Throughout my life I've been taught "My country right or wrong", "If you don't love America you can leave" etc. Been in Glee Club singing "This is My Country" and "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and forced to stand in the classroom and pledge allegiance to a flag. In retrospect that is some serious indoctrination shit.
As I've gotten older I've learned to question that. Been shown and told that the constitution is a living document. I'm drinking a beer realizing that 100 years ago this would be unconstitutional. My family were bootleggers freely going against a law that they saw was unjust. From looking back at the founding fathers, the constitution the concept of checks and balances built into the document I see that we are as far from that as the hawk is from the moon.
The history of the United States has supposedly been about questioning the powers that be and holding them accountable, not blindly being beholden to them.
I'm too young to remember Watergate, but old enough to remember Iran Contra (the same people I see here screaming about sex laws in California praise Bill Barr who justified selling weapons to people raping nuns in Central America). I grew up next to a military base during the Cold War. I've been slightly exposed to the work of Thomas Payne (I feel a deep dive coming on) and hearing a little about Haymarket Square (Imagine Portland with Live Rounds).
I've seen the same people who cheered when the statues of Lenin and Saddam Hussein fall clutch their pearls when it was Confederate War Generals.
The history of America has allegedly been about standing up against brutality and for justice. Now when people do it they are labelled as "Terrorists" by people who are afraid of the "Thought Police". They clutch their pearls at the Black Panthers been portrayed as heroes despite robbing banks when white people like The James Gang and Billy The Kid have also been portrayed as heroes for doing the same thing (can you see the obvious difference?).
Given world history the idea of "Patriotic Education" has always been a code word for indoctrination. Post Orwell the term has been replaced with "Reeducation" when every country except the US has done it which is the perfect example of doublespeak.
To hear a US President use the term "Patriotic Education" should raise some red flags.
C/S,
Rev J
As I've gotten older I've learned to question that. Been shown and told that the constitution is a living document. I'm drinking a beer realizing that 100 years ago this would be unconstitutional. My family were bootleggers freely going against a law that they saw was unjust. From looking back at the founding fathers, the constitution the concept of checks and balances built into the document I see that we are as far from that as the hawk is from the moon.
The history of the United States has supposedly been about questioning the powers that be and holding them accountable, not blindly being beholden to them.
I'm too young to remember Watergate, but old enough to remember Iran Contra (the same people I see here screaming about sex laws in California praise Bill Barr who justified selling weapons to people raping nuns in Central America). I grew up next to a military base during the Cold War. I've been slightly exposed to the work of Thomas Payne (I feel a deep dive coming on) and hearing a little about Haymarket Square (Imagine Portland with Live Rounds).
I've seen the same people who cheered when the statues of Lenin and Saddam Hussein fall clutch their pearls when it was Confederate War Generals.
The history of America has allegedly been about standing up against brutality and for justice. Now when people do it they are labelled as "Terrorists" by people who are afraid of the "Thought Police". They clutch their pearls at the Black Panthers been portrayed as heroes despite robbing banks when white people like The James Gang and Billy The Kid have also been portrayed as heroes for doing the same thing (can you see the obvious difference?).
Given world history the idea of "Patriotic Education" has always been a code word for indoctrination. Post Orwell the term has been replaced with "Reeducation" when every country except the US has done it which is the perfect example of doublespeak.
To hear a US President use the term "Patriotic Education" should raise some red flags.
C/S,
Rev J
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