The dumbing down of America.

[Stonepounder]

After WWII came the baby boom and the technology boom. Education became important and kids were taught to think. They were exposed to American History, Civics, and Literature. We read Huck Finn and 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 and Gone With the Wind. We were taught the Constitution and separation of powers. We learned to think critically and to ask questions.

But then something happened that scared the establishment to death. We actually DID start thinking for ourselves. We looked at what was happening in Vietnam and decided that it wasn't worth it. 'Hell No We Won't Go'. Days of rage. We refused to just go along to get along. We asked 'Why are we really there?' We also started asking about Jim Crow laws. We marched, we demonstrated, and we made a difference.

And the establishment realized that they didn't want well-educated younger generation that actually thought for themselves and actually questioned authority. So, they decided to do something about it. So began the dumbing down of America. History in High School typically stops at the Civil War. Forget about Civics. Kids today can't tell you about the three branches of government or checks and balances. They take standardized multiple choice tests, tests that measure your ability to memorize facts, but not to have to actually think. Anyone remember 'Write 500 words on ...'? Or 'Compare and contrast...'? I was writing those in High School. Now the teachers don't even bother to check the tests for accuracy before giving them to their students.

And we have become a nation afraid. When I was a kid my parents didn't ask me where I was going every time I walked out the door. I couldn't wait to turn 16 to get my driver's license. When I went off to college I lived in a dorm, even though my parents lived about 15 minutes away. My granddaughter didn't get her driver's licence until she was 21 and still lives at home. Two of my other grandkids are over 16 and don't have licences, because it is 'too dangerous' out there. They have to worry about Muslims, and terrorists, and perverts, and on and on. Hell, when my sister was about 8 she had a guy expose himself to her at the Ohio State University museum. She calmly walked over to the closest guard and said: "That man just exposed himself to me." Man arrested and we went on with our day.

I was reading an interview with the editor/published of the Hillsboro, OH local newspaper. He was asked about Trump and the whole Russia thing. He said he doesn't write any articles about that in his paper because people didn't care. They wanted local news, when the new Dollar General store was opening, what the weather was going to be like, and who was getting
married and who died. They didn't watch the news on TV, not even FOX.

That is why Trump gets away with his shit. That is why we are going down the tubes. That is why Trump and the oligarchs will win and we the ones who actually see what is going on will lose. We have become a nation of sheep. Afraid of our own shadows, caring only where our next meal will come from, living from paycheck to paycheck, and praying that it won't be our job that gets outsourced.

And Betsy deVoss will do an even better of dumbing us down by getting rid of public schools. As we are getting rid of the EPA, NAFTA, the Paris Accords, the State Dept, making 'them' the boogy man - black, brown, non-Evangelical Christians, LGBT, anyone not 'us'. Fragment our society, destroy our Democracy, turn us into an autocratic plutocracy.

Last one out, turn out the lights please. Oh, and don't forget to launder the brown shirts of your boy scout when he comes back from Jamboree.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

1. K&Fuckin'R

[JI7]

2. except it's not young people who are voting for people like Trump.

the whole thing is about backlash against demographic changes and the rights and power being gained by women and minorities.

[Beartracks]

3. The backlash only exists because those people have been lied to...

... about the real causes of their economic uncertainties. They've been told the problem is with poor people hoarding all the money, and brown-skinned people taking the crappy jobs, and gays forcing heteros to get divorced -- and they believe it all because they can't think critically and because they don't want to hear that they've been sold a bill of goods from the one-percenters and their "trickle-down" God-guns-n-country propaganda. They can't see that women and minorities GAINING rights can in no way diminish THEIR OWN rights.

================

[JI7]

4. fuck them. they aren't living in north korea . trump was pushing Obama birther lies, was he a victim

of fox news and other right wing media ?

they are ok with a white racist like trump not paying taxes.

[Stonepounder]

7. If it were just the politicians lying AND they had been well educated

they would see through the lies. We here on DU certainly do and not all of us are old fogies like me. We are (at a guess) well read, we think about things, we do our own fact-checking. We don't just swallow MSNBC or Britebart. We read, we listen, we fact-check, we think, and we make up our own minds. We don't just swallow what some talking head on TV tells us.

[SammyWinstonJack]

15. No excuses for the willfully ignorant. None.

[Stonepounder]

5. That's part of the dumbing down.

The need to 'blame' anyone but 'us'. I remember all the demonstrations, marches, rallies, etc for Civil Rights. The church I attended (Protestant) had a program for Freshmen, call (of all things) 'Travelling Freshmen' where once every 4-6 weeks we would be bussed to a different church. Jewish, Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Presbyterian, Quaker, Baptist, all-black, etc. Just to see how others worshiped and that just because they didn't go to our church, they were all good and decent people.

That doesn't get taught either. I was asked by my right-wing son (we usually stay off politics by mutual agreement) why, if most Imams were so peaceful, why weren't more of them showing up on TV and saying it. I asked him when was the last time he saw Protestant clergy on TV condemning violence against abortion clinics or mosques? He didn't have a good answer.

[geek tragedy]

6. Uneducated white people, in the aggregate, have always

been the biggest obstacle to progress in this nation's history. Now they've largely embraced corruption and fascism. Rotten culture amongst that demographic.

[Beartracks]

8. One of my favorite quotes...

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”

― Isaac Asimov

======================

[murielm99]

9. Our parents, the so-called greatest generation,

were children during the Depression. They fought a war to keep tyranny from taking over the world.

They came home and wanted nice houses, children, good jobs. They wanted the best for their families, including education. Many of them had not had the chance to be educated themselves. They had a clear idea of what they considered to be American values. Of course they were shocked when we did not turn out be be just like them.

Our children are not going to value the same things we value. They are growing up in a different time. Technology dominates much of what they do and how they think. (Never mind that that technology came to them courtesy of two boomers, Gates and Jobs).

I noticed, as did my husband, that our children were not being taught some very basic things in their public schools. For example, we thought they were being short-changed in history, civics and the arts. We did everything we could to make up for those deficiencies. We involved them in community theater, music lessons, hands-on political experiences, and reading, reading, reading.

I can't blame the schools for everything. Teachers now are expected to be parents, counselors, disciplinarians, and many other things that parents don't have the time or wisdom to provide at home.

The media is trying to sell us on the idea that all these white bigots, misogynists and outright haters are angry. Well, maybe they are. But the people who did not want trump, no matter where we live, are even angrier. I am seeing it in the grassroots organizations and in the increased involvement of people in local politics.

If we need to educate ourselves, our children and their children, if we need to do everything for ourselves, well that is what people do in times of crisis.

I am not disputing what you are saying, just adding some observations of my own.

[dweller]

10. well said 👍🏻 n/t

[Stonepounder]

11. Actually, I agree with you.

When I married my wife she came with 5 grown children. Bit of an adjustment for childless me. But, over the years, we have had some spirited discussions over the dinner table. We new have 2 lefties, 1 libertarian, 1 right-winger, and 1 I-don't-know. But, by God, they learned they had better be able to defend their position if they wanted to jump into the fray.


My wife has her ABD (all but dissertation) degree in History, so believe me, I have learned a lot from her. And she didn't raise no kids trying to take the easy way out. Turned one son (yeah, after 20 years of marriage I get to call him a son and not a step-) onto musical theatre. Of course he keeps trying to turn me onto Night of the Living Dead, but so it goes.
.......
Teach your children well,
Their father's hell did slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picks, the one you'll know by.
-Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

[Solly Mack]

12. Great points.

[proud patriot]

13. My dad has been saying this

since the 80s . Right On

[dchill]

14. . . . - - - . . .

[Duppers]

16. K & R