"Don't Know Much About HIstory"....................

[KoKo]

Don't know much about history by Steven D
Wed Dec 12th, 2007 at 08:59:07 AM EST

I don't know about you, but this story sort of encapsulates everything you need to know about the young conservative ideologues working for the Bush administration, in particular, and for conservative organizations, in general. Namely that not only are these people liars, propagandists and brainwashed incompetents, but that they are also exceedingly ignorant about their own nation's history:

Appearing on National Public Radio's light-hearted quiz show "Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me!" which aired over the weekend, Perino got into the spirit of things and told a story about herself that she had previously shared only in private: During a White House briefing, a reporter referred to the Cuban missile crisis -- and she didn't know what it was. "I was panicked a bit because I really don't know about -- nothing about the Cuban missile crisis," said Perino, who at 35 was born about a decade after the 1962 U.S.-Soviet nuclear showdown. "It had to do with Cuba and missiles, I'm pretty sure."

So she consulted her best source: "I came home and I asked my husband," she recalled. "I said, 'Wasn't that like the Bay of Pigs thing?' And he said, 'Oh, Dana.' "

It seems they all believe American history jumped straight from World War II to Saint Ronald Reagan the Valiant with only some indeterminate period in between where dirty filthy hippies spit on our troops and Jane Fonda and John Kerry single handedly destroyed our chance to win the Vietnam War.

No wonder they all falsely believe that the Civil War wasn't fought over the issue of slavery, or that our nation was purposely founded as a Christian Nation ("Christian" magically meaning the same Christianity espoused today by the Rapture ready crowd). Or that evolution is a controversial scientific theory. Or that Africans actually improved their lot in life when they were captured, transported to America packed like sardines in dirty, disease ridden ships and sold into slavery.

I don't think there is a less informed group of individuals in this country than young conservatives. Or a more brainwashed, unable to think for themselves group of people, for that matter. Part of that has been the failure of our education system to teach critical thinking skills to our young people. Part of that rests on the inability of our school board approved textbooks to relate American history in an objective, impartial manner. And part is the responsibility of a group of well funded, deeply cynical and manipulative conservative activists and who have spent the last 50 years fighting to rewrite those same history books to perpetuate a triumphalist, nationalistic perspective regarding our country's "unique heritage" of freedom and democracy, while also coercing the media into propagating conservative lies and myths about our past and our present.

Dana Perino is only a representative of an entire generation of "Know nothing" conservatives who believe only what the current GOP talking points and conservative pundits and pseudo intellectuals tell them to believe. People who are in essence, merely angry and hate filled automatons ready to follow any authoritarian leader so long as his conservative bona fides have been sufficiently accepted by the collective wisdom of their elders. Ignorant of history, ignorant of, and often deeply antagonistic toward, science, and certain only in their faith in Jesus Christ, Fox News the "infallibility of the free market" and the evil abilities of godless liberals.

They have had thirty years to insert themselves into prominent positions in our news media, and throughout all levels of our federal, state and local governments. They, and others like them who were not fortunate enough to receive the benefits of the right wing welfare system, but who are dutiful listeners, readers and viewers of the Rush Limbaughs, Michelle Malkins and Bill O'Reillys of the world, are ready made followers for next demagogue who can assert himself in a time of crisis. George Bush was just the prototype. The next right wing Fuhrer to whom they pledge their allegiance will be much, much worse.
http://www2.boomantribune.com/story/2007/12/12/8598/1491

[LakeSamish706]

1. Great song by Sam Cooke... "Don't Know Much About HIstory" n/y

[LakeSamish706]

5. It's actually named "Wonderful World" n/t

[Bozita]

7. "Don't know much biology."

Sam Cooke must have known the Bushies.

Think stem cells.

[Fed_Up_Grammy]

2. Dane Perino annoys me so much I mute my TV when she is speaking.

Talk about desperation in the Bush White House.

[Solar Power]

3. It ain't my fault....

I taught history in the public schools in a large city, (Chicago) for more than 25 years. Now, there isn't enough time to really go into everything, but after figuring out that the problem was history, it was reading...
..After learning a whole new set of teaching techniques for "reading" I got back to teaching history. Most of the people I worked with tried real hard..But I would have remembered a gal named Dana...Nope, not mine............solar

[opihimoimoi]

4. Doomed to Redundency....the GOP repeats Historical Blunders Big Time...

They have failed to comprehend Sun Tzu....mush less know who he was.....

[Swamp Rat]

8. Are they insane or imbeciles or both?

The race to the bottom is on! :eyes:

[opihimoimoi]

18. Heya Swampy...to answer question....Both... Stupid/Deluded/Obstinate2

and many of them have college degrees....something I cannot envision(shaking head in disbelief).

What good is our edsystem if we get these dudes to run the Nation?

Them Harvard Folks had better ask for the sheepskin to be RETURNED...Bush speaks on the High School Level...acts on the seventh grad level, and eats like a preschooler......

WE GOT ROBBED of a good President Gore....Humanity shot itself in the foot with a 12 gauge .....This is NUTz

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

6. "But I do know that I love Bush, and I know that if I shake my tush,

my Chimp will be wonderful to me."

[Bozita]

9. Shouldn't that be "that I DO love Bush..."

singing it in my head.

[gatts]

10. I can think of a few more.

I don't think there is a less informed group of individuals in this country than young conservatives.

From working in the educational system (Bedford, Massachusetts, Senior High School), I can think of a good few who match or beat it. I know it's probably bad karma to rap on the educational system and teacher's union here, but most public schools, even in heavily progressive states and even with good money, are not exactly brilliant, nor are these sort of knowledge gaps limited to conservatives.

We had smartboards in every other classroom -- despite the protests of those of us smart enough to realize that 400 USD a pop bulbs were not a good replacement for projector screens -- but no lesson plans that cover the last thirty years in history class, and books that spend less than a page on each of the last five presidents. This is the only state that voted for McGovern, and it can't find more than two pages per student to discuss Nixon.

This isn't just a conservative thing, no matter how enjoyable it is to make fun of the less intelligent. I've seen posters here claim that the British in the 1700s were a risk to democracy on par with George Bush, since apparently the country that we modeled our system of election after were not. I've seen people exclaim surprised that the contents of an art shop such as aluminum and iron oxide couldn't be used to easily make weapons; apparently the complexity that is redox reactions outstrip the modern chemistry class.

Oh, and as to the Civil War, the last state where one could legally own slaves was neither Confederate nor neutral.

[annabanana]

11. 'Oh, Dana.'

Doesn't that sound like a catch phrase on a 50's sitcom? You, know.. the one that always got the laugh?

Ralph: "Bang-Zoom, To the Moon, Alice"
Lucy: "Wa-a-a-ah"

[Djinn]

12. Ignorance of history is hardly confined to the neo-cons

particularly in America.

Most posters on American leftie political boards including DU know little or nothing about; Operation Phoenix, Clinton's role in rendition, Carter's role in Afghanistan, Mossadegh's government, the Al-Amariya shelter bombing, the diplomatic cover given to Saddam after he gassed the Kurds, the Nakba, the massacres at Sabra and Shatila, El Mozote, the murder of Oscar Romero, SOA etc etc etc

[Solar Power]

13. What about the Rape of Nanjing?

Do you think Dana knows about this?

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2007/12/13/china_remembers_nanking_massacre/

[enlightenment]

14. With more focus on sciences and maths, there is less time

for history and other "soft" subjects. History, more and more with each passing year, is pushed to the back-burner and receives short-shrift at both the high school and college level for most students.

When I was in high school (the dark ages - 1970s) we had to have three years of history and one year of civics to graduate. When my son graduated from high school in 1998, he needed only two years of history (US and "World") and one semester of something that passed for civics.

When I started college, the General Education requirements for all students included two semesters of US history and two semesters of "Western Civ" (European history) - of course history majors had to take a lot more.

I teach college history. Most of my students have had minimal exposure when they start college. Unless they are majoring in history, they do not receive a great deal more at the post-secondary level. A single semester, often taken only to satisfy a requirement for "learning" about the US Constitution, covers most other majors. In my state, education majors are also required to take the State history course.

Making matters worse, there is NO time to cover even the basics. Teaching a US survey course from the pre colonial period to 1877 is fairly standard - at best we have 16 weeks to cover the entire period. I liken it to a 30,000 foot flyover of the past. European surveys and World surveys are even worse - we might as well be in the shuttle, circling the globe, for all the detail that we can cover. It is heartbreaking to see bright, inquisitive students struggling to make sense of things. Honestly, I rarely even make it to the Civil War in my US survey these days. I'd rather leave them with no coverage of a period of history if I can spend more time detailing the intricacies of the creation of this nation.

We have devalued history, not just for years, but for decades. History teaches more than the past; it teaches critical thinking skills, reading comprehension, and writing skills, just to name a few (although, I admit at the moment my writing skills look pretty frail!) These are skills that benefit every field of endeavour, not just historians.

[gatts]

17. Hard Science

Hard science is abused pretty heavily, too. I've seen a group of physics teachers *agree* that Heisenberg Uncertainty Principal was about the friggen observer effect. That's the scientific equal of claiming that the Pilgrims took over New Zealand at the Grand Canyon Rock. I've seen college students, fresh from 18 credit-hour class focuses, come back and claim that Bush banned all stem cell research (it's a ban on federally funded embryonic stem cell research outside of a couple useless lines), even providing the online lecture notes.

The simple truth is that there are a lot of teachers out there that are crap, a lot of lesson plans out there that are crap, a lot of books out there that are crap, and strong disincentive for either students, other teachers, or administrative officials to correct or fact-check the stuff.

[gauguin57]

15. Don't know much 'bout torture video trashin' ...... I only know that Iran needs a thrashin'

But I know in the press' glow I bask

And if they'd only write just what we ask ...

what a wonderful world this would be ...

[knitter4democracy]

16. After going to an evangelical college, I can wholeheartedly agree.

I was constantly amazed at what fellow students didn't know. I went there for faith reasons back in the 90s, and it was stunning to sit in class and hear people not even know the basics. No wonder they fall for propaganda all the time.