Lo Jacobs

When you're telling people that the KKK were a bunch of moral activists who targeted wife beaters, you have no right to protest that Wade Michael Page wasn't a white supremacist:

One of the most offensive:

And:

Some context (go fuck yourself, Bobby Jindal):

This all ties into the dialogue we've been having in the Chick-Fil-A thread about the deep south being a whole 'nother country. What do you think about this? How prevalent do you think these "facts" will become? Is this a "sky-is-falling" situation?

[Mother Jones]

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Jahar Aabye

I rarely try to compare any political situation to 1984, at least in terms of the domestic policies of Oceania, because it is an extreme example. However...this is one situation where I do think that there is a parallel. In Oceania, the Party schools indoctrinate children with false versions of history, constantly changing. It's similar to Winston's job, but in many ways more important and more pernicious. By altering how history is taught, by altering various facts as they are presented, one can alter the past if it is done on a large enough scale.

In the end of the book, O'Brien explains to Winston that the past is infinitely malleable, and that it is control of the past that is central to control of the present. Now, I don't think that this situation has the same undertones of power and control, both because of a lack of competence and because I'm not sure it's their goal. On the other hand, they're not aiming these textbooks at the Outer Party, but at the proles. While Orwell pointed out that the proles are not going to rise up and seize power, they are useful pawns in any power struggle.

But maybe I'm reading too much into it. A better explanation is that there really are fuckwits who believe this crap, and they're taking advantage of lax standards to seek validation for their views.

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Richie Waves

The ugly side of the private voucher school system agenda bubbles to the surface.

AshaSekayi Ra

As a former Louisianan, I find that to be thoroughly embarrassing. Louisiana has had a horrible education track record. But, I was one of the lucky kids that went to a magnet school there in the 90's when they still believed in those wacky concepts like critical thinking and science.

Between this and the horrifying articles about what Texas has planned for schools, I am *really* scared for the future of the U.S.

AshaSekayi Ra

I'm not one to believe in grand conspiracy theories. But, I definitely think there is ill intent behind taking critical thinking out of schools, as well as perverting historic and scientific facts.

What better way to control a population than to raise them blissfully ignorant of their very own history and of scientific discoveries that prove part of their religious doctrine is not true.

Cindy Claveau

Texas. Tennessee. Louisiana. Arkansas.

It's not most of the US, but there is a definite trend, here.

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Lordfly Digeridoo

I dunno. I suspect this has been going on for decades, just not as in your face.

There's plenty of "rah rah America!" bullshit in elementary, middle school, and high school history books that are, at best, missing some important parts of the story.

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Joshua Nightshade

Actually, though, it's disproportionately skewed. Most textbook manufacturers design their products for the Texas market so they only have to make one version and Texas buys most of them. Changes to Texas' curriculum trickles out into affecting the curriculum in Rhode Island, New York, California and everywhere else.

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Gabriell Anatra

It has been going on for a long while but it has also taken a faster beat lately.

AshaSekayi Ra

True, but I had never seen anything remotely close to some of the hate and down right false information presented in that article in any of my school books. So, to my mind, it has gotten far worse and more dangerous.

Eris

Send your children to a school that makes them dumber. Good plan.

Lord

The School on a Tablet with Siri-like teaching the govening bodies bias of education, is coming soon. Mark my words.

One tablet per student with a web linkup to the so-called curriculum, with no more bussing to school buildings, school buildings turned into nearly vacant except for the few teleconferencing 'tutoring' teachers for the particularly gifted or disabled, is going to be seen as the panacea for suffering state budgets.

It will start in one state (Texas?) and as others see the effect it has on that states budget the others will follow.


Instead of 'Critical Thinking' , we will have 'Enlightened Thinking', or rather, have our thinking done for us.

Aliselia Aeon

I've know people that truly believe these things. I do think they have an interest in keeping people from learning to think and learn the truth.

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Eris

It's to prevent them from questioning their faith.

Aliselia Aeon

Or anything else, for that matter.

Lo Jacobs

The "facts" above appear to be more than unfounded conjecture about the possibilities of this law:

Sorry about all this text, but it's all pretty important:

The entire thing is worth reading. And, Bobby Jindal is coming for you via our favorite Mormon:

I've no illusion that Change.Org can do a god damn thing about any of this, but we should understand that Jindal probably has his eye on doing away with any kind of real scientific education on a national level.

[Repealing the Louisiana Science Education Act]

Johnnie Carling

Warning brain dump follows

While very shallow that is 100% true. The second incarnation of the KKK in the early 20's to WWII (there have been 3) gained their huge membership (5 million or so) by being a fraternal organization.. the way many Americans got health/live insurance at the time.

At the time they were not so much anti-black but more so anti-Catholic anti-Jew and that is the big reason their membership exploded in the midwest. Anti-Catholic/Jew meant their were against the new immigrants (Irish, Italians, Polish, eastern Europeans) who were coming here to take factory jobs away from the 'mericans. All this was covered as part of their moral crusading. (and shows why moral crusading is wrong)

But anyway they did have respectability with the government. The head of Indiana's KKK (the largest group) D. C. Stephenson was in fact good friends with the governor, and something like half of the Indiana congress were members of the KKK. The membership of the Indiana KK dropped like a rock when D. C. Stephenson was convicted of a brutal abduction/rape of a young schoolteacher who committed suicide because of the rape. He was convicted of 2nd degree murder. Apparently upset that his friend the Gov did not pardon him he released a list of all government members who were on the KKK payroll. The Indianapolis Times did a story (And won a Pulitzer Prize for it) abut the KKK in Indiana and that lead to a national downfall of membership.

BTW... My interest in the KKK is because I had a family member who was in the klan in the 1920's and I was just trying to understand how a person I remember as a child being a nice person could be a member of something so nasty.

Rock Chick

Jahar, Oceania covers lots of countries and islands, just wondering what ones you're referring to.

This surprises me somewhat because of how disgusting it is but otherwise it doesn't because it's just another ploy in a long line to turn kids into bigots who dare not question what they've been taught!

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Joshua Nightshade

It's a reference from the book!

/me hits Rock Chick over the head with culture.

Amity Slade

I can think of nothing more precious than teaching children about slavery and segregation with books published by Bob Jones University.

Rock Chick

The slave bit is really disturbing as well, just because a slave was well (well is relative I know and I'm leaving out their assumptions of this being the case mostly) treated didn't change they were considered property with little to no rights, it meant they didn't suffer as badly as others but that to me pointing that out as some sort of info to kids seems to diminish what they went through in general!

Rock Chick

/me stares at Joshua while filing her nails and gasps "I read Cleo and Cosmopolitan, I know what culture is sweetie!"

Jahar Aabye

They're also ignoring the fact that slaves don't necessarily die from direct abuse. Disease and malnutrition were common causes of death. Diseases like malaria and yellow fever were part of the reason why plantations in the South (where it was warm enough for malaria to reproduce) began using slaves in the first place. Unlike free or indentured servants, slaves were more disposable and slaves from West-Central Africa were slightly more resistant to malaria than Europeans, so a plantation owner whose workforce began as half African slaves and half European indentured servants (often debtors) would find himself with a workforce composed mostly of African slaves after a year or two. Of course "more resistant" doesn't mean immune.

Honestly, I'm not sure that most high school curricula do a very good job of teaching about the history of slavery in the Americas, but they sure as hell do a better job than the crap from these books.

Rock Chick

Over here the textbooks change regularly, from what I used to see and hear, like updated versions every few years, dunno what the differences are though.

Not sure if that's the case in the US or whether they use same ones for 10 years or more.

I also feel textbooks in relation to things like history are more of a guidebook, in the sense of I prefer the teachers that go beyond what's in them and really explore the issues and bits. Considering there's only so much about a subject that can be put into a textbook I feel that's needed! Of course I also realise there's time constraints, huge workloads, etc. for teachers.

Kara Spengler

Isn't this a duplicate of a thread about the same article? I can not find the other thread but I know I had posted to it before this one started.

Anyway, yeah, the sad irony about the trail of tears stuff was that a huge part of why it happened WAS christianity in the first place. Between 'go forth and multiply', teaching people that they were superior, and that they needed to convert everyone to their way of thinking it was pretty much a foregone conclusion what would happen. I highly doubt there was much 'bringing them to christ' going on .... unless that is a euphemism for killing them.

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