My mom, who is not a Southernor at all, decided to do the "men of their times" defense last time we got on the topic of the south. This was in defense of my brother (who is part of a white nationalist group) tromping around the confederate flag.
Me and one of my friends who never really met her just kinda sat there repeating "states rights to do what?" And she kept repeating "it was about states rights!". I wish I had already seen the speech linked here at some point from the confederates vice president that clearly states it was about slavery.
Anyways fuck these people. It's astounding to me that even non southern conservatives are now white washing shit just because they can't otherwise deal with their own political baggage.