To deny the reality of history is to do a terrible wrong to the experience of those who endured slavery, or the minority experience of native Americans. It is a heinous thing to do, and it is a totally unnecessary thing to do. It is beyond 'racially insensitive', it is racist. It is profoundly dishonest.
What it does accomplish is to promote the fact-challenged world view of conservatives that likes to just ignore anything - and there are a LOT OF THINGS - that just don't fit. So they come up with other words to justify it, to try to put lipstick on their pig of an ideology. But what it boils down to is they LIE. They lie by omission, and they lie by commission. They lie lie lie lie lie.
It's no accident that the U.S. is so far behind other developed countries in education. It is the fault of fact-averse, ideology rather than reality driven conservatives.
From the Huff Po:
During the news conference more than two dozen Tea Party activists handed out material that said, "Neglect and outright ill will have distorted the teaching of the history and character of the United States. We seek to compel the teaching of students in Tennessee the truth regarding the history of our nation and the nature of its government."
And that further teaching would also include that "the Constitution created a Republic, not a Democracy."
The group demanded, as they had in January of last year, that Tennessee lawmakers change state laws governing school curricula. The group called for textbook selection criteria to include: "No portrayal of minority experience in the history which actually occurred shall obscure the experience or contributions of the Founding Fathers, or the majority of citizens, including those who reached positions of leadership."
The latest push comes a year after the Texas Board of Education approved revisions to its social studies curriculum that would put a conservative twist on history through revised textbooks and teaching standards.
The Texas revisions include the exploration of the positive aspects of American slavery, lifting the stature of Jefferson S. Davis to that of Abraham Lincoln, and amendments to teach the value of the separation of church and state were voted down by the conservative cadre. Among other controversial amendments that have been approved is the study of the "unintended consequences" of affirmative action.
The board approved more than 100 amendments affecting social studies, economics and history classes for Texas's 4.8 million students.
I'm sure they'd like to lighten up the complexion of black history month as well. I think it is fair to call that racist on the part of the Tennessee Tea Party.
It's already been tried, removing slavery from references to the causes of the American Civil War. They don't want to make the connection between race and slavery.
Because the REAL history doesn't work for the conservative point of view.
When you have to CHANGE real history, you are not, emphatically NOT, a person who genuinely cherishes your nation's origins, and you are not a person who genuinely values the documents, the philosophy, or the historic figures who made that history.
This is more of a condemnation of our founding fathers; the next tea party crack'd pot tea pot/tea party conservative who uses the phrase 'founding fathers' should choke on the words before they can escape his or her mouth.
This is the real tea party, a bunch of bowdlerizing hypocrites and puritanical prudes who believe that it is important to teach lies, and that the truth is too dangerous for anyone to know.
That is terrifying, and what is the worst about it is that these assholes ongratulate themselves on how moral and honest and damned patriotic they are.
They got the first part of that right, the 'damned' part.
No wonder these jerks hate science; they hate anything that disagrees with their silly, hysterical, obsessive/compulsive, authoritarian, controlling belief system.
These are people who hate the truth, and who hate freedom, and who hate the REAL origins of this country. They are narrow minded people who would force their notions of conformity on others, and facts be damned.
These are hateful, stupid, ignorant, vicious people who should not be allowed to control other people through the authority of government. They should be recognized for what they are, and not allowed to order the mis-education of children, ever, until they agree to live in reality, recognizing reality both past and present, including history and science. Until they do that, they are bitter, narrow-minded, prudish and dysfunctional human beings and should be recognized as such. It has never gone well when they have had power.
It shouldn't be surprising that they'd want to rewrite history; they've already tried their hand at rewriting the Bible. There you go - the conservatives put the b-i-l---e- in Bible. Apparently nothing is sacred to them other their own insufferable ideology.
Nobody does it better, than Stephen Colbert. The bit is about 6 minutes in, but getting there is half the fun. (I particularly enjoyed the comparison between Nut Gingrich and a flaming bag of poop you can vote for...). It's 'Tonight's Word', if you want to watch the whole thing. It's hilarious.
"During the news conference more than two dozen Tea Party activists handed out material that said, "Neglect and outright ill will have distorted the teaching of the history and character of the United States. We seek to compel the teaching of students in Tennessee the truth regarding the history of our nation and the nature of its government."
ReplyDeleteAnd that further teaching would also include that "the Constitution created a Republic, not a Democracy."
That is what they said. Not a thing wrong with any of it.
And then you went on a wild rant about stuff that wasn't even mentioned and worked yourself up into a convoluted frenzy of nonsense.
And hey! Guess what? The founding fathers were concerned about education, but they knew it wasn't governments job to provide it, which is one of the main problems with education today. It should be a crime to send kids to these damn government indoctrination centers and have their heads filled with mush. Individual thought is not allowed and when you hear the bell, react like Pavlov's dog.
The group demanded, as they had in January of last year, that Tennessee lawmakers change state laws governing school curricula. The group called for textbook selection criteria to include: "No portrayal of minority experience in the history which actually occurred shall obscure the experience or contributions of the Founding Fathers, or the majority of citizens, including those who reached positions of leadership."
You are factually inaccurate on all points anonymous.
DeleteIt is all incorrect, and the people trying to lie about slavery and about the founding fathers are on a par with the holocaust deniers.
Public education was in fact greatly promoted and stressed by the founding fathers for example.
Were you educated by one of those extremist right wingnut religious cults or some similar home schooling that denies facts?
You're sad and ignorant anonymous.
Lets start you out slowly so your brains don't accidentally liquefy and run out your ears from the shock of introducing facts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_the_Thirteen_Colonies
Primary and secondary education
The New England Puritans valued education, both for the sake of religious study (which was facilitated by Bible reading) and for the sake of economic success. A 1647 Massachusetts mandated that every town of 50 or more families support an elementary school and every town of 100 or more families support a grammar school, where boys could learn Latin in preparation for college. In practice, some New England towns had difficulty keeping their schools open and staffed, but virtually all New England towns made an effort to provide a school for their children. Both boys and girls attended the elementary schools (though sometimes at different hours or different seasons), and there they learned to read, write, and cipher. In the mid-Atlantic region, private and sectarian schools filled the same niche as the New England common schools.[1]
The South, which was overwhelmingly rural, had few schools of any sort until the Revolutionary era. Wealthy children studied with private tutors; middling children might learn to read from literate parents or older siblings; many poor and middling white children, as well as virtually all black children, went unschooled. Literacy rates were significantly lower in the South than the north; this remained true until the late nineteenth century.[2]"
And by the way, if you believe sources like David Barton, you're an idiot. The man is an incompetent ideologue who has no connection with actual history other than he can more or less spell the word history. So don't even begin to try to quote him or stupid shit like his here, unless you can provide a thorough fact check.
Hint - Barton doesn't stand up well to fact checking, such as comparisons to the actual documents he quotes. Barton makes shit up, not unlike the Tennessee tea partiers, to suit their prejudices.
I would like to see a recognition that race isn't the sole subject of American history, but this does appear to be going too far. I'm concerned about emphasis, but this group apparently is concerned about denying facts.
ReplyDeleteI find the Conservative Bible project to be astonishing. During the days of my youth when I was still being dragged to church by my parents, I was told that the Word of God (TM) was sacred and that it was a sin to change one word therein. Perhaps that got left out of the second draft too.
DG, I said that the founding fathers WERE concerned about education, however it was not their role on the federal level, but up to the states.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea who Barton is, but I do read John Taylor Gatto. My guess is, you probably have a problem with to which I say, tough shit
"It has never gone well when they have had power."
ReplyDeleteSo when was it that the Tea Partiers had any "power"? I missed that part of your history revision denier revision.
Wow, Mike. You seem to be taking a few (slanderous) points attributed to a few people and slurring a whole group. Except that not all tea partiers don't share a single skin color, how would you differentiate your post from racism?
ReplyDeleteYours is a politics of hate.
Anon, Dog Gone wrote the post. It's about the Tennessee Tea Baggers wanting to remove certain things from the history books. What the fuck are you talking about?
DeleteIt's your site. Your name is at the top. Something like Ron Paul's newsletter perhaps?
DeleteExcept for the all important distinctions that
Delete1. MikeB is not running for office,
2. is not soliciting or otherwise getting money for what he publishes here,
3. IS aware of the content (unlike Paul who claims he wasn't) and
4. has made abundantly clear, stated over and over, that our opinions and posts are our own, not his, including that they appear with our names not his, and
5.that Mikeb sometimes agrees with his co-bloggers, and sometimes disagrees, whereas Ron Paul did not include his own commentary on those objectionable posts in his newsletter and
6. Mikeb makes both agreement and disagreement clear at the time of publication. You could add
7. Nothing here by Mikeb or his co-bloggers has been anything like as bigoted and terrible as the crap in Ron Paul's newsletter.
and
8.Mikeb does actively edit content of which he disapproves.
So except for being entirely different in those 8 seminal ways, which is to say, being entirely different in every pertinent and substantive aspect..............no, you can't honestly make the comparison except by being your usual utterly intellectually dishonest self, and by making your usual error in critical thinking by conflating two profoundly dissimilar things as if they were similar.
THAT Greg is why we have such a low opinion of your claim to critical thinking, and such a strong contempt for your intellectual dishonesty and that is why Laci correctly if rudely identifies you as a fuckwit.
YOU DON'T REASON WELL OR HONESTLY.
As I've said before, you are devoid of a sense of humor. How can you comment on my critical thinking, when what I wrote was obviously in the spirit of fun?
DeleteDog Gone, the dog you remind me of is a Yorkie. Tiny, yappy, obsessive, and deserving of a name like Precious.