Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
But that goes for everything, not just natives and slavery. Americans are woefully ignorant of history in general, not just the unpleasant stuff their government did. Take World War 2, a key part of America's patriotic past, lionized by conservatives as well as liberals, and a global event that happened within living memory.
And yet a quarter of American students couldn't identity who Hitler was. Most couldn't name the major combatants. Half couldn't identity when it ended.
Only half of Americans surveyed can even name the three branches of government.
|
Isn't this one of the biggest issues with politics today? The majority of the population seems unwilling or unable to actually understand what they are fighting against?
Take the ideas of privilege. In my opinion, this is a fascinating topic for an intellectual discussion, when individuals can discuss the merits, and understand the point, of what privilege means and how far it can be taken.
However, I believe we are seeing nowadays just how destructive this well meaning idea - right or wrong - is in the hands of those unwilling to really understand the nuance of it, from both sides. One side appears to be using it in an overly aggressive assertion of political moral superiority, and the other feels it is a narrowly focused nearly personal attack against them, that minimizes their own very real struggles and concerns so far as to be cruel.
But the big issue isn't whether or not privilege is real or not - the big issue is how the idea is being wielded as a political weapon in such a hamfisted, and simplistic terms. What was a discussion that was originally intended (I believe) to help others understand the issues being faced by another group in society, is now being used to shut down that very discussion. And why? Because people don't want to really dig into these kinds of ideas in a deep, meaningful and nuanced way. Oh sure, some of us are interested in that, and there are many other people out there who also are, but there are many, many more who are not. Sadly, we need to recognize that there is a (far too) large subsection of the population that cannot.
In short, people are dumb.