for over a decade.

Picking cotton on a racist fieldtrip