Originally published at: Trump’s Takeover of Education Is Taking A Page From the Confederacy - TPM – Talking Points Memo
The thread of partisan power and control is stitched through America’s public education system. In the name of the revisionist Lost Cause history — which holds that the South fought the Civil War over states’ rights and not to maintain the institution of slavery — the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) in the early…
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Who would know more about education than a World Wide Wrestling Federation executive. What a total bogus appointment, and to expect anything that she does to be in the benefit of education is foolhardy.
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Educators are the sticking point. And it will be awkward if, as these educators get their degrees, they will have to learn two different histories, one standard, the other bent by the fervid nightmares of our slave states, because after all maybe they will get a job in such a state.
“Hey Tom, where did you find a job?”
“Oh hi Carol. I got a job in Texas. Did you know that Texas is not really a state, but is actually its own nation?”
“No, Tom, I did not know that.”
“Of course you didn’t. We went to a really good graduate school together. Just shoot me.”
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“Prejudices are what fools use for reason.” – Voltaire
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The fascists continue to marginalize pretty much everything that does not fit their white, straight, paternalistic,christian-nationalist, and authoritarian perspective. And bringing back the Orwellian treatment of slavery so fits with their historical conniving. I am sure our zombie brain dead citizens will eat it up.
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I think you should clarify that it was Southern whites, not white people in general. Many of my northern white ancestors were suffragists and abolitionists. Some were both.
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The Institute for the Study of War used an interesting term yesterday with respect to Putin’s claimed successes in eastern Ukraine.
Russia appears to be increasing the sophistication of its cognitive warfare effort that uses flag raisings to achieve informational impacts.
Cognitive warfare is something you learn at military college.
- Any user of modern information technologies is a potential target. It targets the whole of a nation’s human capital.
I think a followup “Which nation?”" is appropriate. In Putin’s case, the flag-raisings are mainly for Russia’s domestic audience and the US. Similarly, Trump’s bombing of a “big facility” in Venezuela comes with little context. It seems mainly directed at the US audience, which is left to ponder how the Venezuelans managed to plop their country right on top of our oil.
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." In the name of the revisionist Lost Cause history — which holds that the South fought the Civil War over states’ rights and not to maintain the institution of slavery…"
Ok, but then explain why Slavery in well documented the Constitution of the Confederate States.
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I thought I knew history growing up. All sorts of history courses in high school and college. I didn’t hear about the Tulsa Race Massacre until I was over 60.
It isn’t just history that gets short shrift in our education system, it is also science and math. Science isn’t a series of facts, It is a method for learning more about the world. The scientific method should be taught starting in kindergarten all the way to post doc. Sadly it isn’t so our people don’t know how little they know when they try to research vaccines in Google.
You can’t begin to understand what is going on in the universe unless you understand math. Most math teachers aren’t that well educated in math so they just don’t know how to each it.
So there you have it history, math and science are all given short shrift in our schools and we wonder why our people can’t compete.
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“A country cannot survive if its values are forgotten by its people,” McMahon said in the release.
I would say that is Putin’s guiding principle with his war with Ukraine, he wants to reestablish the Soviet Union, right Linda.
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Pertaining to our ongoing education with all things Trump; The Guardian has a wonderful video of Zelenskyy’s facial expressions during Trump’s comments about Russia wanting Ukraine to succeed. Don’t miss it!
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It was a “certain type” all right. Ignorant white people. And by ignorant, I don’t mean uneducated, I mean bigots. I believe there is one “race” we should be worried about, the human variety. All the rest is just different notes on the scale. And say, how about judging people as individuals, not as a bloc.
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“A country cannot survive if its values are forgotten by its people,” McMahon said in the release.
Exactly. And that’s what Trump II: the Retribution is all about. Make Americans forget the basic values on which this country was founded. Make Americans ignorant of the Constitution. Make Americans forget that much of our strength has always come from being a nation of immigrants, constantly renewing itself.
Make Americans forget that we arte the United States of America, and when we’re united, there’s nothing we can’t do. (Some wise forgotten historical figure said that. Who knows who.)
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When it comes to slavery, Republican values support state’s rights, even though the federal government is the clear authority over constitutional rights.
When it comes to education, the states have the right to order it the way each state wants, but instead Republicans want the federal government to dictate to the states.
“A country cannot survive if its values are forgotten by its people,” McMahon said
Yeah. Like now with Trump conservatives.
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Page from Confederacy
“History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes”.
– Mark Twain (I think)
I don’t have any stats, but some number of old Confederacy adults are still living in the 1870s.
They will love this. Just love it.
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He and his supporters are rewriting the history of this country -from the Revolution to the Civil War to the insurrection on January 6. It is taking the truth out of our children’s textbooks. Why are they so afraid of the truth?
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Keith Olbermann is lethal today.
He points out that Ukraine is 85% Christian, more Christian than the United States (!) and much more Christian than Russia. Trump should be attacking Russia instead of Nigeria.
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As for the history part of your comment:
Mr. Kirk, a civics teacher way back in high school would tell us that AmHist textbooks were missing so much important info. Why? Because the textbook publishers want to sell books. Confederate states boards of ed simply would not buy texts that failed to gloss over the uglier parts of our history – for starters, the treatment of blacks and native Americans.
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Scroll down in this article.
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if there’s any help for this, it has to lie in somehow shrinking the number of white people who think it’s a good idea so more white enclaves’ll vote its adherents out over the next few years….
But are there any brilliant ideas anywhere about how to do that? Any projects explicitly doing that or is everybody too squeamish to deliberately target white people with any such campaign? Seems like I’ve heard of a little agitation in some places against the encroachment of mobs of Moms for Liberty and Turning Point USA into local schools but I have no idea how widespread such sentiments are in the whiter-than-white areas, which is where the voting really has to happen or we’re screwed, seems to me. I’m not sure the low-hanging fruit of getting higher voter turnout among the blue and the bluer purples can really put sanity over the top now…..
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