To deny the reality of history is to do a terrible wrong to the experience of those who endured slavery, or the minority experience of native Americans. It is a heinous thing to do, and it is a totally unnecessary thing to do. It is beyond 'racially insensitive', it is racist. It is profoundly dishonest.
What it does accomplish is to promote the fact-challenged world view of conservatives that likes to just ignore anything - and there are a LOT OF THINGS - that just don't fit. So they come up with other words to justify it, to try to put lipstick on their pig of an ideology. But what it boils down to is they LIE. They lie by omission, and they lie by commission. They lie lie lie lie lie.
It's no accident that the U.S. is so far behind other developed countries in education. It is the fault of fact-averse, ideology rather than reality driven conservatives.
From the Huff Po:
During the news conference more than two dozen Tea Party activists handed out material that said, "Neglect and outright ill will have distorted the teaching of the history and character of the United States. We seek to compel the teaching of students in Tennessee the truth regarding the history of our nation and the nature of its government."
And that further teaching would also include that "the Constitution created a Republic, not a Democracy."
The group demanded, as they had in January of last year, that Tennessee lawmakers change state laws governing school curricula. The group called for textbook selection criteria to include: "No portrayal of minority experience in the history which actually occurred shall obscure the experience or contributions of the Founding Fathers, or the majority of citizens, including those who reached positions of leadership."
The latest push comes a year after the Texas Board of Education approved revisions to its social studies curriculum that would put a conservative twist on history through revised textbooks and teaching standards.
The Texas revisions include the exploration of the positive aspects of American slavery, lifting the stature of Jefferson S. Davis to that of Abraham Lincoln, and amendments to teach the value of the separation of church and state were voted down by the conservative cadre. Among other controversial amendments that have been approved is the study of the "unintended consequences" of affirmative action.
The board approved more than 100 amendments affecting social studies, economics and history classes for Texas's 4.8 million students.
I'm sure they'd like to lighten up the complexion of black history month as well. I think it is fair to call that racist on the part of the Tennessee Tea Party.
It's already been tried, removing slavery from references to the causes of the American Civil War. They don't want to make the connection between race and slavery.
Because the REAL history doesn't work for the conservative point of view.
When you have to CHANGE real history, you are not, emphatically NOT, a person who genuinely cherishes your nation's origins, and you are not a person who genuinely values the documents, the philosophy, or the historic figures who made that history.
This is more of a condemnation of our founding fathers; the next tea party crack'd pot tea pot/tea party conservative who uses the phrase 'founding fathers' should choke on the words before they can escape his or her mouth.
This is the real tea party, a bunch of bowdlerizing hypocrites and puritanical prudes who believe that it is important to teach lies, and that the truth is too dangerous for anyone to know.
That is terrifying, and what is the worst about it is that these assholes ongratulate themselves on how moral and honest and damned patriotic they are.
They got the first part of that right, the 'damned' part.
No wonder these jerks hate science; they hate anything that disagrees with their silly, hysterical, obsessive/compulsive, authoritarian, controlling belief system.
These are people who hate the truth, and who hate freedom, and who hate the REAL origins of this country. They are narrow minded people who would force their notions of conformity on others, and facts be damned.
These are hateful, stupid, ignorant, vicious people who should not be allowed to control other people through the authority of government. They should be recognized for what they are, and not allowed to order the mis-education of children, ever, until they agree to live in reality, recognizing reality both past and present, including history and science. Until they do that, they are bitter, narrow-minded, prudish and dysfunctional human beings and should be recognized as such. It has never gone well when they have had power.
It shouldn't be surprising that they'd want to rewrite history; they've already tried their hand at rewriting the Bible. There you go - the conservatives put the b-i-l---e- in Bible. Apparently nothing is sacred to them other their own insufferable ideology.
Nobody does it better, than Stephen Colbert. The bit is about 6 minutes in, but getting there is half the fun. (I particularly enjoyed the comparison between Nut Gingrich and a flaming bag of poop you can vote for...). It's 'Tonight's Word', if you want to watch the whole thing. It's hilarious.
