Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee
North Carolina Yankee
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Atlas Institution
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« Reply #2 on: January 15, 2023, 11:26:59 PM » |
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In regards to the Conspiracies amendment, you manage to include Tupac and Hitler escaping to Argentina, but not Ancient Aliens or the Lost Cause?
Frankly any school that falls back on teaching kids what to know and not has itself not only failed in its mission, but has left them vulnerable to the most pernicious of snake oil salesmen peddling any number of conspiracy theories.
If you get the method and process right, most of these cannot stand up to strict scrutiny of the historical and factual records, but instead depend on upon sensationalism and misinformation for their spread.
I am not aware of much in the way of negative impact stemming from people claiming Tupac is still alive, anymore than those like my deceased mother who were damn sure that Elvis faked his death to avoid the constant limelight.
The Lost Cause on the other hand indoctrinated several generations through control of school boards and political pressure and had a direct impact in terms of opposition to say Civil Rights in the mid 20th century (it was at its height in 1900-1950 when most of the relevant figures were educated and raised). Mostly for the purpose of making an identity group feel better about itself through historical revisionism.
Ancient aliens theory parlays several tropes from Nazi and proto-Nazi historiography that downplays the accomplishments and abilities of various groups by assigning their successes and accomplishments to some other group. The Nazi's claimed that Aryans were responsible for all of the major feats of the ancient world, while everyone else was too primitive and racially inferior to do so. Ancient aliens do the same thing, either intentionally or unintentionally, and assign the successes of "primitive cultures" to that of aliens.
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