Actually quite a lot of ways. I was taught the American Exceptionalism propaganda package as a credulous kid as with the rest of my peers. But my teachers knew they were prepping my class to be replaceable, disposable laborers and soldiers in American industry in which hard work and loyalty are practically meaningless, and social safety nets from FDR’s New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society were being dismantled. My teachers were obligated by the Los Angeles School District and California Education Department to adhere to these myths as if they were truth. I was taught that the United States and California were run by public-serving governments, even though the two party system was known to be flawed since the late 19th century, and we were watching as the Reagan administration was providing access to lobbyists and soft money, shutting out the constituencies. Even then, the move towards autocracy that would inform the George W. Bush years and set up Trump and the white power movement was moving forward in the eighties, and this wasn’t being covered in intermediate or high-school American Government.
Then there’s the myth that rule of law exists in the US, that our courts are governed by Blackstone’s Ratio, that law enforcement is about serving the public.
It was all shit when I was in grade school, and my parents, teachers and ministers knew this and kept us in the dark about it, perpetuating the same lies that Pete Seeger observed in the 1960s.
Actually quite a lot of ways. I was taught the American Exceptionalism propaganda package as a credulous kid as with the rest of my peers. But my teachers knew they were prepping my class to be replaceable, disposable laborers and soldiers in American industry in which hard work and loyalty are practically meaningless, and social safety nets from FDR’s New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society were being dismantled. My teachers were obligated by the Los Angeles School District and California Education Department to adhere to these myths as if they were truth. I was taught that the United States and California were run by public-serving governments, even though the two party system was known to be flawed since the late 19th century, and we were watching as the Reagan administration was providing access to lobbyists and soft money, shutting out the constituencies. Even then, the move towards autocracy that would inform the George W. Bush years and set up Trump and the white power movement was moving forward in the eighties, and this wasn’t being covered in intermediate or high-school American Government.
Then there’s the myth that rule of law exists in the US, that our courts are governed by Blackstone’s Ratio, that law enforcement is about serving the public.
It was all shit when I was in grade school, and my parents, teachers and ministers knew this and kept us in the dark about it, perpetuating the same lies that Pete Seeger observed in the 1960s.