JCC Senate Coping with American Authoritarianism

I saw that yesterday. I'm still picking my jaw up off the floor.

Is it not taught in schools there?

 

It does not surprise me one bit. I'm sure the Trumpers are already telling themselves it was all a lie set up by Bill Gates or something in the 90s.

 

I think the way the study is being painted is misleading. 23% of young Americans say that the Holocaust was made up or exaggerated or they aren't sure. That's not a good sign, but likely comparable with the older adult population. And what does it matter if they can't name camps or can't say the exact number of Jewish dead? Do people need to know similar details about the Atlantic slave trade to know it was a bad thing?

 

I guess curriculums vary from place to place. Since I took AP history classes, I'm not really qualified to answer what they teach in the regular history classes.

 

The way US History is taught - at least as far as I remember experiencing it - goes something like

180 average total days in school year:
1620 - 1800 = 100 class days
1800 - 1900 = 79 class days
1900 - 1970 = 1 class day, some time in mid June, in hot classroom with no fans, briefly spending some time on WW2, a brief sentence about the civil rights movement, ignoring Vietnam entirely and then "BELL RINGS" Schools out ...FORVER.

 

The humblest of humblebrags, eh?

You know what they didn't teach in my school? Post WW2 history. A lot of stuff there to learn about American Authoritarianism

 

That's not only an american problem. It's unfortunately almost everywhere the same.

 

Considering Donald Trump is president, I think it's safe to say our education system has been a complete, unmitigated failure.

 

To answer the OP's question:

--let myself get distracted with my work
--read and post here
--watch the monologues and other political content segments of my favorite late night
comedy shows
--escape into the world of Star Trek by watching one TNG ep on most evenings
--look forward to what has become the highlight of the week in my house:
"Takeout Thursdays"

that drinking game idea sounds really good about now, though

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6074202.stm

This study is 14 years old and reveals shocking ignorance if accurate, but at least most British kids can find the UK on a map.

My mum bought a little tin globe at a flea market when I was about five. I knew where pretty much everything was shortly thereafter.

Because the globe was tiny, smaller countries were abbreviated, so for years I thought Sierra Leone was called Sleone, and Portuguese Guinea (now Guinea Bissau of course), was called Port Guinea.

 

An answer more appropriate to the thread topic rather than a political post:

I try to focus on the things in my daily life- namely school and work. When I’m not doing that, other things I like such as fandoms I’m a part of, music I enjoy and exercise (the third one not so much lately)

 

That's an excellent way to deal with the situation @Emperor Ferus

 

Most Americans don’t know much of anything beyond what happens in their local neighborhood over the the past 7 days or so.

Also, Trump gave a speech today in which he announced a “major revamp of education“. This will involve putting forth a “patriotic, pro-American curriculum ”, to undo the “left-wing indoctrination” that has taught decades of children to be “ashamed of their heritage“. The new curriculum will push back on the “left-wing lie“ that America suffers from “systemic racism”. The new program will be funded by a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts.

Heard this on NPR while driving home in his own words. Almost threw up in my lap. I mean, using the endowment for funding is like asking the National Holocaust Center to fund an education program saying that Nazism was good for Germany’s economy. Not to Godwin things, but the analogy is apt.

 

In my poorly funded county school in the middle of nowhere Alabama, we learned a lot about the Holocaust and the Civil Rights movement. History was kinda over with the collapse of the Societ Union during my education and there was no framework for understanding the consequences of 9/11 yet. There's something off about that study.

To be fair, I'm not sure where my school education ends and my internet education begins. They both started fairly early.

I appreciate the different coping mechanisms you guys have listed. I tried to write a fantasy novel but it turned into a historical fantastical rebuttal to Gone with the Wind and I couldn't handle it anymore. I needed an escape from my fantasy novel outline.

Regarding Godwin's law, @Vaderize03 ........ is Godwin's law not dead?

 

Have put together a **** ton of YouTube "mix tapes" to replace, etc, the music that's on my iPod classic (it still works, but have shifted to only using my XR for on-the-go listening), and of course adding many tracks, etc, that aren't on said Classic; began to listen to/have became a huge fan of Chris Carter's Breakfast with The Beatles program on the SirusXM Beatles channel; have indulged my brother's "Lucy speak" for the family chihuahua, and along the way have created new nicknames for her; have worn nothing but pink shirts at work since mid-June.

 

There is no left-wing indoctrination. This is pure garbage cooked up by Republicans to distract people from their own right-wing extremism.

 

Trump says he will sign executive order on "patriotic education" in rebuke of 1619 project.

https://www.axios.com/trump-1619-project-race-education-d00c8e64-9d5a-44df-84fd-1c8775e68222.html

 

Civic values don't serve the Republican Party's interests. So of course they want to get rid of them.

 

Have you ever thought that you might be completely wrong?

 

Patriotic, Pro-American education? So what...slavery was a good thing, black people liked it, and to suggest otherwise you're an unpatriotic leftist-terrorist with an evil agenda. Or something. Their definition of love is hiding under a bed because the facts that don't adhere to your myth, scare you. It's not even patriotism or love of country they're after, it's devotion. 100% Loyalty. Loyalty to the idea that we never do bad. Ever. And to even think about analyzing this, is weak. And weakness is the enemy.

It's really freakin sick stuff. And we've seen this before in other regimes.

And the thing is...Trump doesn't give 2 ****s about this. He really doesn't care about left wing indoctrination. This is just meat on a stick to his base. And there's no way he could implement this in the next year or so.

 

who

 

And what, precisely, are you asking here?

 

Well what's the American authoritarianism that's being referred to ?