Pretty much every history class not so subtly points you to the conclusion that the US had racism, it was bad, but we defeated it so people complaining now are just spoiled.
…when I was a kid. That shit is probably way worse now.
That’s more a Yankee standard education. The semi-former Confederate states are more along the lines of it was good, but good got defeated, so we have to keep up the good fight.
That different parts of your tongue taste different things.
When I was little, we did an experiment where we were supposed to “feel” which part of our tongue we were tasting things with, and I was like, “pretty sure I taste it everywhere”. That teacher was fired for her anger issues at the end of the year, and that was certianly one of the moments where it came out, haha.
that we have 5 senses
This is only relevant if you went to school after M Night Shyamalan blew up
The annual lie: Next year isn’t going to be as easy as this year!
Middle School will be harder than Elementary School.
Junior High will be harder than Middle School.
Senior High will be harder than Junior High.
College will be harder than Senior High.
Working a real job will be harder than School.
I frequently wanted to kill myself, the idea work would be even worse than school really didnt help because school was absolutely awful. So it will only get worse isn’t a great message.
“They won’t take late work”
You don’t want that to go on your permanent record.
Me coming up with excuses for missing work in High School: “Um, my parents both died in a horrible accident, I got cancer, and my dog ate my textbook.”
Me coming up with excuses for missing work in my job: “Yeah, I didn’t do it.”
And at work, you give yourself an A and go for a C.
In Germany, a lot of the times it’s taught that we barely did colonialism. Like, “colonialism was bad but it was mostly other countries”. Meanwhile, in reality, German colonialism saw the first mayor genocide of the 21st century.
Those poor mayors.
I’ll add to that: And that germany improved the lives of people in the colonies because they build railway and Electricity
Also: the classic “people didnt know the nazis would do such things.” “Austria was the first victim of the nazis” both ofc wrong. Austria participated actively in all crimes germany did and the centiment that germany and austria should unite was wide spread in both. And OF COURSE THE PEOPLE KNEW WHAT THE NAZIS WERE PLANNING TO DO!
The group leader in dachau also told us “the gas chambers here were luckily never used” Another good one is about reunification that it was all peacful and happy and sunshine, unlike its actually gutting out the entire industry and economy of east germany.
I read it as the first mayo genocide and was ready to cheer
You want to get rid of all mayonnaise?
On the 5th of May.
The United States was founded on principles of liberty and equality for all.
While I was taught that in elementary school, I was also taught about the 3/5ths compromise as early as middle school. By the time high school rolled around I was being taught about reconstruction and the corrupt bargain of 1877. I guess I’m lucky I got a good education in the north because I am aware that’s not necessarily the standard nationally.
I was also taught these things in the south, living in North Florida. As part of a 1 semester Florida history class in middle school, we also went into each of the spanish conquistadors and how they murdered their way across the continent.
My AP history teacher gave us copies of Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States as a supplemental to our textbooks. She was an awful teacher overall, but I appreciated her trying to make sure we had multiple perspectives.
Then I went to an elite east-coast private college, where I almost failed US History because I called the professor out for teaching Lost Cause bullshit.
Any academic peddling lost cause bullshit is a complete joke. Just curious, were they from the south?
Of course they were.
He also characterized the 2000 election as “a perfect tie” that could’ve just as easily been decided by a coinflip instead of the more historically agreed upon view of the Supreme Court ratfucking Florida’s recount.
Yeah we talked about colonialism in my middle school.
However, it was discussed as a fact of history and we went into detail about the slave trade triangle and all that.
And we did it without politicizing it. It was facts-based rather than pushing some weird political narrative about how america is heroic, or america is evil. Fancy that… just teaching history.
Sometimes moralizing is necessary. In Canada we had one teacher go into detail on the kidnapping of indigineous children and the residential schools they were sent to where they were often beaten or raped. I’m glad that teacher did that since many of my contemporaries were not aware of that history and some remain oblivious into adulthood. There’s nothing worse for a nation than people having a false sense of pride in it (as we’re seeing in the US currently).
In Canada we had one teacher go into detail on the kidnapping of indigineous children and the residential schools they were sent to where they were often beaten or raped
That isn’t moralizing dude. That’s just telling facts.
The moralizing/politicizing part is when you tell the kids that it’s their fault and they should feel bad about it. It isn’t, and they shouldn’t.
Technically, it was founded on the principles of liberty and equality for all. Just not the practices of liberty and equality for all. it was an aspiration, a goal of our forefathers.
But the way they teach it in school is pretty deceptive— as if it was all accomplished magically on that day in 1776, when, even today, it’s a constant struggle— a goal that we’re much closer to, but still remains elusive. that’s the part they don’t teach.
But the way they teach it in school
Nah, I was taught the latter way in school. They pretty explicitly told us about the 3/5 compromise, the lack of voting rights for women, etc. Really, its pretty hard to avoid the idea that all people were not seen as equal in the eyes of the constitution when ratified, when you know that we have a whole unit on the civil war coming up.
it was founded on the principles of liberty and equality for all.
No. Not at all. Give me a break. No women, natives, enslaved people, etc.
it was an aspiration, a goal of our forefathers.
I just do not believe this. These are people who regularly raped their slaves, and then enslaved the progeny.
It was an aspiration for white men specifically. It took centuries for the definition of humanity to expand from that perspective.
If we didn’t have this lie, people wouldn’t be as mad when they found the parts where it is untrue.
Checks and balances in the US government. Government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Constitutional rights being unassailable.
All these are lies. I think it can be fixed, but it won’t be easy.
That’s less a lie and more ‘teaching the ideal.’ The problem isn’t learning how the system is supposed to work. That’s how you learn to be a mechanic. You learn how an engine is supposed to work so you can spot where it’s gone wrong. The issue is more one of there are millions of people and they get 10 minutes on how it’s supposed to work and then only 3 of them go into politics and learn how it actually works/doesn’t work. Democracy requires more than a one week chapter on civics, once a year. We all have to be mechanics, or at least be prepared to try.
I think it can be fixed
I mean, good luck. The Principle-Agent Problem is a classic of sociology, particularly with respect to business. If you can solve it, there’s a Nobel in Economics waiting for you.
Democracy is an attempt at aligning in the interests of the plurality principles with their government agencies. But there’s obviously a whole lot of flaws with democracy generally speaking, even before you get into the particulars of the American system.
I do think that the Lockean Social Contract, as the foundation for any governmental system, is a more interesting and more well-thought-out concept to explore than the mythology surrounding the American three-branch system. Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent does an excellent job of breaking down how a public body can be turned against its own interests. Zinn’s People’s History gives a ton of insight into the underbelly of the American political beast and how people respond to industrial and state oppression. State and Revolution does an excellent job of describing the role of the state in society and how it can best be dismantled.
But the endless debate around whether US Government works as described or intended really loses the forest of social economy for the ideological tent post trees. Fetishization of the US system only contributes to its rot and our own downfall.
You mean Chomsky, the pedo-ally?
The very same.
Columbus discovered America.
At least this is what I was taught when I was in elementary school back in the '90s.
I have no idea if it’s changed thus far.
It’s especially funny since dude never even touched USA, but USA is racist/genocidal enough to worship dude anyway.
I fucking hate Columbus day.
Let’s pop open the diaraies of his crew mates and him and do a read a loud, then! Let’s talk about it.
I passionately hate Christopher Columbus and the worship of him.
I also despise the fact that it’s a national holiday here in the States. I’m not even sure precisely what it is that we’re celebrating.
I mean if we’re going to commemorate explorers why not Marco Polo or Ponce de Leon or Lief Erikson.
I was taught Captain Cook discovered Australia, he wasn’t even the first European
Everyone knows it was Cap‘n Crunch
He wasn’t a captain either
Neither was Cap‘n Crunch
Columbus was the first European to explore Cuban isles. Lief Erickson explored Newfoundland about 400 years before I believe.
Indigenous people discovered and settled the Americas >20,000 years ago.
And animals knew about it before that, if we don’t want to be specist.
It was the old world civilisations discovering the new world for the second time, and for the first time that lead to wider contact. (Columbus himself died before it was found to be a whole continent)
I remember in school learning about the different areas of the tongue tasting different things, and then we had an experiment to try it, and everyone was like “wow it works!” but I told the teacher it didn’t work for me, and I got told I was doing it wrong =w=
Anywho, the entire thing about different tastes being localized to different areas is bullshit, so that’s 1 point to me and 0 to the teacher
My daughter and I did this for one of her science projects. I would drop lemon juice or sugar water somewhere on her tongue, and she was able to taste everything everywhere.
It was so long ago I don’t remember, but I hope we got a good grade on that one!
The lesson is to give the authority figure the answer they want to hear so they’ll leave you alone!
This guy works ^
Same experiment I had lol. Had to pat down our tongues with a paper towel and then put sugar/lemon/pepper and whatever else on it :3 and yeah, I very much could taste everything everywhere haha
Yah you didn’t succumb to confirmation bias. I knew as a kid this was wrong because they said viewer was treated in the back… yeah then explain when i got laundry detergent on my fingers forgot about it and when to clean my fingernails layer and the tip of my tongue is absolutely tasting bitterness.
Was also confirmation bias in action
We “learned” that in 6th grade science.
I remember the same teacher had a test question which was something like “you and a friend are playing at a landfill, and your friend spills sulfuric acid all over themselves, what should you do?” and the ‘correct’ answer was “pour sodium hydroxide on the spill” instead of my answer of “pour water on the spill.”
I had another science teacher who made a huge deal about her chronic Lyme, which is this really weird alternative medicine thing.
“Communism is when the government does stuff.”
I remember my first description of communism from a teacher in 5th grade.
“The government can force you to work in any field they decide. If they need dentists, they might just force you go to dentists school for 4 years. If after that, they decide they need plumbers, they will send you to plumber school and you will be a plumber. You don’t get to choose. If you don’t like it, they will send you to Siberia, which is a bad place.”
In theory, they could have done something like that, but outside of wartime conscription, why would you?
For basic practical reasons, a communist government is still broken into a million organisations, which operate and hire just like anywhere else.
In the future we will spend days pining for Siberia to escape the heat waves.
Yeah they don’t teach this in social studies and any school in America.
They actually teach what socialism is and what communism is. That’s where I learned it.
And why I know the difference between the two and what the definitions are both of these things.
In German schools, horseshoe theory is pretty much taught as a fact.
In light of German history, I guess that’s to be expected.
It’s not indisputable fact, even if a lot of people agree with it.
30 years ago, it was still taught that we Belgians went to the Congo out of benevolence, to help lift up the people there. Not one mention of rubber quota or chopped off hands. Fuck that indoctrination.
It wasn’t even “the Belgians.” It was the king that owned the place, if I remember right.
Absolutely correct. Curriculum probably couldn’t get into those matters of transition in fear of exposing the rotten stories surrounding it.
No wonder the King Leopold statues are under attack in Belgium like Confederate generals in the USA.
They kept silent about his palaces of course 🙃
I was explicitly told the reports of chopped hands were greatly exaggerated.
Disgusting.
Looking back it’s amazing how ignorant school kept us.
The bavarian socialist republic was a chaotic murderouse revolutionarny group that had to be crushed by the military because they were murdering people just for the fun of it and it was not supported by the people.
The exact opposite is the case. The people were big in support of it, it would have lead to full pure democracy but the SPD corrupted and destroyed they saw it as a threat to their perfered order of a none direct democracy with still clear societal seperation of wealthy and the rest
France: the French revolution was poor people rioting. We are starting to accept that it was rich people killing each other to replace monarchy, and using poor people as a side-effect, kind of like… what we have right now, what a coincidence!
It was “self-made” rich people (bourgeoisie) vs “birthright” rich people (nobility). We still got some cool side-effects though. Some of those bourgeois legitimately kick started what we call left and progressive politics today (Maximilien Robespierre, Jean-Paul Marat).
A lot of the early (1789) revolutionaries were from the nobility and even the clergy. Many of the reactionaries were up and coming bourgeois who were about to make their way into the nobility. Sorry Marx, you got a few things right, but that one was an oversimplification.
The vast majority of the victims of the reign of terror were commoners. The nobility were underrepresented at the guillotine, besides a few obvious high-profile cases.
It appears as though Robespierre legitimately lost his mind at some point. He attempted to introduce a “cult of the supreme being” with himself as high priest that focused on adhering to his own idea of virtue. Anyone not virtuous enough, which was effectively literally everyone else, was liable to be executed.
Early in the revolutionary wars, the revolutionaries had arrested so many people that the Paris jails were super overcrowded. Some people didn’t want the armies to leave Paris for the front lines because maybe all those jailed people would break out and cause trouble. So Marat proposed that they reduce the incarcerated population… by killing them all. September 1789 was a bad month to have been a petty thief in Paris.
So many of the popular notions about the revolution are distorted or just ass-backwards.
Yes, Marquis de Lafayette was a famous example of a noble going against the privilege system and in favor of democracy.
I think Robespierre is one of the pioneer of both left ideology, and left extremism leading to autoritarism and its crimes as we later saw in communist Russia and China.
is one of the pioneers of both left idiology and left extremism
Thomas Münzer and the peasent revolts with the Memminger Charter and the ditmarscher peasent republic: Hold our beer we’ll join
Thomas Münzer
Thanks for sharing, I didn’t know about how m. It’s quite intriguing that his revolutionary ideas came from his theology according to his wiki page.
If i may, please look into Kurt Eisner as well! And especially the type of democracy he wanted for bavaria and later germany (a council republik where you also elect your workplace leaders and can always unelect them!)
Yes it did. “God created all men equal, so why is nobility and clergy worth more than a farmer” was his idea. Nobles hunted him. Even martin luther warned against him
Give someone the power of life and death and they’ll start to equate attacks on them with attacks on the state which deserves death
People seem to forget that it almost immediately led to a military dictatorship
It did definitely did, the Terror and then Napoleon empires were dictatorships. It took a century for a a democratic republic to stabilize with improvements for the common people happening progressively (under early republics but also under the empires).
Thats how they teach it? Even here in germany (atleast in my state bavaria) they teach it that the revolutionaries were from all paths of life. Even some clerty and a few minor nobles were on their side. But the main front were the bourgeoisie (land owning city people)
I think that’s still an oversimplification.
The revolution started after the king called the Estates General in hopes of solving the debt crisis that had come in a large part from funding the American Revolution. The Estates General was a body made up of representatives of the three estates, the aristocrats, the clergy, and everyone else. The representatives of the third estate we’re primarily new money bourgeoisie, but they were elected, unlike the other two, and could therefore claim to represent the people. After failing to come to an agreement, the representatives of the third estate broke away and formed the National Assembly.
How much the National Assembly actually represented the people is debateable, but they did have some claim to that, unlike the other groups. There were also several mass actions like the storming of the Bastille that indicated support for what the representatives were doing, at least in the early years of the revolution.
That a, e, i, o and u were the only vowels. So what’s the vowel in sky?
I got marked incorrect for answering “a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y”
I remember learning “a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y too” in 2nd grade (at least >10 years ago)
Working hard will get you rewarded. When really you get dunked on with more work.
Many countries, like America, had actual economic mobility. There was a time where working hard could improve your economic status.
My family lost everything. Twice. Once to over-leveraging before a mortgage collapse in 83, and secondly to a house fire. We lived in an absolute fleabag of a moldy motel, a stereotype like you’d see on-screen, for about 10 months. The mold was so bad we had tiny mushrooms.
We got back, both times, to a stable home life in a mortgage and a fresh start. Dad paid off his home before retirement, by working his absolute ass off.
That’s just not feasible now, just one generation later.
Anyway, there was a time when hard work did get you something; so treat that as a historical thing and not a falsehood.
economic mobility
Ahh, so that’s how the economy fell off a cliff. It all makes sense now…
treat that as a historical thing and not a falsehood.
but it is a falsehood as it’s not longer correct. I agree there was a time it was true, but that time has passed and we should not be teaching it.
What do you think “historical thing” means?
This one for me too, hard work gets you nowhere without knowing people or ingratiating oneself and I am missing that gene
worse than that, if you do too good of a job you will be deemed too useful to promote, so not only will you be rewarded with more work but with career stagnation
for people who are workaholics that is a reward.
until you are burnt out from overwork and can’t move positions because you are “too valuable in your current role”
so just quit. if you’re that good of a worker you’ll easily get another job, probably with better pay.
Not everyone has the luxury of quiting a job on a dime like that and constant rejections when looking for a new job while being dogpiled at work will not help someone’s mental state.
but you have the luxury of being miserable and overworked, OK.
No, you have the misfortune.
i love fedi, everyone goes ‘no but u’
reminds me of 4th grade.
clearly fedi is full of very mature superintelligent linux users, who resort to grade school insults when you don’t agree with them.
I think it’s true, but I’m very few places. In the Marines, I was able to turn hard work into promotions, and now I’m regular life, I turn hard work into extra money, but only because I work for myself. So basically it only works in socialism or if you’re at the top of the ladder.
