Success in Secession

OK, I know it's lazy to just recycle facebook chatter, but I'm busy this week. On facebook, in response to this secession news, I wrote this on a post by Steve Horwitz:

"There's nothing inherently wrong with the idea of secession, but I think the U.S. would have to go damn near post-apocalyptic for it to be worth it for any state. Even those that would do alright on their own, like Texas or California, still couldn't possibly do better as a result.

I'm not the sort that thinks the Confederacy is always and everywhere equivalent to white supremacy, but one (among many) of the dumbest things about celebrating the Confederacy today is that you are celebrating one of the all time dumbest things that Southerners could have done to themselves. And the ridiculousness of celebrating the Confederacy isn't restricted to the fact that secession was shooting themselves in the foot: it's that they couldn't even shoot themselves in the foot successfully! A miserable failure at an attempt to shoot yourself in the foot - there's something to celebrate!

I prefer our other secession in the 1770s, when it was not a dumb move and we actually pulled it off."

Bob Murphy put it much more succintly this morning: "All I'm saying is, "succeed" and "secede" are distinct words."

He framed it as a grammar Nazi post, but I think it makes the point quite well!