Is what you would think is happening if you read this "news" story on NBC. It's continuing the hysterics and panic kicked off when a school administrator in Texas told teachers they would have to present "opposing views" on the Holocaust. I mentioned that here, and noted it was already having the desired effect.
The desired effect is to fight any restrictions on the teaching (or, depending on who you ask, not teaching) of Critical Race Theory, the 1619 Project, and other leftwing anti-American initiatives in our school systems. Why the administrator said what she said is beyond me. Even now, I've not seen details or exactly what was meant by opposing views or the context of those views.
It was simply thrown out as a panic phrase meant to achieve what it is achieving. Like beating a jack-ass with a whip, it's had the desired effect on parents, pundits, activists, and journalists running around with hair on fire, wailing over the assumption that our kids will have to sing praise songs to Hitler.
This is how you do it, and why the modern news media is one of the greatest forces of evil, lies and oppression in the world today. With few exceptions, it exists to defend the Left at all cost, and hunt down and silence or eradicate any opposition to the Left by any means possible. I would believe the world is flat before I'd believe something the national press says today, especially if it's framed as a media firestorm of panic and fear.
Again, why the administrator did what she did is beyond me. Was she that ignorant? Does she get all of her information from Twitter posts? Does she know it's BS and she did this on purpose to gin up hysteria and opposition to limits on leftwing agendas in our schools?
I don't know. I just know the press has run with it and has had a field day. And I've come to realize when I see the press run with anything and have such a field day, there's a 99% chance the story itself is as false as a Paul Bunyan sighting.
Red Flag #1 was when the article quoted someone as saying White Americans enslaved Black people. Are they not aware of who we bought those slaves from?
ReplyDeleteThere is a strong likelihood they aren't. Per my sons' experience in college, many 'history' courses no longer really teach history. They teach that the modern Left's push to burn down Western Civilization is the correct path to take by framing what history they discuss like the article: evil white people (is there any other kind) enslave black people. Evil white people built America. Therefore I think we can see where this goes.
DeleteOr that first americans had slaves too. As did arabs. As did.... etc etc
DeleteBut that was good slavery. That's the official spin, that slavery existed, but it was generally a right fine situation - except for North America where it was truly evil. And only in America was it racist. Heck, I remember Mark Shea making that same claim more than a decade ago and my jaw dropped. Both claims are of course false. But in fairness to Mark, they're the official version that my sons have learned in school and college. The official version of the Left. Slavery may have existed, but only in North America was it really the Holocaust level slavery. Everywhere else it was just a thing that everyone did and usually was not so bad after all.
DeleteI am a lapsed member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, but I make no excuse for slavery. Slavery makes cruelty easy, but even when cruelty is absent, slavery is still evil. Slavery is an anthropological heresy, not a theological heresy: it makes some people a little more than human, and others a little less than human.
DeleteLet's not descend into whataboutism.
Of course slavery is and always was an evil. But the idea that it was an evil unique to the United States, and in the rest of the world it was no so bad, is no less an abhorrent idea. Slavery everywhere and always has been an evil - including today, when we use the euphemism 'human trafficking' to avoid seeing slavery's continued grip on the world. I object to the idea of attempting to make slavery in the US and only slavery in the US into America's Death Camps, and the necessity of diminishing it or even - as a Georgetown professor did back in 2017 - suggesting there could be times when slavery might rock it awesome style, as long as it's not the vile Western and America doing it.
DeleteThat's my beef. When we were abolishing slavery at the time, we were on the cutting edge of a revolutionary idea that the entire institution was intrinsically evil and must be abolished. And idea that would take almost two centuries to play out around the world. We can't act like nobody had ever heard of slavery until we got involved. And that's just how we're taught it today.
Yeah, I'm not sure where the idea of "anthropological heresy" came from since it's been noted that there appear to be 2 institutions universal to every society we have found around earth and throughout history: marriage, and slavery. Across the planet, throughout time, slavery was seen as natural as anything else. It wasn't until Christendom arose that the radical idea of slavery being bad was formed. And even now, as Christendom fades, we see slavery arising again in forsaken corners of the world.
DeletePer my sons' experience in college,
DeleteJust out of curiosity, where have they been enrolled? Did all these schools serve the same dreck?
They started in community college then transferred to Ohio State.
DeleteTo be perfectly honest, this seems to be a logical trajectory of Protestantism. Once you separate yourself from legitimate authority, or from recognizing it, then everything becomes subjective. And not only that, to be a Protestant you have to define yourself as "not Catholic" essentially. Or "not this other kind of Protestant." It's fundamentally dealing in the negative. So to want to tear down Western Civilization seems like a natural progression of the same attitude.
ReplyDeleteFunny, the Orthodox say that about Catholicism. ;)
DeleteI would say it was the rise of Renaissance humanism that laid the groundwork. Without that, I don't think you get the Reformation. That already seized upon the 'we've been wrong, let's look back at the origins to see when it was right' attitude that Protestantism took to the next level.
DeleteLet's just all admit it's all been downhill around here after the first week. It's really all Adam and that apple's fault.
DeleteMy second boy said that all of history is a post-apocalyptic story. I like that. And I've not been able to think of anything that suggests he's wrong.
Delete@Nate Winchester, and they've been wrong for about 1000 years ;P
DeleteI like the post apocalyptic analysis. Very fitting.
@South Bend Mom - given the ledger Catholics have racked up over those 1000 years, might want to be careful talking about trajectories...
Delete@NateWinchester, I'm not sure how the Orthodox would hold up under the same scrutiny actually, if we are going to really get down to it, but that wasn't the point of my comment. I took your original response to be friendly ribbing and was responding in kind. I had hoped my rudimentary emoticon conveyed that. Mea Culpa if it came off differently. Tone is hard to convey.
Delete@South Bend Mom - "You're wrong" is hard to sell comedically without tone of voice. I recommend this clip for disagreements in the future.
Delete@South Bend Mom and Nate Winchester, Did I just witness two people de-escslate a disagreement online and end on a friendly note? What alternate reality am I in?
DeleteUnknown, at Daffey Thoughts, we aim for a kinder, more mature blogging experience :) And they're good eggs, too, which helps immensely.
Delete@NateWinchester, honestly I'm just a little surprised you took such quick offense to my joke. You seem rather levelheaded and cool per the other comments you've made. My fault...I don't know you from Adam and I certainly didn't mean to offend.
DeleteHonestly, I have only the most peripheral of understanding what the differences/disagreements in Orthodoxy vs. Catholicism are, and I even descend from Eastern Orthodox adherents on my father's side. I have always held the East in esteem, and I am sorry we are separated and believe the Church definitely needs both lungs to breathe. The actual few Orthodox I have encountered definitely take the schism ramifications more seriously, so good reminder not to joke about it. Also, a good reminder of why I stopped frequenting the blogosphere. I have too much to think about in my daily life to worry if I offended someone on the internet. (Again, mea culpa!) So I shall resume my break for the time being and wish you all well! Peace! And may we laugh about this in Heaven :)
Just bookmark this site and always have it on hand. ;)
ReplyDelete