The current state of GOP ethos towards teaching history is intentionally harmful. If you teach history based on ‘differing perspectives,’ rather than facts, because facts make people feel bad, and it’s all about feelings – then everything becomes irrelevant.

If you teach ‘excuses’ then no one wants to do better.

And the GOP doesn’t want to do better. They want to make history irrelevant so that no one learns from it. They see that kind of ignorance as a path to regaining and retaining power. And that is absolutely all they care about – power.

History isn’t supposed to be about ‘feelings.’ History is supposed to be an accurate retelling of events. If that retelling makes one feel bad, then maybe that teaches the person learning it a lesson, no?

Through the teaching of history, we learn where we came from. We learn about past mistakes made by societies, including our own, that had harmful consequences. And some of us actually try to learn from it so we don’t make those mistakes again. Because history has some painful lessons folks need to learn so that they can do better in the future.

How many Germans growing up in Germany today had to come to grips with the fact that their ancestors were likely members of the Nazi Party? They don’t shy away from teaching the horrors of the Holocaust in Germany just because little Greta may feel bad that her great grandpa helped set a Synagogue on fire. They teach her about her nation’s past, and all the horrors, so that her generation and those that follow, don’t repeat what her great grandfather’s generation did. They learn all about what their ancestors did in the Holocaust.

And PS: every child in Germany knows exactly who Hitler was, who his generals were, and what they did, without ever seeing one statue on public grounds or one Nazi flag flying anywhere in the country.

My apologies to the snowflakes who are sad that their kids have to learn the facts about what this country has done in its past – to slaves, to indigenous peoples, to Jews, to Chines immigrants, to every ‘other’ that has come to our shores whether voluntarily, or not – because maybe if we taught history accurately, we wouldn’t continue to do the same damned thing every time we have a wave of new immigrants.

The GOP wants to teach ‘opposing views’ because they fear white kids may feel bad? Oh cry me a flipping River.

How about instead we teach, accurately, how every wave of immigration has been treated by this country? I remember being taught THAT perspective in HS – that despite what is written on the base of the Statue of Liberty, every wave of immigrant ever to hit these shores was treated horribly – Irish, Italian, Russian, Jewish, Chinese…

Truth be told, being treated poorly when your ancestors came here may be the one thing that unites anyone who wasn’t an original settler here.

The idea of the ‘other’ being the cause of your life sucking has been a scapegoat used by those in power forever. It’s how so many in Germany were led to turn on their neighbors, and the GOP is only the latest power hungry group of assholes using that concept now to distract their base from the reality that they themselves are the cause of their own damned problems.

And don’t even get me started on how, until relatively recently, women, regardless or race or religion, were treated in this country. Should we teach opposing view points on how it was okay for women to have zero autonomy or rights, even as early as fifty years ago? You know, because heaven forbid little boys should feel bad that girls were treated like property in this country back when their grandparents or parents were growing up?

We can still love this country and take pride in the process we have made, while learning about the bad things we did in the past. Because learning about these things that make us ‘feel bad,’ is how we ensure we do better and continue to evolve as a society. And real love is understanding all the flaws, and seeing all the improvements and wanting to do better.

History should be taught accurately, no matter how much reality hurts. It’s the only way people learn. If we don’t learn, we, as a society, are screwed.