padawanlost:

Nope, this is wrong on multiple levels. Again, I strongly suggest you
watch this video.

First of all, the corrupt scumbags you mentioned were also part of the Republic.
In fact, the Senate was so corrupt and ineffective because of them. Also, the
Separatist movement was the result of the Republic inability to put its citizens
above these corporations. So the argument that the CIS was evil because it only
served the interests of the rich and powerful is meaningless. If the CIS was
despicable for being run by and for greedy corporations than so was the Republic.

Let’s go over someone GFFA history. For centuries the Republic
controlled everything. It allowed the
rich planets/corporations to explore the Outer/Mid Rim and provided on minimal
supported to these worlds. The Senate allowed the wealthy to explore the poor
and everyone was happy. The problem was, not everyone was happy. The poor were
rightfully angry they had to pledge themselves to a government that did nothing
for them. That sentiment grew over the centuries and it eventually become the
CIS. They wanted independence from a Republic that did nothing but explore
them.

The Sith explored that feeling to turn this growing sentiment into an weapon
to destroy the Republic and declare their Empire. And for them to be able to achieve that they would
need resources, that’s how they convinced the megacorps to join in on the idea.
However, not everyone on the separatist movement knew about this. For most of its
members, the CIS wanted nothing but independence. They weren’t fighting for
the interests of greedy corporations. They were fighting for
self-determination.

Separatists like Mina Bonteri and the Separatist Parliament operated separately
from the Separatist Council. The Parliament (led by civilians) took care of the
politics and the Council (controlled by Dooku and the megacorps) took care of
the war effort. Keep in mind that the Parliament was NOT aware of the crimes
the Council was committing in the name of the CIS. As far as the Parliament
knew, the Republic was the only side committing atrocities. The same way the
Republic had no idea what the CIS wanted because they blocked any attempt of
dialogue. The Republic was spreading such misinformation about the CIS that even
their own Jedi soldier didn’t recognized the humanity of their members. The fact
Ahsoka had trouble accepting someone as wise as Mina Bonteri was “separatist
scum” says a lot about the Senate approach to the war.

Speaking of the Republic, the same “scumbags” who were running the
Separatist Council were influencing the Senate. So if were debating on who is
better based on who was running what then both sides were evil because both
were “made up of greedy, corrupt scumbags”. Actually the Republic has been led
by “greedy, corrupt scumbags” for over a millennium and the CIS only last a few
years so if we weight on which caused more damaged, I’m afraid the Republic
will come painfully short.

The point of the Clone wars was that both sides were wrong. Both sides
were committing atrocities. When we say the CIS was the good guys we are
talking about separatist civilians, the people who were not knowingly involved
with the Sith and playing both sides against the middle. If you remove the Sith
out of the equation, the separatists were fighting for a much nobler cause.

The Replubic Senate was using a slave army to fight to maintain the status
quo (the rich exploring the poor). Even the “good senators” like Padmé, Bail and
Mon wanted that. they showed little concern for the lives of the slaves the
Senate was sending for slaughter. They just wanted to protect the Republic and
by default their planets interests. There was no concern about the validity of
the Separatist movement. No concern about slavery, crime and violence in the
Outer Rim. They just wanted to maintain the status quo, and let the Republic control the entire
galaxy again.

On the other hand, the separatist senate was fighting because they were
tired of all the slavery, crime and violence on their planets. They were tired
of getting of being disenfranchised. They weren’t fighting to maintain the
status quo, they actually wanted to change things, to improve things. They didn’t
even want the entire galaxy. They just wanted to be able to make their own
decisions without being explored and attacked while the Senate sat back and
watched.

If the Sith hadn’t meddled, the CIS would’ve been the good guys, no
questions asked. And even with the Sith influence, the good guys on the
separatist side were much more concerned about the well being of its citizens
than the good guys on the Republic side. That’s why we say the CIS were the
good guys, because if you take away all Palpatine’s bullshit, they were the
ones who actually wanted to improve things for everyone.