Schools in the USA should tell the truth about our history.

[StrictlyRockers]

Link to tweet

[malaise]

1. But but but

that would destroy lots of myths and outright lies

[StrictlyRockers]

4. That's the idea, malaise.

Give them the truth. And make them think about it. That's how we build back a better future.

[malaise]

7. But then they would no longer be superior

and the global myth about white superiority would come crashing down -how dare you?

[malaise]

8. But then they would no longer be superior

and the global myth about white superiority would come crashing down -how dare you?

[FoxNewsSucks]

2. that is such a shameful truth

[Moostache]

3. America is an idea first and a stolen shit hole country second.

I would die for the former and I do not give a rat's ass for the latter.

Our current mess of a Congress, including the insane filibuster and the nonsense that allowed for a 6-3 packed SCOTUS and 2 acquittals of Trump for CLEAR crimes as POTUS (and a luxurious berth of non-action AFTER he left office in a snit and tried to overturn the election) is utterly worthless.

This country, as currently configured and run, is not long for the Earth.
The idea behind it will never die and may once more return, but not until a blood-letting of enormous scale.

[brush]

6. Good post and I'm afraid you're right. Hope the blood letting can be avoided.

[brush]

5. Hiding the truth maintains the idea of white supremacy.

If everyone knew what really happened, they wouldn't feel so superior.

[Moostache]

9. Nor should they...

Any nation that must avert its eyes permanently to avoid its own past is unworthy of loyalty or pride.

As a white man, descended from immigrants fleeing World War I, I have never understood the need of many to claim 'honor' or 'heritage' from people 6 and 7 generations past at the expense of understanding the men and their deeds more than their wealth or names. I have no special kinship to my European born ancestors, any more than they do to their American born ancestors...yet the notion that Americans might have ever been wrong or on the wrong side of issues seems to haunt them in a way I will never understand.

My grandfather died at age 56, a month before I was born in 1971. He and all 6 of his brothers fought in WWII and 2 of them died back in Europe (though on the opposite side of the continent from the "homeland" in Slovakia and Poland - falling in France after Normandy). The irony of the family fleeing Europe in the 1910's for safety and democracy in America; only to return, and die in it in the 1940's, is a cruel twist of fate.

My father's father was the first generation in my family to be born here. His father and mother (and a whole clan of others) came over before and following the wreckage of the "Great War" - only to find America and the globe thrown into the Great Depression shortly after they arrived. They loved the IDEA of America - freedom, self-determination, democratic principles - far, far, far more than the nation as a whole, but they fought (and in those terrible cases of my father's fallen uncles) and died for the idea in the hopes that it would become a greater nation.

Nothing "great" and ever truly be called 'great' without confronting its flaws as well as celebrating its virtues. Every real American understands this and is not afraid of our past...only afraid of a future when too many worship fantasy and shun the hard work of active citizenship and commitment to the ideal.

[maxsolomon]

11. All land is stolen. Property is Theft.

All of North AND South America was conquered and colonized by European Powers. All of Africa was as well. China conquered Tibet in the 1950s and is colonizing it right now. Israel conquered the West Bank and is slowly colonizing it.

Indigenous North America peoples also conquered and enslaved.

Stealing land, resources, and brutal Genocide is the story of Human Civilization since the start of Human Civilization. America isn't particularly special in that regard.

That's the hard truth everyone needs to know at some point. When children are ready to lose the naivete and patriotic innocence they may acquire about the USA is the question.

[Thunderbeast]

12. I am reading a chilling history right now

"These Truths" by Jill Lepore reveals way more about the racial context of "The American Story" than I previously knew. Race played a huge role in the pretext and the outcome of the American Revolution.

Lepore's research reveals that prior to 1492, there were more people living in the Americas than in Europe; A contrast to the mythology of a wild land sparsely populated by savages.

American history is bloody and complex. The British Army was here at the request of the colonists to protect them from native incursions and slave rebellions. When the king wanted financial help to support that cause, the colonists rebelled.

Teaching the "comfortable" history of noble white Christians conquering an uninhabited virgin land is just plain nonsense. The invaders WERE opportunists who exploited stolen land with stolen people.

As a nation, we must recognize truth before we can move forward.

[StrictlyRockers]

13. Fascinating

"These Truths" by Jill Lepore. Ok, got it.