Let's make fun of Trump, bash him, etc. while we can!

[pbrower2a]

(12-31-2021, 06:03 AM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(12-31-2021, 01:54 AM)Classic-Xer Wrote:

(12-26-2021, 07:29 PM)pbrower2a Wrote:

(12-25-2021, 12:13 AM)Classic-Xer Wrote:

(12-15-2021, 09:51 PM)beechnut79 Wrote: Boldface item is classic example of history repeating itself. That very well describes those loyal to Hitler as well. Didn’t get them off at Nuremberg though.

At some point, you guys are going to have to pull your heads out of your asses and start thinking more like Americans instead of self serving Leftists and Democrats. If not, America is going to cut ties and withdraw it's support and leave you guys behind to rot/die.

Dude, we Leftists and Democrats are Americans. Remember well that many Americans do not look like you, do not hold the same religious beliefs, and have cultural traditions that you would find alien. Obviously I would not fit in well in any Koreatown, but it has traditions just as valid as yours or mine. 

What matters is the respect that people have for work, sobriety, enterprise, community, innovation, integrity, imagination, and formal learning. None of those is itself adequate for a good life. This has been so since America mitigated its racism. 

I look at the credits for Pixar animated films and I see lots of Korean names. 

Your side, should it cut its ties to my side, will miss much. My side has the creativity and talent. My side prefers education to superstition.

Your side has little to no creativity or talent which is why your side is so heavily reliant upon our side. The Leftists and Democrats aren't anymore American than the French, Russians or Chinese at this point. So lets see, your side is closing down schools as we speak mainly due to liberal related superstitions.

Our side is keeping schools as open as we can, while your side is already burning or banning books in Virginia due mainly to racist superstitions quite similar to those of Hitler.

We can keep schools open if students and staff alike keep wearing masks and easy checks (like temperature checks) are done reliably. We have easy and reliable tests for COVID-19. We can loosen the mandates for compulsory attendance. Substitute teachers can be used as "visiting teachers" for students sent home for COVID-19.

Because so many Americans are inoculated we are in far better shape than we were a year and a half ago. 

...If you are talking about banning books, then remember that all school textbooks themselves become obsolete because basic new facts are in, realities at the fore a decade or so earlier have become irrelevant, and at times historical "realities" as local dogma might become offensive. One of the states in question is Virginia, whose Confederate heritage was once important. It is not so much so now. The Confederate heritage is an insult to African-Americans (as if that mattered when Virginia was genuinely a Southern state and Virginia had a large population of descendants of slaves) and irrelevant to those Virginians who moved in from Northern states or immigrated from other countries. The citizenship tests, so far as I know, do not play up the Confederacy for its alleged virtues. 

You need recognize that the black-white divide is real, and so is racism at the least as a hindrance. Racism has abated somewhat -- enough that Virginia now has the highest rate of interracial marriage in the USA. (It has a large African-American middle class, and that "black bourgeoisie" proudly assimilates white people into its gene pool. The one-drop rule remains in effect for the racial definition). Racial differences used to lead to blacks being treated badly in every respect in life; those have abated, and that is a legitimate story. It's still inconvenient to be black, but probably not so much that being black causes as much personal detriment as does being an alcoholic or addict or even having any condition on the DMS-IV, including my condition (Asperger's syndrome) which is the least troublesome to self or others. In the unlikely case that a melanin infusion would cure me of Asperger's syndrome I would take it. 

But back to books. I remember my high-school French textbook from the early 1970's (yes, I am dating myself), and it depicted people listening to vinyl records marked "Piaf". (I am surprised that Edith Piaf, 1915-1963, still passes my spell-check!). I can assure you that a contemporary French textbook for high-school would not make references to someone who died nearly sixty years ago unless a defining political figure like Napoleon or Charles de Gaulle or a classical composer such as Bizet or Debussy. Language does not change that much, but the cultural context does. History does change. World War II remains the definitive apocalypse in history, and by now what Howe and Strass said back in 1989 in Generations (in essence, by 2030  history textbooks for K-12 students would rush through events between World War II and the Crisis of 2020 just as in the 1980's they rushed over the time between the American Civil War and the Great Depression and World War II) is beginning to look obvious. By 2030 Americans will largely underplay the Cold War and realign geography to recognize Prague as part of western Europe and Estonia as part of Scandinavia because Estonia has more connections to Finland than any other country.

There is little more useless than a thirty-year-old school textbook. Most get pulped even before then, and that is where much of your "recycled paper" comes from. But that ignores books that have lost their relevance (trashy best-sellers that nobody reads at libraries), outmoded law books (statutes outlawing homosexuality or mandating segregation are now void), and books that libraries got a dozen or so of at one time that they now need only one copy of (the Dallas public library system needed multiple copies of "Landry", the biography of the long-time head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, and one copy is typically enough now). In case you are comparing the destruction of books no longer 'politically correct' to the infamous book-burnings of Nazi Germany, then the Allied occupiers destroyed even more books from the Nazi era, such as Mein Kampf, books lauding Nazi bigwigs or full of Nazi propaganda such as this venom:


   

"Trust no Fox on the green Meadow and no Jew's Oath"

directed at impressionable children. It was the official depiction of Jews in the Third Reich, but somehow unacceptable afterward. Huge numbers of this book were destroyed.  

... At this point, classic X'er, I can see that you will need to adjust to the changing view of Donald Trump in history. I can imagine a new birth of conservative ideology in new personalities and new writings, but all in all  I can see them vilifying Donald Trump much as liberals now vilify former film-maker (and now jailbird) Harvey Weinstein. Donald Trump will be shown as an example by the new conservatives circa 2030 who make clear that they do not do things the Trump way, and that conservatism has virtues that Trump ignored in favor of lionizing his putrid self. Civics texts will soon be revised to show clearly how wrong the Capitol Putsch was.  

Remember well: people who believe more like me are more likely to assert what constitutes civic virtues. Selling out to foreign powers for gain and power will not be part of those virtues. Gambling on other people's money will not be one of them. Cheating creditors and subcontractors or workers will not be one of them. Adultery, rape, and pedophilia will not be among them. Fraudulent oaths will not be among them. Abuse of people in a bad state for no fault of their own will not be among them. Drunkenness and drug use will not be among them. Religious, regional, sexual, ethnic, and racial bigotry will not be among them. 

The basis of all conservatism remains tradition. Here's the catch on tradition in America: we have multiple traditions in America and they don't readily amalgamate. They often have much in common, enough that people with very different traditions (let us say Mexican-Americans and Korean-Americans) need not go after each others' throats. The different traditions can coexist peacefully because those traditions derive heavily from the reality of human nature, and that is what matters.