Imo, a big part of what I am seeing now stems from a lack of proper history and or civics education. I went to school in Texas, my whole education up to college we were taught that the U.S. was this beacon of good and positive things, there was an intentional effort to misrepresent Texas and U.S. history in a way that minimized slavery, racisim, and the genocide of the native population of the U.S. In short, it was a bullshit whitewashed fantasy novel. We should be saying:
“The United States did some really horrifying shit in the distant past, the recent past, and is still doing it today, those are the facts. We should try to do better than we are doing, and part of that is recognizing where we as a country came from, good and bad, so we can do better. You students are not bad people by default for living or being born here but you need to realize that fetishizing this country as the greatest country in the world and intrinsically linking YOUR identity to that of a false vision of a flawed nation, is hugely problimatic, especially when you base that identiy on the ideals of manifest destiny or other weird and/or rascist ideals.”
When you separate the current individual from the history, and say this was/is the U.S. but it doesn’t have to be YOU or the U.S. of the future, people are more receptive of hearing the bad. That is not to say we should minimize the awful things in our past and current, just that if a young kid is shamed, intentionally or unintentionally, they are more likely to fall into fringe and radical ideas and seek validation for them.
That doesn’t help the brainwashed/backwards people who want to revert the country to the good ole days though.
The other thing that was really fundamental for me from good history teachers and professors was the way that they linked historical events with current events. That has been explicitly outlawed in Florida iirc and likely Texas too, this state does so much backwards shit though, I can’t keep up with all of it.
We probably also need to remind people that facts don’t care about their feelings, there isn’t a such thing as alternative history, and that’s just the end of it, there is no room for denying the horrors of slavery, the Holocaust, or any of the other numerous fucked up things in history. They happened, we have to remember that to prevent it from happening again.
Imo, a big part of what I am seeing now stems from a lack of proper history and or civics education.
That doesn’t explain what’s going on in much of Europe. You bring up the Holocaust but Germany has about the strong laws imaginable against Nazism / Neo-Nazism and yet the far right is about two whiskers away from holding power. It’s much the same in France and they already have power in Italy. This accelerating trend towards the right is a Global phenomena.
I think what’s really happening is a populist uprising against globalization and the hardships its created for so many people. Those same people are trending right wing because the RW are actually talking about the problem and possible solutions.
Fair point, I can only speak directly about my local experience. Maybe I am too idealistic in thinking that you can partially teach or learn this kind of stuff away.
Realistically, the standard of living has been falling for a while. I work the same type of job my parents did but in real money terms, I bring home less than they did at my age. People look for someone to blame for that kind of stuff and will listen when someone validates their feelings then points a finger and says “they fucked you but I’ll help” even if they are problimatic.
Fair point, I can only speak directly about my local experience.
That’s true but we, that includes me, can look around and see what’s happening beyond our State and National borders to see if a theory fits.
Realistically, the standard of living has been falling for a while.
IMO that’s the crux of the problem right there. The Standard of Living has been falling everywhere and it’s been falling faster as “Globalization” took hold. The real issue though isn’t trade between countries that have roughly similar economic systems and lifestyles, it’s the one sided importation of goods between countries that do not have roughly similar economic systems and lifestyles.
The problem with Globalization is that it tears the floor out from underneath the vulnerable. The under-educated and the poor struggle to make a living because their jobs have been shipped away to another country where someone can live for less and thus work for less. It’s a race to the bottom.
Those vulnerable people, and even the once privileged who’ve watched their livelihoods ripped away, are increasingly desperate to find a way out of their situation and so they’re increasingly turning to the only people who seem to care. To paraphrase a bit “It’s the (real) economy, stupid!”
This isn’t my idea either as this outcome was widely predicted by Union Bosses and Business Leaders during the Clinton Administrations runup to NAFTA and MFN Trading Status for China.
If they were correct, and it appears they were, then the only way to stop the madness is to re-onshore the jobs as much as possible with a special focus on geographic areas that have the highest imbalance. The U.S. started doing it under the Trump Administration and the Biden Administration has accelerated the trend. If everyone will just hang tight for another 12-18 months the effects will start to get really noticeable and the Right Wing rise will ebb away.
Imo, a big part of what I am seeing now stems from a lack of proper history and or civics education. I went to school in Texas, my whole education up to college we were taught that the U.S. was this beacon of good and positive things, there was an intentional effort to misrepresent Texas and U.S. history in a way that minimized slavery, racisim, and the genocide of the native population of the U.S. In short, it was a bullshit whitewashed fantasy novel. We should be saying:
“The United States did some really horrifying shit in the distant past, the recent past, and is still doing it today, those are the facts. We should try to do better than we are doing, and part of that is recognizing where we as a country came from, good and bad, so we can do better. You students are not bad people by default for living or being born here but you need to realize that fetishizing this country as the greatest country in the world and intrinsically linking YOUR identity to that of a false vision of a flawed nation, is hugely problimatic, especially when you base that identiy on the ideals of manifest destiny or other weird and/or rascist ideals.”
When you separate the current individual from the history, and say this was/is the U.S. but it doesn’t have to be YOU or the U.S. of the future, people are more receptive of hearing the bad. That is not to say we should minimize the awful things in our past and current, just that if a young kid is shamed, intentionally or unintentionally, they are more likely to fall into fringe and radical ideas and seek validation for them.
That doesn’t help the brainwashed/backwards people who want to revert the country to the good ole days though.
The other thing that was really fundamental for me from good history teachers and professors was the way that they linked historical events with current events. That has been explicitly outlawed in Florida iirc and likely Texas too, this state does so much backwards shit though, I can’t keep up with all of it.
We probably also need to remind people that facts don’t care about their feelings, there isn’t a such thing as alternative history, and that’s just the end of it, there is no room for denying the horrors of slavery, the Holocaust, or any of the other numerous fucked up things in history. They happened, we have to remember that to prevent it from happening again.
That doesn’t explain what’s going on in much of Europe. You bring up the Holocaust but Germany has about the strong laws imaginable against Nazism / Neo-Nazism and yet the far right is about two whiskers away from holding power. It’s much the same in France and they already have power in Italy. This accelerating trend towards the right is a Global phenomena.
I think what’s really happening is a populist uprising against globalization and the hardships its created for so many people. Those same people are trending right wing because the RW are actually talking about the problem and possible solutions.
Fair point, I can only speak directly about my local experience. Maybe I am too idealistic in thinking that you can partially teach or learn this kind of stuff away.
Realistically, the standard of living has been falling for a while. I work the same type of job my parents did but in real money terms, I bring home less than they did at my age. People look for someone to blame for that kind of stuff and will listen when someone validates their feelings then points a finger and says “they fucked you but I’ll help” even if they are problimatic.
That’s true but we, that includes me, can look around and see what’s happening beyond our State and National borders to see if a theory fits.
IMO that’s the crux of the problem right there. The Standard of Living has been falling everywhere and it’s been falling faster as “Globalization” took hold. The real issue though isn’t trade between countries that have roughly similar economic systems and lifestyles, it’s the one sided importation of goods between countries that do not have roughly similar economic systems and lifestyles.
The problem with Globalization is that it tears the floor out from underneath the vulnerable. The under-educated and the poor struggle to make a living because their jobs have been shipped away to another country where someone can live for less and thus work for less. It’s a race to the bottom.
Those vulnerable people, and even the once privileged who’ve watched their livelihoods ripped away, are increasingly desperate to find a way out of their situation and so they’re increasingly turning to the only people who seem to care. To paraphrase a bit “It’s the (real) economy, stupid!”
This isn’t my idea either as this outcome was widely predicted by Union Bosses and Business Leaders during the Clinton Administrations runup to NAFTA and MFN Trading Status for China.
If they were correct, and it appears they were, then the only way to stop the madness is to re-onshore the jobs as much as possible with a special focus on geographic areas that have the highest imbalance. The U.S. started doing it under the Trump Administration and the Biden Administration has accelerated the trend. If everyone will just hang tight for another 12-18 months the effects will start to get really noticeable and the Right Wing rise will ebb away.