He was not a hero "somehow". He was a hero because he became wealthy owning slaves, because he fought to preserve slavery, because he murdered black soldiers that had already surrendered, because he terrorized black families after they were legally freed. The part he spoke out in favor of black advancement is curiously absent in his monuments.
It's so odd that someone who owned slaves, fought to preserve slavery, murdered black soldiers after they surrendered, and joined the KKK is thought of as racist. It must be historical revisionism; there can be no other explanation.
Most of those people were dead before I was born, I have never met the one who was not. How can I part company of people I have never met?
When have I ever said "the ends justify the means"? If anything, I emphasize the means over the ends.
I agree there is no difference there.
I bet you think you have a point. What's your evidence?
What's the conflict?
It's up to you to provide evidence that they did.
So I read a bit about NBF, OB.
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/nathan-bedford-forrest
Of course confederates had to love Forrest because he was a legendary military strategist who drew comments from his enemies that he must be stopped if it bankrupted the Federal treasury. Nobody stopped him. Yes, he was the first Grand Wizard of the KKK, until he ordered the outfit disbanded in 1869. Yes, his troops savagely killed black Union soldiers in a blind war-crime rage. But some dispute even that. I dunno, I wasn't there. Sounds horribly human, actually.... like some other things..... Donner cannibalism, Mormons massaquering emigrants..... maybe there's some details about it all that could raise more questions. But Hell, who cares about the actual facts when you've got such an effective claim against somebody. Even someone of no relevance except historical or legendary values.
Still a legend as an American of unusual talent, beloved of his troops and many confederates.
He made his living before the war doing slave trade business, cotton deals and real estate. For all I know, he would have been the last man on earth to consider it anything but business, and nobody else's business, under the law of his time. I don't think I would have been very good at selling slaves, just don't have the mind for business like that. I will have to research further to see what he thought of blacks, actually, beyond being marketable talent..... The one reference to his "racist" ideas I've seen so far was a retort attempting to dismiss his soldiers' ideas about States' Rights being the reason for the war.....and reflected his own viewpoint about the legality of slavery. It was his business, some say. "What are we fighting for if it's not to keep slavery?"
I didn't see anything about his particular beliefs about the Blacks being inferior or cursed to be slaves. Many who fought as confederates did not focus on race or slavery, but States' Rights. As a matter of fact, the Civil War did transform the meaning of being a State in the US.
Likewise, Lincoln did not make his emancipation proclamation effective in those slave states which did not join the Confederacy. Yes, those states did end their slavery after the war. Politicians in those states helped pass the Federal laws and secure the relevant amendment to the US Constitution.
Probably the reason why the KKK didn't just die with Forrest's order would involve several later events, including the harshness of Carpetbag governors, essentially making the confederate states "occupied states". It was in that later time that the NRA was established specifically intending to arm Blacks so they could defend their own lives, or attempt to do so in the face of a mob.
But I think by far the most important factor for the rebirth of the KKK was Lord Cecil Rhodes and his ideas about preserving white power in a world largely non-white, through your beloved progressive socialism movement which has run for over a hundred years on the principle of elitist rule worldwide.
