History Is Not a Safe Space
With the rise of political correct culture in the United States in the past decade or so , we have seen much of it affect our everyday lives. From what people are allowed to say or what topics are deemed too triggering for the general public, even if you weren’t paying close attention to the debates you can see that things are changing. What was mostly started by people who probably had a few decent ideas, has transitioned into a group of social justice warriors who make ridiculous attacks on people who try to reason with them. Well the politically correct agenda in the United States is pushing into places that make it very dangerous, specifically in regards to states changing history textbooks.
In order to make textbooks more politically correct and avoid offending anyone, the corporations who create them are changing the content within them to offer a “safer alternative” to learning history. In the case of Texas, this includes removing any mention of the KKK, removing Swastikas and playing down the bloodshed of groups like the American Indians. Removing them from the Textbooks is almost as bad as saying that this part of our past never happened. Not only is this ridiculous, but we are doing our children, the future leaders of our country, a disservice by offering them a watered down version of history.
Our history is bloody, filled with death destruction, killing and it is important that we pass this on to the next generation of leaders. If we do not teach them the truth about how these terrible events in history happened, we risk forgetting and repeating the same tragedy. History is not a safe space and that is because sometimes the truth is painful, but it doesn’t mean we should turn a blind eye to it. Doing so not only does a disservice to the learners, but also to the people who suffered through various events in question. We dishonor the bravery and resilience of millions of people who fought back against those who tried to suppress them, many choosing death rather than a loss of their freedoms.
The stories of how the states’ borders were formed or the rise of steamboats in the United States are nice and happy fillers, but they are not the most important part of history that is useful to today’s generation. The censorship and suppression of certain groups in the past and the similarities we see today, genocide of people for their beliefs, this is what we have to teach them. History repeats itself because eventually people disassociate themselves with the past as if we have evolved greatly in 100 years. We may have a whole new world of technology, but we still have the same biological structures as before and we are just as vulnerable to let hate and anger consume us.
If we don’t push back out of fear that we will be called dangerous and backwards thinking people, we will slowly let ourselves become completely silenced. The people who stand back and do nothing are just as bad as those who are looking to suppress people in the first place. The dark history of our countries and our world needs to be told, even if it helps stop one tragedy from reoccurring. History, like the world we live in everyday, is not a safe space.
Sooo....I hate to be contrary for the sake of being contrary....but the kind of people who want the KKK and Nazis downplayed in history books are NOT the SJW safespace type people.
I don't really know what the big deal is with SJWs and why people seem to do so much hand wringing over. The General SJW principles of "Don't be a dick to minorities" and "Do what you can to address demographic based inequities" see like fine and dandy causes to me. Sometimes they go a little overboard, as young activists have always tended to do, and when they cross the border into the ridiculous I ignore them, while paying attention to and supporting the things that are reasonable and good.
See, these:
""Don't be a dick to minorities" and "Do what you can to address demographic based inequities""
are not the general principles of SJW. Those are only the stated principles used as a cloak, similar to how most legislation has a "real" reason and a"fit for public consumption" reason.
You are buying their propaganda if you think AA, Title IX, Alimony, Child Custody (assumed to mother), etc. are anything but a supremacy movement designed to raise their own demographic up to being the institution.
SJWs ARE the institution now, and they still cry about institutional oppression. They've taken over the universities and are indoctrinating the next generation into economically useless degrees like Women's Studies which prepare students only for lives as professional agitators, victims, or to teach the same thing they just "learned" as "professors".
Agreed with your first point though, the censorship is often simply a reaction by companies who don't want to deal with these shrieking, reality deniers. It's just easier to put out a shitty product than to defend yourself publicly, even if the whiners would never buy your project (See the Fable "cleavage day" incident for an example of how SJWs who would never buy a product will still mess with it.)
sniff you smell that? sniff sniff Smells awful MRAish in here.....sniff
Please tell me one way in which SJW causes have harmed or ill-treated you or someone you personally know.
I am a strait white male in America and I literally cannot think of a single time every in my life that SJW causes have caused me any unjust hindrance whatsoever. Am I just incredibly lucky?
First of all, the fact that you haven't experienced something doesn't make it non-existent.
Second of all, you clearly don't know the story of Dan Larimer, who was brutalized by a ruthless divorce court that is well acknowledged by all lawyers to drastically favor the woman with no ethical basis.
Look up how Dan was forced to pay alimony that was more than half his after-tax pay, and how the court tried to prevent him from starting his own businesses and Steemit.
SJW influence in the courts literally almost destroyed Steemit before it started.
I'll ignore your attempt at ad hominem with the whole MRA thing for now.
PS - If you actually want to be educated, do your own research. There are literally thousands of examples that destroy your ignorant argument. Start with Sargon of Akkad on YT. Perhaps you should look into how Evergreen college attempted to banish all whites from campus for a full class day, before the SJW students took a mob to the President's office to get a professor fired because he thought that was discrimination against whites. Or you could look into the variety of SJW professors who say things like "We Need a White Genocide" on twitter.
For bonus points, compare these things to the socio-political climate in Germany between Weimar and the Third Reich.
I will wait for your educated response.
Oh I've done plenty of my own, just testing the water to get a sense of what you considered compelling. It's about what was expected. And your tone also indicates to me that there is probably nothing productive that can come from arguing about it with you.
So I will just say to the audience at large: Do SJWs sometimes go a little overboard? Sure.....but so does every activistic community no? Everyone expressed anger and dismissal over those stupid college kids with all of their outrage and protesting back in the 60s, and now we are glad for the changes they helped bring about, are we not? Do college professors sometimes say radical and shocking things? Sure....but so too do preachers and politicians and pretty much every position that holds an audience. The general principle that the color/race/nation/religion/gender of your birth should not have a statistical impact on how you will do in society or be treated in certain contexts is a valid and worthwhile belief that is worth pursuing and upholding. The fact that people start to lose their patience and get a bit pissed and rowdy over these things when they are still happening to this day is understandable. When an SJW actually does something ridiculous or over the top, criticize them and say that is stupid and an overreaction, sure, I do that all the time. But don't try to paint the demographic that has controlled the vast majority of politics, business, land, religion, literature, media for the past 250 years as a victim due to incremental erosion of their dominance. That's just silly, and no amount of "but my wife got more alimony than I think is fair!" is going to negate that.
"color/race/nation/religion/gender of your birth should not have a statistical impact on how you will do in society or be treated in certain contexts is a valid and worthwhile belief that is worth pursuing and upholding"
Agreed, I am in full support of this. This is exactly what SJWs fail at, like Justin Trudeau and his "50% female cabinet, regardless of merit". (Note: I would support a 100% female cabinet, or any cabinet, based on merit) Almost everything SJWs agitate for would be undisputably wildly sexist or racist if you swapped "white" in for "any other minority" or "male" in for "female". There's an SJW woman in the WTO (I think it's the WTO) who wants to make it illegal for women in New Zealand to be stay-at-home moms, because she wants to "fix the gender wage gap". That's SJW activism for you.
"That's just silly, and no about of "but my wife got more alimony than I think is fair!" is going to negate that."
Your entire argument boils down to justifying current undeniably unethical actions with "but their ancestors were mean to them, WAAAH."
Would you like to take a crack at justifying an alimony payment of over 50% of a man's after tax income? Would you like to take a crack at justifying alimony AT ALL, or are you unable to see that it is sexist against both men and women, infantilizing women and removing their agency?
Would you like to comment on the fact that the gender wage gap is completely made up propaganda? They simply added up all men's salaries, then did the same with women's. There were more working men, so the men's total was 100 and the women's total was 77 (roughly, these are ratio numbers for illustration purposes, not actual figures). They concluded this meant women make less, without correcting for industry (men work far more dangerous jobs that obviously have higher pay), nor did they EVEN DIVIDE BY THE NUMBER OF DATA POINTS. This is bold-face lying, repeated by the president of the US in State of the Union addresses to agitate for more sexist legislation.
Do you think you can comment on these things without claiming past injustice owed by people who are mostly already dead, and whose injustice most of us never benefited from?
(Edited to correct significant typo paragraph.)
Something like "it's illegal to be a stay at home mom" is a stupid and bad idea. I disagree with it. There you go. And there are about a thousand others that I do agree with and think are good ideas. Is you point that in the vast churning ocean of laws and discussion and ideas about equity and how to pursue it that there are occasional bad ideas? Ok, point ceded, I agree.
You also strike me as one of those people who think equity means "everyone gets the same amount of help", as opposed to "everyone gets the help they need" which is what true goal is.
If you have a family with a pantry full of food and another family with scarely any food, and a harsh winter storm is about to hit, and you decide to give the care pack of food you have to the family with no food, that is an example of help done right. If you instead split the care pack up evenly and give half to both families, so that by the time the storm breaks the first family still has loads of food and the other family at this point hasn't eaten in days, that is an example of help done wrong.
So yes, laws that seek to address inequity will favor those who are lacking, not divide up the help evenly between those who are underprivileged and those who are not.
And I think you fail to see the basic compelling problem of the wage gap, but agian, I don't know why I am arguing with you, this can only end in wasted time and frustration.
Ah, you've made this a lot easier. You are a communist. I'm not slandering you, that's just what you are saying:
""everyone gets the same amount of help", as opposed to "everyone gets the help they need" which is what true equity is."
I'm afraid the fundamental philosophy you are currently aligned with is at odds with the entire Western tradition, on both sides of the aisle. SJWs are Marxists, however, so this isn't surprising.
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need." - Karl Marx
You seem like a reasonable and intelligent person, but the philosophy you are aligned with is toxic and has killed tens of millions. Please, please, please read up on Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, and the rest of their flunkies.
Charity does not require communism and forced redistribution, which is what the side you have aligned yourself with believes. Note I did not say YOUR side - you are free to choose as a hopefully rational adult.
Please choose wisely.
PS - Financial inequality is one of the positions closest to my heart. The West is awful in this regard. Do not misconstrue my argument for support of the status quo. We almost all agree on this here in the crypto space.
"If you have a family with a pantry full of food and another family with scarely any food, and a harsh winter storm is about to hit, and you decide to give the care pack of food you have to the family with no food, that is an example of help done right."
I would agree with this statement. Generally speaking, charities only offer help to those who need it. Much like welfare having a means test, etc.
I am in no way against charity. I donate myself. You may notice there is very little charity work in the SJW sphere however, and what little it is, is always assigned via discrimination - women's or minority groups only. Can't say I've ever seen the SJW crowd take up prostate cancer, or skin cancer, or anything else that might carry the "taint" of being somehow attached to either "whiteness" or "the patriarchy" (which, incidentally, I can never get a definition on or any evidence of...)
I suspect that you are assuming I disagree with you in many places I do not.
Would you agree that it would be immoral to steal the pantry full of food from the first family, on threat of inprisonment/death, to give to another family who was unprepared - perhaps because they went to Disney World instead of buying canned food? If you disagree, could you expand on why or what fundamental right justifies your position?
PS - If the average SJW thought and spoke as you did, we probably wouldn't be having this discussion because it wouldn't be much of a problem. I assure you the loudest and most powerful of the group are thoroughly objectionable individuals who would be incapable of having a civilized discussion as we are, and equality for others is clearly not foremost among their goals if you look closely at their actions. I appreciate your replies and this discussion in general.
That is why you have things like concentration camps and holocaust museums. Although they may seem so morbid and sinister and most people would want to forget about it; we must never forget.
What's more important than teaching is fostering desire. Once the will to uncover to truth grows strong, the uninitiated will go forward with a newfound zest and zeal. But you can be excessive. If you look for information to back up your closely held beliefs, you will find it. Political correctness is a byproduct of this. The wage gap is a prime example.
Thanks so much for sharing this post. I actually agree with a lot of your points. Textbooks should not be revised to be more politically correct. It is only by learning painful truth of the past that students can begin to learn to be more sensitive and righteous.
Those who decry hearing about the brutality of human existence are the same people who have never experienced such hardship themselves.
They are effectively silencing the voices of those who have been most oppressed and demoralized throughout our history.
I understand where you're coming from but it sounds like you're confusing the agendas of several groups with relatively disparate interests.
In spite of being co-opted as clickbait and misrepresented beyond recognition, safe spaces were originally intended to indicate solidarity with the LGBTQ movement. Making it safe for LGBTQ students to attend school is fundamentally different than censoring speech.
Political correctness is about inclusion rather than exclusion; those seeking to censor history may use the phrase "politically correct," but their actions clearly subvert the meaning. I've been aware of the whitewashing of the U.S.'s involvement in the Holocaust since I was a kid so I'm no stranger to your sentiment but the Religious Right has contributed far more to the censorship of history and textbooks in the U.S. than anyone in the LGBTQ community.
"The ruling historiography is the historiography of the rulers." – Marx
True, sometimes History (His-Story) leaves out the truth!!
Blessings to you!!
History is full of lies and deceptions and conspiracies. One of my missions in life is to correct these lies and reveal the truth about the forbidden history, relating to secret societies and their massive influence, mystery cults of antiquity, the Atlantis, also WW2, secret CIA programs, war is a racket, 9/11 was an inside job etc. Political correctness is cancer, truth is weirder than we can even imagine. Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.
Humanity must learn from the history that we have and try to prevent reoccurring of these dark tragedies.