Social Conservatives sink to a new low. Rewrite history, no let's actually do it.

[SirStev0]

Sigh. Social conservatives certainly love bureaucracies when they work for their benefit.

The heavily conservative Texas School Board decided that since it is time to print new text books they might as well put some spin on it.

Thomas Jefferson cut out from the list of founding fathers?

These fuckheads do realize that he was the man who forced the federalist to include a Bill of Rights and pushed for small fed-strong state government...

You know. The things the republican party used to stand for...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/e...l=1&adxnnlx=1268454321-EfnU8zmIFosSTQmKRcRvxw (better article)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts1253

Just some of the gems they want to use to rewrite history to better suit their cause.

A greater emphasis on “the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s.” This means not only increased favorable mentions of Schlafly, the founder of the antifeminist Eagle Forum, but also more discussion of the Moral Majority, the Heritage Foundation, the National Rifle Association and Newt Gingrich's Contract With America.

- A reduced scope for Latino history and culture. A proposal to expand such material in recognition of Texas’ rapidly growing Hispanic population was defeated in last week’s meetings—provoking one board member, Mary Helen Berlanga, to storm out in protest. "They can just pretend this is a white America and Hispanics don’t exist," she said of her conservative colleagues on the board. "They are rewriting history, not only of Texas but of the United States and the world."

- Changes in specific terminology. Terms that the board’s conservative majority felt were ideologically loaded are being retired. Hence, “imperialism” as a characterization of America’s modern rise to world power is giving way to “expansionism,” and “capitalism” is being dropped in economic material, in favor of the more positive expression “free market.” (The new recommendations stress the need for favorable depictions of America’s economic superiority across the board.)
- A more positive portrayal of Cold War anticommunism. Disgraced anticommunist crusader Joseph McCarthy, the Wisconsin senator censured by the Senate for his aggressive targeting of individual citizens and their civil liberties on the basis of their purported ties to the Communist Party, comes in for partial rehabilitation. The board recommends that textbooks refer to documents published since McCarthy’s death and the fall of the Soviet bloc that appear to show expansive Soviet designs to undermine the U.S. government.

- Language that qualifies the legacy of 1960s liberalism. Great Society programs such as Title IX—which provides for equal gender access to educational resources—and affirmative action, intended to remedy historic workplace discrimination against African-Americans, are said to have created adverse “unintended consequences” in the curriculum’s preferred language.

- Thomas Jefferson no longer included among writers influencing the nation’s intellectual origins. Jefferson, a deist who helped pioneer the legal theory of the separation of church and state, is not a model founder in the board’s judgment. Among the intellectual forerunners to be highlighted in Jefferson’s place: medieval Catholic philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas, Puritan theologian John Calvin and conservative British law scholar William Blackstone. Heavy emphasis is also to be placed on the founding fathers having been guided by strict Christian beliefs.

- Excision of recent third-party presidential candidates Ralph Nader (from the left) and Ross Perot (from the centrist Reform Party). Meanwhile, the recommendations include an entry listing Confederate General Stonewall Jackson as a role model for effective leadership, and a statement from Confederate President Jefferson Davis accompanying a speech by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.

- A recommendation to include country and western music among the nation’s important cultural movements. The popular black genre of hip-hop is being dropped from the same list.

Only in this country could this happen. Sad part is Texas makes a huge amount of textbooks and apparently what they print is what the nation reads. Thousands of schools could be effected by this assault on education.

Such a sad pathetic attempt at control and truly shows the length people will go to convince others that their way of thinking is the only way.

When will someone just start up a Christian fascist party so all these nutjobs can go over and leave us to start rebuilding a real republican party?

 

[JSt0rm]

"Just look at us.
Everything is backwards;
everything is upside down.
Doctors destroy health,
lawyers destroy justice,
universities destroy knowledge,
governments destroy freedom,
the major media destroy information
and religions destroy spirituality." --Michael Ellner

 

[Jhhnn]

Ahh... Texas conservatives, among the nation's whackiest. Sometimes, it seems a shame that Santa Ana didn't win.

"He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future." - George Orwell

 

[Gildor57]

Frankly, the Yahoo article is a typical media "the sky is falling" response. I don't think the changes are as apocalyptic as the media makes it out. Read the actual changes (at least for US history since 1877) here.

Among other things, it shows that that hip-hop was not dropped, although there was a proposal to do so that was defeated. Read it and decide for yourself.

 

[Moonbeam]

A greater emphasis on “the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s.” This means not only increased favorable mentions of Schlafly, the founder of the antifeminist Eagle Forum, but also more discussion of the Moral Majority, the Heritage Foundation, the National Rifle Association and Newt Gingrich's Contract With America.

Good. Baboons also emphasize the colors of their ass.
------------------------
- A reduced scope for Latino history and culture. A proposal to expand such material in recognition of Texas’ rapidly growing Hispanic population was defeated in last week’s meetings—provoking one board member, Mary Helen Berlanga, to storm out in protest. "They can just pretend this is a white America and Hispanics don’t exist," she said of her conservative colleagues on the board. "They are rewriting history, not only of Texas but of the United States and the world."

Good, we stole it fair and square
-------------------------

- Changes in specific terminology. Terms that the board’s conservative majority felt were ideologically loaded are being retired. Hence, “imperialism” as a characterization of America’s modern rise to world power is giving way to “expansionism,” and “capitalism” is being dropped in economic material, in favor of the more positive expression “free market.” (The new recommendations stress the need for favorable depictions of America’s economic superiority across the board.)
- A more positive portrayal of Cold War anticommunism. Disgraced anticommunist crusader Joseph McCarthy, the Wisconsin senator censured by the Senate for his aggressive targeting of individual citizens and their civil liberties on the basis of their purported ties to the Communist Party, comes in for partial rehabilitation. The board recommends that textbooks refer to documents published since McCarthy’s death and the fall of the Soviet bloc that appear to show expansive Soviet designs to undermine the U.S. government.

Good, a fucking lie should have a pretty title.
--------------------------------------

- Language that qualifies the legacy of 1960s liberalism. Great Society programs such as Title IX—which provides for equal gender access to educational resources—and affirmative action, intended to remedy historic workplace discrimination against African-Americans, are said to have created adverse “unintended consequences” in the curriculum’s preferred language.

Whatever the fuck that means.
----------------------------------------

- Thomas Jefferson no longer included among writers influencing the nation’s intellectual origins. Jefferson, a deist who helped pioneer the legal theory of the separation of church and state, is not a model founder in the board’s judgment. Among the intellectual forerunners to be highlighted in Jefferson’s place: medieval Catholic philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas, Puritan theologian John Calvin and conservative British law scholar William Blackstone. Heavy emphasis is also to be placed on the founding fathers having been guided by strict Christian beliefs.

W F Buckley for founding father, Yay!
-------------------------------------

- Excision of recent third-party presidential candidates Ralph Nader (from the left) and Ross Perot (from the centrist Reform Party). Meanwhile, the recommendations include an entry listing Confederate General Stonewall Jackson as a role model for effective leadership, and a statement from Confederate President Jefferson Davis accompanying a speech by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.

Fuck yeah, A separate country for the 6 fingered south. May they rot in their self made hell.
----------------

- A recommendation to include country and western music among the nation’s important cultural movements. The popular black genre of hip-hop is being dropped from the same list.

This one, however, makes real good sense. Country and western is good and flop flop stinks to high heavens.

 

[Harvey]

I liked Texas better when they were threatening to withdraw from the Union. Texas -- Are you listening? Ple-e-e-e-eze... DO IT! That simple act will raise the mean IQ of a grateful nation that won't miss you.

 

[Zebo]

Most Texans probably think Reagan wrote the Constitution anyway. No big change really.

 

[glenn1]

I liked Texas better when they were threateing to withdraw from the Union. Texas -- Are you listening? Ple-e-e-e-eze... DO IT! That simple act will raise the mean IQ of the nation that won't miss you.

Texans were smart enough to separate billions of dollars from California during your self-created electric crisis a few years ago, and likewise to not bankrupt themselves like you're doing now.

 

[kage69]

LOL, oh that Jefferson one is just great...

 

[cubby1223]

Is "rewriting history" the new buzzword of this era?

 

[cubby1223]

Bottom line is, there is only so much information a text book can have. It cannot hold the entire history of the United States, many things *will* be left out. And partisan hacks will selectively pick and choose whatever specific things can be portrayed to fit their own agendas, regardless of the reality of the situation.

 

[nonlnear]

I love it when people rant about "rewriting history" and "revisionist history" as if there is any other kind.

It's a shame to see Jefferson cut. Call those authors what you will, they aren't my kind of conservative! It's a stretch to call them American...

On the other hand, there's the double spun take on this situation: This is just the kind of half-baked right wing revisionism that the far left loves the most - so who exactly is mad here? Imagine a generation of self described conservatives who have lost touch with the philosophical roots of their nation's identity. It's a progressive's wet dream.

 

[RedChief]

God forbid that kids actually learn that Republicans supported the Civil Rights Act more then Democrats; that Joe McCarthy was actually onto something when he went after communists infiltrating the US government (thanks Venona papers; McCarthy just used horrible methods); that there is more to modern economics then Keynes (such as Hayek and Friedman); that the founding fathers were actually religious (not seculars as liberals want to teach) and there religious beliefs were the basis for the Bill of Rights (that these rights were ordained by God and it is the job of the government to protect not provide); and god forbid that personal responsibility actually matters the day to day decisions we make.

 

[UberNeuman]

Whargarbl.........

/lol, a "red" "chief."

 

[RedChief]

/lol, a "red" "chief."

Horrible try at a ad hominem attack....now if you have anything relevant to say, then do so. Else stop trolling.

 

[UberNeuman]

Horrible try at a ad hominem attack....now if you have anything relevant to say, then do so. Else stop trolling.

How can I? With that horrible mess of opinion you've posted....

/and so wrong...

 

[DucatiMonster696]

I should get a copy of the letter a friend of mine showed me the other day that his high-school age kid had to write as an assignment. It was a letter directed at the Gov here in CA. The entire thing was a liberal manifesto which demanded that the Gov raise taxes on businesses and the "rich", that he repeal prop 13, increase taxes on oil companies, support the proposals of teacher unions etc... This article and the so called outrage here is really ironic considering the context in which liberals have been force feeding kids their agenda for 30+ years via the education system.

 

[UberNeuman]

I should get a copy of the letter a friend of mine showed me the other day that his high-school age kid had to write as an assignment. It was a letter directed at the Gov here in CA. The entire thing was a liberal manifesto which demanded that the Gov raise taxes on businesses and the "rich", that he repeal prop 13, increase taxes on oil companies, support the proposals of teacher unions etc... This article and the so called outrage here is really ironic considering the context in which liberals have been force feeding kids their agenda 30+ years via the education system.

What be that "agenda", booba?

 

[DucatiMonster696]

What be that "agenda", booba?

You really don't have anything worth posting do you? Other then silly childish insults. Come back when you grow up kid.

 

[UberNeuman]

You really don't have anything worth posting do you? Other then silly childish insults. Come back when you grow up kid.

I am asking you what you feel is a "agenda."

/should be easy to tell everyone what that is...
//Quid pro quo...

 

[DucatiMonster696]

I am asking you what you feel is a "agenda."

/should be easy to tell everyone what that is...
//Quid pro quo...

You can play the obtuse little tramp all you want but you really aren't making any points here.

Sending a kid home with a homework assignment to advocate for higher taxes on business, home owners and rich people, vilifying oil companies, pushing for the support of teacher unions, etc in a lettter is not a agenda? This crap has been going on for years by the those who are on the left and in the education field so don't give me this bullshit that some how its a new evil ploy by the right when they do it.

 

[UberNeuman]

You can play the obtuse little tramp all you want but you really aren't making any points here.

No, no, no... You've made the claim that an "30+ year agenda" has been put upon the nation, I wonders what you feel is that "agenda" is...

/the answer is yours, even if I may disagree with it - however, calling me troll or tramp isn't an means to an end..

 

[Carmen813]

They keep using that word "history." I don't think that word means what they think it means.

 

[sportage]

Im glad they did this. This is just the type of thing that always comes back to bite them in the butt... and hard. And hopefully after they learned their lesson, they and others like will think twice before pulling such stunts. Every so often the crackpots try something like this, and every time eventually pay the price. Their loss of a simple court challenge will soon set them straight. I would not worry about this too much. It just shows not all psycho nut cases are locked up in the looney bin, drooling and talking to the walls. Some serve on school boards and in congress... have radio programs and jobs at fox news.

 

[DucatiMonster696]

No, no, no... You've made the claim that an "30+ year agenda" has been put upon the nation, I wonders what you feel is that "agenda" is...

I stated the nature of the agenda already you just refuse to read it or acknowledge it.

/the answer is yours, even if I may disagree with it - however, calling me troll or tramp isn't an means to an end..

Oh the wounded lamb. Let me wipe the tears away.

The same guy who pushed out a ad hom attack on another poster in this thread.