Iowa law forbids teachers from telling students "slavery was wrong"

Not anymore!

https://archive.is/oTzz0

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I looked up the author though and thought this interview with him was interesting

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…and so it’s something we can just wait out, as opposed to fighting every step. Fuck that.

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Yeah… kind of my point… we can’t “wait it out” because this is not just a byproduct of old age… it’s an ideology that informs much of our modern society.

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Yes, and younger generations are becoming more tolerant and accepting of differences than older generations.

Not all boomers are bigots, not all millennials and gen-xers are paragons of tolerance. But the trend lately has been towards tolerance.

The likes of MTG and Boebert see the polls and see how fewer and fewer people are buying their brand of hate. Which is why they are passing intolerant laws, intimidating and disenfranchising voters , and gerrymandering the hell out of their districts. They know they can’t win any other way. They’ve even decided that democracy can be jettisoned to keep their hate in power.

A more just and tolerant society is not inevitable, but is more likely if we keep fighting for it, pushing back against the fascists, calling out their bullshit, and modeling a more attractive alternative to it.

We’re winning, and they know it, which is why we’re seeing such naked viciousness from the MAGA crowd. They see this as their last chance, and they are desperate enough to do “anything,” including fomenting an insurrection, and trying to hype themselves up for a civil war. Now is neither the time for complacency, nor the time for despair. It is the time to fight!

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The Office Yes GIF

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I guess because this is the internet, at first I read that as meme-meme instead of me-me-me-me.

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Which is why they are so insistent on making sure that there children are carefully taught and that none of them will be asked to engage in any self-reflection that might lead them to the conclusion that racism still exists.

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So does this new law require teaching that Iowans fought on the “wrong” side since Iowa was always anti slavery, and fought proudly for the Union? The traitors have finally taken over a former bastion of compassion and turned it into a hellhole of racist selfishness.

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To me, ‘one of the goods ones’ translates to “We will tolerate your existence only as long as it’s beneficial for us to do so - we will kill you last.”

Fuck that noise.

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Ah, yes, this is the ultimate reward that these Quislings can look forward to. I know I’ve said it before, but my brain just cannot wrap around the whole idea of supporting those who want me dead. Seems a bit self-defeating.

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They seem to believe in their own ‘exceptionalism’, to a detrimental degree.

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I’m honestly not so sure about that…

But I think that’s across the generations.

Well yes, because they’re full-on fascists, who do not believe in democracy, and that’s always gonna be a minority position in American politics… but they’re spinning it as a culture war, which appeals to many more people than ending democratic practices for some model of Orban’s “illiberal democracy”… they are playing into the post-NIxonian distrust of government to win over some segment of the population. They know they don’t have to win a majority just enough people willing to commit acts of violence for them.

Yeah, my point.

We have lost an awful ground lately. There are have real blows to our democratic systems, thanks in part to power hungry republicans seeking to keep control of the government, despite not having a real platform.

My problem with the “it’s the older generation that’s a problem narrative” is that it’s something of a “just-so” story, and as a historian, I’m not a fan of those, as they hide much more than they reveal. It’s just another version of teleology that the boomers embraced. But we should remember that the 60s youth revolt, which came with some serious progressive politics was also matched by the rise of movement conservatism. So, I think attributing anything to a generation (which is a made up, consumer category, more than anything else, anyway) is problematic…

On that we’re agreed!

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For extra points, spend a whole day just on the quotes and actions of Iowa abolitionists.

To really twist the knife, point out what Iowa Republicans did to fight slavery.

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I wonder if anyone has tried to get Republicans to abandon their slavery apologia by telling them that they’ve been spreading “19th Century Democrat propaganda.”

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We have a lot of work cut out for us, but this is a reminder that these are the violent death throes of White Supremacy we’re witnessing. Demographic changes keep marching on, that will make these assholes irrelevant. The race for more extreme, unjustifiable positions isn’t a sign of RWNJ’s strength, it’s a sign of their weakness.

We just have to survive it, and protect those they target.

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Yep.

See also: the Affordable Care Act, police brutality, Medicaid, loan forgiveness, etc, etc

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As someone who grew up in iowa, I’d also like to know. maybe I was just innocent as a kid in the 80s but this seems new. I mean the very popular political cartoonist on the cover of the Des Moines register throughout my childhood was very definitely left wing. our public schools used to be some of the best in America and Iowa took pride in that fact. All I can think is that maybe starting with Rush Limbaugh, then following through Gingrich, and down to Fox News pundits and Trump, Iowa republicans found out that lies, fear, and catering to racism etc got rural white Americans more excited than actually debating on real issues that effect the daily lives of their constituents.
I’ve lives in NYC and Los Angeles since 2000 and other than visiting family (some of whom have fallen fhard or the right wing BS) and generally feeling nostalgic for the past, there is very little for me in Iowa anymore. It sucks.

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