sorry, there is ranting within.
May. 23rd, 2010 12:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
csi_sanders11291. Done with school now. Only thing I have to go back for now is Graduation on the 5th. Grades - sometime next week *bites nails*
2. The Losers (Book 1) = Done.
3. WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH TEXAS AND THIS ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY INSANE TEXTBOOK THING? As a history major, this terrifies me. Seriously. History is deluded and biased enough before you start editing stuff out. Half the stuff they teach kids these days is already very very wrong with regard to history, but picking and choosing who they should paint in positive lights is... ridiculous. McCarthy is supposed to be painted as a decent guy, said one article, not as the communists-are-everywhere witch-hunter that most decent historians would classify him as. And then! And, then, I read in another article: ""I believe no one can read the history of our country without realizing that the Good Book and the spirit of the savior have from the beginning been our guiding geniuses," she said."
What? Okay, first of all broad-brushes in history? They do not work. To have such a level of douche-baggery annoys me. I believe in God. I do. But, I don't believe that religion should be the center-point of anything. And to say that a book that wasn't put together until 1700 years ago has almighty control over everything... No. Just no.
What the hell are kids going to be like in 10 years if they actually do this? America hasn't always (read: usually isn't) the good guy in much of anything. For example... How many of you know anything at all about the Philippine-American War? Not many, I am willing to bet. That's because WE LOST. Not only did we lose and practically erase it from our history books, but if it was ever referred to, it was dubbed the Philippine Insurrection. Like we just showed up to help them out and they got all uppity and started fighting. Noooo. We went in thinking that 'Oh, they'll totally want our help, cause everybody wants to be like us, right?' It was the prequel to Vietnam. We did not understand jackshit about their culture and we went barging in without trying to. (Wow, I'm getting off topic). If textbooks start editing even more unsavory details out to make America seem more Patriotic and otherwise awesome, what are we gonna have left?
Most of American History is totally ridiculous. I know Maryland was bad enough, schizophrenic as it was with all sorts of issues (religion, whether or not it wanted independence, South/North stuff in Civil War, and on up into the 20th century). America as a whole is even worse. Declaration of Independence and all that went with it? Treason. Boston Tea Party? A bunch of rich guys who couldn't make money (the Tea Tax actually made British tea cheaper for the people to buy, as opposed to smuggled in tea that the rich were pedaling) riling up the regular folk until they'd incited a mob. War of 1812? Was not the British trying to reclaim America for the Monarchy.
Another article had this gem: "They also required students to evaluate efforts by global organizations such as the United Nations to undermine U.S. sovereignty." WHAT THE FUCK? You wanna know who came up with the original idea that preceded the UN? Yeah, that would be our guy. Woodrow Wilson. As part of his 14 Point Plan following the end of WW1 (which, he predicted, if it weren't followed we'd have another war within a generation - this was 1919. He wasn't right, was he? Generation = 20 years, yeah. And what happened in 1939? Hm, start of WW2). His last point? The League of Nations. Oi.
I... I need to stop typing this. I'm giving myself a headache.
On a final note, I'm just gonna end with what some of the geniuses protesting this nonsense are saying.
Just educate.
2. The Losers (Book 1) = Done.
3. WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH TEXAS AND THIS ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY INSANE TEXTBOOK THING? As a history major, this terrifies me. Seriously. History is deluded and biased enough before you start editing stuff out. Half the stuff they teach kids these days is already very very wrong with regard to history, but picking and choosing who they should paint in positive lights is... ridiculous. McCarthy is supposed to be painted as a decent guy, said one article, not as the communists-are-everywhere witch-hunter that most decent historians would classify him as. And then! And, then, I read in another article: ""I believe no one can read the history of our country without realizing that the Good Book and the spirit of the savior have from the beginning been our guiding geniuses," she said."
What? Okay, first of all broad-brushes in history? They do not work. To have such a level of douche-baggery annoys me. I believe in God. I do. But, I don't believe that religion should be the center-point of anything. And to say that a book that wasn't put together until 1700 years ago has almighty control over everything... No. Just no.
What the hell are kids going to be like in 10 years if they actually do this? America hasn't always (read: usually isn't) the good guy in much of anything. For example... How many of you know anything at all about the Philippine-American War? Not many, I am willing to bet. That's because WE LOST. Not only did we lose and practically erase it from our history books, but if it was ever referred to, it was dubbed the Philippine Insurrection. Like we just showed up to help them out and they got all uppity and started fighting. Noooo. We went in thinking that 'Oh, they'll totally want our help, cause everybody wants to be like us, right?' It was the prequel to Vietnam. We did not understand jackshit about their culture and we went barging in without trying to. (Wow, I'm getting off topic). If textbooks start editing even more unsavory details out to make America seem more Patriotic and otherwise awesome, what are we gonna have left?
Most of American History is totally ridiculous. I know Maryland was bad enough, schizophrenic as it was with all sorts of issues (religion, whether or not it wanted independence, South/North stuff in Civil War, and on up into the 20th century). America as a whole is even worse. Declaration of Independence and all that went with it? Treason. Boston Tea Party? A bunch of rich guys who couldn't make money (the Tea Tax actually made British tea cheaper for the people to buy, as opposed to smuggled in tea that the rich were pedaling) riling up the regular folk until they'd incited a mob. War of 1812? Was not the British trying to reclaim America for the Monarchy.
Another article had this gem: "They also required students to evaluate efforts by global organizations such as the United Nations to undermine U.S. sovereignty." WHAT THE FUCK? You wanna know who came up with the original idea that preceded the UN? Yeah, that would be our guy. Woodrow Wilson. As part of his 14 Point Plan following the end of WW1 (which, he predicted, if it weren't followed we'd have another war within a generation - this was 1919. He wasn't right, was he? Generation = 20 years, yeah. And what happened in 1939? Hm, start of WW2). His last point? The League of Nations. Oi.
I... I need to stop typing this. I'm giving myself a headache.
On a final note, I'm just gonna end with what some of the geniuses protesting this nonsense are saying.
Just educate.
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no subject
Date: 2010-05-23 04:44 am (UTC)I mean, I don't wanna be mean when I talk about America but then shit like THIS happens and... oi... ><
I definitely agree with you because I love history so much too. Just to watch it being editted like that in this day and age... it breaks my heart and makes me rage all at the same time. =/
Become an educator
Date: 2010-05-23 04:59 am (UTC)The only nation that I am aware of which takes itself harshly to task in its history books is Germany since WWII.
On the other hand, we also have a tendency when we study, present and analyze history to use our current frame of reference for viewing the acts of those who came before us This approach also distorts our perceptions and perhaps our understanding. Africans themselves kept slaves. People have kept slaves or discriminated horribly against other humans since the dawn of time. It doesn't make it right but you can't purely use 21st century value systems to analyze things in prior eras because, right or wrong, perceptions were different.
Having said that, it disturbs me to find in the 21st century that people are still referencing outmoded value systems when the worldwide humanistic lens has shifted and there is now a much stronger common sense of certain behaviors as being unacceptable. Yet, even against such social stricture and condemnation they are still practiced-genocide, subjugation of women and children, religious and racial schisms. We are supposed to be at the point where society understands its duty to protect the weak from the strong and yet it still fails so often in this fundamental duty.
Texas, whatcha gonna do? Conservatives are a fanatical lot who hide behind a book which has had a lot of damage done in its name. I saw this guy in charge of the change and he was so proud of what he had done. The reporter asked him about the fact that America was meant to be a secular state and he conceded that but then went on to say that it was founded by Christians with Christian beliefs. They still rely on that as their justification for the outlandish acts they perform in this day and age!!! Seriously! It could have been founded by Buddhists or Muslims or Jews if they had just found their way here first, then what? The original inhabitants were naturalists and animists, why not adopt and enforce their world view. Those founding 'Christians' were fleeing from religious persecution from whence they came. Religious persecution at the hands of...? You got it, other Christians!!!!
no subject
Date: 2010-05-23 06:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-23 04:25 pm (UTC)2) Is that the same Losers as the movie that just came out, or is it a book series of the same name?
3) I don't even know what to say. This sort of thing makes me really angry and I know I could rant forever if I got started, so I'm just not going to, especially since it's pretty much already been covered in this post/comments.