Converting the lefties

[STer]

 

 

Well if you just happened to be very gifted and learned the basics on your own, that doesn't mean it wasn't being taught in school. It just means you didn't personally need to take advantage of that. Others did. But it also means you could have benefited from some of the advanced or gifted programs some schools offer.

I guess there is some diversity among public schools. Yours sounds very extreme compared to mine. I'm not saying I got an accurate view of history at that level of education. But we certainly learned about some of the dark side of things. It wasn't nearly as over the top as yours sounds like.

 

I'm not trying to imply that I couldn't or didn't take anything positive away from public school. I went there for 12 years. It would be absurd to think you don't get something positive out of it. My point is not that I didn't get anything out of it, but rather that it does far more harm than good. I also believe that the basics are a lot easier to learn than people tend to think they are. So the only good that public education does can be done better elsewhere. The rest of public education is entirely indoctrination, by design.

To me, real education is what you take away for life. A passion for learning. All of things that stuck with me are things like my passion for philosophy, which had nothing to do with schooling, because I never even had the option to take a philosophy class. Basic skills like reading and writing that could have come from somewhere else are hardly worth all the statist brainwashing.

It's curious to me that your public schooling didn't have that kind of thing in common with mine. You are the first person I've come across that doesn't have stories about saluting flags, pledging allegiance and being taught whitewashed versions of history. Where/when did you go to public school?

 

Of course we did pledge of allegiance and the history wasn't full of the total dark side of things. But I'm just saying it sounds like it wasn't as extreme as yours. It's not like we never heard any of the bad stuff. I mean didn't you even learn about Watergate in school?

I went to public schools in suburban USA. They were some of the nicer ones though so maybe that's why.

[STer]

 

 

Another thing. Libertarian suck at humour. We should be able to ridicule poeple like Bill Mayer and look smart at the same time.

 

Yeah, the problem with comedy is that it in general has to be written for the lowest common denominator. The moment my views on politics/philosophy changed I no longer had as positive an outlook on my potential comedy career. When things like public school and statist brainwashing are commonplace, it makes it very difficult to get ideas through to people in wity snippets that only take a couple of seconds. It's FAR easier to write comedy that doesn't have to be explained before they'll get the punchline. This is why liberal comedy is everywhere. It's very easy to get it through to people.

To be fair, there are libertarian comedians that are pretty damn good. Bill Hicks, Doug Stanhope, Joe Rogan, to name a few. The problem is that being Libertarian makes you far less marketable in Hollywood, so they will always be less well known.

 

One of Bill Hicks' most famous bits is about how we should stop wasting resources and take care of everyone so nobody on earth goes hungry and we can all enjoy the world together. Does that sound Libertarian? He was definitely libertarian about personal things like drugs. But I think Hicks had a very utopian dream of mankind helping each other out and living in cooperation.

[Moriartis]

Sorry, I should've been more specific about Bill Hicks. I'm not tying to imply he was a hard core libertarian, but there is definitely a lot of libertarian philosophy in his comedy. To be fair, though, saying we should all help each other isn't anti-Libertarian at all. Libertarianism isn't anti charity, it's just anti forced charity. I don't recall him advocating for forced charity, but I'm far from an expert on his works so maybe he did.

And yes, my history classes did not include Watergate. I was dead serious when I said that the most recent thing they covered in any depth was The Civil War. They briefly touched on MLK and WW2, but only watered down versions of those two topics. The history I was taught was almost entirely focused on the founding of the country.

[STer]

 

Sorry, I should've been more specific about Bill Hicks. I'm not tying to imply he was a hard core libertarian, but there is definitely a lot of libertarian philosophy in his comedy. To be fair, though, saying we should all help each other isn't anti-Libertarian at all. Libertarianism isn't anti charity, it's just anti forced charity. I don't recall him advocating for forced charity, but I'm far from an expert on his works so maybe he did.

And yes, my history classes did not include Watergate. I was dead serious when I said that the most recent thing they covered in any depth was The Civil War. They briefly touched on MLK and WW2, but only watered down versions of those two topics. The history I was taught was almost entirely focused on the founding of the country.

 

Are you talking about even in high school? If you never learned any history beyond the civil war even through high school then I think you went to some very strange schools.

[Moriartis]

Yes, I'm talking even about high school. Once I hit high school the only history I learned in school  was the founding of the country and the Civil War. That was it. This was in Colorado suburbs. I graduated in 2000. To be fair, most of the people I've talked to have had similar experiences with their history classes.

[STer]

 

Yes, I'm talking even about high school. Once I hit high school the only history I learned in school  was the founding of the country and the Civil War. That was it. This was in Colorado suburbs. I graduated in 2000. To be fair, most of the people I've talked to have had similar experiences with their history classes.

 

Maybe your school had history classes split into different periods of history and you only took early US history and not the later class? That would make more sense. I can't imagine a high school that doesn't have any class whatsoever offered to learn about WW1, WW2, etc.

[Guest darkskyabove]

Ya' ain't right, and ya' ain't left, yet, either.

After "quiet reflection and great dedication" (Pink Floyd, "Sheep", Animals, 1977; got to recognize IP.) I have decided to stop fighting City Hall and join the winning team.

Socialism is the way to go.

What started me thinking about this was when I had some cake, but I wanted to eat it, too. After weighing all sides of the political implications, I realized that only the Liberals were telling me I could do both. Damn Conservatives keep telling me to save my cake for later, and the Libertarians keep trying to explain how I can just bake some more cake. Well, screw them.

Then I came across the greatest saying ever: "From each, according to his ability, to each, according to his need." I swear bells started ringing when I read this. I sure don't have much ability, but I damn sure have a whole bunch of needs. This is just too good to be true. But it is true, because I believe in it.

So, after using up a whole box of pencils making out my list of needs (Supercomputer, Ferrari, personal Space Shuttle, etc.), I went down to the local Government Office to get my "entitlements".

It only took 10 hours, and they gave me a pen to fill out the 900 forms. What did I care, I ain't got no job anyway. Might as well spend my time getting free stuff.

I can't wait 'till they deliver my Space Shuttle.

[Moriartis]

Nope, my high school had a whole 2 history teachers that only taught that one class, all day. You seem to be having a really hard time believing me.

[STer]

 

Nope, my high school had a whole 2 history teachers that only taught that one class, all day. You seem to be having a really hard time believing me.

 

I believe you. I just think your school sounds very very atypical. Not at all representative of most schools in the US. But perhaps I'm wrong.