When I see Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL), and other voices from our right wing, siding with Russian President Vladimir Putin in his demand that President Joe Biden debate him or pretending that the January 6 attack on the Capitol wasn’t a big deal, or Republicans voting to overturn a legitimate election or trying to keep Americans from voting, sometimes I despair of our democracy.
This is profoundly disturbing. It is essential that we bring back the Fairness Doctrine and make it illegal for any form of broadcast publication or media to lie the way the right wing extremists have done for the past 34 years.
Our great democracy will not survive the continued attack on its very existence.
Agree! Because news and media has evolved since 1987, something better and all-encompassing than the Fairness Doctrine would be apropos for the complex world of 2021 (Fairness only applied to over the air broadcasters with Federal licenses). Perhaps a "Truth In All Mass Media Doctrine" with stiff penalties for noncompliance.
LH ~ No Problem, imho. We will rely on the same set of objective principles that has guided (and misguided) our society for more than 200 years. While America has a troubled past in treating one another like equal members of God’s creation, Americans have been able to build some reputable structures and systems.
America has had a legitimate FCC through decades of bipartisan administrations and divided Congresses. Those who desire a world based on rationale, facts and scientific inquiry will prevail, and if this does not happen, then we have far greater problems than a corrupted media.
Now is the the time to pressure the remaining moderates in the Republican party to support a legitimate and honorable press. I’m thinking of Sasse, Murkowski, Collins, Romney and the governors or OH, MD, MA, and VT. Is there anyone else??? Conversely, we must replace elected officials who entrust our future to fake news.
The delusional view of Fox News, its echo chamber and the RNC must be loudly broadcast through the 2022 mid-term elections.
* We must replace elected officials who validate the insurrection of January 6, 2021. At stake is a legitimate press with its necessary freedoms, and the upcoming mid-term election is our opportunity.
LH ...correct! Who will judge? Also the fairness doctrine is weak as it is/was. Cable broadcasting has had decades of non regulation. FOX cable is a huge problem that goes uncontested. I have had a few years in broadcasting and and know how the news can be twisted. And advertiser shelter by the truth. There has to be an answer! Sadly I do not have it.
I firmly support the Fairness Doctrine but we need to be wise enough to realize that mainstream media is confined by the men who own their networks, papers, etc. Yes Fox is easy to focus on because they blatantly sell lies but when you follow the money even amazing news sources such as NPR and BBC are limited by Big Money. That’s what makes Heather so valuable no one is censoring her words, she is simply giving us the facts!! Thank you Heather!!
It would be great to be able to do this except that most of the locales where these folks get their information are not official press sites. The Fairness Doctrine cannot be an umbrella over blogs, reddit sites, etc. because the expression of opinion is not restricted by the Constitution, only the official media sites (TV and radio stations, newspapers, etc) would be covered under it. It would quell some of the excesses of the appalling Murdoch family, for instance, but it won't do anything about the internet.
Why not regulate non-broadcast media, including social media? There are always limits even with free speech protected. Slander, libel, malicious intent, risks to public safety or national security, are all currently restricted for good reasons. Certainly there is a slippery slope to avoid, but the country's future is at stake. Training students and the public in critical thinking is essential, but so is limiting the flow of patently false disinformation. A revamped and expanded Fairness Doctrine is an important part of efforts to address our current crisis.
Yes, I was, too. I was imagining casting a Dumbledorish spell that would have the word LIE appear in big smoky letters above the liar, every time they lied, maybe rising from their hair.
I wish I knew -- I suspect there are more pressing matters to consider first, but it should be on the agenda. To some extent, we need to choose our battles with this Senate. That being said, though, I believe this is increasingly important.
I feel that we need to support organizations that are trying to do this. Check out ‘Social Media Monitoring’ at Common Cause. Common Cause is approaching the problem from 2 directions: 1) they are reporting false statements regarding the 2020 election and asking responsible social media companies to remove them, and 2) they are asking volunteers to post positive or factual messages to counteract the false statements. I’ve been doing this from both directions. Will this have an impact? I don’t know but it’s a start.
Yes! That's great! Another one is MoveOn. I think these smaller organizations had a lot to do with why Democrats won the 2020 election. They really worked hard and maybe smaller organizations can be a little more nimble, or versatile. We have to keep trying to make things better.
Good idea. The problem in the USA particularly (but probably in the U.K. and elsewhere too) is that right thinking people (=automatically everyone who subscribes to Heather’s letter!) grumble about the lies but do not shout out the truth. Those telling the big lie bellow it relentlessly.
‘We will grow like the flame that fuels us and spread like the love that guides us.’ What in god’s green earth is this kind of love? A love that guilds people to kill/hurt people they disagree with? This is the mother of all Big lies. Black is white if I say so and if you disagree with me you have no value at all. You are disposable. Father knows best, I am hitting you because I ‘love’ you. Children, women, all people of colour or a different sexual orientation than the one I feel comfortable with should be seen and used for my own profit but not heard or have equal human rights. This attitude is fuelled by fear and acted out with a fragile veneer of bravado that is trying to hide a yawning pit of insecurity and hate. There is no real Love in it at all. We all know what real Love feels like. It is not some sentimental hallmark card. It is both kind, courageous and fearless. It is open not closed. Inclusive not xenophobic. It cannot be put in the service of anything that degrades, hurts or makes less any sentient being. It created and continues to create every good thing. That some deluded, immature thug thinks he has Love on a leash like a pet to be trotted out to lull the masses with this phoney proclamation is tragically ridiculous. Fortunately Love cannot be domesticated for any cause. It enlightens, comforts, defends, and banishes darkness indiscriminately. Love endures.
Robin, thank you for this. I’m not religious, but to me, what you describe is beautiful, the high point of what we strive for in our family and public life, and finally, God. Imagine a world where those things are ascendant. How hopeful.
I had fundamentalist parents who would say "I'm doing this because I love you" as they beat us with peach tree branches or leather belts, or whatever was available.
"Spare the rod, spoil the child" was oft-repeated. "Children should be seen, not heard" was another gem.
Guns were endemic. Sending the kids out to get dinner (taking out the 410 to shoot rabbits, going fishing, deer hunting, etc) was a common errand.
No little wonder these boys grow up to become uneducated but bloviating tyrants; they have been repressed and knocked around and unheard. And, often enough, sexual abuse can be added to the list of acts committed upon their minds and bodies. So, when they get to be the Father, they are in charge of all the chattel. It doesn't typically bode well.
This kind of childhood environment leads to distrust of the 'other' including the teacher. but the potential for a spark, for some glimmer of understanding beyond that oppressed grind...well, therein lies hope.
Hi Kim, Seattle born here. Living in the Uk Wales now. Yes, it does not bode well at all. The resilience of folks that had an unfortunate childhood constantly amazes me. Many of my women friends had incest, rape, harassment and other brutalities in their past and yet they healed and now they thrive. I had an idilic childhood...I was so lucky. When faced by evangelicals later at a girlfriends church 15 YO I laughed at them when they threatened me for not adhering to their abhorrent doctrine. My parents said, good for you, dump them. Later in my 20’s when bad stuff happened, my shrink said, well, your good childhood gave you ballast to survive these events. Well Ok, but everyone has some sort of ballast. For some it is a sane relative that provides comfort. For others, they find a community to help them heal. Some find a benevolent source to connect to. Evangelical tyrants are so tragic to me. They are so close to something really cool and then they side step into the void of stupid. Why? One wonders. Sigh. A mystery.
for me, it was Ma, maternal grandmother, who loved me unconditionally, gave me resilience (and quite possibly stubbornness) and the notion that I could be an agent in my own life. I don't like myself when I say it, but really, there is no cure for stupid.
In grad school, a mentor spoke about the need to reach the lowest common denominator to educate for health. I think that may be the case for other outreach efforts as well. At the time (mid 80s), that level was 4th grade comprehension.
This is the answer. I feel like the best way to defeat racism is meeting and knowing people of other races, ethnicities, cultures. How can you walk a mile in their shoes if you really don’t know anyone in other shoes? Education is the answer.
Beautiful. Thank You Robin. Today, snow all melted, I was outside when my neighbor rode up on her horse - I needed to tell someone that because it sounds so cool. But what she said was even more amazing and energizing and uplifting and comforting. "With the pandemic I haven't seen you this winter and I've been thinking about you, and hoping you are okay. I'm glad to see you look great." That is LOVE. We call it "neighboring."
Ah, so well said, but the kind of love you're talking about requires effort and contemplation. So many humans choose to take the easy way out and just follow the rules laid down for them by the so called leaders of their church, family, regional culture. Don't question, just follow. So easy.
Thanks for your reply Beth. Each person has their own path to follow and is at a place in their journey where they have their own choices to make. I find it hard to judge what is easy or hard for someone else. Effort and contemplation are virtues for sure, but for me, having sampled most religions both east and west it has come down to just learning to exercise my moral conscience muscle at every crossroad and byway of life. And that learning does not involve much effort. It is just staying alert and asking for help when I need it. I can’t believe anyone’s worthiness of love or their ability to show it is established by effort....by somehow getting it right. We would all be doomed. Each persons worth is extrinsic. No matter how hopeless they may appear at the moment they have a lifetime of opportunities, who knows, maybe more, to choose love over fear. A person could contemplate forever but if their eyes are closed perhaps they will not see that the person next to them just needs a hug. All of us fall short of being able to embody unconditional love. I have experienced a source of it that helps me see my way when I need it. To me that experience means that if I look to love first then my service to everything else falls into place. This does not feel religious in the institutional sense but just a connection to a helpful benevolent source. So I bumble along and things are not perfect but they are closer to heaven everyday. If Hell is the place where Love does not exist I think that someday, at the end of space and time, everyone will get the help they need and then no one will want to live there anymore.
Wonderful. As I read this I can feel myself turning back to the source, reminded, as it were, not to be distracted from this central ideal. An ideal that must be nurtured and lived each day. Thank you Robin
Robin, you began with the importance of LOVE and Beth joined in. Love is the supreme experience. Do some of us suffer from a lack of LOVE because it was never given? Was LOVE taken from us very early in our lives, so we don't believe in it or think it isn't lasting? Can LOVE be perverted from the outside? May other qualities or wants super-seed it. Might some people give and feel love intermittently? Are people who love their mothers, fathers, children, sisters, or brothers...necessarily good people; naturally support others; good members of the community? After all the questions, I agree that LOVE matters.
Thank you, Heather. It must be difficult for you to write this kind of missive, but I'm sure you feel compelled to do it. It's like trying to expel a precipitous infection for me. I think the Fairness Doctrine is a key element in getting more of our fellow countryfolk back to reality!
That and a total revamping/refunding of the education system so that at least the young will be better equiped to understand what "truth" means when they hear it.
Having been a high school teacher, I am so glad to be retired. What a struggle it must be for teachers to deal with political ideologies and behaviors students bring into the classroom. I cannot successfully talk with family members about American politics. They mimic the yelling and pontificating of Fox News and care not a bit about listening to me. I feel sure many students would tune out any discussion of what "truth" means. But maybe not. One can only hope. Also, I fear that some teachers may in fact contribute to fanning the flames of the Big Lies. Woeful.
Sad when we have children with ODD proudly proclaiming to be red necks as they are being committed to a psych ward for inexcusable refusal to follow simple rules. They are just watching what works.
Yes Liz ! Our Democracy is threatened by 4 years of listening to our President lie, blame others, promote racism, cheat on his taxes and have Fox News do no investigative reporting but totally support him. It is no wonder we are in this mess. If our news media is not held accountable, our President not held accountable, our senators and Representatives not accountable for their lies we are in big trouble!
Therein lies part of the problem. Fox “news”, by their own defense and description, is entertainment. Absolves them of any responsibility as far as they’re concerned.
why is it that a significant percent of any human population have no conscience at all ? be it Fox News people , Pol Pot regime or the Colonial Slavers. Is this our progeny's fate that they will be fighting evil as long as our species exists?
Absolutely they need to be held accountable the preferred way to vote them out or indictments —we really need that bill to protect voting rights to become law.
My question of the day (also as an educator who is not yet retired): How do we teach the unteachable? If people refuse to be educated there is not a thing we can do about it.
I posted a response to AndreaH just a minute ago that touches on your question. I taught civics to hundreds of teenagers across many years. Some were "unteachable," either due to apathy or indoctrination. But even when it seemed that a particular student was hopelessly hostile, I would remind myself that these kids were 14-16 (typically). They take in more than they outwardly reveal and often make comments based more on social acceptance than on deeply-held belief. Their world view is forming, but not yet hardened. So, I just kept talking :-)
YES! They DO take in more than they outwardly reveal! And if you want to know what they are really thinking, drive a van full of kids to a social event. 14/16 year old kids think their aged driver loses the ability to hear when driving the van. To be the fly on the wall at the Algonquin Round Table would have been enlightening. The van full of kids is a window into THEIR Algonquin Round Table!
When I was in the EdBiz years ago, I experienced this in a young boy who was only ten. This was long before the plethora of tech gadgets that consume today's youths. At the time, I considered him highly motivated, but highly motivated to remain UNMOTIVATED. Nothing touched him. Nothing. It has stayed with me all these years and I wondered what became of him. Although I failed, he did push me to pull out every trick and strategy known to the profession, which, if anything, made me a better educator - although not for him.
I sincerely and respectfully want to say that I don't think you failed your student. You rose to the challenge, became a better educator and were probably the first teacher to ever truly engage with him. That was your great gift to him. I prefer to think it may very well have been a starting point for him to challenge not only you but himself.
Also a retired teacher. Thanks for this insightful perspective. Even when we "fail", we learn to do better. I want to remember this as I look back at my varied experiences with my students.
One student of mine who seemed the most apathetic I had ever encountered sort of scared me. I am a counselor. I reached for everything I knew to do as well. The person that seemed to help her most was our learning specialist, who spoke French and could help this student with her French homework. Her outside therapist couldn’t seem to touch it either. This young woman took her life about three years out of high school. If they care about something, even gaming or tik tok, it’s something to start with. And yes, we need to give our kids less, say no more often. But we can’t create entitled children and then blame them for being entitled. We have to help them figure out that being able to work at something, and working hard at something is what gives us positive self-esteem. And purpose.
I agree, Linda. However, we continue to try. And it is possible that the student who appears to balk at the lesson will in fact carry the lesson in his or her brain where it will one day become part of their usable knowledge base.
I admit I am less worried so much about people under the age of 35 as I am about the people 35 and over: this group, when they espouse the Big Lie and are completely under the thumb of whatever pastor floats their white supremacy boat are the truly unteachable. Even if they indoctrinate their children, in my experience (40 years in the Ed Biz), it is possible to get through to the younger ones. I am well aware that the most recent crop of mass murderers are essentially children (especially their undeveloped brains) even if this last one is a legal adult but what I find interesting is that the lack of impulse control so typical among younger people is being celebrated by the white supremacists who see these boys as heroes. When they are in prison, they might learn a thing or two, but their parents are perhaps beyond redemption.
"....it is possible to get through to the younger ones." And therein lies the basis, I think, of why the far right is trying to destroy public education. This week in NH, our state senate voted along party lines to approve a bill for vouchers to take tax payer money and allow families to use it for any schooling they wish, including private religious schools, despite the fact that at a virtual hearing on the bill, over 6000 voters called or wrote to oppose the bill and less than 2000 in support. Our Free Stater in Republican clothing lawmakers may or may not be conservative christians but they are happy to take up their cause in the interest of destroying public education.
I think this is also another reason to have more younger people in Congress. They understand more what is going on with younger people and know how to help them in this new age of everything online. So many of these older white men(and some women) in Congress are so out of touch withone under say 35. I think it is a problem. They rally on about the same old things unaward of the anxiety and worries the young are faced with.
Having worked in a prison, I would worry more about white supremacists recruiting other prisoners to join their movement. I would also be concerned about white supremacist officers using that gang to make their job of maintaining order easier by encouraging their worldview. This would mean more black deaths and solitary for gangs of color so the privilages offered in prison are only enjoyed by white supremacists. Remember, even white allies of POC would be terrorized. As goes prisons, so goes society when they are released. Soon we will all be identifying with a "gang" for our own protection from the police state.
Thank you, AndreaH, for that wise consideration. We all have this problem to a greater or lesser degree, of being able to integrate what we don't want to know -- about ourselves, about the world -- only when we are ready to do so. And that takes time.
Are there any shrinks in the house? They can confirm this and also, perhaps, tell us about how to converse with sufferers from psychotic delusions. No fun. It involves appearing to accept their delusions. And if you think about it, that's fair enough. Everyone's starting point is where they stand now. Or, in the case of someone deluded, where they think they stand -- we have to accept the reality that they believe what they do and move on from there.
Quite a headache for us ordinary people.
Maybe a practical starting point will be to look for little things we have in common, say, a liking for a given food or drink, support for the same team, liking for the same film or musical... Or bigger things, same religion, same church, same school, same teachers (liked or disliked), same acquaintances... Even, looking back, when we were friends with someone who didn't see things the same way... Even more, if we're still friends.
I never agreed with my Dad about politics, religion, philosophy -- our love and agreement, our mutual respect, went far deeper than that.
We need to seek out what unites us when we're divided by the love of our country, or what we imagine to be love of country...
Looking for little means to get our gears in synch.
I don't have much teaching experience, but what I did learn is that even the seemingly dumbest kid has some strong point, something he or she loves and is good at. And that's the teacher's starting point. Maybe ours in reaching across the Grand Canyon divide...
Also, we need to work out, why does this person see things this way?
An example: when I was 20, a friend who'd been living in Mexico asked, "How is it possible that the descendants of the Maya people who built those extraordinary cities should be so dumb?"
Answer: I wouldn't know if they're dumb or not but they know very well that if they don't LOOK dumb, they're dead.
One common approach here is to simply ask questions to clarify what the person with such difficulties means and intends. Then get them onto how they decided on this route and before you know it, you haven't accpeted their view but you have at least a relationship on which you can start to build a wider view of life and what is possible .....and the limits .....given the skills that they are demonstrating.
I feel the same way, Andrea. It is human nature to be balk at whatever confronts us. That doesn’t mean that no progress was made in shifting our views. Be consistent. Don’t give up.
I am experiencing your question, "How do we teach the unteachable?" I am tutoring a 13 year old who had stopped learning online. He is my nephew. He has all the privilages that money can buy. That means, while his mother works from home in her office all day until 5:00 pm, he works at his computer attending class from 9:00 am until 3:30 pm. When he has recess he refuses to go outside on sunny days, he turns to his PSI game computer or his XBox. Most days he refuses to change out of his pajamas. We are committed to nonviolence so we do not threaten him with violence. I have no authority to remove his computer from his room, so he stays up after midnight playing games or watching YouTube.
Discussions with him about his future result in his attraction to being a YouTube star and making lots of money. He does not believe he needs high school.
Thank you Jay for your prescient comment. To borrow the words of M. Scott Peck from his book 'The Road Less Traveled'...
"The time and the quality of the time that their parents devote to them indicate to children the degree to which they are valued by their parents. Children, who are truly loved, know themselves to be valued in the deepest parts of themselves. The feeling of "I am a valuable person" is essential to mental health and is a cornerstone of self-discipline. When children have learned through the love of their parents to feel valuable, it is almost impossible for the vicissitudes of adulthood to destroy to their spirit."
My son died at 16 in a car accident. I listened to him, watched over him and his sister. I gave them my time and full attention and they gave me exuberance and joy. 10 priests con celebrated my son's funeral mass because so many people attended. He was empathetic and kind. He stood up to bullies for weaker classmates and was quick to support anyone in need, especially his 'little sis'. And he had a
lively sense of humor!
After he died our daughter had some hard times to work through, but she is now a very busy therapist specializing in trauma therapy in FLA. My daughter is loving and generous to my husband and me. And my son had enough trust and faith in my love for him to tell me HIS dreams, (not mine or his father's) for his life just before he passed. What a great gift!
I am nowhere near the intelligence level of this wicked smart tribe. I appreciate the great opportunity to learn from HCR and all of you. But sometimes, IMVHO, (the V is for Very) the answer is not always to be found in policy or well thought out opinions or arguments. To me the answer is much simpler, as well as also much harder. Being truly present to our children, listening carefully, giving them truly quality time, sharing their sufferings and their victories......especially now during political unrest, pandemic and insecurity as they face an uncertain future, is hard...but for the children (And they are not hard to find... they outnumber us!) the knowledge they are loved and valued may make all the difference for them and those around them going forward.
Thank you for the great intelligence, wisdom and kindness of so many gifted and good people here, led by our fearless leader HCR.
I'm so sorry for the loss of your son. He sounds like a wonderful young man. I'm glad he was as loved and cherished as he was for the time you had with him. I hope this brings you great peace.
Your intelligence shines brilliantly in this post.
I am so very sorry, I cannot imagine such a loss. Sounds like your home was filled with a tremendous amount of love, appreciation, kindness and a parent who truly listened. I think every parent can always use a reminder as to what really matters and means the most to children, no matter what their age may be, I know I do. Thank you for such a thoughtful post and for sharing your wonderful children with us.
I don't really have any words except to offer a deep bow of gratitude to you for raising such wonderful, loved, seen, known children. The world is in desperate need of such beings and IMVHO there is no greater gift you could give to the world.
So sorry Jay that you are experiencing this extreme level of entitlement. I see this a lot, too, among university students (usually male) who don't value the education they are paying for (that one just befuddles me). I have a nephew who is convinced that his father will bankroll him forever and that he will make a fortune by sitting on his arse and making cute little cooking videos. He has few marketable skills but considers any job that pays less than $100,000 a year beneath him. It is mind boggling. But my hope is that he eventually has to actually discover reality. A stint working a terrible job is quite enlightening but too few of the white entitled youth of today (especially the boys) have to do that.
In 1990 I met a pair of friendly Americans who enthused about the vast horizons about to be opened up for humanity by the worldwide web.
In the spring of 1994 I arrived in the USA for the very first time (landing at Newark NJ from Central America) and stayed with my American first cousin.
But the initial experience was weird and quite unprecedented: for the very first time in my life, I felt that I was not on the same planet. Everything was pleasant and seemingly familiar, and yet... I'd never felt this kind of alienation anywhere, neither in Asia nor on the great plains of East Africa.
In Times Square, something clicked. Amidst all those great flashing images, I got the idea that Americans' reality was already becoming VIRTUAL. Since then, that flickering multipixel thinner-than-wallpaper perception of reality's glittering-flickering surface effects has ousted any deeper perception of reality itself... everywhere.
Three years later, in So-Ho, my Japanese friend said to us:
"In this society, everything's on the surface, there's nothing behind it. With such a grave imbalance, only one outcome is possible: illness."
All the Europeans present understood what he was saying, the Americans weren't ready for such comments and very visibly couldn't make head or tail of what he was saying.
A few years later, at the end of 2002, the same man asked me how I felt about 9/11, and I told him that he'd already given the answer in Manhattan years before.
"What do you mean?"
I reminded him of those words, then added:
"If disease doesn't manifest within, it must come at us from outside."
My friend fell silent.
A minute or so later, he said:
"When I heard the news, I felt terrible. But once I'd thought about it for a while, I said to myself: "This is just Nature at work".
What frightens me now is that, even all those years, all those pointless wars later, after visiting so much damage (America's disease) on the world, such a vast swathe of the US population (and now, the population of the world) is more than ever in thrall to meaningless and totally confused and confusing subliminal messaging. Mice for King Cobra.
HCR's at work on the antidote and we're helping in her laboratory!
I have urgent concerns about your nephew as well. Might he be suffering from clinical depression?
I’m not a doctor (but I did stay at a [insert the name of your favorite motel chain] last night).
But in all seriousness, I have been a life-long victim of major depression. I hear all the symptoms of the disease in your nephew’s behavior. It can be especially acute—and dangerous!—in adolescents.
I think it would wise—or you might say prudent—to have him examined, sooner rather than later. Medical science has made great strides in this field in the 70 years since I was first diagnosed.
Jay, You have shared a very serious and difficult situation with us. Thank you for doing so. I believe br's comment was very wise. Can your nephew's mother be reached with regard to the kind of attention that may be necessary to support her child. I also wonder about finding an excellent therapist who may work online. It sounds as though your nephew does need help as, perhaps, so do his parents. They might also consider a family therapist. Your nephew may have been in pain for a long time. It seems as though your input is limited by the circumstances, but I can feel your wish to improve life for your nephew.
Thank you for your support. This is a single parent household. In Canada we have 3 therapists to help with raising kids during COVID, all paid for by the government, one for school, one for divorce and another for child abuse from the father. So the whole family has PTSD.
What I am witnessing first hand is the raising of the COVID generation. Our parents told us to "go outside and play". This generation is staying up until midnight online, then refusing to get out of their pajamas all day. They are growing up indoors. They are growing out of their shoes without using them!
I am so sorry, that is heartbreaking. My son spent a lot of time with video games in middle school-begining of high school (he is now 24). There was a lot of conflicting information about abusing such a platform. He always got his school work done and had soccor and such so I was concerned but not really worried. Then begining of high school, he came to me and said he wanted a timer so he could make sure he wasn't playing too long. Makes me now what to ask him what made him decided to monitor himself. I do think with Covid and kids being at home and school online will bring forth many new problems.
There's a lot of options between the extremes of corporal punishment and letting students run wild. Why would violence be considered anyway? Don't abandon the middle ground that ensures effective learning.
So sorry for what your nephew is going through, even though HE may not see anything to be sorry about. A few conditions come to mind and professional help should be available through the schools and family health care provider. The 1st is depression - not uncommom to manifest it in early adolescence. The 2nd is Aspergers Syndrome (a name recently changed to join others on the autistic spectrum disorder so that these kids can get help if needed - many do fine without help and are never diagnosed beyond "brilliant"). A 3rd is depression with Aspergers. And a 4th, sadly is "under-parenting", a phrase I just made up, but a condition which I suspect is now as pandemic as COVID-19. Setting limits, engaging in outdoor activities, enforcing chores, and taking away computers and phones and hand helds and... With parents themselves glued to computers for work, the offspring is sprung. I know families where a parent left all 3 meals plus a bedtime snack outside their child's door everyday, and heaved sigh of relief when they heard a shower go on once a week. Eventually (years) those adolescents came out. I pray your family is able to get the help they need now, not later, to overcome this problem.
I hear this, and have worried about my boys and the video games and You Tube and Tik Tok. Maybe start by asking him which You tubers he admires and why? I think some of what you’re describing is depression. Staying in pajamas, not wanting to go outside. Encourage your sibling to make outdoor recess mandatory for gaming time. But I have fought my boys over their social media, and have found that talking to them about it, watching with them, playing a game with them, works better in getting them to join me than fighting them does. Bless you for tutoring him. Keep trying! Let him know you care. Remind him he’s not a you tube star yet and will need a back up plan.
Thank you for your encouragement. As the aunt, I have adopted the premise that "mother knows best". It will not improve the family dynamic for me to argue with the parent. I am just now getting to know these two iddle schoolers. Mom has known them for 11 and 13 years. I was not in the same country when they experienced the violent breakdown of the father triggered by COVID lock down (no drugs or alcohol). I think lock down started here in February. He was a bus driver so he was an essential worker but was attacked by a gang and sent to the hospital. By September he snapped but his "man of the house" worldview had no room for , The-kid-drove-him-crazy.
What do you mean unteachable? They're resistant to any learning? They lack the skills of learning? Or they're unteachable because they have a different point of view?
I would attribute the symptom of being unteachable due to a diminished sense of curiosity. What this looks like is no longer asking the question "why?" so common among 3 year olds. Diminished curiosity leads to diminished imagination. Discovery of new things is primarily learned through online games. Technology begs the question "how?" so techniques for accomplishments are followed, but seldom is the question why raised because the answer is always to win or advance the game.
I don't know about others, but when I responded to the "unteachable student" question, I was thinking of those who resist being taught. Now there are many reasons a child might resist schooling: it doesn't seem relevant to them, their lives are so unsettled they can't really focus on learning, school seems feminine (to some boys), they resent authority, they find learning difficult and so it is easier to feign apathy, or...and I think this is the part that troubles readers of this blog...the information being presented seems contrary to what they hear at home and that dissonance makes them uncomfortable (for example, evolution and biology or the ideal of equality, tolerance of people they are told are inferior or sinful, and so on).
As a retired (2017) high school social studies teacher (who taught civics among other things) I can tell you that education can only go so far, but it is absolutely vital, nevertheless. Yes, some students will be unreceptive, but we must persevere for the sake of the rest who are, I am convinced, the majority. However, the expectation - the mandate, actually - for balance does limit the discussion. So, for example, were I still in the classroom today, I could teach loud and long about fair elections, peaceful transfer of power, and the right to vote, but I could not make all the connections to the current Republican Party as Dr. R. does. Ditto for a lot of other topics. But it's vital - vital - to keep fighting the good fight and exposing young Americans to the fundamentals of democracy, even if some will go on to reject the truth.
We are starting to get similar problems here in France with some teachers in specific areas underlining the belief that the law of the land supercedes illegal or undesireable practices dictated by the Koran. This has already resulted in the decapitation of one teacher for telling his students what freedom of speech really means.
Indeed. And how about the 20, 30 and 45-year-olds and a certain 74-year-old with a mental age of 1 year and 6 months and temper tantrums to show for it?
Teachers have always brot their prejudices to the classroom. In my St. Louis County high school about 1961, I brot a LIFE magazine feature on Charles Darwin to class and the teacher said “He is a crackpot and so was I for reading about him.” That is a lesson that stuck with me these 60 years, how backward thinking some teachers could be. That dinosaur is long gone now but has something more evolved replaced her?
This reflects the day I left my church for good—my Sunday school teacher said dinosaurs were myths and Darwin was WRONG. Even as a pre-teenager I recognized that as untruth and decided my church lied.
Actually, the recommended book to read about fascist belief about science is The Black Earth: holocaust as History and warning by Timothy Snyder. The Nazis prided themselves about only believing in science, especially as interpreted by Spenser as "survival of the fittest".
They believed in population control by reducing the population of the weak and increasing the population of the strong. They believed evolution of the human species was a race war. Hitler blamed the jews for all the trouble in the world because they were not a biological race. Jews represented interbreeding of weakness among all the races so required elimination. The Nazis believed in Malthus prediction that the earth could not support more humans, so Hitler was merely attaching his vision of the future to science. The German people were reacting to the learned reality of starvation after WWI. Hitler promised them the Ukraine as the breadbasket to keep Germany fed. Science gave the German people the rational for believing they were the super race, not merely Hitler's speeches. Fascism had become systemic, greater than the sum of individuals.
I wonder where that teacher got that perception of Charles Darwin. Religious belief, perhaps? Historically, many of the planet's problems might share that origin.
Andrea, you are correct. As a professor at The University of Chicago said in 1955/6, Sandy, over half those you will know in life would do as the Germans did, given the same circumstances. He was incarcerated at Dachau and Buchenwald, saw the Nazis break into his home in Vienna and take his cameras and lenses, his lovely china, and anything of value as they arrested him for being Jewish and an intellectual. I had asked him if Anne Frank was truthful in her hidden book. His answer was clear.
I had a Professor at the University of California, Davis, who was Polish. Captured by the Germans, put in a camp, managed to escape. Then captured by the Russians, put in a camp, managed to escape. Made it to the U.S. He said the very same thing about Totalitarian Societies and Societies where political polarization occurs such that the loudest voices "stifles other opinions/conversations or constantly paints their opponents as evil." (Quotations for emphasis.) In the U.S. one could contend that our cable commentator media (refuse to call them journalist) are doing this to us.
Friend U of Chicago famous Math Professor Izaak Wirszup was in Auschwitz, lost 60 relatives, was wealthy in chocolates and candy from Vilnius. Survived by painting the commandant’s HQ. Released at war’s end. The Soviets did not believe him, hated the Germans that had let him live, determined he was spy, put him in the vast gulag. He finally got out. Came to Chicago. Did well. His view: fascism can happen anywhere. He feared the fascist elements here. Said White Supremacy is a social disease. We crushed the Indians, the Negro, the Japanese and the Chinese and that frightened Wirszup. He was afraid Jews would be slammed here. Anti Semitic stuff was all over Florida with Restricted signs, just like Fred Trump in Queens. Fascists are rising in many nations. Three words and Black women saved us. Majority Whip Clyburn said Joe Knows Us. South Carolina saved Joe, saved us... Trump is fascist, a racist fascist.
Here’s a story: In high school, we had enrichment English classes that went along with what we were studying in History. We were required to go to the local movie theater to watch movies that were based on both classes. One was The Diary of Anne Frank. I went to see it with all of the other kids. I was terribly shaken afterward. I was given a ride home and when my mom opened the door, I burst into tears. See, both of my parents were Holocaust victims. My mother was from Germany. She never wanted my sister or I to see the movie. I had lied to her and told her we were going to see A Tale of Two Cities. That night, my mom and I stayed up until 2am talking and crying. Her parents had been gassed at Chelmno in 1942. Yes, all of it was true.
Yes, and far, far worse than she explained...Pera and Izaak Wirszup, their beautiful daughter Marina, Bruno Bettelheim, and scores more... I grew up with them... and Opa James Franck, a 1925 Nobel in physics, he ran The Manhattan Project with a team, he saw it coming and fled... with his Lutheran son in law baptizing my Jewish wife at her birth, 85 years ago, fleeing 6 months later with nothing... but take this to the bank: we are here again... in scores of nations, right in plain view, with Trump Inc., are card carrying fascists with half our sick nation just utterly fascinated... waiting for orders. America’s racists and peddling through colleges and newspapers. This Letter needs a seeing eye dog. WASPs do not get it. This is how it starts, and no one sees it coming... well, no one saw it coming in Munich in 1935... few alive today remember... but we have one in Canada, and she remembers. We met in February 1952, I was just 11, and she was so young..... her dad was so successful and thought they could ride it out... lost half their family, fled to Boston, then Canada... there are two left. Came with nothing... but they survived... and she sees it clearly...
First, my sincere respect and admiration for being a teacher. It's tough, often thankless, job that is so important in for a democratic society.
Having read the comments thus far to this post, I'd like to relate the experience of one of my grandsons in a Seattle high school. From my educator friends here in Washington, their experience is not uncommon.
This kid is 15, his politics is nil as he focuses on video games, reads books, and is now writing poetry/screenplays, etc. When he entered his social studies/ government classes, he felt teacher's instruction was extremely biased, versus balanced, and were constantly being pushed on the class. He would use the term "social justice warrior." When I queried him as to what he meant, he quickly replied "White men are bad and and the evils of the world lay at their feet." His quote. The walls were plastered with posters reflecting similar points of view. How is this different that some teachers fanning the flames of the Big Lie?
Susan Lawrence made an excellent point. Students tend to adopt "socially acceptable views" versus deeply held beliefs. If you go to a school in a community that is predominantly Democrat or Republican, what would one expect? And if the educators in an education system reflects these views, how do you teach democracy requires educated people who don't jump onto a group think soundbite bandwagon?
And how do educators ensure that opposite points of view are encouraged, explored, rationally discussed? How can we as democratic society step back from this hostility and conduct discussions in a civil manner?
Larry, we seem to be encountering some technical trouble, but I want to endorse your excellent comment. It's unfortunate, to say the least (although hardly surprising) that so much "woke" is still "sleepwoke"... teetering on a top-floor parapet...
My overwhelming concern is to hear REAL voices and to take in their messages, by which I mean, what each speaker/writer really FEELS/THINKS. And not what they think they are supposed to. The last thing anyone needs is another bunch of bullies brainwashing and persecuting people into kowtowing to the opposite crass groupthink from what we've had to put up with for the past four years.
Such people are behaving like agents provocateurs for the far right, pseudo-firemen answering fire with flame throwers, racism with, yes, racism. And, goodness knows, if you live in a society as steeped in that as America, can you be blamed for reacting that way? Maybe not, initially. But haven't we seen ad nauseam what rage and resentment can do to a nation?
Time to relax and show quiet determination.
HUMAN LIFE MATTERS.
And yes, whatever some tin gods on bath toys the size of ocean liners may like to think, whatever hunger and thirst after justice grasps the oppressed, we ARE all equal and therein lies our pride.
That, and integrating how the internet controls people by watching and studying The Social Dilemma and The Matrix. Young, and all, people need to know how they are bought, sold, controlled and manipulated around the world. Remember Peter Finch in Network (1976) screaming, "I am mad as hell and not gonna take it anymore!" I metaphorically threw my tv out the window back then and never returned. I feel like that with a lot of the internet and social media. This has to be a core issue we must deal with. It is here to stay, so does it mean we need strict regulations, or ratings, or what? Is there such a thing as insisting that we have freedom WITH RESPONSIBILITY?
Well, Alaska used to belong to Russia after all.....bought by Sec. of State Seward for $7.2 million in 1867. That's 2 cents an acre....and 2 cents is about all she's worth.
It's major reason Why he's considered a great Sec of State. Derided then as Seward's Folly or Seward's Icebox, it ranks with the Louisiana Purchase among history's greatest bargains. and imagine if Canada and/or the US had a land border with Russia/USSR/Russia for the last 150 years!
“Meanwhile, the lawyer for Schaffer, the Indiana man, is trying to get leniency for his client by arguing that the man was encouraged by Trump. ‘People have the right to believe the highest elected official…. My client is not responsible for what happened on January 6.’”
Once again, the classic defense for behaving badly:
“I was only following orders.”
It seems as if they’re throwing the former president under the bus to weasel out of responsibility for breaking the law.
And this by people who adamantly oppose government telling people how to live their lives. Only “sheeple” let government officials tell them what to do. You know, like wearing masks in public, getting vaccinated, and so on.
Mr. Schaffer may not be wholly responsible for what happened on the 6th, but he is unequivocally responsible for what he did and should remain confined until he understands and acknowledges that. The judge is quite right.
I think the question is a bit more subtle than that.
Imagine that Trump had become our 21st century Hitler: that his insurrection had succeeded in murdering Pence, Pelosi, and any number of others, as well as destroying the electoral votes. I believe the Republican State Legislatures (the clear majority) would have united to give Trump a second term, and while he is a wastrel without much a real plan, his sycophants would put in bulwarks to ensure a third (and fourth, and fifth) term, should Trump live so long. In the meantime, the US descends into third-world poverty and worse because, bluntly, Trump is incompetent. Throw in any list of abominations you like: imagine a Handmaid's Tale nation, a Soylent Green nation, a 1984-cum-Brazil dystopia.
Is it still "wrong" to try to violently overthrow that government?
I would say rather that it is foolish to make that attempt, without having a clear possibility of winning. And winning requires several things. It requires a coherent military plan, with a brilliant commander and an actual military force willing to go the distance. It requires nation-state levels of deep-pocket funding (e.g. a foreign and solvent government). It requires a propaganda platform and message that captures the hearts and minds of the nation and turns most of them into co-conspirators and post-overthrow supporters. It needs to be able to cause nationwide mayhem and come out in the end smelling of Godliness and freedom-for-all.
Viewed through that lens, the Jan 6 insurrection was juvenile. I seem to recall that the insurrection march itself featured about 10,000 people. by contrast, the Pussyhat March on Washington in 2017 drew about 500,000 people, and was backed by equally massive marches all over the world. The only international backing the insurrection had (if any) would have been from foreign nations that wanted the US destroyed. It caused corporations to close up their financial sphincters, and drove away large numbers of Republicans from the party, many permanently. Perpetrators are being turned in to the government by their own families. To this day, it still has zero positive optics, only excuses and deflections and gaslighting that says "it never happened."
The insurrection was not an attempt at violent overthrow of the government. It was an attempted hail-mary coup by a sitting president who had lost legitimacy, and would have been barely-noticed as a violent protest without the complicity of that President.
The actual rioters may have thought they were kicking off a 1776 revolution. They were ... I'll be kind. They were misinformed.
Because they view it as overthrowing an illigitimate government, and have this pipe dream that they're revolutionaries overthrowing a king - but my question is how they cannot see that the "last guy" wanted to BE a king.
Great question, one for which the accused has no rational answer. Schaffer, like most of the rest of those who've been charged, is a follower by nature and not one of those who planned the insurrection.
Dotsieradzki, many of them are totally convinced that their actions are in accordance with these words from the Declaration of Independence:
....certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles ....
My point was that they knew it was wrong. They expected to get away with it because tRump had their back and because they were white. They couldn't imagine police would shoot them. Only one rioter died that I'm aware of.
When it comes to attempts to wave guilt by the "following orders" defense, it works better when the purported bossman giving the orders is dead and is not constantly contradicting them in his own defense.
Yes indeed! That is what may take all of this from the rediculous to the sublime. Attorneys for the SDNY may soon have some meat to throw into the soup as well.
I am waiting, too to hear, "Soups' on!" Not to be confused with "soupçon," which is a lot more than I can stand of the twisted trumplicans in our government.
They are gross violators of the social contract. That core Enlightenment ideal (notably associated with Locke and Rousseau), involves an unwritten, informal contract with other members of society that involves rights and responsibilities. People voluntarily relinquish certain rights and assume duties to secure other rights, and advance the greater good for all. The Preamble to the Constitution deftly distills 100 years of Enlightened political thought:
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
Those who insist on their own rights without accepting the corresponding responsibilities are outlaws beyond the pale of society, especially the Jan 6 insurrectionists and their supporters. They have the right to due process, and the government has the duty to punish them to the full extent of the law.
Remember the violence on January 6th. Think of the militias... Three year olds, however, loud, messy and destructive some may get, your comparison doesn't cover our justified concern.
I was living in San Francisco at the time of the Dan White trial. The Twinkie Defense worked. Later, of course, Dan White carried out his own death sentence.
It is not a very in-depth article but gets the point across that there can be something done about fake news. As usual a real solution takes time and takes the kind of effort that spans many years but that is the truth.
The fairness doctrine or some update of it is a public statement that we want to push back on fake news but we all understand that in our current world it won’t stop the proliferation of lies on all the various venues that lies are currently spread. Individuals in the end have to grow the skills to tell falsehood from truth.
All the telling comments today about the problems in education underscore the difficulties we face. I believe that medicine and education are bell-weather humanitarian fields that can be used to spearhead movement toward a better method for crafting our society. What happens in these two disciplines guides what happens over all, or could. The first move is to pry control of these disciplines out of the hands of finance people. The path toward this capability is long and probably difficult but it is not really obscure.
1. The For The People Act. With out this I do despair.
2. Revision of the Fairness doctrine or some revision of our beloved right to free speech that makes sense in our current world along with consideration of what happens to liars or those who incite riot. (Trump did lie and incite for years. Why did we have to wait until the actual riot happened? Or until the big lie has become so entrenched?)
3. The creation of a subset of our economy that recognizes and empowers humanitarian professions and supports their efforts as self-governing elements of society with transparency as its global tenant.
I personally believe that those teachers who are using their class rooms as platforms for lies or for the promotion of their personal “truths” without concern for guiding critical thinking or historical reflection are well known to their colleagues just as poor physicians were and are well known to those who are working with them. As it stands calling these individuals out on their behavior, or their lack of skill, puts the accuser at substantially more risk than the embedded liar. And, like in medicine actual teachers probably already know what they need to do and what it will take to arm our children for their complex future.
Thank you, LH, and Patrick for posting that article. It is helpful and hopeful. I'm not an educator but I did work as a public school nurse for many years and what I saw and heard increasingly from teachers is each year they had less and less control over their teaching content. Now that they are evaluated based on how their students perform on standardized tests they have little choice but to spend an inordinate amount of time teaching to those tests as they say. And in this particular suburban rural NH town, a huge amount of pushback from not highly educated parents whenever they didnt't like something their child's teacher allegedly said or did in class, and no support for teachers from administration in these situations. Why anyone would want to go into teaching in these circumstances, I cannot imagine.
My daughter, who wanted to be a teacher from age 4 to age 24 decided against for those very reasons. She is a nurse now studying to be a nurse practitioner. When she switched she said it was hard because I had bashed medicine so badly. Now she is experiencing that... it hasn't been an easy time to grow up but on the bright side she did have enough food and shelter.
I always find myself biting my tongue when meeting someone considering or studying for a career in nursing. Inside I'm screaming NONONONONO. My 25 year old can't figure out what work path to pursue and I don't blame her. It has not been an easy time. There is less and less meaningful work each year. And shelter.......there is no affordable housing here. A realtor friend has 56 showings today alone for a single family home in the median "affordable" price range, about $330K. There will be a bidding war for sure.
And I imagine like me, you wanted more for your daughter than "enough food and shelter".
My primary IS a nurse practitioner - she is the greatest! In fact, every one of them I have ever had dealings with has been a wonderful medical person. I respect and like the doctors I deal with (specialists) but would not swap her for any of them! Your daughter will add much to the profession, I'm sure.
Times are often bleak now for professional educators, but there always are people dedicated to serving the public, educating the young, and preparing society for the future. Parents with extreme minority views are a longstanding challenge, but there's no need to favor those who simply screech the loudest. Like the GQP, it's yet another instance of encroaching minority rule.
A major problem is the phony education "reformers" seeking to privatize and profit from public ed, a substantial and tempting part of local budgets. A major feature of that agenda is killing teachers' unions (and other public sector unions), the strongest protectors of teachers' rights in and out of school. With Marty Walsh at DOL, the Biden admin seems primed to support labor. If they falter, they will hear about it!
Still, the problems seems structural to me. With out some structural change like self regulating Humanitarian professions I don't see a way out of the hole. I'm pretty sure that if there was a humanitarian refuge within teaching and medicine that many practicing and teaching would seek it out. If it was the public education system it would work. I'm afraid of a private sector element in teaching or medicine claiming they are 'humanitarian' because it is most likely to be a profit motive lie.
I echo that. Interesting that Finland has a female prime minister. As an aside Countries with female leaders seem to do particularly well (witness New Zealand and Iceland too)
Yes, Richard B (Norfolk, UK), did you ever notice that movie directors have far more females as casting directors. They know that women do a better job casting roles than most men.
Funny about that, isnt it? Seems the more women in government, somehow government seems to work better?? (not sure if thats irony or sarcasm, but you get my meaning).
I agree and as a male I find it both sad and reassuring. With the For The People Act I believe we have a chance at finding out how that would be here in the US but without it. No way.
I heard about The News Literacy Project from tweets by Peter Sagal, who sits on its board. @NewsLitProject describes itself as “a national education nonprofit offering nonpartisan programs that teach students how to know what to believe in a digital age. I don’t have direct knowledge of its work, but it sounds like it may be a helpful tool to build upon in countering disinformation.
Thank you for posting this article. As an educator, I have been closely following Finland's success in education for years. Here is an analysis from Stanford University of Finland's education reforms, since the 1970s, that underpin their success: https://edpolicy.stanford.edu/library/publications/543
One critical point in the article was a reference to reliable sources. I think many on the right consider Fox, Hannity, Carlson, etc. reliable sources. I've yet to find a compelling counter.
Correct. When talking to my NC Fox acquaintances I often find myself in this position. These are kinda ordinary people who believe what they are hearing on Fox etc. I find it hard to carry in my mind all the references required to refute or even rebut their statements. I do find the few times I have taken the time and made the effort to do the work that statements made on Fox often refer not to actual source material but to another person who is referring to another such that the original source if there even was one is lost in the confusion. It is rather like the way shell corporations are used to camouflage money transfers to the point that the origin of the funds can’t be found. (never quite understood this because it seems with enough effort the trail could be followed to the source so there is still something I don’t understand.)
This issue is present in medicine as well. Many many, perhaps the majority at times, medical studies are not what I would call a study at all but are a reassembly and rehash of data that might be decades old and have been collected for different purposes. This stuff gets written up by new authors and presented as if it is new data. If you don’t read the whole study you can’t tell. It is about authors getting credits for writing studies, which keeps them in some position they are occupying.
The key in medicine is to ferret this stuff out and to have journal editors call out or not publish stuff that isn’t actual research but they aren’t doing their jobs either.
Still, the question of how to define truth is the issue. Who does it? How is it done and how is it maintained for access by a population? My comment a few days ago and this one that may also fall too late in the day and be too esoteric to interest most, is that this truth is contained in big data, and the answer is access by an interface that is not controlled by a corporation or a news outlet but by you as an individual.
The user controlled data interface is not futuristic and access to basic big data can be regulated. After all big data is nothing more than the activity of the population whether that is medical activity, business activity or political. It is us therefore we own it. We just need the tools to access it. Then we don’t have to depend on Fox and we can be our own fact checkers. It is a new way of thinking but it is not fiction.
Those percentages of people believing that Fake45 won the election and those who think too much time is being spent on the insurrection, is astounding. I almost want to feel sorry for their ignorance but then I am reminded that most are unstable and are gun lovers.
Matt Gaetz and the others, McCarthy, Biggs, Brooks, crazy Gosar, etc. are all traitors to our nation. Their hateful and damaging rhetoric is what is destroying our democracy.
What gets me is that people (a lot of them) vote for these clowns. I do not totally understand why that happens. For God's sake, even Gosar's family campaigned against him
It's probably also becoming a game to respond as "nastily" as possible to the survey people to underscore their anger at nolonger really being listened to. That way they produce headlines that shock.
When HCR said today that "sometimes I despair of our democracy," she may have had them in mind. Without education, democracy contains the seeds of its own demise. It is believers in the "big lie" and other proven falsehoods who plant, fertilize and water those seeds. Each of them, remember, was democratically elected.
Your opening lines have been my reality for months, Heather. "I despair of our democracy" every single time the GOP, who represent our citizens in the Capitol, vote against a move to improve our lives and our plight following the destruction that 45 inflicted upon our systems and institutions. "I despair of our democracy" every single time the GOP leaders open their mouths to commit more deeply to their fascist lies. "I despair of our democracy" every single time 45 is praised or excused for what he did to stir and encourage the insurrection. "I despair of our democracy" every single time I realize that the Matt Gaetzes of this world are allowed to get away with their treasonous words and deeds. And "I despair of our democracy" every single day that passes without 45 and his clan having been arrested for their crimes! Thank you, Heather, for standing beside those of us who, like you, despair.
Rowshan, I share much of your feeling but haven't given up. Despair is warranted, but watch out. Despair can kill the determination to banish our foes. Don't give up. If you had, would you be here with Heather and subscriber friends?
Thank you, Heather! Seldom does a day pass when I do not despair of our democracy. Your letters and Press Secretary Jen Psaki's daily press briefings help fuel my hope and optimism.
I agree wholeheartedly- every morning I read Heather, and several times a day I read the latest on Whitehouse.gov, including watching Jen’s press briefings. Several times a week she has one of the new Secretaries or Administrators speak and take questions, and they ALL are proving themselves intelligent, competent, well-spoken and full of integrity.
Yes. I agree with you, Nancy. I admire how she shares the podium with others. I also admire her intellect and understanding of how democracy works. Her responses are measured and forthright.
I certainly hope President Biden does not patronize Putin by agreeing to a debate. What a nightmare. I recall Trump's behavior at the debates. Makes my skin crawl.
I agree, Andrea. Where did diplomacy go? Why would we ever get to the point of even considering a debate over diplomatic engagement? Lest we not forget that Russia was and still is partially responsible for creating and promoting the “Big Lie” referenced by HCR?
I’ve said it before and I say it again, Steve Bannon and his cadre are probably smiling from ear to ear thinking “mission accomplished.” Those poll numbers referenced above look good to them!
President Biden and our new administration/congress (and all of us) have our work cut out. Restore our faith in American democracy...for all citizens. I’m in, 100%!
Thanks to Heather for this community and all of you! Truth and justice must prevail.
WTF is happening here? Why would we even think of engaging this thug? He has power and nukes but he is still a cheating bullying power monger who has no right but only might.
And frankly the news media isn’t helping by giving Putin air time to make his case. Everything that comes out of his mouth is propaganda and/or a lie. DON’T give him a megaphone!
However, on second thought. What if Putin has a cadre of followers who would declare Putin the winner and wage war against America. Let's not go there.
This just underlines Gaetz etcs total lack of understanding of foreign affaires and a total denial of America's fundamental interests.......what price Trump's "America First" policy now?
I do believe that when our AG pursues the money trail, then the communications, then the actual physical contacts of Gaetz and others, there will be fire to explain all this smoke.
Putin relishes crafted lies. He is a trained KGB propagandist. He has his dream sound bites ready for the International stage. The money driven News Media would make insane amounts of money on a debate between the Teacher and the Bully. It must not happen.
The Emperor Augustus tried to avoid any undertaking where the risks outweighed the possible rewards. That should be Biden's attitude toward Putin. There is little to gain from debating a tyrant.
What a complete joke! Right out of Karl Rove's playbook. Creating fiction.(Google - Karl Rover - "We're an empire now.." quote. Honestly, why would someone want you, you Andrea, to even remotely think the call for such a debate has one iota of credibility? What function does it have? Time for the cunning eyes of the hooded watcher. Implicit in all this bunk is the assumption that the USA is as pure as the driven snow when it comes to intervening in elections. The USA, the grand master with its CIA toppling regimes and democratically elected governments the world over when it's not busy neutralizing truth telling activists here at home with any means possible. As long as we allow our eyes to focus "over there, on them" , we do not see the culprits we can actually do something about, namely - the genuine masterminds engaged in architecting a slick overthrow of our democracy who live right here at home. How about a debate between Richard Wolfe, Noam Chomsky, Chris Hedges, Cornell West, or Robert Scheer, and any one of the traitorous Republicans (McConnell, Bill Barr, et al in Senate/House and/or any Fox so-called news mouth pieces ) on the topic - Who and what is the biggest threat to American democracy today? And who and what is most responsible for intervening in our elections? That would bring our attention to where you and I can do something about. And, do something responsible that would be considered radical by those interested in keeping us feeling impotent. The same bad actors. Whose sight of we must pin our own eyes on fiercely and persistently.
True, as far as it goes. Even more fundamentally, however, i first read it as "I despair of our sanity."
It all makes me wonder if there's any way back to a collaborative political process, in that while we live in the most advanced and informed society in history, such ignorance still receives such recognition. How the Gaetzes and Gohmerts and Greenes and Jordans get elected, given their basic lack of qualifications, or an agenda beyond obstruction, or even a modicum of common sense, escapes my comprehension.
I beleve these two groups (#1 -advanced & informed and #2 - ignorance) CANNOT share a collaborative political process. The best way forward would be for the Gaetzes and Gohmerts and Greenes and Jordans to be brought to justice. Stopping fascism is the only way to contain it.
Well, it's clear that they can't, and certainly some of these people deserve to be made to explain why they should be allowed to continue to be "representatives." Whether their words and actions are just inappropriate (without a doubt) or criminal, their only contribution has been to disrupt, not to better American society. Whichever it is, collectively we have failed to hold elected representatives to any sort of reasonable standards of accountability. They act with impunity because it's been proven that there won't be any consequences.
However, it's only partially a legal issue. What's more problematic for me is why they get elected or reelected. And not only why, given that they're out of sync with public opinion, but why, given that they bring nothing to the table, often have questionable backgrounds, and fail to offer alternatives to issues they don't like. We need more than age and citizenship as criteria to run for federal (and other) office. I've written here before that the fundamental processes of the electoral system are flawed. Candidates aren't under pressure to "defend" any position because they just attack everyone else. They aren't required to present any thought out views about what their policy positions are, how they'll be implemented, or how they'll be funded. Debates aren't debates at all, they're goat rodeos in which victory = volume. They know they can bait and switch between what they say as candidates and what they do once seated.
Finally, WTF is wrong with our communities that don't seem interested in challenging these clowns based on factual evidence. Perhaps technology has reduced our attention span to the sound bite, but I'm not sure how to unwind that particular problem.
Disheartening perhaps. But the first step towards change is realizing the pain of staying where you are is greater than the pain you will experience in changing.
For any big lie to work it must be told and told again, over and over. In the same exact way, with the power of personality and the conviction of a Southern Baptist preacher, the truth must me repeatedly told. Over and over and over. It’s not so much lies shouldn’t be told, they shouldn’t. It’s more about telling stories reinforcing truth. Over and over and over, again and again, and never stop. Truth and love is more powerful than hate and lies, but only when we project it. Former President Trump teaches the power of repetition. The power of doubling down. If reading this strikes you as bizarre then you’re reading it upside down. President Biden gets it. We all must push the truth like it’s a vocation, or a lust for aggrandizement. For every Indianan man with vitriol and lies, tens of thousands of zealot truth tellers must be there to drown out the lies. As a country, are we winning the war on truth? I think we aren’t doing a great job and can do better. What’s the truth about government institutions and its preservation of freedom and democracy? This truth needs telling and from both sides of the isle. I’m using A Starting Point, the app, to hear it position statements from the politicians themselves. No Like buttons. Their unvarnished videos gives me ground truth about what they say and I use critical thinking with diversity of information to then tell others the good things going on. It’s uplifting and I call it The Big Truth.
As a high school instructor for 28 years I have had a different experience than some out there. My school is a mix of working class, middle class, and upper middle class. Minorities make up roughly 30% .
We have had some really stupid and hateful incidents around race, gender preference etc. I would say these, while egregious, do not reflect the overwhelming positives our kids engage in. Our leadership supports the teachers temerity to take on uncomfortable issues while always being respectful of the minority idea (Trump supporters) for instance. We have adopted Anti-Racist practices woven into all teaching subjects. We all do this in our own way and to a level we feel comfortable with. "Respect for Human Differences" is a core belief. We say that "we don not teach you what to think, we teach you how to think." Yes it is all practiced imperfectly but we are not afraid of ideas. As a for instance, our kids totally organized their own march for BLM which was attended by hundreds of all walks of people, even politicians. I am more fearful of leadership and administrations that discourage and intimidate and punish authentic thinking (I have taught there too). I do not teach a core subject nor what would be considered an academic subject. But I am so encouraged by my students and their thoughts, incites and observations when I ask for their written responses to an article or book that we are reading. We do this intermittently to topics outside of my discipline . When asked why? I tell them because I am a human too and live in this world and the issues that confront us all race, human rights, environment, and politics do not exist in separate silos and disappear when you arrive in my setting. They know where I stand on issues, but I tell them not to believe or accept what I say, it is incumbent upon us all to fully interrogate the facts. This is how we all get to the truth of a matter. So fact check me as well as others. I guess what I really am trying to impress upon you is that I am not fearful of the young , I am so encouraged by what I see in them. It is our culture that will shape them ultimately and good education is a strong contributor to good culture. Hope this makes some sense.
Gt....It makes wonderful sense. I feel good, hopeful and reassured by this post. And thankful there is such a great place for learning. These young ones are fortunate to have teachers like you.
So, it’s not just me. Altho, I have had this despair since Nov. 8, 2016. The despair of discovering how many ignorant, bigoted cultists followed a clearly insane, unqualified and dangerous conman and elected him to the highest office of the land. Also, the despair of seeing the depths of complicity in the Repugnant Party that also saw the danger of this unqualified madman and initially tried to stop him, but on seeing his cult appeal to the bigots and ignorant faction of their party acquiesced to his madness.
Since that time, 4 years ago I have feared for our nation as this madman roused his ignorant dangerous rabble using Hitler’s Playbook. (Ppl who used to call that comparison hyperbole now admit it is true). And then the attempted burning of the Reichstag happened on Jan. 6, 2021, and was thwarted, but the Nazi followers in the Repugnant Party are still here threatening our democracy and I still despair.
People believed tRump was a successful business man despite the news reports that he wasn't. Add to that the country was not ready for a woman president especially an intelligent and capable woman.
Didn't the Nazis, who attempted to burn down the Reichstag, put the blame on Communists, just as some believers in the "Big Lie" tried to pin the blame for the January 6 insurrection on "Antifa."
Yes, I believe so and Hitler was able to very quickly seize power in Germany soon after. I thought immediately of the burning of the Reichstag on January 6. It made me sick to watch this awful event. Thank you, Jacob, for the historical narrative. I have yet to find a Trump supporter who isn't flummoxed by the term 'historical narrative.'
That was exactly what the former president was trying to do and sadly, not only his ardent supporters, but most Republicans as well, are too STUPID to comprehend that! I used to be content to call them "ignorant or gullible" but there is no getting away from telling the truth. They are STUPID ... or just maybe willing to consciously commit treason to satisfy their racist agenda.
This is profoundly disturbing. It is essential that we bring back the Fairness Doctrine and make it illegal for any form of broadcast publication or media to lie the way the right wing extremists have done for the past 34 years.
Our great democracy will not survive the continued attack on its very existence.
Agree! Because news and media has evolved since 1987, something better and all-encompassing than the Fairness Doctrine would be apropos for the complex world of 2021 (Fairness only applied to over the air broadcasters with Federal licenses). Perhaps a "Truth In All Mass Media Doctrine" with stiff penalties for noncompliance.
The problem will come in selecting who will be judging the truth of what is broadcast.
LH ~ No Problem, imho. We will rely on the same set of objective principles that has guided (and misguided) our society for more than 200 years. While America has a troubled past in treating one another like equal members of God’s creation, Americans have been able to build some reputable structures and systems.
America has had a legitimate FCC through decades of bipartisan administrations and divided Congresses. Those who desire a world based on rationale, facts and scientific inquiry will prevail, and if this does not happen, then we have far greater problems than a corrupted media.
Now is the the time to pressure the remaining moderates in the Republican party to support a legitimate and honorable press. I’m thinking of Sasse, Murkowski, Collins, Romney and the governors or OH, MD, MA, and VT. Is there anyone else??? Conversely, we must replace elected officials who entrust our future to fake news.
The delusional view of Fox News, its echo chamber and the RNC must be loudly broadcast through the 2022 mid-term elections.
* We must replace elected officials who validate the insurrection of January 6, 2021. At stake is a legitimate press with its necessary freedoms, and the upcoming mid-term election is our opportunity.
Hear! Hear! Frederick!
LH ...correct! Who will judge? Also the fairness doctrine is weak as it is/was. Cable broadcasting has had decades of non regulation. FOX cable is a huge problem that goes uncontested. I have had a few years in broadcasting and and know how the news can be twisted. And advertiser shelter by the truth. There has to be an answer! Sadly I do not have it.
You are absolutely right, LH.
Great point as Bill Gates, Big Pharma and the Tech Companies basically own the media.
I firmly support the Fairness Doctrine but we need to be wise enough to realize that mainstream media is confined by the men who own their networks, papers, etc. Yes Fox is easy to focus on because they blatantly sell lies but when you follow the money even amazing news sources such as NPR and BBC are limited by Big Money. That’s what makes Heather so valuable no one is censoring her words, she is simply giving us the facts!! Thank you Heather!!
It would be great to be able to do this except that most of the locales where these folks get their information are not official press sites. The Fairness Doctrine cannot be an umbrella over blogs, reddit sites, etc. because the expression of opinion is not restricted by the Constitution, only the official media sites (TV and radio stations, newspapers, etc) would be covered under it. It would quell some of the excesses of the appalling Murdoch family, for instance, but it won't do anything about the internet.
Why not regulate non-broadcast media, including social media? There are always limits even with free speech protected. Slander, libel, malicious intent, risks to public safety or national security, are all currently restricted for good reasons. Certainly there is a slippery slope to avoid, but the country's future is at stake. Training students and the public in critical thinking is essential, but so is limiting the flow of patently false disinformation. A revamped and expanded Fairness Doctrine is an important part of efforts to address our current crisis.
If presenters/ people posting HAVE to list their sources, or say “thoughts presented are the opinion of the presenter,” then we are set. No more lies.
Yes! Unless noted as “all stories opinions of the presenters.”
They (meaning anyone) should get Zapped, Everytime they LIE!!!!
If Only this could Actually Happen!!! I was wishing for THIS when I was watching the presidential debates!🤣😅
Yes, I was, too. I was imagining casting a Dumbledorish spell that would have the word LIE appear in big smoky letters above the liar, every time they lied, maybe rising from their hair.
Thank you so much! I am going to echo your 1st sentence.
Yes, another echo from your first sentence.
I have lost the thread. To What sentence are you all referring?
I think they're talking about my comment about bringing back the Fairness Doctrine and applying it to all forms of published media.
I agree. Is there any talk of that yet? Bringing back the Fairness Doctrine?
I wish I knew -- I suspect there are more pressing matters to consider first, but it should be on the agenda. To some extent, we need to choose our battles with this Senate. That being said, though, I believe this is increasingly important.
And our latest battle is to get a viable gun control bill passed and enacted NOW! Haven’t we all been traumatized enough by the NRA and the GOP??
I feel that we need to support organizations that are trying to do this. Check out ‘Social Media Monitoring’ at Common Cause. Common Cause is approaching the problem from 2 directions: 1) they are reporting false statements regarding the 2020 election and asking responsible social media companies to remove them, and 2) they are asking volunteers to post positive or factual messages to counteract the false statements. I’ve been doing this from both directions. Will this have an impact? I don’t know but it’s a start.
I support Common Cause, Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Fair Fight, Indivisble, etc.
Yes! That's great! Another one is MoveOn. I think these smaller organizations had a lot to do with why Democrats won the 2020 election. They really worked hard and maybe smaller organizations can be a little more nimble, or versatile. We have to keep trying to make things better.
Good idea. The problem in the USA particularly (but probably in the U.K. and elsewhere too) is that right thinking people (=automatically everyone who subscribes to Heather’s letter!) grumble about the lies but do not shout out the truth. Those telling the big lie bellow it relentlessly.
I am IN.
‘We will grow like the flame that fuels us and spread like the love that guides us.’ What in god’s green earth is this kind of love? A love that guilds people to kill/hurt people they disagree with? This is the mother of all Big lies. Black is white if I say so and if you disagree with me you have no value at all. You are disposable. Father knows best, I am hitting you because I ‘love’ you. Children, women, all people of colour or a different sexual orientation than the one I feel comfortable with should be seen and used for my own profit but not heard or have equal human rights. This attitude is fuelled by fear and acted out with a fragile veneer of bravado that is trying to hide a yawning pit of insecurity and hate. There is no real Love in it at all. We all know what real Love feels like. It is not some sentimental hallmark card. It is both kind, courageous and fearless. It is open not closed. Inclusive not xenophobic. It cannot be put in the service of anything that degrades, hurts or makes less any sentient being. It created and continues to create every good thing. That some deluded, immature thug thinks he has Love on a leash like a pet to be trotted out to lull the masses with this phoney proclamation is tragically ridiculous. Fortunately Love cannot be domesticated for any cause. It enlightens, comforts, defends, and banishes darkness indiscriminately. Love endures.
Robin, thank you for this. I’m not religious, but to me, what you describe is beautiful, the high point of what we strive for in our family and public life, and finally, God. Imagine a world where those things are ascendant. How hopeful.
Robin, this is beautiful.
Thanks D.😻
I had fundamentalist parents who would say "I'm doing this because I love you" as they beat us with peach tree branches or leather belts, or whatever was available.
"Spare the rod, spoil the child" was oft-repeated. "Children should be seen, not heard" was another gem.
Guns were endemic. Sending the kids out to get dinner (taking out the 410 to shoot rabbits, going fishing, deer hunting, etc) was a common errand.
No little wonder these boys grow up to become uneducated but bloviating tyrants; they have been repressed and knocked around and unheard. And, often enough, sexual abuse can be added to the list of acts committed upon their minds and bodies. So, when they get to be the Father, they are in charge of all the chattel. It doesn't typically bode well.
This kind of childhood environment leads to distrust of the 'other' including the teacher. but the potential for a spark, for some glimmer of understanding beyond that oppressed grind...well, therein lies hope.
Hi Kim, Seattle born here. Living in the Uk Wales now. Yes, it does not bode well at all. The resilience of folks that had an unfortunate childhood constantly amazes me. Many of my women friends had incest, rape, harassment and other brutalities in their past and yet they healed and now they thrive. I had an idilic childhood...I was so lucky. When faced by evangelicals later at a girlfriends church 15 YO I laughed at them when they threatened me for not adhering to their abhorrent doctrine. My parents said, good for you, dump them. Later in my 20’s when bad stuff happened, my shrink said, well, your good childhood gave you ballast to survive these events. Well Ok, but everyone has some sort of ballast. For some it is a sane relative that provides comfort. For others, they find a community to help them heal. Some find a benevolent source to connect to. Evangelical tyrants are so tragic to me. They are so close to something really cool and then they side step into the void of stupid. Why? One wonders. Sigh. A mystery.
What a narrative. You really made it!
for me, it was Ma, maternal grandmother, who loved me unconditionally, gave me resilience (and quite possibly stubbornness) and the notion that I could be an agent in my own life. I don't like myself when I say it, but really, there is no cure for stupid.
In grad school, a mentor spoke about the need to reach the lowest common denominator to educate for health. I think that may be the case for other outreach efforts as well. At the time (mid 80s), that level was 4th grade comprehension.
This is the answer. I feel like the best way to defeat racism is meeting and knowing people of other races, ethnicities, cultures. How can you walk a mile in their shoes if you really don’t know anyone in other shoes? Education is the answer.
I have found this thread uplifting and encouraging. Thank you Robin for setting out your thoughts. Give my love to Wales. Not been there for a while!
Beautiful. Thank You Robin. Today, snow all melted, I was outside when my neighbor rode up on her horse - I needed to tell someone that because it sounds so cool. But what she said was even more amazing and energizing and uplifting and comforting. "With the pandemic I haven't seen you this winter and I've been thinking about you, and hoping you are okay. I'm glad to see you look great." That is LOVE. We call it "neighboring."
We need more "neighboring."
Very cool indeed.😍
Thank you. Love endures. Gives me hope
Thank you Robin! You just Made My Day!! Really💕
Aww, thanks.
Ah, so well said, but the kind of love you're talking about requires effort and contemplation. So many humans choose to take the easy way out and just follow the rules laid down for them by the so called leaders of their church, family, regional culture. Don't question, just follow. So easy.
Thanks for your reply Beth. Each person has their own path to follow and is at a place in their journey where they have their own choices to make. I find it hard to judge what is easy or hard for someone else. Effort and contemplation are virtues for sure, but for me, having sampled most religions both east and west it has come down to just learning to exercise my moral conscience muscle at every crossroad and byway of life. And that learning does not involve much effort. It is just staying alert and asking for help when I need it. I can’t believe anyone’s worthiness of love or their ability to show it is established by effort....by somehow getting it right. We would all be doomed. Each persons worth is extrinsic. No matter how hopeless they may appear at the moment they have a lifetime of opportunities, who knows, maybe more, to choose love over fear. A person could contemplate forever but if their eyes are closed perhaps they will not see that the person next to them just needs a hug. All of us fall short of being able to embody unconditional love. I have experienced a source of it that helps me see my way when I need it. To me that experience means that if I look to love first then my service to everything else falls into place. This does not feel religious in the institutional sense but just a connection to a helpful benevolent source. So I bumble along and things are not perfect but they are closer to heaven everyday. If Hell is the place where Love does not exist I think that someday, at the end of space and time, everyone will get the help they need and then no one will want to live there anymore.
I want to live in the world Robin envisions.
Thx TPJ, come to visit any time.😍
Wonderful. As I read this I can feel myself turning back to the source, reminded, as it were, not to be distracted from this central ideal. An ideal that must be nurtured and lived each day. Thank you Robin
Thx Kathi.😍
Robin, you began with the importance of LOVE and Beth joined in. Love is the supreme experience. Do some of us suffer from a lack of LOVE because it was never given? Was LOVE taken from us very early in our lives, so we don't believe in it or think it isn't lasting? Can LOVE be perverted from the outside? May other qualities or wants super-seed it. Might some people give and feel love intermittently? Are people who love their mothers, fathers, children, sisters, or brothers...necessarily good people; naturally support others; good members of the community? After all the questions, I agree that LOVE matters.
And in their minds that is exactly what they feel they are doing.
Thank you, Heather. It must be difficult for you to write this kind of missive, but I'm sure you feel compelled to do it. It's like trying to expel a precipitous infection for me. I think the Fairness Doctrine is a key element in getting more of our fellow countryfolk back to reality!
That and a total revamping/refunding of the education system so that at least the young will be better equiped to understand what "truth" means when they hear it.
Having been a high school teacher, I am so glad to be retired. What a struggle it must be for teachers to deal with political ideologies and behaviors students bring into the classroom. I cannot successfully talk with family members about American politics. They mimic the yelling and pontificating of Fox News and care not a bit about listening to me. I feel sure many students would tune out any discussion of what "truth" means. But maybe not. One can only hope. Also, I fear that some teachers may in fact contribute to fanning the flames of the Big Lies. Woeful.
Yes woeful is the word. Also as a retired teacher I was thinking about how hard to teach civility when our role model in chief was a lying bully.
Sad when we have children with ODD proudly proclaiming to be red necks as they are being committed to a psych ward for inexcusable refusal to follow simple rules. They are just watching what works.
Yes Liz ! Our Democracy is threatened by 4 years of listening to our President lie, blame others, promote racism, cheat on his taxes and have Fox News do no investigative reporting but totally support him. It is no wonder we are in this mess. If our news media is not held accountable, our President not held accountable, our senators and Representatives not accountable for their lies we are in big trouble!
Therein lies part of the problem. Fox “news”, by their own defense and description, is entertainment. Absolves them of any responsibility as far as they’re concerned.
why is it that a significant percent of any human population have no conscience at all ? be it Fox News people , Pol Pot regime or the Colonial Slavers. Is this our progeny's fate that they will be fighting evil as long as our species exists?
They should not be allowed to call themselves “news.”
Absolutely they need to be held accountable the preferred way to vote them out or indictments —we really need that bill to protect voting rights to become law.
I think we agree our country is in big trouble.
My question of the day (also as an educator who is not yet retired): How do we teach the unteachable? If people refuse to be educated there is not a thing we can do about it.
I posted a response to AndreaH just a minute ago that touches on your question. I taught civics to hundreds of teenagers across many years. Some were "unteachable," either due to apathy or indoctrination. But even when it seemed that a particular student was hopelessly hostile, I would remind myself that these kids were 14-16 (typically). They take in more than they outwardly reveal and often make comments based more on social acceptance than on deeply-held belief. Their world view is forming, but not yet hardened. So, I just kept talking :-)
YES! They DO take in more than they outwardly reveal! And if you want to know what they are really thinking, drive a van full of kids to a social event. 14/16 year old kids think their aged driver loses the ability to hear when driving the van. To be the fly on the wall at the Algonquin Round Table would have been enlightening. The van full of kids is a window into THEIR Algonquin Round Table!
When I was in the EdBiz years ago, I experienced this in a young boy who was only ten. This was long before the plethora of tech gadgets that consume today's youths. At the time, I considered him highly motivated, but highly motivated to remain UNMOTIVATED. Nothing touched him. Nothing. It has stayed with me all these years and I wondered what became of him. Although I failed, he did push me to pull out every trick and strategy known to the profession, which, if anything, made me a better educator - although not for him.
I sincerely and respectfully want to say that I don't think you failed your student. You rose to the challenge, became a better educator and were probably the first teacher to ever truly engage with him. That was your great gift to him. I prefer to think it may very well have been a starting point for him to challenge not only you but himself.
Also a retired teacher. Thanks for this insightful perspective. Even when we "fail", we learn to do better. I want to remember this as I look back at my varied experiences with my students.
One student of mine who seemed the most apathetic I had ever encountered sort of scared me. I am a counselor. I reached for everything I knew to do as well. The person that seemed to help her most was our learning specialist, who spoke French and could help this student with her French homework. Her outside therapist couldn’t seem to touch it either. This young woman took her life about three years out of high school. If they care about something, even gaming or tik tok, it’s something to start with. And yes, we need to give our kids less, say no more often. But we can’t create entitled children and then blame them for being entitled. We have to help them figure out that being able to work at something, and working hard at something is what gives us positive self-esteem. And purpose.
I agree, Linda. However, we continue to try. And it is possible that the student who appears to balk at the lesson will in fact carry the lesson in his or her brain where it will one day become part of their usable knowledge base.
I admit I am less worried so much about people under the age of 35 as I am about the people 35 and over: this group, when they espouse the Big Lie and are completely under the thumb of whatever pastor floats their white supremacy boat are the truly unteachable. Even if they indoctrinate their children, in my experience (40 years in the Ed Biz), it is possible to get through to the younger ones. I am well aware that the most recent crop of mass murderers are essentially children (especially their undeveloped brains) even if this last one is a legal adult but what I find interesting is that the lack of impulse control so typical among younger people is being celebrated by the white supremacists who see these boys as heroes. When they are in prison, they might learn a thing or two, but their parents are perhaps beyond redemption.
"....it is possible to get through to the younger ones." And therein lies the basis, I think, of why the far right is trying to destroy public education. This week in NH, our state senate voted along party lines to approve a bill for vouchers to take tax payer money and allow families to use it for any schooling they wish, including private religious schools, despite the fact that at a virtual hearing on the bill, over 6000 voters called or wrote to oppose the bill and less than 2000 in support. Our Free Stater in Republican clothing lawmakers may or may not be conservative christians but they are happy to take up their cause in the interest of destroying public education.
I think this is also another reason to have more younger people in Congress. They understand more what is going on with younger people and know how to help them in this new age of everything online. So many of these older white men(and some women) in Congress are so out of touch withone under say 35. I think it is a problem. They rally on about the same old things unaward of the anxiety and worries the young are faced with.
Having worked in a prison, I would worry more about white supremacists recruiting other prisoners to join their movement. I would also be concerned about white supremacist officers using that gang to make their job of maintaining order easier by encouraging their worldview. This would mean more black deaths and solitary for gangs of color so the privilages offered in prison are only enjoyed by white supremacists. Remember, even white allies of POC would be terrorized. As goes prisons, so goes society when they are released. Soon we will all be identifying with a "gang" for our own protection from the police state.
Thank you, AndreaH, for that wise consideration. We all have this problem to a greater or lesser degree, of being able to integrate what we don't want to know -- about ourselves, about the world -- only when we are ready to do so. And that takes time.
Are there any shrinks in the house? They can confirm this and also, perhaps, tell us about how to converse with sufferers from psychotic delusions. No fun. It involves appearing to accept their delusions. And if you think about it, that's fair enough. Everyone's starting point is where they stand now. Or, in the case of someone deluded, where they think they stand -- we have to accept the reality that they believe what they do and move on from there.
Quite a headache for us ordinary people.
Maybe a practical starting point will be to look for little things we have in common, say, a liking for a given food or drink, support for the same team, liking for the same film or musical... Or bigger things, same religion, same church, same school, same teachers (liked or disliked), same acquaintances... Even, looking back, when we were friends with someone who didn't see things the same way... Even more, if we're still friends.
I never agreed with my Dad about politics, religion, philosophy -- our love and agreement, our mutual respect, went far deeper than that.
We need to seek out what unites us when we're divided by the love of our country, or what we imagine to be love of country...
Looking for little means to get our gears in synch.
I don't have much teaching experience, but what I did learn is that even the seemingly dumbest kid has some strong point, something he or she loves and is good at. And that's the teacher's starting point. Maybe ours in reaching across the Grand Canyon divide...
Also, we need to work out, why does this person see things this way?
An example: when I was 20, a friend who'd been living in Mexico asked, "How is it possible that the descendants of the Maya people who built those extraordinary cities should be so dumb?"
Answer: I wouldn't know if they're dumb or not but they know very well that if they don't LOOK dumb, they're dead.
One common approach here is to simply ask questions to clarify what the person with such difficulties means and intends. Then get them onto how they decided on this route and before you know it, you haven't accpeted their view but you have at least a relationship on which you can start to build a wider view of life and what is possible .....and the limits .....given the skills that they are demonstrating.
I feel the same way, Andrea. It is human nature to be balk at whatever confronts us. That doesn’t mean that no progress was made in shifting our views. Be consistent. Don’t give up.
I am experiencing your question, "How do we teach the unteachable?" I am tutoring a 13 year old who had stopped learning online. He is my nephew. He has all the privilages that money can buy. That means, while his mother works from home in her office all day until 5:00 pm, he works at his computer attending class from 9:00 am until 3:30 pm. When he has recess he refuses to go outside on sunny days, he turns to his PSI game computer or his XBox. Most days he refuses to change out of his pajamas. We are committed to nonviolence so we do not threaten him with violence. I have no authority to remove his computer from his room, so he stays up after midnight playing games or watching YouTube.
Discussions with him about his future result in his attraction to being a YouTube star and making lots of money. He does not believe he needs high school.
Thank you Jay for your prescient comment. To borrow the words of M. Scott Peck from his book 'The Road Less Traveled'...
"The time and the quality of the time that their parents devote to them indicate to children the degree to which they are valued by their parents. Children, who are truly loved, know themselves to be valued in the deepest parts of themselves. The feeling of "I am a valuable person" is essential to mental health and is a cornerstone of self-discipline. When children have learned through the love of their parents to feel valuable, it is almost impossible for the vicissitudes of adulthood to destroy to their spirit."
My son died at 16 in a car accident. I listened to him, watched over him and his sister. I gave them my time and full attention and they gave me exuberance and joy. 10 priests con celebrated my son's funeral mass because so many people attended. He was empathetic and kind. He stood up to bullies for weaker classmates and was quick to support anyone in need, especially his 'little sis'. And he had a
lively sense of humor!
After he died our daughter had some hard times to work through, but she is now a very busy therapist specializing in trauma therapy in FLA. My daughter is loving and generous to my husband and me. And my son had enough trust and faith in my love for him to tell me HIS dreams, (not mine or his father's) for his life just before he passed. What a great gift!
I am nowhere near the intelligence level of this wicked smart tribe. I appreciate the great opportunity to learn from HCR and all of you. But sometimes, IMVHO, (the V is for Very) the answer is not always to be found in policy or well thought out opinions or arguments. To me the answer is much simpler, as well as also much harder. Being truly present to our children, listening carefully, giving them truly quality time, sharing their sufferings and their victories......especially now during political unrest, pandemic and insecurity as they face an uncertain future, is hard...but for the children (And they are not hard to find... they outnumber us!) the knowledge they are loved and valued may make all the difference for them and those around them going forward.
Thank you for the great intelligence, wisdom and kindness of so many gifted and good people here, led by our fearless leader HCR.
I'm so sorry for the loss of your son. He sounds like a wonderful young man. I'm glad he was as loved and cherished as he was for the time you had with him. I hope this brings you great peace.
Your intelligence shines brilliantly in this post.
I am truly sorry for your loss. What a fine young man! And how lucky he had YOU as a parent!
I am so very sorry, I cannot imagine such a loss. Sounds like your home was filled with a tremendous amount of love, appreciation, kindness and a parent who truly listened. I think every parent can always use a reminder as to what really matters and means the most to children, no matter what their age may be, I know I do. Thank you for such a thoughtful post and for sharing your wonderful children with us.
I don't really have any words except to offer a deep bow of gratitude to you for raising such wonderful, loved, seen, known children. The world is in desperate need of such beings and IMVHO there is no greater gift you could give to the world.
Thank you, br. Many years ago I was helped tremendously by M. Scott Peck's book 'The Road Less Traveled." I read it three times.
I am so very sorry, br, that your time with your son was cut short in such a tragic way. What a heartbreaking loss for you and your family.
So sorry Jay that you are experiencing this extreme level of entitlement. I see this a lot, too, among university students (usually male) who don't value the education they are paying for (that one just befuddles me). I have a nephew who is convinced that his father will bankroll him forever and that he will make a fortune by sitting on his arse and making cute little cooking videos. He has few marketable skills but considers any job that pays less than $100,000 a year beneath him. It is mind boggling. But my hope is that he eventually has to actually discover reality. A stint working a terrible job is quite enlightening but too few of the white entitled youth of today (especially the boys) have to do that.
That is a sad commentary on where we've gotten to with technology. I feel for you, and your nephew's family.
In 1990 I met a pair of friendly Americans who enthused about the vast horizons about to be opened up for humanity by the worldwide web.
In the spring of 1994 I arrived in the USA for the very first time (landing at Newark NJ from Central America) and stayed with my American first cousin.
But the initial experience was weird and quite unprecedented: for the very first time in my life, I felt that I was not on the same planet. Everything was pleasant and seemingly familiar, and yet... I'd never felt this kind of alienation anywhere, neither in Asia nor on the great plains of East Africa.
In Times Square, something clicked. Amidst all those great flashing images, I got the idea that Americans' reality was already becoming VIRTUAL. Since then, that flickering multipixel thinner-than-wallpaper perception of reality's glittering-flickering surface effects has ousted any deeper perception of reality itself... everywhere.
Three years later, in So-Ho, my Japanese friend said to us:
"In this society, everything's on the surface, there's nothing behind it. With such a grave imbalance, only one outcome is possible: illness."
All the Europeans present understood what he was saying, the Americans weren't ready for such comments and very visibly couldn't make head or tail of what he was saying.
A few years later, at the end of 2002, the same man asked me how I felt about 9/11, and I told him that he'd already given the answer in Manhattan years before.
"What do you mean?"
I reminded him of those words, then added:
"If disease doesn't manifest within, it must come at us from outside."
My friend fell silent.
A minute or so later, he said:
"When I heard the news, I felt terrible. But once I'd thought about it for a while, I said to myself: "This is just Nature at work".
What frightens me now is that, even all those years, all those pointless wars later, after visiting so much damage (America's disease) on the world, such a vast swathe of the US population (and now, the population of the world) is more than ever in thrall to meaningless and totally confused and confusing subliminal messaging. Mice for King Cobra.
HCR's at work on the antidote and we're helping in her laboratory!
I have urgent concerns about your nephew as well. Might he be suffering from clinical depression?
I’m not a doctor (but I did stay at a [insert the name of your favorite motel chain] last night).
But in all seriousness, I have been a life-long victim of major depression. I hear all the symptoms of the disease in your nephew’s behavior. It can be especially acute—and dangerous!—in adolescents.
I think it would wise—or you might say prudent—to have him examined, sooner rather than later. Medical science has made great strides in this field in the 70 years since I was first diagnosed.
Jay, You have shared a very serious and difficult situation with us. Thank you for doing so. I believe br's comment was very wise. Can your nephew's mother be reached with regard to the kind of attention that may be necessary to support her child. I also wonder about finding an excellent therapist who may work online. It sounds as though your nephew does need help as, perhaps, so do his parents. They might also consider a family therapist. Your nephew may have been in pain for a long time. It seems as though your input is limited by the circumstances, but I can feel your wish to improve life for your nephew.
Thank you for your support. This is a single parent household. In Canada we have 3 therapists to help with raising kids during COVID, all paid for by the government, one for school, one for divorce and another for child abuse from the father. So the whole family has PTSD.
What I am witnessing first hand is the raising of the COVID generation. Our parents told us to "go outside and play". This generation is staying up until midnight online, then refusing to get out of their pajamas all day. They are growing up indoors. They are growing out of their shoes without using them!
I am so sorry, that is heartbreaking. My son spent a lot of time with video games in middle school-begining of high school (he is now 24). There was a lot of conflicting information about abusing such a platform. He always got his school work done and had soccor and such so I was concerned but not really worried. Then begining of high school, he came to me and said he wanted a timer so he could make sure he wasn't playing too long. Makes me now what to ask him what made him decided to monitor himself. I do think with Covid and kids being at home and school online will bring forth many new problems.
M. Scott Peck would say your son knew he was loved and valuable. Good job mama bear.
There's a lot of options between the extremes of corporal punishment and letting students run wild. Why would violence be considered anyway? Don't abandon the middle ground that ensures effective learning.
So sorry for what your nephew is going through, even though HE may not see anything to be sorry about. A few conditions come to mind and professional help should be available through the schools and family health care provider. The 1st is depression - not uncommom to manifest it in early adolescence. The 2nd is Aspergers Syndrome (a name recently changed to join others on the autistic spectrum disorder so that these kids can get help if needed - many do fine without help and are never diagnosed beyond "brilliant"). A 3rd is depression with Aspergers. And a 4th, sadly is "under-parenting", a phrase I just made up, but a condition which I suspect is now as pandemic as COVID-19. Setting limits, engaging in outdoor activities, enforcing chores, and taking away computers and phones and hand helds and... With parents themselves glued to computers for work, the offspring is sprung. I know families where a parent left all 3 meals plus a bedtime snack outside their child's door everyday, and heaved sigh of relief when they heard a shower go on once a week. Eventually (years) those adolescents came out. I pray your family is able to get the help they need now, not later, to overcome this problem.
(Or the offspring is NOT sprung actually)
I hear this, and have worried about my boys and the video games and You Tube and Tik Tok. Maybe start by asking him which You tubers he admires and why? I think some of what you’re describing is depression. Staying in pajamas, not wanting to go outside. Encourage your sibling to make outdoor recess mandatory for gaming time. But I have fought my boys over their social media, and have found that talking to them about it, watching with them, playing a game with them, works better in getting them to join me than fighting them does. Bless you for tutoring him. Keep trying! Let him know you care. Remind him he’s not a you tube star yet and will need a back up plan.
Thank you for your encouragement. As the aunt, I have adopted the premise that "mother knows best". It will not improve the family dynamic for me to argue with the parent. I am just now getting to know these two iddle schoolers. Mom has known them for 11 and 13 years. I was not in the same country when they experienced the violent breakdown of the father triggered by COVID lock down (no drugs or alcohol). I think lock down started here in February. He was a bus driver so he was an essential worker but was attacked by a gang and sent to the hospital. By September he snapped but his "man of the house" worldview had no room for , The-kid-drove-him-crazy.
What do you mean unteachable? They're resistant to any learning? They lack the skills of learning? Or they're unteachable because they have a different point of view?
I would attribute the symptom of being unteachable due to a diminished sense of curiosity. What this looks like is no longer asking the question "why?" so common among 3 year olds. Diminished curiosity leads to diminished imagination. Discovery of new things is primarily learned through online games. Technology begs the question "how?" so techniques for accomplishments are followed, but seldom is the question why raised because the answer is always to win or advance the game.
I don't know about others, but when I responded to the "unteachable student" question, I was thinking of those who resist being taught. Now there are many reasons a child might resist schooling: it doesn't seem relevant to them, their lives are so unsettled they can't really focus on learning, school seems feminine (to some boys), they resent authority, they find learning difficult and so it is easier to feign apathy, or...and I think this is the part that troubles readers of this blog...the information being presented seems contrary to what they hear at home and that dissonance makes them uncomfortable (for example, evolution and biology or the ideal of equality, tolerance of people they are told are inferior or sinful, and so on).
As a retired (2017) high school social studies teacher (who taught civics among other things) I can tell you that education can only go so far, but it is absolutely vital, nevertheless. Yes, some students will be unreceptive, but we must persevere for the sake of the rest who are, I am convinced, the majority. However, the expectation - the mandate, actually - for balance does limit the discussion. So, for example, were I still in the classroom today, I could teach loud and long about fair elections, peaceful transfer of power, and the right to vote, but I could not make all the connections to the current Republican Party as Dr. R. does. Ditto for a lot of other topics. But it's vital - vital - to keep fighting the good fight and exposing young Americans to the fundamentals of democracy, even if some will go on to reject the truth.
We are starting to get similar problems here in France with some teachers in specific areas underlining the belief that the law of the land supercedes illegal or undesireable practices dictated by the Koran. This has already resulted in the decapitation of one teacher for telling his students what freedom of speech really means.
Undermining not underlining
One of the better typos I've seen lately. Nice.
Really horrible incident that was.
Oh goodness!! How awful!
It is really difficult. A twelve year old Retrumplican is a sight to behold!
Indeed. And how about the 20, 30 and 45-year-olds and a certain 74-year-old with a mental age of 1 year and 6 months and temper tantrums to show for it?
Teachers have always brot their prejudices to the classroom. In my St. Louis County high school about 1961, I brot a LIFE magazine feature on Charles Darwin to class and the teacher said “He is a crackpot and so was I for reading about him.” That is a lesson that stuck with me these 60 years, how backward thinking some teachers could be. That dinosaur is long gone now but has something more evolved replaced her?
This reflects the day I left my church for good—my Sunday school teacher said dinosaurs were myths and Darwin was WRONG. Even as a pre-teenager I recognized that as untruth and decided my church lied.
It is too bad you didn't seek further to find a place that accepted you. There are churches that believe in Darwin and that dinosaurs are not a myth.
Or rather that you accepted as truth.
The enemy of the Fascist is science and truth. How else can u create an infallible mystic cult leader?
Actually, the recommended book to read about fascist belief about science is The Black Earth: holocaust as History and warning by Timothy Snyder. The Nazis prided themselves about only believing in science, especially as interpreted by Spenser as "survival of the fittest".
They believed in population control by reducing the population of the weak and increasing the population of the strong. They believed evolution of the human species was a race war. Hitler blamed the jews for all the trouble in the world because they were not a biological race. Jews represented interbreeding of weakness among all the races so required elimination. The Nazis believed in Malthus prediction that the earth could not support more humans, so Hitler was merely attaching his vision of the future to science. The German people were reacting to the learned reality of starvation after WWI. Hitler promised them the Ukraine as the breadbasket to keep Germany fed. Science gave the German people the rational for believing they were the super race, not merely Hitler's speeches. Fascism had become systemic, greater than the sum of individuals.
I wonder where that teacher got that perception of Charles Darwin. Religious belief, perhaps? Historically, many of the planet's problems might share that origin.
Maybe the place to start is to expose the biggest lie, Religion.
Or the big lie, "survival the fittest". Or the bigger lie, "you are the center of the universe."
Andrea, you are correct. As a professor at The University of Chicago said in 1955/6, Sandy, over half those you will know in life would do as the Germans did, given the same circumstances. He was incarcerated at Dachau and Buchenwald, saw the Nazis break into his home in Vienna and take his cameras and lenses, his lovely china, and anything of value as they arrested him for being Jewish and an intellectual. I had asked him if Anne Frank was truthful in her hidden book. His answer was clear.
Great Point.
I had a Professor at the University of California, Davis, who was Polish. Captured by the Germans, put in a camp, managed to escape. Then captured by the Russians, put in a camp, managed to escape. Made it to the U.S. He said the very same thing about Totalitarian Societies and Societies where political polarization occurs such that the loudest voices "stifles other opinions/conversations or constantly paints their opponents as evil." (Quotations for emphasis.) In the U.S. one could contend that our cable commentator media (refuse to call them journalist) are doing this to us.
Friend U of Chicago famous Math Professor Izaak Wirszup was in Auschwitz, lost 60 relatives, was wealthy in chocolates and candy from Vilnius. Survived by painting the commandant’s HQ. Released at war’s end. The Soviets did not believe him, hated the Germans that had let him live, determined he was spy, put him in the vast gulag. He finally got out. Came to Chicago. Did well. His view: fascism can happen anywhere. He feared the fascist elements here. Said White Supremacy is a social disease. We crushed the Indians, the Negro, the Japanese and the Chinese and that frightened Wirszup. He was afraid Jews would be slammed here. Anti Semitic stuff was all over Florida with Restricted signs, just like Fred Trump in Queens. Fascists are rising in many nations. Three words and Black women saved us. Majority Whip Clyburn said Joe Knows Us. South Carolina saved Joe, saved us... Trump is fascist, a racist fascist.
Agree.
I found it ironic that a Southern Republican State's Democratic Primary revived the Biden campaign. Glad he was the nominee and now our President!
Joe knows ALL of us, but especially people of color. Bless him!
Here’s a story: In high school, we had enrichment English classes that went along with what we were studying in History. We were required to go to the local movie theater to watch movies that were based on both classes. One was The Diary of Anne Frank. I went to see it with all of the other kids. I was terribly shaken afterward. I was given a ride home and when my mom opened the door, I burst into tears. See, both of my parents were Holocaust victims. My mother was from Germany. She never wanted my sister or I to see the movie. I had lied to her and told her we were going to see A Tale of Two Cities. That night, my mom and I stayed up until 2am talking and crying. Her parents had been gassed at Chelmno in 1942. Yes, all of it was true.
Yes, and far, far worse than she explained...Pera and Izaak Wirszup, their beautiful daughter Marina, Bruno Bettelheim, and scores more... I grew up with them... and Opa James Franck, a 1925 Nobel in physics, he ran The Manhattan Project with a team, he saw it coming and fled... with his Lutheran son in law baptizing my Jewish wife at her birth, 85 years ago, fleeing 6 months later with nothing... but take this to the bank: we are here again... in scores of nations, right in plain view, with Trump Inc., are card carrying fascists with half our sick nation just utterly fascinated... waiting for orders. America’s racists and peddling through colleges and newspapers. This Letter needs a seeing eye dog. WASPs do not get it. This is how it starts, and no one sees it coming... well, no one saw it coming in Munich in 1935... few alive today remember... but we have one in Canada, and she remembers. We met in February 1952, I was just 11, and she was so young..... her dad was so successful and thought they could ride it out... lost half their family, fled to Boston, then Canada... there are two left. Came with nothing... but they survived... and she sees it clearly...
A Pontius Pilate generation?
First, my sincere respect and admiration for being a teacher. It's tough, often thankless, job that is so important in for a democratic society.
Having read the comments thus far to this post, I'd like to relate the experience of one of my grandsons in a Seattle high school. From my educator friends here in Washington, their experience is not uncommon.
This kid is 15, his politics is nil as he focuses on video games, reads books, and is now writing poetry/screenplays, etc. When he entered his social studies/ government classes, he felt teacher's instruction was extremely biased, versus balanced, and were constantly being pushed on the class. He would use the term "social justice warrior." When I queried him as to what he meant, he quickly replied "White men are bad and and the evils of the world lay at their feet." His quote. The walls were plastered with posters reflecting similar points of view. How is this different that some teachers fanning the flames of the Big Lie?
Susan Lawrence made an excellent point. Students tend to adopt "socially acceptable views" versus deeply held beliefs. If you go to a school in a community that is predominantly Democrat or Republican, what would one expect? And if the educators in an education system reflects these views, how do you teach democracy requires educated people who don't jump onto a group think soundbite bandwagon?
And how do educators ensure that opposite points of view are encouraged, explored, rationally discussed? How can we as democratic society step back from this hostility and conduct discussions in a civil manner?
Larry, we seem to be encountering some technical trouble, but I want to endorse your excellent comment. It's unfortunate, to say the least (although hardly surprising) that so much "woke" is still "sleepwoke"... teetering on a top-floor parapet...
My overwhelming concern is to hear REAL voices and to take in their messages, by which I mean, what each speaker/writer really FEELS/THINKS. And not what they think they are supposed to. The last thing anyone needs is another bunch of bullies brainwashing and persecuting people into kowtowing to the opposite crass groupthink from what we've had to put up with for the past four years.
Such people are behaving like agents provocateurs for the far right, pseudo-firemen answering fire with flame throwers, racism with, yes, racism. And, goodness knows, if you live in a society as steeped in that as America, can you be blamed for reacting that way? Maybe not, initially. But haven't we seen ad nauseam what rage and resentment can do to a nation?
Time to relax and show quiet determination.
HUMAN LIFE MATTERS.
And yes, whatever some tin gods on bath toys the size of ocean liners may like to think, whatever hunger and thirst after justice grasps the oppressed, we ARE all equal and therein lies our pride.
Perhaps we could take a page from education in Finland. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/28/fact-from-fiction-finlands-new-lessons-in-combating-fake-news
They usually lead all the education "league tables" as well as being found the happiest.
That seemed to be the case when I visited in 2019.
Here is another analysis, this one from Stanford University, of how Finland became a global leader in education: https://edpolicy.stanford.edu/library/publications/543
Agreed.
That, and integrating how the internet controls people by watching and studying The Social Dilemma and The Matrix. Young, and all, people need to know how they are bought, sold, controlled and manipulated around the world. Remember Peter Finch in Network (1976) screaming, "I am mad as hell and not gonna take it anymore!" I metaphorically threw my tv out the window back then and never returned. I feel like that with a lot of the internet and social media. This has to be a core issue we must deal with. It is here to stay, so does it mean we need strict regulations, or ratings, or what? Is there such a thing as insisting that we have freedom WITH RESPONSIBILITY?
The concept of responsibility has evaporated.
I think regular doses of sanity and stimulus checks will help too.
It seems as though you truly can’t cure stupid.
Not sure what works on curing stupid and/or mean spirited
When Sarah Palin famously said that she could see Russia from her home in Alaska, she was apparently describing the future of the Republican Party.
Little did we know that Sarah Palin is now the intellectual center of the GOP universe
Why not? She's about as intellectual as they get on the Trumpite's side.
Well, Alaska used to belong to Russia after all.....bought by Sec. of State Seward for $7.2 million in 1867. That's 2 cents an acre....and 2 cents is about all she's worth.
It's major reason Why he's considered a great Sec of State. Derided then as Seward's Folly or Seward's Icebox, it ranks with the Louisiana Purchase among history's greatest bargains. and imagine if Canada and/or the US had a land border with Russia/USSR/Russia for the last 150 years!
Stuart, If ur making an offer to take plain, SOLD!
Palin not plain, dough!
That’s funny!
Spot on!
lol!
I think that line was from an SNL skit.
Palin actually said it, though not with those precise words. Then SNL amplified it most effectively.
Seems possible, but I don't watch SNL.
“Meanwhile, the lawyer for Schaffer, the Indiana man, is trying to get leniency for his client by arguing that the man was encouraged by Trump. ‘People have the right to believe the highest elected official…. My client is not responsible for what happened on January 6.’”
Once again, the classic defense for behaving badly:
“I was only following orders.”
It seems as if they’re throwing the former president under the bus to weasel out of responsibility for breaking the law.
And this by people who adamantly oppose government telling people how to live their lives. Only “sheeple” let government officials tell them what to do. You know, like wearing masks in public, getting vaccinated, and so on.
Mr. Schaffer may not be wholly responsible for what happened on the 6th, but he is unequivocally responsible for what he did and should remain confined until he understands and acknowledges that. The judge is quite right.
How can you not know that the violent overthrow of the government is wrong?
I think the question is a bit more subtle than that.
Imagine that Trump had become our 21st century Hitler: that his insurrection had succeeded in murdering Pence, Pelosi, and any number of others, as well as destroying the electoral votes. I believe the Republican State Legislatures (the clear majority) would have united to give Trump a second term, and while he is a wastrel without much a real plan, his sycophants would put in bulwarks to ensure a third (and fourth, and fifth) term, should Trump live so long. In the meantime, the US descends into third-world poverty and worse because, bluntly, Trump is incompetent. Throw in any list of abominations you like: imagine a Handmaid's Tale nation, a Soylent Green nation, a 1984-cum-Brazil dystopia.
Is it still "wrong" to try to violently overthrow that government?
I would say rather that it is foolish to make that attempt, without having a clear possibility of winning. And winning requires several things. It requires a coherent military plan, with a brilliant commander and an actual military force willing to go the distance. It requires nation-state levels of deep-pocket funding (e.g. a foreign and solvent government). It requires a propaganda platform and message that captures the hearts and minds of the nation and turns most of them into co-conspirators and post-overthrow supporters. It needs to be able to cause nationwide mayhem and come out in the end smelling of Godliness and freedom-for-all.
Viewed through that lens, the Jan 6 insurrection was juvenile. I seem to recall that the insurrection march itself featured about 10,000 people. by contrast, the Pussyhat March on Washington in 2017 drew about 500,000 people, and was backed by equally massive marches all over the world. The only international backing the insurrection had (if any) would have been from foreign nations that wanted the US destroyed. It caused corporations to close up their financial sphincters, and drove away large numbers of Republicans from the party, many permanently. Perpetrators are being turned in to the government by their own families. To this day, it still has zero positive optics, only excuses and deflections and gaslighting that says "it never happened."
The insurrection was not an attempt at violent overthrow of the government. It was an attempted hail-mary coup by a sitting president who had lost legitimacy, and would have been barely-noticed as a violent protest without the complicity of that President.
The actual rioters may have thought they were kicking off a 1776 revolution. They were ... I'll be kind. They were misinformed.
Because they view it as overthrowing an illigitimate government, and have this pipe dream that they're revolutionaries overthrowing a king - but my question is how they cannot see that the "last guy" wanted to BE a king.
Apparently the insurrectionist scum cannot tell the difference between a tyrant like George III and 250 years of democratic governance.
Great question, one for which the accused has no rational answer. Schaffer, like most of the rest of those who've been charged, is a follower by nature and not one of those who planned the insurrection.
Dotsieradzki, many of them are totally convinced that their actions are in accordance with these words from the Declaration of Independence:
....certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles ....
A corollary of the Big Lie.
My point was that they knew it was wrong. They expected to get away with it because tRump had their back and because they were white. They couldn't imagine police would shoot them. Only one rioter died that I'm aware of.
When it comes to attempts to wave guilt by the "following orders" defense, it works better when the purported bossman giving the orders is dead and is not constantly contradicting them in his own defense.
Yes indeed! That is what may take all of this from the rediculous to the sublime. Attorneys for the SDNY may soon have some meat to throw into the soup as well.
Thank you for commenting on my post.
I think Stuart is waiting for the stew.
Ragout de Trump.....he's cooked!
I am waiting, too to hear, "Soups' on!" Not to be confused with "soupçon," which is a lot more than I can stand of the twisted trumplicans in our government.
I think there is more than a soupçon here and they will land this antediluvian fish to make their bouillabaisse.
🤞
If it weren’t so horrible it would be laughable. These actors in a dark comedy are pathetic.
Post-DTs politics (in Britain, post-Brexit-from-the-wicked-world politics):
King Lear as a Punch & Judy show.
They know not the definition of hypocrisy.
and they don't care!
"...people who adamantly oppose government telling people how to live their lives."
I never understood that argument. Like driving down the right side of the road, or food handling laws. The want anarchy not democracy.
They are gross violators of the social contract. That core Enlightenment ideal (notably associated with Locke and Rousseau), involves an unwritten, informal contract with other members of society that involves rights and responsibilities. People voluntarily relinquish certain rights and assume duties to secure other rights, and advance the greater good for all. The Preamble to the Constitution deftly distills 100 years of Enlightened political thought:
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
Those who insist on their own rights without accepting the corresponding responsibilities are outlaws beyond the pale of society, especially the Jan 6 insurrectionists and their supporters. They have the right to due process, and the government has the duty to punish them to the full extent of the law.
They are basically three-year olds, stamping their little feet and screaming, "You're not the boss of ME!"
Remember the violence on January 6th. Think of the militias... Three year olds, however, loud, messy and destructive some may get, your comparison doesn't cover our justified concern.
Just like their "Dear Leader"
.
The Twinkie defense.
I was living in San Francisco at the time of the Dan White trial. The Twinkie Defense worked. Later, of course, Dan White carried out his own death sentence.
Low blood sugar is still a defense.
"with law our land shall rise, but it will perish with lawlessness." -Njal
Njal's Saga should be quoted more often.
I’m going to repost this link by LH in case it gets lost down in the stack.
LH1 hr ago
Perhaps we could take a page from education in Finland. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/28/fact-from-fiction-finlands-new-lessons-in-combating-fake-news
It is not a very in-depth article but gets the point across that there can be something done about fake news. As usual a real solution takes time and takes the kind of effort that spans many years but that is the truth.
The fairness doctrine or some update of it is a public statement that we want to push back on fake news but we all understand that in our current world it won’t stop the proliferation of lies on all the various venues that lies are currently spread. Individuals in the end have to grow the skills to tell falsehood from truth.
All the telling comments today about the problems in education underscore the difficulties we face. I believe that medicine and education are bell-weather humanitarian fields that can be used to spearhead movement toward a better method for crafting our society. What happens in these two disciplines guides what happens over all, or could. The first move is to pry control of these disciplines out of the hands of finance people. The path toward this capability is long and probably difficult but it is not really obscure.
1. The For The People Act. With out this I do despair.
2. Revision of the Fairness doctrine or some revision of our beloved right to free speech that makes sense in our current world along with consideration of what happens to liars or those who incite riot. (Trump did lie and incite for years. Why did we have to wait until the actual riot happened? Or until the big lie has become so entrenched?)
3. The creation of a subset of our economy that recognizes and empowers humanitarian professions and supports their efforts as self-governing elements of society with transparency as its global tenant.
I personally believe that those teachers who are using their class rooms as platforms for lies or for the promotion of their personal “truths” without concern for guiding critical thinking or historical reflection are well known to their colleagues just as poor physicians were and are well known to those who are working with them. As it stands calling these individuals out on their behavior, or their lack of skill, puts the accuser at substantially more risk than the embedded liar. And, like in medicine actual teachers probably already know what they need to do and what it will take to arm our children for their complex future.
Thank you, LH, and Patrick for posting that article. It is helpful and hopeful. I'm not an educator but I did work as a public school nurse for many years and what I saw and heard increasingly from teachers is each year they had less and less control over their teaching content. Now that they are evaluated based on how their students perform on standardized tests they have little choice but to spend an inordinate amount of time teaching to those tests as they say. And in this particular suburban rural NH town, a huge amount of pushback from not highly educated parents whenever they didnt't like something their child's teacher allegedly said or did in class, and no support for teachers from administration in these situations. Why anyone would want to go into teaching in these circumstances, I cannot imagine.
My daughter, who wanted to be a teacher from age 4 to age 24 decided against for those very reasons. She is a nurse now studying to be a nurse practitioner. When she switched she said it was hard because I had bashed medicine so badly. Now she is experiencing that... it hasn't been an easy time to grow up but on the bright side she did have enough food and shelter.
I always find myself biting my tongue when meeting someone considering or studying for a career in nursing. Inside I'm screaming NONONONONO. My 25 year old can't figure out what work path to pursue and I don't blame her. It has not been an easy time. There is less and less meaningful work each year. And shelter.......there is no affordable housing here. A realtor friend has 56 showings today alone for a single family home in the median "affordable" price range, about $330K. There will be a bidding war for sure.
And I imagine like me, you wanted more for your daughter than "enough food and shelter".
My primary IS a nurse practitioner - she is the greatest! In fact, every one of them I have ever had dealings with has been a wonderful medical person. I respect and like the doctors I deal with (specialists) but would not swap her for any of them! Your daughter will add much to the profession, I'm sure.
Times are often bleak now for professional educators, but there always are people dedicated to serving the public, educating the young, and preparing society for the future. Parents with extreme minority views are a longstanding challenge, but there's no need to favor those who simply screech the loudest. Like the GQP, it's yet another instance of encroaching minority rule.
A major problem is the phony education "reformers" seeking to privatize and profit from public ed, a substantial and tempting part of local budgets. A major feature of that agenda is killing teachers' unions (and other public sector unions), the strongest protectors of teachers' rights in and out of school. With Marty Walsh at DOL, the Biden admin seems primed to support labor. If they falter, they will hear about it!
Still, the problems seems structural to me. With out some structural change like self regulating Humanitarian professions I don't see a way out of the hole. I'm pretty sure that if there was a humanitarian refuge within teaching and medicine that many practicing and teaching would seek it out. If it was the public education system it would work. I'm afraid of a private sector element in teaching or medicine claiming they are 'humanitarian' because it is most likely to be a profit motive lie.
Gradgrind-style education. (Try the first two chapters of Dickens' Hard Times -- http://www.online-literature.com/dickens/hardtimes/2/).
Even dead facts are better than the-facts-are-whatever-I'm-telling-you-at-this-moment-in-time.
Thank you Patrick for that fascinating article on Finland's efforts in their educational system to teach children critical thinking.
I echo that. Interesting that Finland has a female prime minister. As an aside Countries with female leaders seem to do particularly well (witness New Zealand and Iceland too)
Yes, Richard B (Norfolk, UK), did you ever notice that movie directors have far more females as casting directors. They know that women do a better job casting roles than most men.
Funny about that, isnt it? Seems the more women in government, somehow government seems to work better?? (not sure if thats irony or sarcasm, but you get my meaning).
I agree and as a male I find it both sad and reassuring. With the For The People Act I believe we have a chance at finding out how that would be here in the US but without it. No way.
It was LH's of course... I just found it as you did. It is great to see that if a long term well thought approach is adopted it can work.
Patrick, I'm glad you "just found it," as I and many others might have missed it!
I heard about The News Literacy Project from tweets by Peter Sagal, who sits on its board. @NewsLitProject describes itself as “a national education nonprofit offering nonpartisan programs that teach students how to know what to believe in a digital age. I don’t have direct knowledge of its work, but it sounds like it may be a helpful tool to build upon in countering disinformation.
Thank you for sharing that article. If Finland can do it, we can too.
I like Finland.
Thank you for posting this article. As an educator, I have been closely following Finland's success in education for years. Here is an analysis from Stanford University of Finland's education reforms, since the 1970s, that underpin their success: https://edpolicy.stanford.edu/library/publications/543
One critical point in the article was a reference to reliable sources. I think many on the right consider Fox, Hannity, Carlson, etc. reliable sources. I've yet to find a compelling counter.
Correct. When talking to my NC Fox acquaintances I often find myself in this position. These are kinda ordinary people who believe what they are hearing on Fox etc. I find it hard to carry in my mind all the references required to refute or even rebut their statements. I do find the few times I have taken the time and made the effort to do the work that statements made on Fox often refer not to actual source material but to another person who is referring to another such that the original source if there even was one is lost in the confusion. It is rather like the way shell corporations are used to camouflage money transfers to the point that the origin of the funds can’t be found. (never quite understood this because it seems with enough effort the trail could be followed to the source so there is still something I don’t understand.)
This issue is present in medicine as well. Many many, perhaps the majority at times, medical studies are not what I would call a study at all but are a reassembly and rehash of data that might be decades old and have been collected for different purposes. This stuff gets written up by new authors and presented as if it is new data. If you don’t read the whole study you can’t tell. It is about authors getting credits for writing studies, which keeps them in some position they are occupying.
The key in medicine is to ferret this stuff out and to have journal editors call out or not publish stuff that isn’t actual research but they aren’t doing their jobs either.
Still, the question of how to define truth is the issue. Who does it? How is it done and how is it maintained for access by a population? My comment a few days ago and this one that may also fall too late in the day and be too esoteric to interest most, is that this truth is contained in big data, and the answer is access by an interface that is not controlled by a corporation or a news outlet but by you as an individual.
The user controlled data interface is not futuristic and access to basic big data can be regulated. After all big data is nothing more than the activity of the population whether that is medical activity, business activity or political. It is us therefore we own it. We just need the tools to access it. Then we don’t have to depend on Fox and we can be our own fact checkers. It is a new way of thinking but it is not fiction.
Those percentages of people believing that Fake45 won the election and those who think too much time is being spent on the insurrection, is astounding. I almost want to feel sorry for their ignorance but then I am reminded that most are unstable and are gun lovers.
Matt Gaetz and the others, McCarthy, Biggs, Brooks, crazy Gosar, etc. are all traitors to our nation. Their hateful and damaging rhetoric is what is destroying our democracy.
What gets me is that people (a lot of them) vote for these clowns. I do not totally understand why that happens. For God's sake, even Gosar's family campaigned against him
They committed felonies against our democracy.
It's probably also becoming a game to respond as "nastily" as possible to the survey people to underscore their anger at nolonger really being listened to. That way they produce headlines that shock.
When HCR said today that "sometimes I despair of our democracy," she may have had them in mind. Without education, democracy contains the seeds of its own demise. It is believers in the "big lie" and other proven falsehoods who plant, fertilize and water those seeds. Each of them, remember, was democratically elected.
Your opening lines have been my reality for months, Heather. "I despair of our democracy" every single time the GOP, who represent our citizens in the Capitol, vote against a move to improve our lives and our plight following the destruction that 45 inflicted upon our systems and institutions. "I despair of our democracy" every single time the GOP leaders open their mouths to commit more deeply to their fascist lies. "I despair of our democracy" every single time 45 is praised or excused for what he did to stir and encourage the insurrection. "I despair of our democracy" every single time I realize that the Matt Gaetzes of this world are allowed to get away with their treasonous words and deeds. And "I despair of our democracy" every single day that passes without 45 and his clan having been arrested for their crimes! Thank you, Heather, for standing beside those of us who, like you, despair.
with you on this, and with trepidation, awaiting the midterms to better understand the lay of the people of the land.
And alongside the despair, is the joy and celebration that is spring...
Rowshan, I share much of your feeling but haven't given up. Despair is warranted, but watch out. Despair can kill the determination to banish our foes. Don't give up. If you had, would you be here with Heather and subscriber friends?
Thank you, Heather! Seldom does a day pass when I do not despair of our democracy. Your letters and Press Secretary Jen Psaki's daily press briefings help fuel my hope and optimism.
I agree wholeheartedly- every morning I read Heather, and several times a day I read the latest on Whitehouse.gov, including watching Jen’s press briefings. Several times a week she has one of the new Secretaries or Administrators speak and take questions, and they ALL are proving themselves intelligent, competent, well-spoken and full of integrity.
Yes. I agree with you, Nancy. I admire how she shares the podium with others. I also admire her intellect and understanding of how democracy works. Her responses are measured and forthright.
I certainly hope President Biden does not patronize Putin by agreeing to a debate. What a nightmare. I recall Trump's behavior at the debates. Makes my skin crawl.
I agree, Andrea. Where did diplomacy go? Why would we ever get to the point of even considering a debate over diplomatic engagement? Lest we not forget that Russia was and still is partially responsible for creating and promoting the “Big Lie” referenced by HCR?
I’ve said it before and I say it again, Steve Bannon and his cadre are probably smiling from ear to ear thinking “mission accomplished.” Those poll numbers referenced above look good to them!
President Biden and our new administration/congress (and all of us) have our work cut out. Restore our faith in American democracy...for all citizens. I’m in, 100%!
Thanks to Heather for this community and all of you! Truth and justice must prevail.
A snippet from the Lincoln Project on Putin’s influence over 30% of Americans: https://fb.watch/4lxFT2WZaT/
WTF is happening here? Why would we even think of engaging this thug? He has power and nukes but he is still a cheating bullying power monger who has no right but only might.
And frankly the news media isn’t helping by giving Putin air time to make his case. Everything that comes out of his mouth is propaganda and/or a lie. DON’T give him a megaphone!
Unfortunately I watched Putin’s pitch on NBC. Good for ratings, dangerous for democracy. Trump rode that calculation to the White House.
For a country with a GDP smaller than Italy’s. And one real source of income: carbon fuels.
I am with you, David's. How can this even be a thing?
Does this mean when Biden "wins" the debate that We, the People, All of Us This Time, get to vote Putin out of office?
Lynell, you get the 'snark of the day' award fro that one.
However, on second thought. What if Putin has a cadre of followers who would declare Putin the winner and wage war against America. Let's not go there.
Agree we should not go there.
I don’t think for a minute Biden would do it. The idea of such a debate is preposterous. Biden and his team are really focused on achieving results.
I agree, Liz. That Republicans would agree with Putin about the debate would be laughable if it were not so offensive.
The Republicans like Gaetz are truly at the core of our problems. Or should I have written the Gaetzlike Republicans?
I think they have already waged war against us. Quite successfully.
Hee heee heee! One can wish.
This just underlines Gaetz etcs total lack of understanding of foreign affaires and a total denial of America's fundamental interests.......what price Trump's "America First" policy now?
Perhaps Gaetz himself is part of the group that are actually culpable. One can only hope that there is proof that would send mr. gaetz to jail.
I do believe that when our AG pursues the money trail, then the communications, then the actual physical contacts of Gaetz and others, there will be fire to explain all this smoke.
Lordy, I hope there are tapes, and maybe some ruble receipts.
oh my gosh, I'm really in appreciation of "ruble receipts"!
Dead on arrival. Substitute Hitler, Mussolini, Henry VIII, Ghengis Kahn for "Putin." Biden has a country to run.
What would be the point?
Putin relishes crafted lies. He is a trained KGB propagandist. He has his dream sound bites ready for the International stage. The money driven News Media would make insane amounts of money on a debate between the Teacher and the Bully. It must not happen.
The Emperor Augustus tried to avoid any undertaking where the risks outweighed the possible rewards. That should be Biden's attitude toward Putin. There is little to gain from debating a tyrant.
What a complete joke! Right out of Karl Rove's playbook. Creating fiction.(Google - Karl Rover - "We're an empire now.." quote. Honestly, why would someone want you, you Andrea, to even remotely think the call for such a debate has one iota of credibility? What function does it have? Time for the cunning eyes of the hooded watcher. Implicit in all this bunk is the assumption that the USA is as pure as the driven snow when it comes to intervening in elections. The USA, the grand master with its CIA toppling regimes and democratically elected governments the world over when it's not busy neutralizing truth telling activists here at home with any means possible. As long as we allow our eyes to focus "over there, on them" , we do not see the culprits we can actually do something about, namely - the genuine masterminds engaged in architecting a slick overthrow of our democracy who live right here at home. How about a debate between Richard Wolfe, Noam Chomsky, Chris Hedges, Cornell West, or Robert Scheer, and any one of the traitorous Republicans (McConnell, Bill Barr, et al in Senate/House and/or any Fox so-called news mouth pieces ) on the topic - Who and what is the biggest threat to American democracy today? And who and what is most responsible for intervening in our elections? That would bring our attention to where you and I can do something about. And, do something responsible that would be considered radical by those interested in keeping us feeling impotent. The same bad actors. Whose sight of we must pin our own eyes on fiercely and persistently.
".... sometimes I despair of our democracy."
True, as far as it goes. Even more fundamentally, however, i first read it as "I despair of our sanity."
It all makes me wonder if there's any way back to a collaborative political process, in that while we live in the most advanced and informed society in history, such ignorance still receives such recognition. How the Gaetzes and Gohmerts and Greenes and Jordans get elected, given their basic lack of qualifications, or an agenda beyond obstruction, or even a modicum of common sense, escapes my comprehension.
I beleve these two groups (#1 -advanced & informed and #2 - ignorance) CANNOT share a collaborative political process. The best way forward would be for the Gaetzes and Gohmerts and Greenes and Jordans to be brought to justice. Stopping fascism is the only way to contain it.
Well, it's clear that they can't, and certainly some of these people deserve to be made to explain why they should be allowed to continue to be "representatives." Whether their words and actions are just inappropriate (without a doubt) or criminal, their only contribution has been to disrupt, not to better American society. Whichever it is, collectively we have failed to hold elected representatives to any sort of reasonable standards of accountability. They act with impunity because it's been proven that there won't be any consequences.
However, it's only partially a legal issue. What's more problematic for me is why they get elected or reelected. And not only why, given that they're out of sync with public opinion, but why, given that they bring nothing to the table, often have questionable backgrounds, and fail to offer alternatives to issues they don't like. We need more than age and citizenship as criteria to run for federal (and other) office. I've written here before that the fundamental processes of the electoral system are flawed. Candidates aren't under pressure to "defend" any position because they just attack everyone else. They aren't required to present any thought out views about what their policy positions are, how they'll be implemented, or how they'll be funded. Debates aren't debates at all, they're goat rodeos in which victory = volume. They know they can bait and switch between what they say as candidates and what they do once seated.
Finally, WTF is wrong with our communities that don't seem interested in challenging these clowns based on factual evidence. Perhaps technology has reduced our attention span to the sound bite, but I'm not sure how to unwind that particular problem.
Well, this may be the most disheartening column yet. We are clearly going to be dealing with the effects of Trump’s sedition for years to come.
Disheartening perhaps. But the first step towards change is realizing the pain of staying where you are is greater than the pain you will experience in changing.
Wise words! Thank you Charlie
For any big lie to work it must be told and told again, over and over. In the same exact way, with the power of personality and the conviction of a Southern Baptist preacher, the truth must me repeatedly told. Over and over and over. It’s not so much lies shouldn’t be told, they shouldn’t. It’s more about telling stories reinforcing truth. Over and over and over, again and again, and never stop. Truth and love is more powerful than hate and lies, but only when we project it. Former President Trump teaches the power of repetition. The power of doubling down. If reading this strikes you as bizarre then you’re reading it upside down. President Biden gets it. We all must push the truth like it’s a vocation, or a lust for aggrandizement. For every Indianan man with vitriol and lies, tens of thousands of zealot truth tellers must be there to drown out the lies. As a country, are we winning the war on truth? I think we aren’t doing a great job and can do better. What’s the truth about government institutions and its preservation of freedom and democracy? This truth needs telling and from both sides of the isle. I’m using A Starting Point, the app, to hear it position statements from the politicians themselves. No Like buttons. Their unvarnished videos gives me ground truth about what they say and I use critical thinking with diversity of information to then tell others the good things going on. It’s uplifting and I call it The Big Truth.
Thank you for that reference, looks interesting.
The big truth, sounds wonderful too.
My notebook is filling up today like it's on fire. All of these apps, books, reference sources from the HCR community. Many thanks to all.
I’m checking that out. Thank you.
Dear Heather, I hope you can go to your favorite place today and take a little breather.
Enjoy this weekend, if anyone deserves a recharge, it's you. Much love to you.
To those who fear the kids.
As a high school instructor for 28 years I have had a different experience than some out there. My school is a mix of working class, middle class, and upper middle class. Minorities make up roughly 30% .
We have had some really stupid and hateful incidents around race, gender preference etc. I would say these, while egregious, do not reflect the overwhelming positives our kids engage in. Our leadership supports the teachers temerity to take on uncomfortable issues while always being respectful of the minority idea (Trump supporters) for instance. We have adopted Anti-Racist practices woven into all teaching subjects. We all do this in our own way and to a level we feel comfortable with. "Respect for Human Differences" is a core belief. We say that "we don not teach you what to think, we teach you how to think." Yes it is all practiced imperfectly but we are not afraid of ideas. As a for instance, our kids totally organized their own march for BLM which was attended by hundreds of all walks of people, even politicians. I am more fearful of leadership and administrations that discourage and intimidate and punish authentic thinking (I have taught there too). I do not teach a core subject nor what would be considered an academic subject. But I am so encouraged by my students and their thoughts, incites and observations when I ask for their written responses to an article or book that we are reading. We do this intermittently to topics outside of my discipline . When asked why? I tell them because I am a human too and live in this world and the issues that confront us all race, human rights, environment, and politics do not exist in separate silos and disappear when you arrive in my setting. They know where I stand on issues, but I tell them not to believe or accept what I say, it is incumbent upon us all to fully interrogate the facts. This is how we all get to the truth of a matter. So fact check me as well as others. I guess what I really am trying to impress upon you is that I am not fearful of the young , I am so encouraged by what I see in them. It is our culture that will shape them ultimately and good education is a strong contributor to good culture. Hope this makes some sense.
Gtcambridge, this is a great sign that our future is not doomed. Thank you!
Our Youngers gonna save the world from the mess the Elders created.
Gt....It makes wonderful sense. I feel good, hopeful and reassured by this post. And thankful there is such a great place for learning. These young ones are fortunate to have teachers like you.
“...sometimes I despair of our democracy.”
So, it’s not just me. Altho, I have had this despair since Nov. 8, 2016. The despair of discovering how many ignorant, bigoted cultists followed a clearly insane, unqualified and dangerous conman and elected him to the highest office of the land. Also, the despair of seeing the depths of complicity in the Repugnant Party that also saw the danger of this unqualified madman and initially tried to stop him, but on seeing his cult appeal to the bigots and ignorant faction of their party acquiesced to his madness.
Since that time, 4 years ago I have feared for our nation as this madman roused his ignorant dangerous rabble using Hitler’s Playbook. (Ppl who used to call that comparison hyperbole now admit it is true). And then the attempted burning of the Reichstag happened on Jan. 6, 2021, and was thwarted, but the Nazi followers in the Repugnant Party are still here threatening our democracy and I still despair.
People believed tRump was a successful business man despite the news reports that he wasn't. Add to that the country was not ready for a woman president especially an intelligent and capable woman.
The many years of The Apprentice image outweighed the “news”
The power of Reality TV
Didn't the Nazis, who attempted to burn down the Reichstag, put the blame on Communists, just as some believers in the "Big Lie" tried to pin the blame for the January 6 insurrection on "Antifa."
Yup
Yes, I believe so and Hitler was able to very quickly seize power in Germany soon after. I thought immediately of the burning of the Reichstag on January 6. It made me sick to watch this awful event. Thank you, Jacob, for the historical narrative. I have yet to find a Trump supporter who isn't flummoxed by the term 'historical narrative.'
That was exactly what the former president was trying to do and sadly, not only his ardent supporters, but most Republicans as well, are too STUPID to comprehend that! I used to be content to call them "ignorant or gullible" but there is no getting away from telling the truth. They are STUPID ... or just maybe willing to consciously commit treason to satisfy their racist agenda.
Jacob Lippman They are stupid but the ones hiding in the shadows are the ones behind the massive efforts to restrict voting rights are not stupid- ALEC, Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society, and the Heritage Society (as the Heritage action group). Please read this AP article I came across this morning (Sun. 3/21/21) https://apnews.com/article/legislature-voting-rights-ted-cruz-legislation-elections-6270306f67108ac16f4ee7b45a8afdb3?utm_source=pocket-newtab