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** That the Confederacy was doomed from the outset and had no realistic chance of winning the American Civil War because of the overwhelming difference in resources between the Confederacy and the Union. While he goes out of his way to make it clear that, yes, the difference in industrial capacity and manpower between the two sides really was ''that'' big, Billy points out that plenty of other historical wars with huge differentials in military capacity haven't always ended in favor of the side with the bigger numbers. While the South were definitely the underdogs, they had good shot of winning, assuming they could break the North's will to keep up the fight. And while, yes, the difference in resources played a part, their ultimate loss owed just as much (if not more) to their generals' pursuit of [[PyrrhicVictory flashy tactical victories that didn't really further their war aims and bled out resources they couldn't afford to lose]], especially once the North started promoting strategically-minded commanders that actually knew how to properly bring their superior resources to bear.
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** That the Confederacy was doomed from the outset and had no realistic chance of winning the American Civil War because of the overwhelming difference in resources between the Confederacy and the Union. While he the show goes out of his its way to make it clear that, yes, the difference in industrial capacity and manpower between the two sides really was ''that'' big, Billy points out that plenty of other historical wars with huge differentials in military capacity haven't always ended in favor of the side with the bigger numbers. While the South were definitely the underdogs, they had good shot of winning, assuming they could break the North's will to keep up the fight. And while, yes, the difference in resources played a part, their ultimate loss owed just as much (if not more) to their generals' pursuit of [[PyrrhicVictory flashy tactical victories that didn't really further their war aims and bled out resources they couldn't afford to lose]], especially once the North started promoting strategically-minded commanders that actually knew how to properly bring their superior resources to bear.
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->[The title theme drowns out Billy's further explanations]
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-->'''Johnny Reb:''' Never before, in the ''aaalll'' the annals of military history, were there a finer collection of officers at war than those of the Confederate States Army! Lee, Jackson, Forrest...\\
'''Billy Yank:''' ''Longstreet''?\\
'''Johnny Reb:''' We don't talk about him.
'''Billy Yank:''' ''Longstreet''?\\
'''Johnny Reb:''' We don't talk about him.
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* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: On the flip side, Billy frequently makes it a main point of contention that the Lost Cause attempts to color the Union as evil, dictatorial big-government types who invaded and enacted something akin to [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Generalplan Ost]] on the helpless Confederacy. While the North was by no means the shining paragon of virtue that it is sometimes portrayed as in fiction (and Billy takes care to avoid characterizing it as such), it was definitely not worse than the side ''literally fighting to perpetuate slavery and enshrine it as a God-given right in the Constitution''. Billy also repeatedly throughout the series points out instances where even with all the North's flaws, it did have people among its ranks who were remarkably progressive for their time period and managed to sway Northern public opinion almost entirely toward ending slavery even if that wasn't a goal at the war's start.
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[[caption-width-right:1000:LEFT: Billy Yank RIGHT: Johnny Reb]]
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* BlatantLies: Johnny Reb says "No it's not, and I say that as a Latino" in "Did Confederate Soldiers FIGHT for SLAVERY?!" Johnny is white and played by an actor from New England.[[note]]He was reading a [=YouTube=] comment from a viewer who may very well have been Latino, but in-universe all the comments are Johnny Reb's dialogue, since the show is a Socratic debate.[[/note]]
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* BlatantLies: Johnny Reb says "No it's not, and I say that as a Latino" in "Did Confederate Soldiers FIGHT for SLAVERY?!" Johnny is white and played by an a Serbian-American actor from New England.[[note]]He was reading a [=YouTube=] comment from a viewer who may very well have been Latino, but in-universe all the comments are Johnny Reb's dialogue, since the show is a Socratic debate.[[/note]]
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* BlackAndGrayMorality: In episode 5, Billy Yank explains while the unspeakable violence committed on Southern civilians by the Union Army during Sherman's March to the Sea can't be in any way justified (especially the evisceration of Columbia, South Carolina due to riotous and drunken Union soldiers, of which Sherman famously remarked that [[BlamingTheVictim it was the Confederates' own fault for leaving a bunch of alcohol behind for his men to get drunk with]]), he does advance the point that Sherman's brutal and calculated destruction of Southern resources [[JerkassHasAPoint did bring the war to a swifter conclusion in the way he intended]], making it very difficult to determine whether the means he took to end the war were justified or not.
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* EnforcedPlug: Parodied in "Was GENERAL SHERMAN a WAR CRIMINAL?!?!?!?!" Both Johnny Reb and Billy Yank are forced at gunpoint to do a plug for Creator/AtunSheiFilms {{Merch}}, with obviously stilted and forced dialogue. The second they're not at threat of being shot in the head they immediately remove their ProductPlacement shirts, with Johnny mumbling "[[SelfDeprecation Who wears this? How embarrasing]]!"
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* EnforcedPlug: Parodied in "Was GENERAL SHERMAN a WAR CRIMINAL?!?!?!?!" Both Johnny Reb and Billy Yank are forced at gunpoint to do a plug for Creator/AtunSheiFilms {{Merch}}, with obviously stilted and forced dialogue. The second they're not at threat of being shot in the head they immediately remove their ProductPlacement shirts, with Johnny mumbling "[[SelfDeprecation Who wears this? How embarrasing]]!"embarrassing]]!"
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* EnforcedPlug: Parodied in "Was GENERAL SHERMAN a WAR CRIMINAL?!?!?!?!" Both Johnny Reb and billy Yank are forced at gunpoint to do a plug for Creator/AtunSheiFilms {{Merch}}, with obviously stilted and forced dialogue. The second they're not at threat of being shot in the head they immediately remove their ProductPlacement shirts, with Johnny mumbling "[[SelfDeprecation Who wears this? How embarrasing]]!"
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* EnforcedPlug: Parodied in "Was GENERAL SHERMAN a WAR CRIMINAL?!?!?!?!" Both Johnny Reb and billy Billy Yank are forced at gunpoint to do a plug for Creator/AtunSheiFilms {{Merch}}, with obviously stilted and forced dialogue. The second they're not at threat of being shot in the head they immediately remove their ProductPlacement shirts, with Johnny mumbling "[[SelfDeprecation Who wears this? How embarrasing]]!"
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* EnforcedPlug: Parodied in "Was GENERAL SHERMAN a WAR CRIMINAL?!?!?!?!" Both Johnny Reb and billy Yank are forced at gunpoint to do a plug for Creator/AtunSheiFilms {{Merch}}, with obviously stilted and forced dialogue. The second they're not at threat of being shot in the head they immediately remove their ProductPlacement shirts, with Johnny mumbling "[[SelfDeprecation Who wears this? How embarrasing]]!"
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* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: A core part of the series is how Lost Cause mythology has become ingrained in pop culture, and how that has dangerous real-world ramifications. Many of the main beliefs of the Lost Cause try to showcase the Confederacy as being better than it really was (or in extreme cases, [[PoliticallyCorrectHistory some kind of egalitarian paradise]]), such as that most Confederates didn't own slaves, that Confederate leaders disapproved of slavery, that Blacks fought willingly in the Confederate army, etc. Of course, Billy Yank has the evidence to disprove ''all'' of these claims, and finds it trivially easy to source shockingly pro-slavery, racist and White Supremacist statements that [[EveryoneHasStandards even Johnny Reb abhors]] from the lowliest Confederate private to Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis themselves.
-->"[I will show the Yankees] that a white man is better than a n****r." '''--Jonas Bradshaw, 38th NC Infantry, 1862'''
-->"[I will show the Yankees] that a white man is better than a n****r." '''--Jonas Bradshaw, 38th NC Infantry, 1862'''
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Changed line(s) 9,10 (click to see context) from:
''Checkmate, Lincolnites!'' is a historical adult Website/{{YouTube}} EdutainmentShow created by Andrew "Creator/AtunSheiFilms" Rakich. The main goal of the series is to debunk, disprove and simultaneously ridicule the core beliefs of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Cause_of_the_Confederacy Lost Cause of the Confederacy]], a pseudohistorical interpretation of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar that claims, among many other things, that the South did not fight to preserve the institution of Slavery and that the war was really about the concept of "State's Rights".
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''Checkmate, Lincolnites!'' is a historical adult Website/{{YouTube}} EdutainmentShow created by Andrew "Creator/AtunSheiFilms" Rakich. The main goal of the series is to debunk, disprove and simultaneously ridicule the core beliefs of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Cause_of_the_Confederacy Lost Cause of the Confederacy]], a pseudohistorical interpretation of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar that claims, among many other things, that [[HistoricalHeroUpgrade the South did not fight to preserve the institution of Slavery and that the war was really about the concept of "State's Rights".
"States' Rights"]].
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Changed line(s) 120 (click to see context) from:
* OffscreenInertia: Discussed and PlayedForLaughs in "Was it REALLY the WAR of NORTHERN AGGRESSION?!?!?!" Johnny Reb claims that the Confederate states weren't gearing up for war after seceding in 1861, apparently forgetting about all the raids they committed on Northern militias during the immediate antebellum period.
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* OffscreenInertia: Discussed and PlayedForLaughs in "Was it REALLY the WAR of NORTHERN AGGRESSION?!?!?!" Johnny Reb claims that the Confederate states weren't gearing up for war after seceding in 1861, apparently forgetting about all the raids they committed on Northern militias government arsenals and garrisons during the immediate antebellum period.
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* NonIndicativeName: Despite the show being called ''Checkmate, Lincolnites!'', which would imply it's about dunking on defenders of the Union (I.E. "Lincolnites"), it's actually about debunking common pro-Confederate myths. This is discussed at the beginning of "Did the CONFEDERACY Have BETTER GENERALS?!?!?!" when Billy Yank attempts to introduce the show in Johnny's style as ''Checkmate, [[UsefulNotes/JeffersonDavis Davis]]ites!'', complete with fancy graphic. They both agree that despite being more accurate it just isn't as catchy.
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** In "Is Civil War History Being REWRITTEN?!?!?!?!?!", Johnny calls Billy a "biased, moralizing Yankee soy boy", alluding to how he called Billy a soy boy all the way back in Episode 1.
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* SuddenlySober: After becoming super drunk by drinking spiked coffee in "Were There Really BLACK CONFEDERATES???!!!", all it takes for Johnny Reb to sober up again is a little splash of water in the face, courtesy of Billy Yank.
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Changed line(s) 9,10 (click to see context) from:
''Checkmate, Lincolnites!'' is a historical adult Website/{{YouTube}} EdutainmentShow created by Andrew "WebVideo/AtunSheiFilms" Rakich. The main goal of the series is to debunk, disprove and simultaneously ridicule the core beliefs of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Cause_of_the_Confederacy Lost Cause of the Confederacy]], a pseudohistorical interpretation of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar that claims, among many other things, that the South did not fight to preserve the institution of Slavery and that the war was really about the concept of "State's Rights".
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''Checkmate, Lincolnites!'' is a historical adult Website/{{YouTube}} EdutainmentShow created by Andrew "WebVideo/AtunSheiFilms" "Creator/AtunSheiFilms" Rakich. The main goal of the series is to debunk, disprove and simultaneously ridicule the core beliefs of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Cause_of_the_Confederacy Lost Cause of the Confederacy]], a pseudohistorical interpretation of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar that claims, among many other things, that the South did not fight to preserve the institution of Slavery and that the war was really about the concept of "State's Rights".
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** 9.5. ''Klaus Resurrects The Army Of The Confederate Dead'': The isolated {{Stinger}} of Episode 9, in which MythArc villain Klaus the Nazi's plans which have been unfolding in the background reach their zenith and set up the finale.
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** 9.5. ''Klaus Resurrects The Army Of The Confederate Dead'': The isolated {{Stinger}} of Episode 9, in which MythArc villain Klaus the Nazi's plans which have been unfolding in the background reach their zenith and set up the finale.
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* CompartmentShot: While [[ItMakesSenseInContext Johnny is busy being exorcised of Klaus the Nazi by the Witchfinder General]], [[CutawayGag we momentarily cut away]] to see a shot of Billy opening a fridge and grabbing another bottle of beer.
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->'''Johnny Reb:''' Why did the North invade the South in 1861? Was it because they "hated slavery?"
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->'''Johnny Reb:''' Why did the North invade the South in 1861? Was it because they "hated slavery?"slavery"?
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-->'''Johnny reb:''' ''Chillin'''. ''Yeaaarnin''' for ''freedom'' from ''Yankee tyranny''.
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-->'''Johnny reb:''' ''Chillin'''. ''Yeaaarnin''' Yearnin' for ''freedom'' freedom from ''Yankee tyranny''.
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** When Johnny Reb adds half a bottle of whiskey to a cup of coffee, it [[CantHoldHisLiquor gets him so drunk so quickly]] that he starts prattling incoherently about [[PoliticallyCorrectHistory black Confederate soldiers]][[note]]In reality, he was reading out a [=YouTube=] comment so full of spelling and grammar errors that Atun-Shei decided it would make Johnny sound like he was drunk[[/note]] before slurredly proclaiming that episode's TitleDrop.
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** When Johnny Reb adds half a bottle of whiskey to a cup of coffee, it [[CantHoldHisLiquor gets him so drunk so quickly]] that he starts prattling babbling incoherently about [[PoliticallyCorrectHistory black Confederate soldiers]][[note]]In reality, he was reading out a [=YouTube=] comment so full of spelling and grammar errors that Atun-Shei decided it would make Johnny sound like he was drunk[[/note]] before slurredly proclaiming that episode's TitleDrop.
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* OffscreenInertia: Discussed and PlayedForLaughs in "Was it REALLY the WAR of NORTHERN AGGRESSION?!?!?!" Johnny Reb claims that the Confederate states weren't gearing up for war after seceding in 1861, apparently forgetting about all the raids they committed on Northern militias during the immediate antebellum period.
-->'''Billy Yank:''' Do you know what the seceding states were up to in the four months before Fort Sumter?
-->'''Johnny reb:''' ''Chillin'''. ''Yeaaarnin''' for ''freedom'' from ''Yankee tyranny''.
-->'''Billy Yank:''' Do you know what the seceding states were up to in the four months before Fort Sumter?
-->'''Johnny reb:''' ''Chillin'''. ''Yeaaarnin''' for ''freedom'' from ''Yankee tyranny''.
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Changed line(s) 21,30 (click to see context) from:
* ''Confederate DESTROYS Yankee with FACTS and LOGIC'': Examines a number of different small Lost Cause claims, and [[NegativeContinuity ends with Billy Yank shooting Johnny Reb to death]].
* ''Did Confederate Soldiers FIGHT for SLAVERY?!'': [[OrwellianRetcon Originally entitled]] ''Confederate Soldiers DIDN'T fight for SLAVERY!(Or did they?)''. Examines claims that the vast majority of Confederates fought to defend their country since most of them didn't own slaves.
* ''TARIFFS and TAXES: The REAL Cause of the CIVIL WAR?!'': Examines claims that the Civil War was started due to the Morell Tariff rather than Abraham lincoln's election and the issue of slavery.
* ''Was it REALLY the WAR of NORTHERN AGGRESSION?!?!?!'': Examines claims that the North started the war or that the war otherwise started due to Northern provocation. Features a crossover with ''WebVideo/TheWitchfinderGeneral''.
* ''Was GENERAL SHERMAN a WAR CRIMINAL?!?!?!?!'': Examines claims that UsefulNotes/WilliamTecumsehSherman's actions during his famous razing of the Southern countryside on his March to Atlanta constitute war crimes, and whether his MemeticBadass status among Unionists is warranted.%%[[Invoked]]
* ''Were There Really BLACK CONFEDERATES???!!!'': Examines claims that African-American slaves willingly fought as fully-fledged Confederate soldiers in the war.
* ''Did the CONFEDERACY Have BETTER GENERALS?!?!?!'': Examines claims that the South losing was an inevitability due to the North's overwhelming industry, that all the Northern generals sucked, and that UsefulNotes/RobertELee, Stonewall Jackson, and other Confederate generals were some of the greatest military minds of the 19th century.
* ''Wasn’t it KINDA About STATES’ RIGHTS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!'': Examines claims that the Civil War was largely over the issues of states' rights and government overreach.
* ''Is Civil War History Being REWRITTEN?!?!?!?!?!'': Examines claims that more modern interpretations of Civil War history are "revisionist" and that "history is written by the victors".
* ''The Checkmate Lincolnites Finale'': Unreleased, with a TBA release date.
* ''Did Confederate Soldiers FIGHT for SLAVERY?!'': [[OrwellianRetcon Originally entitled]] ''Confederate Soldiers DIDN'T fight for SLAVERY!(Or did they?)''. Examines claims that the vast majority of Confederates fought to defend their country since most of them didn't own slaves.
* ''TARIFFS and TAXES: The REAL Cause of the CIVIL WAR?!'': Examines claims that the Civil War was started due to the Morell Tariff rather than Abraham lincoln's election and the issue of slavery.
* ''Was it REALLY the WAR of NORTHERN AGGRESSION?!?!?!'': Examines claims that the North started the war or that the war otherwise started due to Northern provocation. Features a crossover with ''WebVideo/TheWitchfinderGeneral''.
* ''Was GENERAL SHERMAN a WAR CRIMINAL?!?!?!?!'': Examines claims that UsefulNotes/WilliamTecumsehSherman's actions during his famous razing of the Southern countryside on his March to Atlanta constitute war crimes, and whether his MemeticBadass status among Unionists is warranted.%%[[Invoked]]
* ''Were There Really BLACK CONFEDERATES???!!!'': Examines claims that African-American slaves willingly fought as fully-fledged Confederate soldiers in the war.
* ''Did the CONFEDERACY Have BETTER GENERALS?!?!?!'': Examines claims that the South losing was an inevitability due to the North's overwhelming industry, that all the Northern generals sucked, and that UsefulNotes/RobertELee, Stonewall Jackson, and other Confederate generals were some of the greatest military minds of the 19th century.
* ''Wasn’t it KINDA About STATES’ RIGHTS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!'': Examines claims that the Civil War was largely over the issues of states' rights and government overreach.
* ''Is Civil War History Being REWRITTEN?!?!?!?!?!'': Examines claims that more modern interpretations of Civil War history are "revisionist" and that "history is written by the victors".
* ''The Checkmate Lincolnites Finale'': Unreleased, with a TBA release date.
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* 1. ''Confederate DESTROYS Yankee with FACTS and LOGIC'': Examines a number of different small Lost Cause claims, and [[NegativeContinuity ends with Billy Yank shooting Johnny Reb to death]].
* 2. ''Did Confederate Soldiers FIGHT for SLAVERY?!'': [[OrwellianRetcon Originally entitled]] ''Confederate Soldiers DIDN'T fight for SLAVERY!(Or did they?)''. Examines claims that the vast majority of Confederates fought to defend their country since most of them didn't own slaves.
* 3. ''TARIFFS and TAXES: The REAL Cause of the CIVIL WAR?!'': Examines claims that the Civil War was started due to the Morell Tariff rather than Abraham lincoln's election and the issue of slavery.
* 4. ''Was it REALLY the WAR of NORTHERN AGGRESSION?!?!?!'': Examines claims that the North started the war or that the war otherwise started due to Northern provocation. Features a crossover with ''WebVideo/TheWitchfinderGeneral''.
* 5. ''Was GENERAL SHERMAN a WAR CRIMINAL?!?!?!?!'': Examines claims that UsefulNotes/WilliamTecumsehSherman's actions during his famous razing of the Southern countryside on his March to Atlanta constitute war crimes, and whether his MemeticBadass status among Unionists is warranted.%%[[Invoked]]
* 6. ''Were There Really BLACK CONFEDERATES???!!!'': Examines claims that African-American slaves willingly fought as fully-fledged Confederate soldiers in the war.
* 7. ''Did the CONFEDERACY Have BETTER GENERALS?!?!?!'': Examines claims that the South losing was an inevitability due to the North's overwhelming industry, that all the Northern generals sucked, and that UsefulNotes/RobertELee, Stonewall Jackson, and other Confederate generals were some of the greatest military minds of the 19th century.
* 8. ''Wasn’t it KINDA About STATES’ RIGHTS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!'': Examines claims that the Civil War was largely over the issues of states' rights and government overreach.
* 9. ''Is Civil War History Being REWRITTEN?!?!?!?!?!'': Examines claims that more modern interpretations of Civil War history are "revisionist" and that "history is written by the victors".
* 10. ''The Checkmate Lincolnites Finale'': Unreleased, with a TBA release date.
* 2. ''Did Confederate Soldiers FIGHT for SLAVERY?!'': [[OrwellianRetcon Originally entitled]] ''Confederate Soldiers DIDN'T fight for SLAVERY!(Or did they?)''. Examines claims that the vast majority of Confederates fought to defend their country since most of them didn't own slaves.
* 3. ''TARIFFS and TAXES: The REAL Cause of the CIVIL WAR?!'': Examines claims that the Civil War was started due to the Morell Tariff rather than Abraham lincoln's election and the issue of slavery.
* 4. ''Was it REALLY the WAR of NORTHERN AGGRESSION?!?!?!'': Examines claims that the North started the war or that the war otherwise started due to Northern provocation. Features a crossover with ''WebVideo/TheWitchfinderGeneral''.
* 5. ''Was GENERAL SHERMAN a WAR CRIMINAL?!?!?!?!'': Examines claims that UsefulNotes/WilliamTecumsehSherman's actions during his famous razing of the Southern countryside on his March to Atlanta constitute war crimes, and whether his MemeticBadass status among Unionists is warranted.%%[[Invoked]]
* 6. ''Were There Really BLACK CONFEDERATES???!!!'': Examines claims that African-American slaves willingly fought as fully-fledged Confederate soldiers in the war.
* 7. ''Did the CONFEDERACY Have BETTER GENERALS?!?!?!'': Examines claims that the South losing was an inevitability due to the North's overwhelming industry, that all the Northern generals sucked, and that UsefulNotes/RobertELee, Stonewall Jackson, and other Confederate generals were some of the greatest military minds of the 19th century.
* 8. ''Wasn’t it KINDA About STATES’ RIGHTS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!'': Examines claims that the Civil War was largely over the issues of states' rights and government overreach.
* 9. ''Is Civil War History Being REWRITTEN?!?!?!?!?!'': Examines claims that more modern interpretations of Civil War history are "revisionist" and that "history is written by the victors".
* 10. ''The Checkmate Lincolnites Finale'': Unreleased, with a TBA release date.
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* ChristmasEpisode: "Were There Really BLACK CONFEDERATES???!!!" clearly takes place at Christmastime, with the duo having added heavier winter gear to their uniforms and exchanging gifts, as well as a surprise cameo from God/Jesus, played by a still image of Ewan [=MacGregor=][[note]]Referencing how pictures of him, especially as [[Franchise/StarWars Obi-Wan Kenobi]], are frequently mistaken for Jesus by older folks[[/note]].
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* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness" The first ''Checkmate, Lincolnites!'' has Atun-Shei in plainclothes, where subsequent videos have him in costume as "Billy Yank." The unnamed Confederate Cavalry Officer is there instead of "Johnny Reb" while the backdrop is just the confederate flag, rather than the union confederate flag hybrid. A more minor example, but from episode 1-3 (or 5 given the callback to the Whataboutism Drinking Game) the Union Soldier is Atun-Shei in a uniform instead of Billy Yank, and in the second episode Johnny Reb is implied to be the confederate cavalry officer from the first episode.
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* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness" EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first ''Checkmate, Lincolnites!'' has Atun-Shei in plainclothes, where subsequent videos have him in costume as "Billy Yank." The unnamed Confederate Cavalry Officer is there instead of "Johnny Reb" while the backdrop is just the confederate flag, rather than the union confederate flag hybrid. A more minor example, but from episode 1-3 (or 5 given the callback to the Whataboutism Drinking Game) the Union Soldier is Atun-Shei in a uniform instead of Billy Yank, and in the second episode Johnny Reb is implied to be the confederate cavalry officer from the first episode.
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* VitriolicBestBuds: No matter how much they go neck-and-neck on the debate floor, Johnny Reb and Billy Yank are clearly good friends. In "Was it REALLY the WAR of NORTHERN AGGRESSION?!?!?!", after Johnny is exorcised of Klaus the Nazi's control, even though he goes right back to prattling about Lost Cause mythology again, Billy is clearly glad he's alright. In the ChristmasEpisode, they even exchange gifts and play a friendly game of TabletopGame/{{Chess}}.
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The show is presented in a socratic debate format between two fictional characters, consisting of:
* '''Johnny Reb''', a HotBlooded, die-hard Lost Causer who proposes the DrivingQuestion of each video. Most of his claims are [[AudienceParticipation sourced directly from the Atun-Shei Films comment section]].
* '''Johnny Reb''', a HotBlooded, die-hard Lost Causer who proposes the DrivingQuestion of each video. Most of his claims are [[AudienceParticipation sourced directly from the Atun-Shei Films comment section]].
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The show is presented in a socratic Socratic debate format between two fictional characters, consisting of:
* '''JohnnyReb''', Reb'''[[note]]The first episode features a Confederate cavalry officer who acts wildly differently from Johnny Reb, but later episodes [[CharacterizationMarchesOn insist they are the same person]][[/note]], a HotBlooded, die-hard Lost Causer who proposes the DrivingQuestion of each video. Most of his claims are [[AudienceParticipation sourced directly from the Atun-Shei Films comment section]].
* '''Johnny
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* AlcoholInducedIdiocy:
** When Johnny Reb adds half a bottle of whiskey to a cup of coffee, it [[CantHoldHisLiquor gets him so drunk so quickly]] that he starts prattling incoherently about [[PoliticallyCorrectHistory black Confederate soldiers]][[note]]In reality, he was reading out a [=YouTube=] comment so full of spelling and grammar errors that Atun-Shei decided it would make Johnny sound like he was drunk[[/note]] before slurredly proclaiming that episode's TitleDrop.
** Johnny also claims that the [[DatedHistory TRUE history of the American Civil War]] was revealed to him by his grandpappy one Lee-Jackson day after he had "[[TheAlcoholic consumed an entire 12-pack of Natty Light all by hisself]]".
* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: [[invoked]] While Billy Yank acknowledges that it's possible Nathan Bedford Forrest's call for peace and tolerance between whites and blacks was borne out of a genuine change of heart, he believes it's ''also'' possible that Forrest decided a show of magnanimity would suit his interests.
* ArgentinaIsNaziLand: TheStinger for "Wasn't it KINDA about STATES RIGHTS?!" shows Klaus visiting an aged, dying AlternateSelf living in Argentina in TheSeventies.
** When Johnny Reb adds half a bottle of whiskey to a cup of coffee, it [[CantHoldHisLiquor gets him so drunk so quickly]] that he starts prattling incoherently about [[PoliticallyCorrectHistory black Confederate soldiers]][[note]]In reality, he was reading out a [=YouTube=] comment so full of spelling and grammar errors that Atun-Shei decided it would make Johnny sound like he was drunk[[/note]] before slurredly proclaiming that episode's TitleDrop.
** Johnny also claims that the [[DatedHistory TRUE history of the American Civil War]] was revealed to him by his grandpappy one Lee-Jackson day after he had "[[TheAlcoholic consumed an entire 12-pack of Natty Light all by hisself]]".
* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: [[invoked]] While Billy Yank acknowledges that it's possible Nathan Bedford Forrest's call for peace and tolerance between whites and blacks was borne out of a genuine change of heart, he believes it's ''also'' possible that Forrest decided a show of magnanimity would suit his interests.
* ArgentinaIsNaziLand: TheStinger for "Wasn't it KINDA about STATES RIGHTS?!" shows Klaus visiting an aged, dying AlternateSelf living in Argentina in TheSeventies.
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* CelebrityResemblance: In the first episode, "Confederate DESTROYS Yankee with FACTS and LOGIC", the unnamed Confederate cavalry officer Atun-Shei argues with introduces him as "the dollar-store [[Series/GameOfThrones Jaime Lannister]]."
* CharacterDevelopment: At the beginning of the show, Johnny Reb tunes out any argument Billy Yank makes, and frequently gets distracted or fidgets in his chair, not fully paying attention. By "Wasn't it KINDA about STATE'S RIGHTS!?!?!?!?!?" he's listening to Billy's every word earnestly, and looks like he's actually changing his mind. This makes it all the more tragic when [[spoiler:he falls back into his old behavior at the end of "Is Civil War History Being REWRITTEN!?!?!!?!?!"]].
* CharacterDevelopment: At the beginning of the show, Johnny Reb tunes out any argument Billy Yank makes, and frequently gets distracted or fidgets in his chair, not fully paying attention. By "Wasn't it KINDA about STATE'S RIGHTS!?!?!?!?!?" he's listening to Billy's every word earnestly, and looks like he's actually changing his mind. This makes it all the more tragic when [[spoiler:he falls back into his old behavior at the end of "Is Civil War History Being REWRITTEN!?!?!!?!?!"]].
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* CurbStompCushion: Billy Yank usually dominates his discussions with Johnny Reb and it's his perspective that wins out. That being said, Johnny does make the occasional point that Billy is unable to refute and sometimes forces Billy to acknowledge some hypocrisy or moral shortcoming on the pro-Union side, so things aren't completely one-sided.
* DatedHistory: Discussed in ""Is Civil War History Being REWRITTEN?!?!?!?!?!"", which explains how Lost Cause mythology got its start, how it became widely accepted, and how it was eventually discredited.
* DependingOnTheWriter: Lampshaded in "Is Civil War History Being REWRITTEN?!?!?!?!?!" when Billy Yank acknowledges the show's use of [[AudienceParticipation YouTube comments]] as a voice for Johnny Reb, which naturally results in him delivering good-faith arguments half the time and frothing at the mouth the other half.
-->'''Billy Yank:''' It's very uncanny, how you go from just totally insane to completely reasonable at the drop of a hat, it's just... ''profoundly'' weird.
* {{Dissimile}}: When Billy Yank beats Johnny Reb in a game of chess, Johnny claims it was inevitable that Billy would have one because of all his "industry and naval power and such"[[note]]Alluding to a common claim of the Lost Cause version of history where the South lost purely because of the overwhelming resources and manpower of the north as opposed to the South wasting their supplies on flashy [[PyrrhicVictory Pyrrhic Victories]] and losing a war of attrition[[/note]], which obviously don't exist in TabletopGame/{{Chess}} whatsoever.
-->'''Billy Yank:''' Naval power? What board game were you playing?
* DistinctionWithoutADifference: In "Did the CONFEDERACY have BETTER GENERALS?!?!?!", when the topic of Confederate cavalry general Nathan Bedford Forrest comes up:
-->'''Billy Yank:''' Nathan Bedford Forrest, right, uh, slave trader, [[UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan Klan leader]]...
-->'''Johnny Reb:''' ''Repentant'' Klan leader!
-->'''Billy Yank:''' [[SarcasmMode Oh, well that's ok, then]]!
* DoubleMeaningTitle: "Did the Confederacy have Better Generals?" examines the claims that Confederate generals were superior both at military matters and in terms of morality.
* DoubleStandard: Humorously invoked in "Wasn’t it KINDA About STATES’ RIGHTS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!" in a discussion about Shays' Rebellion.[[note]]Shays' Rebellion was an armed uprising mainly in Western Massachusetts response to citizens being in opposition to the state government's increased efforts to collect taxes on individuals and their trades, led by American Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shays, and which unsuccessfully attempted to overthrow the state government.[[/note]]
-->'''Johnny Reb:''' Sounds like a buncha troublemakin' freeloaders lookin' for a handout...\\
'''Billy Yank:''' They were white.\\
'''Johnny Reb:''' ''Brave rebels! The tree of liberty must sometimes be watered with the blood of patriots and tyrants!''[[note]]A quote by Thomas Jefferson, and a bit of subtle humor. Jefferson said it in support of Shays' Rebellion, but as a slaveowner, [[{{Hypocrite}} found himself much less enthusiastic at the prospect of oppressed underclasses rising up in rebellion in the face of the mass slave revolt in Haiti,]] catalyzing his increasingly-reactionary views on slavery and African slaves later in life.[[/note]]
* TheDreaded: General Ulysses S. Grant is this for Johnny Reb. Just hearing his name spoken aloud sends poor Johnny into a nightmare/hallucination of [[NightmareSequence the "unconditional surrender speech" being read by Billy Yank in a raspy, demonic voice while the room flashes red and green]].
* DudeNotFunny: During one of Johnny Reb's rants about wild hypotheticals that would lead to Southern independence (such as Sherman spontaneously combusting and Britain joining the war) he makes a passing reference to Judah P. Benjamin ("The Jewish Confederate") opening the Ark of the Covenant to vaporize the Army of the Potomac a la the villains of ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'', who keep in mind, are Nazis:
-->'''Billy Yank:''' Woah! ... ''[into microphone, as Johnny continues]'' I'd like to formally apologize for what he just said about Judah P. Benjamin.
* EntertaininglyWrong: Johnny Reb. Almost all his claims come from real Lost Causers in the Atun-Shei comment section, and some of them are [[InsaneTrollLogic more wacky than others]]. A crown example of this is when he repeats a claim that the South was paying 80% of all U.S. taxes in the 1860s, long before the Income Tax existed.
-->'''Billy Yank:''' So... that's... not true. that's not even remotely true, that's not in a 50 mile radius of truth! Like, if you dropped an atomic bomb on Truth, what you just said wouldn't even have radiation burns.
* DatedHistory: Discussed in ""Is Civil War History Being REWRITTEN?!?!?!?!?!"", which explains how Lost Cause mythology got its start, how it became widely accepted, and how it was eventually discredited.
* DependingOnTheWriter: Lampshaded in "Is Civil War History Being REWRITTEN?!?!?!?!?!" when Billy Yank acknowledges the show's use of [[AudienceParticipation YouTube comments]] as a voice for Johnny Reb, which naturally results in him delivering good-faith arguments half the time and frothing at the mouth the other half.
-->'''Billy Yank:''' It's very uncanny, how you go from just totally insane to completely reasonable at the drop of a hat, it's just... ''profoundly'' weird.
* {{Dissimile}}: When Billy Yank beats Johnny Reb in a game of chess, Johnny claims it was inevitable that Billy would have one because of all his "industry and naval power and such"[[note]]Alluding to a common claim of the Lost Cause version of history where the South lost purely because of the overwhelming resources and manpower of the north as opposed to the South wasting their supplies on flashy [[PyrrhicVictory Pyrrhic Victories]] and losing a war of attrition[[/note]], which obviously don't exist in TabletopGame/{{Chess}} whatsoever.
-->'''Billy Yank:''' Naval power? What board game were you playing?
* DistinctionWithoutADifference: In "Did the CONFEDERACY have BETTER GENERALS?!?!?!", when the topic of Confederate cavalry general Nathan Bedford Forrest comes up:
-->'''Billy Yank:''' Nathan Bedford Forrest, right, uh, slave trader, [[UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan Klan leader]]...
-->'''Johnny Reb:''' ''Repentant'' Klan leader!
-->'''Billy Yank:''' [[SarcasmMode Oh, well that's ok, then]]!
* DoubleMeaningTitle: "Did the Confederacy have Better Generals?" examines the claims that Confederate generals were superior both at military matters and in terms of morality.
* DoubleStandard: Humorously invoked in "Wasn’t it KINDA About STATES’ RIGHTS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!" in a discussion about Shays' Rebellion.[[note]]Shays' Rebellion was an armed uprising mainly in Western Massachusetts response to citizens being in opposition to the state government's increased efforts to collect taxes on individuals and their trades, led by American Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shays, and which unsuccessfully attempted to overthrow the state government.[[/note]]
-->'''Johnny Reb:''' Sounds like a buncha troublemakin' freeloaders lookin' for a handout...\\
'''Billy Yank:''' They were white.\\
'''Johnny Reb:''' ''Brave rebels! The tree of liberty must sometimes be watered with the blood of patriots and tyrants!''[[note]]A quote by Thomas Jefferson, and a bit of subtle humor. Jefferson said it in support of Shays' Rebellion, but as a slaveowner, [[{{Hypocrite}} found himself much less enthusiastic at the prospect of oppressed underclasses rising up in rebellion in the face of the mass slave revolt in Haiti,]] catalyzing his increasingly-reactionary views on slavery and African slaves later in life.[[/note]]
* TheDreaded: General Ulysses S. Grant is this for Johnny Reb. Just hearing his name spoken aloud sends poor Johnny into a nightmare/hallucination of [[NightmareSequence the "unconditional surrender speech" being read by Billy Yank in a raspy, demonic voice while the room flashes red and green]].
* DudeNotFunny: During one of Johnny Reb's rants about wild hypotheticals that would lead to Southern independence (such as Sherman spontaneously combusting and Britain joining the war) he makes a passing reference to Judah P. Benjamin ("The Jewish Confederate") opening the Ark of the Covenant to vaporize the Army of the Potomac a la the villains of ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'', who keep in mind, are Nazis:
-->'''Billy Yank:''' Woah! ... ''[into microphone, as Johnny continues]'' I'd like to formally apologize for what he just said about Judah P. Benjamin.
* EntertaininglyWrong: Johnny Reb. Almost all his claims come from real Lost Causers in the Atun-Shei comment section, and some of them are [[InsaneTrollLogic more wacky than others]]. A crown example of this is when he repeats a claim that the South was paying 80% of all U.S. taxes in the 1860s, long before the Income Tax existed.
-->'''Billy Yank:''' So... that's... not true. that's not even remotely true, that's not in a 50 mile radius of truth! Like, if you dropped an atomic bomb on Truth, what you just said wouldn't even have radiation burns.
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* EveryoneHasStandards:
** Johnny Reb's personality is [[DependingOnTheWriter based on Youtube comments]], so the extent of his racism varies from episode to episode. One comment, however, was so racist that Atun-Shei decided that it didn't fit Johnny Reb, and wrote it as Klaus the Nazi [[DemonicPossession possessing Johnny]] and having to be exorcised. Despite being an unapologetic admirer of the Confederacy and a proponent of the "Lost Cause" ideology, it's made clear that Johnny Reb believes that slavery was wrong, and that he would never ''openly'' express racist sentiments.
** On the flip-side: Billy Yank is generally an ardent defender of the Union, and he's pretty committed to dismantling most of the popular talking points espoused by Confederate apologists--but even ''he's'' willing to admit that some common criticisms of the Union are more-or-less accurate. He freely admits that the Union didn't enter the Civil War to end slavery, that most "free states" in the 1860s were still appallingly racist by today's standards, and that George B. [=McClellan=] [[GeneralFailure was just as bad a general as everyone says]].
* FloweryInsults: Billy Yank tells Johnny Reb to bring out the "Big Guns":
-->'''Johnny Reb:''' It's funny, when snot nosed, green behind the ear, force fed warm bullshit college boys like yourself just regurgitate all the totally false narratives that you "learned". You sir are a syphilis-infested crotch goblin and deserve to be eaten alive by pygmy ants. ''God Save the South!''
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** In the episode "Was GENERAL SHERMAN a WAR CRIMINAL?!?!?!?!," Johnny Reb and Billy Yank open by discussing possible topics (the "black Confederate" myth, HistoricalHeroUpgrade for Robert E. Lee, whether or not the South only lost because of the North's overwhelming resources) before settling on Sherman, almost all of which ended up being the subject of, or at least addressed in, future episodes. The only one that wasn't was the one Johnny Reb himself dismissed as too stupid even for a "cartoon character" like him to believe, namely, that [[HappinessInSlavery Confederate slaves were happy and treated well]].
** In "Did the CONFEDERACY have BETTER GENERALS?!?!?!", Johnny lists off some of the Confederacy's greatest generals, starting with obvious picks like Lee, Jackson and Forrest. Billy offers up James Longstreet, only for Johnny to say "We don't talk about him!" This foreshadows their discussion in "Is Civil War history being REWRITTEN?!?!?!?!?!" when Billy describes how James Longstreet, despite being one of the Confederacy's best generals, was made an {{Unperson}} after the war for daring to support the integration and enfranchisement of slaves.
* GlowingEyelightsOfUndeath: In the episode [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1vLJ1Z5Jwg "Klaus Resurrects the Army of the Confederate Dead"]], the confederate skeleton army have eerie, glowing red eyes (except for Jefferson Davis, who's more in a mummified state).
* GoldenMeanFallacy: In "Is Civil War History Being REWRITTEN?!?!?!?!?!", Billy Yank points out that history isn't about giving equal amounts of attention to all viewpoints because some viewpoints can be biased or flat-out wrong, citing how what Johnny Reb says is the "Southern side" of Civil War history is literally just Lost Cause mythology with little to no basis in fact and shouldn't be considered as equally important or valid as legitimate historical consensus backed by evidence.
-->'''Billy Yank:''' The Lost Cause isn't a valid point of view on anything; it's just a collection of factually incorrect claims. It's not a question of perspective or interpretation, this stuff is just demonstrably wrong.
* HammyHerald: When Johnny Reb shifts the topic to Confederate cavalry commander Nathan Bedford Forrest[[note]]Who was also the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and was behind the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Pillow Fort Pillow Massacre]][[/note]], he starts whooping and hollering and firing his colt pistol into the ceiling.
-->'''Johnny:''' You know him, you love him, it's NNNNNATHAN! ''BEDFORD!'' '''FORREST!''' WOO! *BLAM* WOO! *BLAM* WOO! *BLAM* WOO! Woo!
* HeroWorshipper: Deconstructed in the episode discussing the genetic lineage of the Lost Cause movement, "Is Civil War History Being REWRITTEN?!?!?!?!?!" Billy points out that any actual qualities of the Confederate generals as men have long ago been buried under quasi-religious hero-worship, with the transparently self-serving motive of reworking history to cast the South as victims, the North as authoritarians crushing their liberties, and slavery as whatever it needs to be to maintain the previous two points in the context of the current Overton window of how acceptable open racism is.
* HypocriticalHumor:
** In a series where he and Billy Yank regularly put away lots of alcohol, and usually pretty strong stuff, Johnny Reb accuses Ulysses S. Grant of being a drunk. They're even literally pouring out and toasting with liquor as they discuss the question of Grant's alcohol abuse.
** Johnny Reb makes Billy Yank eat his words talking about the northerners who opposed the Indian Removal Act living in states with names like [[MeaningfulName Massachusetts]], which they basically stole from the Native Americans who had lived there for thousands of years.
-->'''Johnny Reb:''' "Massachusetts", interesting name. Is that named after some place in England? Is there a quaint little village in Suffolk named "Massachusetts"?
* LargeHam: Johnny Reb can get a little overwhelmed with himself when thinking about a victorious South ("My heart FLUTTERS AT THE THOUGHT") or when he gives voice to a particularly unhinged commenter ("DAMN, DAMN ''YANKEES!'' '''REBEL YEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLL'''!")
* LiteralMetaphor:
** In "Did the CONFEDERACY Have BETTER GENERALS?!?!?!" Johnny Reb makes a point then smugly asks Billy Yank how that humble pie tastes. Cut to reveal he meant the literal pie Billy is eating.
-->'''Billy Yank:''' It's a little dry.
** When Johnny Reb accuses Billy Yank of conducting centuries-old military campaigns "[[ArmchairMilitary From the comfort of [his] armchair]]", Billy [[LiteralMinded gets confused and points out that his chair doesn't have any arms]].
* MemeticBadass: InUniverse; {{discussed|Trope}} in ''Checkmate, Lincolnites!'' regarding William Tecumseh Sherman's presence in the online "Union Gang".[[note]]A loose collection of online communities united in their fervent opposition to the Lost Cause movement.[[/note]] The omnipresence of Sherman memes is a frequent target of Johnny Reb's ire.
-->'''Johnny Reb:''' ''[mockingly]'' "Do it again, Uncle Billy!" Spare me your ''memes'', sir!
* MundaneUtility: In the ''Checkmate, Lincolnites!'' episode "TARIFFS and TAXES: The REAL Cause of the CIVIL WAR?!", Billy Yank uses a saber to open a bottle of whiskey.
* MyRuleFuIsStrongerThanYours: When Johnny Reb tries to argue that the Southern states had the legal right to secede from the Union as guaranteed in Article X[[note]]"It's ''Amendment'' X."[[/note]] of the Constitution, Billy Yank first says that it's a moot point because of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_v._White Texas v. White]], but whips out a pocket constitution to humor him. He then points out that the wording of the Tenth Amendment is an extremely broad rebuke of federal law and doesn't specifically say anything about secession. Johnny counters this by saying it's implied, but Billy Yank runs with that logic and points to Article 6, Section 2, which has been interpreted by the Supreme Court several times as implying that Federal Law supersedes State law, meaning that something like [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar unilateral secession after a disliked presidential election result]] would be super duper illegal.
* MusicalNumberAnnoyance: Johnny Reb becomes very upset when Billy Yank starts singing "John Brown's Body", a Union marching song about militant abolitionist John Brown, who attempted to start a mass slave uprising with a raid on an armory at the town of Harper's Ferry.
-->'''Billy:''' John Brown's body lies a-moulderin' in the grave, John Brown's body lies a moulderin' in the grave/John Brown's body lies a-moulderin' in the grave, but his SOUL GOES MARCHIN' ONNNN! GLORY, GLORY HALLELUJAH/GLORY, GLORY HALLELUJAH, GLORY, GLORY HALLELUJAH, BUT HIS SOUL GOES MARCHIN' ON!
-->'''Johnny:''' You really don't have to give us a performance, Billy Yank...I must insist, that you stop that damn noise. Please shut up. Shut up. STOP SINGING! STOP THAT DAMN NOISE! GAH! OH, LORD HAVE MERCY! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! AGH! AAAAGH!
* NeverMyFault: Discussed in the ''Checkmate, Lincolnites!'' episode "Did the CONFEDERACY Have BETTER GENERALS?!?!?!", which examines the popular claim that the Confederate Army's leaders were universally superior tacticians compared to the Union Army's leaders, and the related claim that the Union only won because they had [[WeHaveReserves more abundant resources and manpower]]. Billy Yank argues that this claim is (at the very least) a gross oversimplification of historical fact, and suggests that it was partially propagated by Confederate generals who didn't want to take responsibility for their blunders on the battlefield.
-->"You know, it's interesting. Because with the very verbiage of [Robert E. Lee's farewell address], Lee abrogates his own personal responsibility for defeat. It was all just overwhelming numbers and resources--no other reason! Certainly not Confederate mismanagement, or the competency and skill of the United States Army. I mean no, no, no... That would be ''crazy!''"
* NobodyPoops: Discussed in "Confederate Soldiers DIDN'T fight for SLAVERY!(Or did they?)". Billy Yank makes the point that ''Film/GodsAndGenerals'' not only does such a bad job of portraying history, but also of [[HumansAreFlawed representing humans as complex beings]] that watching Stonewall Jackson poop would be a more accurate representation of real life.
-->'''Billy Yank:''' You know what I wanna see? I wanna see a movie where Stonewall Jackson sits on the toilet and takes a huge ''crap''. That's ''humanity''.
-->'''Johnny Reb:''' How [[ComicallyMissingThePoint DARE YOU SPEAK OF THE GENERAL]] [[ToiletHumor RELEASIN' HIS BOWELS]]!
* OnlySaneMan: Billy Yank holds up [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_E._Johnston Joseph E. Johnston]] as the only Confederate general with a proper understanding of logistics and how to play the long game against a numerically and materially superior foe. But because his methods [[BoringButPractical weren't very flashy, in spite of their effectiveness,]] he ended up being replaced by [[GeneralRipper John]] [[AttackAttackAttack Bell]] [[LeeroyJenkins Hood]][[note]]"Who ''sucks'' by the way!"[[/note]], who [[GeneralFailure quickly lost Atlanta]] to William T. Sherman before being utterly annihilated by General George Thomas at Nashville, taking an entire state out of the Confederacy and ending his career.
* OrwellianRetcon: Atun-Shei changed the title of "Confederate Soldiers DIDN'T fight for SLAVERY!(Or did they?)" to "Did Confederate Soldiers FIGHT for SLAVERY!?" to make it fall in line with the DrivingQuestion ThemeNaming of the other episodes, as well as altering how the show used to very clearly be controlled by Johnny Reb, who would presumably make the titles sound more biased in his favor.
* OutsideJoke: In "Wasn't it KINDA about STATE'S RIGHTS!?!?!?!?!?", Johnny Reb out of nowhere asks Billy Yank if he's an Anarcho-Syndicalist. Billy has no idea what that is[[note]]Anarcho-Syndicalism believes in achieving Anarchism through empowered labor unions, most famously seen in the Catalina region during the UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar[[/note]], and says that he isn't.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Billy Yank delivers a long-overdue one to Johnny Reb in "Is Civil War History Being REWRITTEN?!?!?!?!?!?" after Johnny Reb falls back on his old beliefs once again despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
-->'''Billy Yank:''' God DAMN it, Johnny! You never give me the benefit of the doubt! Most people think you're a fuckin' racist scum of the earth cause you fly this fuckin' flag! You think I'm the bad guy? No! I'm coddling you, like the big fuckin' baby you are, trying to gently COAX you into the 21st century before the people behind me fucking DRAG you there! People think you are a FUCKING JOKE, Johnny! You've been discredited time and again, your monuments are coming down, your staunchest advocates are doddering old fools and pretty soon, they're gonna be in the fuckin' ground! Wha-what have we been doing all this time!? Have I been talking to a brick wall? JESUS!
** Klaus the Nazi possessing Johnny Reb and being exorcised by the Witchfinder-General in the ''Checkmate, Lincolnites!'' episode "Was It REALLY the WAR of NORTHERN AGGRESSION?!?!?!" is a parody of a similar scene in ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheTwoTowers''.
** Most episodes of ''Checkmate Lincolnites!'' contain at least one quote or paraphrased quote from ''Theatre/SeventeenSeventySix''.
* StrategyVersusTactics: In [[https://youtu.be/O1MQflqi2VM "Did the CONFEDERACY Have BETTER GENERALS?!?!?!"]], Billy Yank points out that many of the Confederacy's most famous victories were ''tactically'' impressive, but ''strategically'' pointless -- as brilliant as their maneuvers may have been, they didn't actually do much to further the Confederacy's war aims besides temporarily defeating and driving off Union armies, and bled manpower and supplies they could scarce afford to lose. In contrast, Union commanders like Grant and Sherman didn't score nearly as many "epic" victories in battle (though, as Vicksburg shows, they had their fair share), but rather aimed at tearing out the Confederacy's logistical base at its roots, while grinding down the Confederacy one region at a time.
-->'''Billy Yank:''' You thought small, we thought big. That's why we won.
* StrawmanHasAPoint: In-universe. Despite his arguments primarily consisting of Lost Cause canards that can be easily refuted with a bit of critical analysis of history, Johnny Reb occasionally does manage to hit the nail on the head about the hypocrisy or wrongdoing of the North, such as when he correctly pointed out that while the Northern states were pearl-clutching about the crisis that led to the Missouri Compromise being a "Southern Evil," there were still a great deal of slaves in the North due to most of their states adopting a very slow and gradual abolition process. Of course, he also often treats these like "Gotcha" arguments that entirely refute Billy Yank's rhetoric and is often flabbergasted when Billy concedes the point to him, meaning it's more Downplayed than other examples of this trope.
* StrawmanPolitical: Downplayed with Johnny Reb. It's clear that he doesn't believe that slavery was good (unlike his predecessor the Cavalry Officer, who mocked Atun-Shei for thinking slavery is wrong) or think that other races are inferior (except when possessed by Klaus the Nazi), and he does what he does because he genuinely loves his heritage. At the same time, though, he spreads harmful misinformation and clings to outdated historiography because it's the only way for him to feel guilt-free in the process, and as such he's hostile toward Billy Yank for shattering his comfortable view of the past. In several instances it's clear that he prefers talking about Confederate military history to why the Confederacy existed in the first place because it's less morally dubious.
-->'''Johnny Reb:''' I'm a cartoon character, not an idiot.
* TakeThatAudience: Billy Yank and Johnny Reb take some of the more extreme members of the channel's audience to task in "Was GENERAL SHERMAN a WAR CRIMINAL?!?!?!?!", showing comments of people painting all modern-day Southerners as if they were Confederates.
--> '''Billy Yank:''' What kind of unbelievable asshole can't distinguish between slave-owning Confederates and modern-day rural Southerners?
--> ''[both take a long, skeptical look at the camera]''
* TitleDrop: OnceAnEpisode in ''Checkmate, Lincolnites!'' At the beginning of each episode, Johnny Reb will state a common Lost Cause argument, and when Billy Yank is naturally unable to condense a rebuttal into a 2-second sound bite, Johnny will turn to the camera and proudly proclaim [[SuddenlyShouting CHECKMATE, LINCOLNITES!]] while the intro theme plays.
-->'''Johnny Reb''' ''[after delivering another bogus argument]'': Checkmate, Lincolnites. [[DontExplainTheJoke That's the name of the program]].
* {{Troll}}:
** Johnny Reb (and the unnamed Confederate cavalry officer that preceded him, if they're not the same character) clearly tries to get into Atun-Shei/Billy Yank's skin, even if they're reading [=YouTube=] comments. "LOL, look at this soy boy!" indeed.
** Then there was the time in "Were there really BLACK CONFEDERATES?" when Johnny made the outrageous statement that slaves deeply desired and volunteered to serve their masters in the fight against the North, and were only relegated to camp servant positions when there weren't enough supplies and rifles to arm them:
--->'''Billy Yank:''' ...Now you're just making shit up, aren't you?\\
'''Johnny Reb:''' ...Yeah, you got me!\\
'''Billy Yank:''' Ayyyy!
** For his part, Atun-Shei/Billy Yank for the most part limits himself to just debunking the myths Johnny Reb/the Confederate cavalry officer espouses, but he can also set him off for fun if he want to.
--->'''Johnny Reb:''' ...like the brave boys at Fredericksburg...\\
'''Atun-Shei/Billy Yank:''' [[AndThisIsFor Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg!]][[note]]Union soldiers chanted this during Pickett's Charge, a disastrous defeat for the Confederacy.[[/note]]\\
''[Johnny Reb angrily fumes]''\\
'''Atun-Shei/Billy Yank:''' Oh, sorry. Too soon, I guess.
* UnPerson: Billy Yank points out to Johnny Reb that, although James Longstreet was one of the Confederacy's most able commanders and led the Confederate Army to multiple victories, there are practically no monuments to him in the South or elsewhere, and he's virtually absent from the post-war hagiography of Confederate leaders like Lee, Jackson, or Early. Billy attributes this to Longstreet's defense of reintegration with the Union and, crucially, to his support of Black civil rights in the Reconstruction era -- he even led city defense forces against a white supremacist mob at the Battle of Liberty Place. Billy cites this as evidence that Confederate monuments are really about white supremacy and whitewashing historical realities, rather than honoring the dead or memorializing important history and people as their defenders often claim.
** Johnny Reb's personality is [[DependingOnTheWriter based on Youtube comments]], so the extent of his racism varies from episode to episode. One comment, however, was so racist that Atun-Shei decided that it didn't fit Johnny Reb, and wrote it as Klaus the Nazi [[DemonicPossession possessing Johnny]] and having to be exorcised. Despite being an unapologetic admirer of the Confederacy and a proponent of the "Lost Cause" ideology, it's made clear that Johnny Reb believes that slavery was wrong, and that he would never ''openly'' express racist sentiments.
** On the flip-side: Billy Yank is generally an ardent defender of the Union, and he's pretty committed to dismantling most of the popular talking points espoused by Confederate apologists--but even ''he's'' willing to admit that some common criticisms of the Union are more-or-less accurate. He freely admits that the Union didn't enter the Civil War to end slavery, that most "free states" in the 1860s were still appallingly racist by today's standards, and that George B. [=McClellan=] [[GeneralFailure was just as bad a general as everyone says]].
* FloweryInsults: Billy Yank tells Johnny Reb to bring out the "Big Guns":
-->'''Johnny Reb:''' It's funny, when snot nosed, green behind the ear, force fed warm bullshit college boys like yourself just regurgitate all the totally false narratives that you "learned". You sir are a syphilis-infested crotch goblin and deserve to be eaten alive by pygmy ants. ''God Save the South!''
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** In the episode "Was GENERAL SHERMAN a WAR CRIMINAL?!?!?!?!," Johnny Reb and Billy Yank open by discussing possible topics (the "black Confederate" myth, HistoricalHeroUpgrade for Robert E. Lee, whether or not the South only lost because of the North's overwhelming resources) before settling on Sherman, almost all of which ended up being the subject of, or at least addressed in, future episodes. The only one that wasn't was the one Johnny Reb himself dismissed as too stupid even for a "cartoon character" like him to believe, namely, that [[HappinessInSlavery Confederate slaves were happy and treated well]].
** In "Did the CONFEDERACY have BETTER GENERALS?!?!?!", Johnny lists off some of the Confederacy's greatest generals, starting with obvious picks like Lee, Jackson and Forrest. Billy offers up James Longstreet, only for Johnny to say "We don't talk about him!" This foreshadows their discussion in "Is Civil War history being REWRITTEN?!?!?!?!?!" when Billy describes how James Longstreet, despite being one of the Confederacy's best generals, was made an {{Unperson}} after the war for daring to support the integration and enfranchisement of slaves.
* GlowingEyelightsOfUndeath: In the episode [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1vLJ1Z5Jwg "Klaus Resurrects the Army of the Confederate Dead"]], the confederate skeleton army have eerie, glowing red eyes (except for Jefferson Davis, who's more in a mummified state).
* GoldenMeanFallacy: In "Is Civil War History Being REWRITTEN?!?!?!?!?!", Billy Yank points out that history isn't about giving equal amounts of attention to all viewpoints because some viewpoints can be biased or flat-out wrong, citing how what Johnny Reb says is the "Southern side" of Civil War history is literally just Lost Cause mythology with little to no basis in fact and shouldn't be considered as equally important or valid as legitimate historical consensus backed by evidence.
-->'''Billy Yank:''' The Lost Cause isn't a valid point of view on anything; it's just a collection of factually incorrect claims. It's not a question of perspective or interpretation, this stuff is just demonstrably wrong.
* HammyHerald: When Johnny Reb shifts the topic to Confederate cavalry commander Nathan Bedford Forrest[[note]]Who was also the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and was behind the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Pillow Fort Pillow Massacre]][[/note]], he starts whooping and hollering and firing his colt pistol into the ceiling.
-->'''Johnny:''' You know him, you love him, it's NNNNNATHAN! ''BEDFORD!'' '''FORREST!''' WOO! *BLAM* WOO! *BLAM* WOO! *BLAM* WOO! Woo!
* HeroWorshipper: Deconstructed in the episode discussing the genetic lineage of the Lost Cause movement, "Is Civil War History Being REWRITTEN?!?!?!?!?!" Billy points out that any actual qualities of the Confederate generals as men have long ago been buried under quasi-religious hero-worship, with the transparently self-serving motive of reworking history to cast the South as victims, the North as authoritarians crushing their liberties, and slavery as whatever it needs to be to maintain the previous two points in the context of the current Overton window of how acceptable open racism is.
* HypocriticalHumor:
** In a series where he and Billy Yank regularly put away lots of alcohol, and usually pretty strong stuff, Johnny Reb accuses Ulysses S. Grant of being a drunk. They're even literally pouring out and toasting with liquor as they discuss the question of Grant's alcohol abuse.
** Johnny Reb makes Billy Yank eat his words talking about the northerners who opposed the Indian Removal Act living in states with names like [[MeaningfulName Massachusetts]], which they basically stole from the Native Americans who had lived there for thousands of years.
-->'''Johnny Reb:''' "Massachusetts", interesting name. Is that named after some place in England? Is there a quaint little village in Suffolk named "Massachusetts"?
* LargeHam: Johnny Reb can get a little overwhelmed with himself when thinking about a victorious South ("My heart FLUTTERS AT THE THOUGHT") or when he gives voice to a particularly unhinged commenter ("DAMN, DAMN ''YANKEES!'' '''REBEL YEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLL'''!")
* LiteralMetaphor:
** In "Did the CONFEDERACY Have BETTER GENERALS?!?!?!" Johnny Reb makes a point then smugly asks Billy Yank how that humble pie tastes. Cut to reveal he meant the literal pie Billy is eating.
-->'''Billy Yank:''' It's a little dry.
** When Johnny Reb accuses Billy Yank of conducting centuries-old military campaigns "[[ArmchairMilitary From the comfort of [his] armchair]]", Billy [[LiteralMinded gets confused and points out that his chair doesn't have any arms]].
* MemeticBadass: InUniverse; {{discussed|Trope}} in ''Checkmate, Lincolnites!'' regarding William Tecumseh Sherman's presence in the online "Union Gang".[[note]]A loose collection of online communities united in their fervent opposition to the Lost Cause movement.[[/note]] The omnipresence of Sherman memes is a frequent target of Johnny Reb's ire.
-->'''Johnny Reb:''' ''[mockingly]'' "Do it again, Uncle Billy!" Spare me your ''memes'', sir!
* MundaneUtility: In the ''Checkmate, Lincolnites!'' episode "TARIFFS and TAXES: The REAL Cause of the CIVIL WAR?!", Billy Yank uses a saber to open a bottle of whiskey.
* MyRuleFuIsStrongerThanYours: When Johnny Reb tries to argue that the Southern states had the legal right to secede from the Union as guaranteed in Article X[[note]]"It's ''Amendment'' X."[[/note]] of the Constitution, Billy Yank first says that it's a moot point because of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_v._White Texas v. White]], but whips out a pocket constitution to humor him. He then points out that the wording of the Tenth Amendment is an extremely broad rebuke of federal law and doesn't specifically say anything about secession. Johnny counters this by saying it's implied, but Billy Yank runs with that logic and points to Article 6, Section 2, which has been interpreted by the Supreme Court several times as implying that Federal Law supersedes State law, meaning that something like [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar unilateral secession after a disliked presidential election result]] would be super duper illegal.
* MusicalNumberAnnoyance: Johnny Reb becomes very upset when Billy Yank starts singing "John Brown's Body", a Union marching song about militant abolitionist John Brown, who attempted to start a mass slave uprising with a raid on an armory at the town of Harper's Ferry.
-->'''Billy:''' John Brown's body lies a-moulderin' in the grave, John Brown's body lies a moulderin' in the grave/John Brown's body lies a-moulderin' in the grave, but his SOUL GOES MARCHIN' ONNNN! GLORY, GLORY HALLELUJAH/GLORY, GLORY HALLELUJAH, GLORY, GLORY HALLELUJAH, BUT HIS SOUL GOES MARCHIN' ON!
-->'''Johnny:''' You really don't have to give us a performance, Billy Yank...I must insist, that you stop that damn noise. Please shut up. Shut up. STOP SINGING! STOP THAT DAMN NOISE! GAH! OH, LORD HAVE MERCY! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! AGH! AAAAGH!
* NeverMyFault: Discussed in the ''Checkmate, Lincolnites!'' episode "Did the CONFEDERACY Have BETTER GENERALS?!?!?!", which examines the popular claim that the Confederate Army's leaders were universally superior tacticians compared to the Union Army's leaders, and the related claim that the Union only won because they had [[WeHaveReserves more abundant resources and manpower]]. Billy Yank argues that this claim is (at the very least) a gross oversimplification of historical fact, and suggests that it was partially propagated by Confederate generals who didn't want to take responsibility for their blunders on the battlefield.
-->"You know, it's interesting. Because with the very verbiage of [Robert E. Lee's farewell address], Lee abrogates his own personal responsibility for defeat. It was all just overwhelming numbers and resources--no other reason! Certainly not Confederate mismanagement, or the competency and skill of the United States Army. I mean no, no, no... That would be ''crazy!''"
* NobodyPoops: Discussed in "Confederate Soldiers DIDN'T fight for SLAVERY!(Or did they?)". Billy Yank makes the point that ''Film/GodsAndGenerals'' not only does such a bad job of portraying history, but also of [[HumansAreFlawed representing humans as complex beings]] that watching Stonewall Jackson poop would be a more accurate representation of real life.
-->'''Billy Yank:''' You know what I wanna see? I wanna see a movie where Stonewall Jackson sits on the toilet and takes a huge ''crap''. That's ''humanity''.
-->'''Johnny Reb:''' How [[ComicallyMissingThePoint DARE YOU SPEAK OF THE GENERAL]] [[ToiletHumor RELEASIN' HIS BOWELS]]!
* OnlySaneMan: Billy Yank holds up [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_E._Johnston Joseph E. Johnston]] as the only Confederate general with a proper understanding of logistics and how to play the long game against a numerically and materially superior foe. But because his methods [[BoringButPractical weren't very flashy, in spite of their effectiveness,]] he ended up being replaced by [[GeneralRipper John]] [[AttackAttackAttack Bell]] [[LeeroyJenkins Hood]][[note]]"Who ''sucks'' by the way!"[[/note]], who [[GeneralFailure quickly lost Atlanta]] to William T. Sherman before being utterly annihilated by General George Thomas at Nashville, taking an entire state out of the Confederacy and ending his career.
* OrwellianRetcon: Atun-Shei changed the title of "Confederate Soldiers DIDN'T fight for SLAVERY!(Or did they?)" to "Did Confederate Soldiers FIGHT for SLAVERY!?" to make it fall in line with the DrivingQuestion ThemeNaming of the other episodes, as well as altering how the show used to very clearly be controlled by Johnny Reb, who would presumably make the titles sound more biased in his favor.
* OutsideJoke: In "Wasn't it KINDA about STATE'S RIGHTS!?!?!?!?!?", Johnny Reb out of nowhere asks Billy Yank if he's an Anarcho-Syndicalist. Billy has no idea what that is[[note]]Anarcho-Syndicalism believes in achieving Anarchism through empowered labor unions, most famously seen in the Catalina region during the UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar[[/note]], and says that he isn't.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Billy Yank delivers a long-overdue one to Johnny Reb in "Is Civil War History Being REWRITTEN?!?!?!?!?!?" after Johnny Reb falls back on his old beliefs once again despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
-->'''Billy Yank:''' God DAMN it, Johnny! You never give me the benefit of the doubt! Most people think you're a fuckin' racist scum of the earth cause you fly this fuckin' flag! You think I'm the bad guy? No! I'm coddling you, like the big fuckin' baby you are, trying to gently COAX you into the 21st century before the people behind me fucking DRAG you there! People think you are a FUCKING JOKE, Johnny! You've been discredited time and again, your monuments are coming down, your staunchest advocates are doddering old fools and pretty soon, they're gonna be in the fuckin' ground! Wha-what have we been doing all this time!? Have I been talking to a brick wall? JESUS!
** Klaus the Nazi possessing Johnny Reb and being exorcised by the Witchfinder-General in the ''Checkmate, Lincolnites!'' episode "Was It REALLY the WAR of NORTHERN AGGRESSION?!?!?!" is a parody of a similar scene in ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheTwoTowers''.
** Most episodes of ''Checkmate Lincolnites!'' contain at least one quote or paraphrased quote from ''Theatre/SeventeenSeventySix''.
* StrategyVersusTactics: In [[https://youtu.be/O1MQflqi2VM "Did the CONFEDERACY Have BETTER GENERALS?!?!?!"]], Billy Yank points out that many of the Confederacy's most famous victories were ''tactically'' impressive, but ''strategically'' pointless -- as brilliant as their maneuvers may have been, they didn't actually do much to further the Confederacy's war aims besides temporarily defeating and driving off Union armies, and bled manpower and supplies they could scarce afford to lose. In contrast, Union commanders like Grant and Sherman didn't score nearly as many "epic" victories in battle (though, as Vicksburg shows, they had their fair share), but rather aimed at tearing out the Confederacy's logistical base at its roots, while grinding down the Confederacy one region at a time.
-->'''Billy Yank:''' You thought small, we thought big. That's why we won.
* StrawmanHasAPoint: In-universe. Despite his arguments primarily consisting of Lost Cause canards that can be easily refuted with a bit of critical analysis of history, Johnny Reb occasionally does manage to hit the nail on the head about the hypocrisy or wrongdoing of the North, such as when he correctly pointed out that while the Northern states were pearl-clutching about the crisis that led to the Missouri Compromise being a "Southern Evil," there were still a great deal of slaves in the North due to most of their states adopting a very slow and gradual abolition process. Of course, he also often treats these like "Gotcha" arguments that entirely refute Billy Yank's rhetoric and is often flabbergasted when Billy concedes the point to him, meaning it's more Downplayed than other examples of this trope.
* StrawmanPolitical: Downplayed with Johnny Reb. It's clear that he doesn't believe that slavery was good (unlike his predecessor the Cavalry Officer, who mocked Atun-Shei for thinking slavery is wrong) or think that other races are inferior (except when possessed by Klaus the Nazi), and he does what he does because he genuinely loves his heritage. At the same time, though, he spreads harmful misinformation and clings to outdated historiography because it's the only way for him to feel guilt-free in the process, and as such he's hostile toward Billy Yank for shattering his comfortable view of the past. In several instances it's clear that he prefers talking about Confederate military history to why the Confederacy existed in the first place because it's less morally dubious.
-->'''Johnny Reb:''' I'm a cartoon character, not an idiot.
* TakeThatAudience: Billy Yank and Johnny Reb take some of the more extreme members of the channel's audience to task in "Was GENERAL SHERMAN a WAR CRIMINAL?!?!?!?!", showing comments of people painting all modern-day Southerners as if they were Confederates.
--> '''Billy Yank:''' What kind of unbelievable asshole can't distinguish between slave-owning Confederates and modern-day rural Southerners?
--> ''[both take a long, skeptical look at the camera]''
* TitleDrop: OnceAnEpisode in ''Checkmate, Lincolnites!'' At the beginning of each episode, Johnny Reb will state a common Lost Cause argument, and when Billy Yank is naturally unable to condense a rebuttal into a 2-second sound bite, Johnny will turn to the camera and proudly proclaim [[SuddenlyShouting CHECKMATE, LINCOLNITES!]] while the intro theme plays.
-->'''Johnny Reb''' ''[after delivering another bogus argument]'': Checkmate, Lincolnites. [[DontExplainTheJoke That's the name of the program]].
* {{Troll}}:
** Johnny Reb (and the unnamed Confederate cavalry officer that preceded him, if they're not the same character) clearly tries to get into Atun-Shei/Billy Yank's skin, even if they're reading [=YouTube=] comments. "LOL, look at this soy boy!" indeed.
** Then there was the time in "Were there really BLACK CONFEDERATES?" when Johnny made the outrageous statement that slaves deeply desired and volunteered to serve their masters in the fight against the North, and were only relegated to camp servant positions when there weren't enough supplies and rifles to arm them:
--->'''Billy Yank:''' ...Now you're just making shit up, aren't you?\\
'''Johnny Reb:''' ...Yeah, you got me!\\
'''Billy Yank:''' Ayyyy!
** For his part, Atun-Shei/Billy Yank for the most part limits himself to just debunking the myths Johnny Reb/the Confederate cavalry officer espouses, but he can also set him off for fun if he want to.
--->'''Johnny Reb:''' ...like the brave boys at Fredericksburg...\\
'''Atun-Shei/Billy Yank:''' [[AndThisIsFor Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg!]][[note]]Union soldiers chanted this during Pickett's Charge, a disastrous defeat for the Confederacy.[[/note]]\\
''[Johnny Reb angrily fumes]''\\
'''Atun-Shei/Billy Yank:''' Oh, sorry. Too soon, I guess.
* UnPerson: Billy Yank points out to Johnny Reb that, although James Longstreet was one of the Confederacy's most able commanders and led the Confederate Army to multiple victories, there are practically no monuments to him in the South or elsewhere, and he's virtually absent from the post-war hagiography of Confederate leaders like Lee, Jackson, or Early. Billy attributes this to Longstreet's defense of reintegration with the Union and, crucially, to his support of Black civil rights in the Reconstruction era -- he even led city defense forces against a white supremacist mob at the Battle of Liberty Place. Billy cites this as evidence that Confederate monuments are really about white supremacy and whitewashing historical realities, rather than honoring the dead or memorializing important history and people as their defenders often claim.
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The series is comprised of ten episodes.
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The series is comprised of ten episodes.episodes, the first of which, originally intended to be a standalone video, came out on May 23, 2019.
[[folder:List of Episodes]]
* ''Confederate DESTROYS Yankee with FACTS and LOGIC'': Examines a number of different small Lost Cause claims, and [[NegativeContinuity ends with Billy Yank shooting Johnny Reb to death]].
* ''Did Confederate Soldiers FIGHT for SLAVERY?!'': [[OrwellianRetcon Originally entitled]] ''Confederate Soldiers DIDN'T fight for SLAVERY!(Or did they?)''. Examines claims that the vast majority of Confederates fought to defend their country since most of them didn't own slaves.
* ''TARIFFS and TAXES: The REAL Cause of the CIVIL WAR?!'': Examines claims that the Civil War was started due to the Morell Tariff rather than Abraham lincoln's election and the issue of slavery.
* ''Was it REALLY the WAR of NORTHERN AGGRESSION?!?!?!'': Examines claims that the North started the war or that the war otherwise started due to Northern provocation. Features a crossover with ''WebVideo/TheWitchfinderGeneral''.
* ''Was GENERAL SHERMAN a WAR CRIMINAL?!?!?!?!'': Examines claims that UsefulNotes/WilliamTecumsehSherman's actions during his famous razing of the Southern countryside on his March to Atlanta constitute war crimes, and whether his MemeticBadass status among Unionists is warranted.%%[[Invoked]]
* ''Were There Really BLACK CONFEDERATES???!!!'': Examines claims that African-American slaves willingly fought as fully-fledged Confederate soldiers in the war.
* ''Did the CONFEDERACY Have BETTER GENERALS?!?!?!'': Examines claims that the South losing was an inevitability due to the North's overwhelming industry, that all the Northern generals sucked, and that UsefulNotes/RobertELee, Stonewall Jackson, and other Confederate generals were some of the greatest military minds of the 19th century.
* ''Wasn’t it KINDA About STATES’ RIGHTS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!'': Examines claims that the Civil War was largely over the issues of states' rights and government overreach.
* ''Is Civil War History Being REWRITTEN?!?!?!?!?!'': Examines claims that more modern interpretations of Civil War history are "revisionist" and that "history is written by the victors".
* ''The Checkmate Lincolnites Finale'': Unreleased, with a TBA release date.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:List of Episodes]]
* ''Confederate DESTROYS Yankee with FACTS and LOGIC'': Examines a number of different small Lost Cause claims, and [[NegativeContinuity ends with Billy Yank shooting Johnny Reb to death]].
* ''Did Confederate Soldiers FIGHT for SLAVERY?!'': [[OrwellianRetcon Originally entitled]] ''Confederate Soldiers DIDN'T fight for SLAVERY!(Or did they?)''. Examines claims that the vast majority of Confederates fought to defend their country since most of them didn't own slaves.
* ''TARIFFS and TAXES: The REAL Cause of the CIVIL WAR?!'': Examines claims that the Civil War was started due to the Morell Tariff rather than Abraham lincoln's election and the issue of slavery.
* ''Was it REALLY the WAR of NORTHERN AGGRESSION?!?!?!'': Examines claims that the North started the war or that the war otherwise started due to Northern provocation. Features a crossover with ''WebVideo/TheWitchfinderGeneral''.
* ''Was GENERAL SHERMAN a WAR CRIMINAL?!?!?!?!'': Examines claims that UsefulNotes/WilliamTecumsehSherman's actions during his famous razing of the Southern countryside on his March to Atlanta constitute war crimes, and whether his MemeticBadass status among Unionists is warranted.%%[[Invoked]]
* ''Were There Really BLACK CONFEDERATES???!!!'': Examines claims that African-American slaves willingly fought as fully-fledged Confederate soldiers in the war.
* ''Did the CONFEDERACY Have BETTER GENERALS?!?!?!'': Examines claims that the South losing was an inevitability due to the North's overwhelming industry, that all the Northern generals sucked, and that UsefulNotes/RobertELee, Stonewall Jackson, and other Confederate generals were some of the greatest military minds of the 19th century.
* ''Wasn’t it KINDA About STATES’ RIGHTS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!'': Examines claims that the Civil War was largely over the issues of states' rights and government overreach.
* ''Is Civil War History Being REWRITTEN?!?!?!?!?!'': Examines claims that more modern interpretations of Civil War history are "revisionist" and that "history is written by the victors".
* ''The Checkmate Lincolnites Finale'': Unreleased, with a TBA release date.
[[/folder]]
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The first ''Checkmate, Lincolnites!'' has Atun-Shei in plainclothes, where subsequent videos have him in costume as "Billy Yank." The unnamed Confederate Cavalry Officer is there instead of "Johnny Reb" while the backdrop is just the confederate flag, rather than the union confederate flag hybrid. A more minor example, but from episode 1-3 (or 5 given the callback to the Whataboutism Drinking Game) the Union Soldier is Atun-Shei in a uniform instead of Billy Yank, and in the second episode Johnny Reb is implied to be the confederate cavalry officer from the first episode.
to:
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness" The first ''Checkmate, Lincolnites!'' has Atun-Shei in plainclothes, where subsequent videos have him in costume as "Billy Yank." The unnamed Confederate Cavalry Officer is there instead of "Johnny Reb" while the backdrop is just the confederate flag, rather than the union confederate flag hybrid. A more minor example, but from episode 1-3 (or 5 given the callback to the Whataboutism Drinking Game) the Union Soldier is Atun-Shei in a uniform instead of Billy Yank, and in the second episode Johnny Reb is implied to be the confederate cavalry officer from the first episode.
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Added DiffLines:
[[quoteright:1000:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mv5bzjk0ytqwntetyzkxmi00oda1ltlmywqtnte4n2ziowyym2qwxkeyxkfqcgdeqxvynjgzmti0mzc_v1.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:1000:LEFT: Billy Yank RIGHT: Johnny Reb]]
->'''Johnny Reb:''' Why did the North invade the South in 1861? Was it because they "hated slavery?"
->'''Billy Yank:''' No, it was to save the Union.
->'''Johnny Reb:''' [[TitleDrop CHECKMATE, LINCOLNITES]]!
->[The title theme drowns out Billy's further explanations]
-->--'''Was it REALLY the WAR of NORTHERN AGGRESSION?!?!?!'''
''Checkmate, Lincolnites!'' is a historical adult Website/{{YouTube}} EdutainmentShow created by Andrew "WebVideo/AtunSheiFilms" Rakich. The main goal of the series is to debunk, disprove and simultaneously ridicule the core beliefs of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Cause_of_the_Confederacy Lost Cause of the Confederacy]], a pseudohistorical interpretation of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar that claims, among many other things, that the South did not fight to preserve the institution of Slavery and that the war was really about the concept of "State's Rights".
The show is presented in a socratic debate format between two fictional characters, consisting of:
* '''Johnny Reb''', a HotBlooded, die-hard Lost Causer who proposes the DrivingQuestion of each video. Most of his claims are [[AudienceParticipation sourced directly from the Atun-Shei Films comment section]].
* '''Billy Yank'''[[note]]Very rarely referred to as "Billy Fed"[[/note]], a calm, rational proponent of the Union who debunks Johnny's claims each episode with cold, hard facts.
It should be noted that while the show is in debate format, it does ''not'' attempt to in any way present the Lost Cause as an equally valid alternative historical viewpoint, nor does it paint the Union as unambiguously good or the South as unambiguously bad. Its goal is purely to fight revisionism and propaganda on the internet.
The series is comprised of ten episodes.
----
!!''Checkmate, Lincolnites!'' contains examples of:
* ArtifactTitle: When the series first started out, it was very clearly Johnny Reb's show where he was inviting(or sometimes blackmailing) Atun-Shei/Billy Yank on, and was styled after one-sided internet debate shows that obviously have a bias against the guest speaker("Confederate DESTROYS Yankee with FACTS and LOGIC"), with Johnny outright insulting and belittling his opponent's views. However, around the same time that Billy Yank became a distinct character from Atun-Shei, it became clearer that he and Johnny co-hosted the show and it functions more as a good-faith debate show in its current form (although Billy Yank still generally comes out on top, and it's made clear that his views still mainly align with Atun-Shei's own views).
* BerserkButton: In the episode of ''Checkmate Lincolnites!'' focusing on General Sherman, at one point Johnny Reb claims Sherman was only good at attacking civilians and couldn't win a real fight. This causes the normally restrained Billy Yank to pull out his pistol and shove it in Johnny Reb's face, forcing him to tearfully repeat what he just said. Subverted in that right after this he holsters his gun and calmly explains why Johnny Reb's claim was untrue.
-->'''Billy Yank:''' ''[whipping out a HandCannon]'' The [[PrecisionFStrike FUCK]] you just say?\\
'''Johnny Reb:''' ''[panicked]'' Oh, Billy Yank, that's not funny, put the gun down, please…\\
'''Billy Yank:''' NO, REALLY, I COULDN'T HEAR YOU, WHY DON'T YOU SAY THAT AGAIN!?
* BlatantLies: Johnny Reb says "No it's not, and I say that as a Latino" in "Did Confederate Soldiers FIGHT for SLAVERY?!" Johnny is white and played by an actor from New England.[[note]]He was reading a [=YouTube=] comment from a viewer who may very well have been Latino, but in-universe all the comments are Johnny Reb's dialogue, since the show is a Socratic debate.[[/note]]
* CallBack:
** In "Confederate DESTROYS Yankee with FACTS and LOGIC", when the unnamed Confederate cavalry officer starts claiming that there's nothing wrong with being "superior" (as in, claiming one's nationality makes them superior, or that being white makes one superior, as in ''white supremacy''), Atun-Shei brings back the Confederate Monument Racist-o-Meter from "Were the Confederate Monuments of New Orleans Racist?" (with "[=YouTube=] Comments" crudely scribbled instead of "Confederate Monument", since the unnamed Confederate cavalry officer is actually reading a [=YouTube=] comment) to show how racist the comment is - and Atun-Shei makes the arrow swing wildly in the highest rating, "Hitler!"
** Later, in "Wasn't it KINDA about STATES RIGHTS?!", flashbacks to scenes from earlier episodes occur repeatedly, often with [[SelfDeprecation jokes about how long it's been going on]]. A [[ItMakesSenseInContext in-universe news broadcast]] also repeats a description from an earlier episode as a "wildly unpopular [=YouTube=] show."
* TheCameo: Matt Beat from the Mr. Beat [=YouTube=] channel appears in "Wasn't it KINDA about STATES RIGHTS?!" as a newscaster.
* CardCarryingVillain: The Confederate cavalry officer that Atun-Shei argues against in the first episode ("Confederate DESTROYS Yankee with FACTS and LOGIC"). Unlike Johnny Reb, who at least acknowledges that slavery was bad (even if he erroneously insists the Confederacy didn't fight to preserve that institution), ''this'' character is proud of the fact that he was a slave-owner.
-->'''Confederate Cavalry Officer:''' [[EvilCanNotComprehendGood LOL, look at this soy boy! Thinks slavery is wrong.]]
* CommonKnowledge:[[invoked]] A major point of ''Checkmate, Lincolnites!'' is to attempt to dispel many commonly accepted facts about the Civil War and the Confederate States that have helped colorize the conflict. Some examples include:
** That the Confederacy was doomed from the outset and had no realistic chance of winning the American Civil War because of the overwhelming difference in resources between the Confederacy and the Union. While he goes out of his way to make it clear that, yes, the difference in industrial capacity and manpower between the two sides really was ''that'' big, Billy points out that plenty of other historical wars with huge differentials in military capacity haven't always ended in favor of the side with the bigger numbers. While the South were definitely the underdogs, they had good shot of winning, assuming they could break the North's will to keep up the fight. And while, yes, the difference in resources played a part, their ultimate loss owed just as much (if not more) to their generals' pursuit of [[PyrrhicVictory flashy tactical victories that didn't really further their war aims and bled out resources they couldn't afford to lose]], especially once the North started promoting strategically-minded commanders that actually knew how to properly bring their superior resources to bear.
** UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant being an alcoholic who would just throw troops into battle and win by sheer numbers. Grant did have alcohol issues, but he never drank before a battle, and was more of a binge/social drinker. He also wasn't someone who just threw men to die, but rather was a strategic general, and he had a large loss of troops due to just how intense factors outside his control often were.
** The idea that "slavery was on its way out". Atun points out that likely had the South won or at least won enough to remain separated from the Union, they likely would have adapted slavery into the rising technological advancements to come rather than cease to exist. So long as slavery was profitable in any way, it would have remained. It's ''maybe'' possible it would have died down, but very likely not, definitely not without heavy external diplomatic pressure and almost certainly not within the original Confederate generation.
** The idea that Lincoln was a racist towards black slaves. Atun-Shei doesn't deny that Lincoln and the North didn't initially make the conflict about slavery rather than about stopping the South from breaking away, but he points out that many of the "Lincoln was a racist" arguments draw on sources from before he became President, and were likely just Lincoln trying to win the office however he could at a time when the majority of his voters were white supremacists. Lincoln wasn't a die-hard abolitionist, but he did take anti-slavery positions throughout his time in political office and did eventually make abolition a major war aim, something which it's pointed out cost him in the short term, with the Union army experiencing many desertions, but ultimately spelt the Confederacy's doom by drying up all their hopes of foreign aid forever.
** An entire episode was devoted to the history of "states' rights" as a political philosophy to show how it increasingly ceased to have any real connection to actual libertarianism or local vs. federal government sentiment, how it became deeply intertwined with slavery and Southern sectarianism, and, ultimately, how many Confederates were eager to totally abandon it as the fig leaf that it was in favor of increasing centralization and nationalization as soon as they started to make their own country, with many embracing outright reactionary, autocratic, anti-democratic, anti-republican, and authoritarian ideas -- up to and even including literal theocracy, military dictatorship, and absolute monarchy.
* ContinuitySnarl: Combined with EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, ''Checkmate, Lincolnites!'' clearly plays fast and loose with its own continuity, usually [[PlayedForLaughs for laughs]]. The first episode has Atun-Shei, as himself in plain clothes, debating a Confederate cavalry officer, and it eventually ends with Atun-Shei shooting him dead. While from the second episode onwards Johnny Reb is established as he usually would appear afterwards (as in, as a Confederate ''soldier'' rather than a Confederate cavalry officer) and through the second and third episodes the person he argues against resembles Billy Yank more, said person is still Atun-Shei -- in the second episode he recalls shooting the Confederate cavalry officer, and in the third he appears in plain clothes again at the beginning, telling Johnny Reb that he's tired of making videos debunking Confederate myths since they appear to be fruitless, only to be convinced back into arguing with Johnny Reb when the latter tells him that now he'll be free to claim that the Civil War was fought over tariffs and taxes. And even in regards of Johnny Reb, when Atun-Shei asks him in the second episode if he wasn't the Confederate cavalry officer he shot dead in the previous episode, Johnny Reb denies it... even though Atun-Shei points out that he has a blood-stained Confederate cavalry officer uniform at his feet, causing Johnny Reb to get nervous and segue away to the show's intro. This gets even more confusing in "Wasn't it KINDA about STATES' RIGHTS!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!", when Billy Yank specifically says that he and Johnny talked about the Corwin Amendment in Episode 1 before flashing back to Atun-Shei talking with the Cavalry Officer, seemingly making the definitive statement that that ''is'' him and Johnny.
The first ''Checkmate, Lincolnites!'' has Atun-Shei in plainclothes, where subsequent videos have him in costume as "Billy Yank." The unnamed Confederate Cavalry Officer is there instead of "Johnny Reb" while the backdrop is just the confederate flag, rather than the union confederate flag hybrid. A more minor example, but from episode 1-3 (or 5 given the callback to the Whataboutism Drinking Game) the Union Soldier is Atun-Shei in a uniform instead of Billy Yank, and in the second episode Johnny Reb is implied to be the confederate cavalry officer from the first episode.
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[[caption-width-right:1000:LEFT: Billy Yank RIGHT: Johnny Reb]]
->'''Johnny Reb:''' Why did the North invade the South in 1861? Was it because they "hated slavery?"
->'''Billy Yank:''' No, it was to save the Union.
->'''Johnny Reb:''' [[TitleDrop CHECKMATE, LINCOLNITES]]!
->[The title theme drowns out Billy's further explanations]
-->--'''Was it REALLY the WAR of NORTHERN AGGRESSION?!?!?!'''
''Checkmate, Lincolnites!'' is a historical adult Website/{{YouTube}} EdutainmentShow created by Andrew "WebVideo/AtunSheiFilms" Rakich. The main goal of the series is to debunk, disprove and simultaneously ridicule the core beliefs of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Cause_of_the_Confederacy Lost Cause of the Confederacy]], a pseudohistorical interpretation of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar that claims, among many other things, that the South did not fight to preserve the institution of Slavery and that the war was really about the concept of "State's Rights".
The show is presented in a socratic debate format between two fictional characters, consisting of:
* '''Johnny Reb''', a HotBlooded, die-hard Lost Causer who proposes the DrivingQuestion of each video. Most of his claims are [[AudienceParticipation sourced directly from the Atun-Shei Films comment section]].
* '''Billy Yank'''[[note]]Very rarely referred to as "Billy Fed"[[/note]], a calm, rational proponent of the Union who debunks Johnny's claims each episode with cold, hard facts.
It should be noted that while the show is in debate format, it does ''not'' attempt to in any way present the Lost Cause as an equally valid alternative historical viewpoint, nor does it paint the Union as unambiguously good or the South as unambiguously bad. Its goal is purely to fight revisionism and propaganda on the internet.
The series is comprised of ten episodes.
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!!''Checkmate, Lincolnites!'' contains examples of:
* ArtifactTitle: When the series first started out, it was very clearly Johnny Reb's show where he was inviting(or sometimes blackmailing) Atun-Shei/Billy Yank on, and was styled after one-sided internet debate shows that obviously have a bias against the guest speaker("Confederate DESTROYS Yankee with FACTS and LOGIC"), with Johnny outright insulting and belittling his opponent's views. However, around the same time that Billy Yank became a distinct character from Atun-Shei, it became clearer that he and Johnny co-hosted the show and it functions more as a good-faith debate show in its current form (although Billy Yank still generally comes out on top, and it's made clear that his views still mainly align with Atun-Shei's own views).
* BerserkButton: In the episode of ''Checkmate Lincolnites!'' focusing on General Sherman, at one point Johnny Reb claims Sherman was only good at attacking civilians and couldn't win a real fight. This causes the normally restrained Billy Yank to pull out his pistol and shove it in Johnny Reb's face, forcing him to tearfully repeat what he just said. Subverted in that right after this he holsters his gun and calmly explains why Johnny Reb's claim was untrue.
-->'''Billy Yank:''' ''[whipping out a HandCannon]'' The [[PrecisionFStrike FUCK]] you just say?\\
'''Johnny Reb:''' ''[panicked]'' Oh, Billy Yank, that's not funny, put the gun down, please…\\
'''Billy Yank:''' NO, REALLY, I COULDN'T HEAR YOU, WHY DON'T YOU SAY THAT AGAIN!?
* BlatantLies: Johnny Reb says "No it's not, and I say that as a Latino" in "Did Confederate Soldiers FIGHT for SLAVERY?!" Johnny is white and played by an actor from New England.[[note]]He was reading a [=YouTube=] comment from a viewer who may very well have been Latino, but in-universe all the comments are Johnny Reb's dialogue, since the show is a Socratic debate.[[/note]]
* CallBack:
** In "Confederate DESTROYS Yankee with FACTS and LOGIC", when the unnamed Confederate cavalry officer starts claiming that there's nothing wrong with being "superior" (as in, claiming one's nationality makes them superior, or that being white makes one superior, as in ''white supremacy''), Atun-Shei brings back the Confederate Monument Racist-o-Meter from "Were the Confederate Monuments of New Orleans Racist?" (with "[=YouTube=] Comments" crudely scribbled instead of "Confederate Monument", since the unnamed Confederate cavalry officer is actually reading a [=YouTube=] comment) to show how racist the comment is - and Atun-Shei makes the arrow swing wildly in the highest rating, "Hitler!"
** Later, in "Wasn't it KINDA about STATES RIGHTS?!", flashbacks to scenes from earlier episodes occur repeatedly, often with [[SelfDeprecation jokes about how long it's been going on]]. A [[ItMakesSenseInContext in-universe news broadcast]] also repeats a description from an earlier episode as a "wildly unpopular [=YouTube=] show."
* TheCameo: Matt Beat from the Mr. Beat [=YouTube=] channel appears in "Wasn't it KINDA about STATES RIGHTS?!" as a newscaster.
* CardCarryingVillain: The Confederate cavalry officer that Atun-Shei argues against in the first episode ("Confederate DESTROYS Yankee with FACTS and LOGIC"). Unlike Johnny Reb, who at least acknowledges that slavery was bad (even if he erroneously insists the Confederacy didn't fight to preserve that institution), ''this'' character is proud of the fact that he was a slave-owner.
-->'''Confederate Cavalry Officer:''' [[EvilCanNotComprehendGood LOL, look at this soy boy! Thinks slavery is wrong.]]
* CommonKnowledge:[[invoked]] A major point of ''Checkmate, Lincolnites!'' is to attempt to dispel many commonly accepted facts about the Civil War and the Confederate States that have helped colorize the conflict. Some examples include:
** That the Confederacy was doomed from the outset and had no realistic chance of winning the American Civil War because of the overwhelming difference in resources between the Confederacy and the Union. While he goes out of his way to make it clear that, yes, the difference in industrial capacity and manpower between the two sides really was ''that'' big, Billy points out that plenty of other historical wars with huge differentials in military capacity haven't always ended in favor of the side with the bigger numbers. While the South were definitely the underdogs, they had good shot of winning, assuming they could break the North's will to keep up the fight. And while, yes, the difference in resources played a part, their ultimate loss owed just as much (if not more) to their generals' pursuit of [[PyrrhicVictory flashy tactical victories that didn't really further their war aims and bled out resources they couldn't afford to lose]], especially once the North started promoting strategically-minded commanders that actually knew how to properly bring their superior resources to bear.
** UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant being an alcoholic who would just throw troops into battle and win by sheer numbers. Grant did have alcohol issues, but he never drank before a battle, and was more of a binge/social drinker. He also wasn't someone who just threw men to die, but rather was a strategic general, and he had a large loss of troops due to just how intense factors outside his control often were.
** The idea that "slavery was on its way out". Atun points out that likely had the South won or at least won enough to remain separated from the Union, they likely would have adapted slavery into the rising technological advancements to come rather than cease to exist. So long as slavery was profitable in any way, it would have remained. It's ''maybe'' possible it would have died down, but very likely not, definitely not without heavy external diplomatic pressure and almost certainly not within the original Confederate generation.
** The idea that Lincoln was a racist towards black slaves. Atun-Shei doesn't deny that Lincoln and the North didn't initially make the conflict about slavery rather than about stopping the South from breaking away, but he points out that many of the "Lincoln was a racist" arguments draw on sources from before he became President, and were likely just Lincoln trying to win the office however he could at a time when the majority of his voters were white supremacists. Lincoln wasn't a die-hard abolitionist, but he did take anti-slavery positions throughout his time in political office and did eventually make abolition a major war aim, something which it's pointed out cost him in the short term, with the Union army experiencing many desertions, but ultimately spelt the Confederacy's doom by drying up all their hopes of foreign aid forever.
** An entire episode was devoted to the history of "states' rights" as a political philosophy to show how it increasingly ceased to have any real connection to actual libertarianism or local vs. federal government sentiment, how it became deeply intertwined with slavery and Southern sectarianism, and, ultimately, how many Confederates were eager to totally abandon it as the fig leaf that it was in favor of increasing centralization and nationalization as soon as they started to make their own country, with many embracing outright reactionary, autocratic, anti-democratic, anti-republican, and authoritarian ideas -- up to and even including literal theocracy, military dictatorship, and absolute monarchy.
* ContinuitySnarl: Combined with EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, ''Checkmate, Lincolnites!'' clearly plays fast and loose with its own continuity, usually [[PlayedForLaughs for laughs]]. The first episode has Atun-Shei, as himself in plain clothes, debating a Confederate cavalry officer, and it eventually ends with Atun-Shei shooting him dead. While from the second episode onwards Johnny Reb is established as he usually would appear afterwards (as in, as a Confederate ''soldier'' rather than a Confederate cavalry officer) and through the second and third episodes the person he argues against resembles Billy Yank more, said person is still Atun-Shei -- in the second episode he recalls shooting the Confederate cavalry officer, and in the third he appears in plain clothes again at the beginning, telling Johnny Reb that he's tired of making videos debunking Confederate myths since they appear to be fruitless, only to be convinced back into arguing with Johnny Reb when the latter tells him that now he'll be free to claim that the Civil War was fought over tariffs and taxes. And even in regards of Johnny Reb, when Atun-Shei asks him in the second episode if he wasn't the Confederate cavalry officer he shot dead in the previous episode, Johnny Reb denies it... even though Atun-Shei points out that he has a blood-stained Confederate cavalry officer uniform at his feet, causing Johnny Reb to get nervous and segue away to the show's intro. This gets even more confusing in "Wasn't it KINDA about STATES' RIGHTS!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!", when Billy Yank specifically says that he and Johnny talked about the Corwin Amendment in Episode 1 before flashing back to Atun-Shei talking with the Cavalry Officer, seemingly making the definitive statement that that ''is'' him and Johnny.
The first ''Checkmate, Lincolnites!'' has Atun-Shei in plainclothes, where subsequent videos have him in costume as "Billy Yank." The unnamed Confederate Cavalry Officer is there instead of "Johnny Reb" while the backdrop is just the confederate flag, rather than the union confederate flag hybrid. A more minor example, but from episode 1-3 (or 5 given the callback to the Whataboutism Drinking Game) the Union Soldier is Atun-Shei in a uniform instead of Billy Yank, and in the second episode Johnny Reb is implied to be the confederate cavalry officer from the first episode.
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