As such blaming Amerikkkan fascist brainworms on “poor education” is really just apologia for Amerikkkan complicity in oppressive systems that benefit them.
The state of K-12 education in the US is dire. Even well-funded schools in bougie white suburbs fail students in profound ways, and the statistics back this up. The only thing that keeps the US educational system relevant is the fact that Western employers overvalue degrees from US universities when hiring.
Political education and counter-propaganda are typically not taught in schools regardless of country, save for a few (typically AES) states. It doesn’t make sense to suggest that if Americans simply were better educated on politics, they would have better opinions. It’s the exact same assumption we mock liberals for making about chuds, and that’s why it falls flat.
I got bad news. From several people in my country that had a Master’s or other degrees in the US or Europe, the consensus is that western education is pretty fucking bad.
You get a better education here in the third world than in the imperial core. So no, I don’t think that is the case any more.
There might be exceptions for cutting-edge sectors, but in general, I disagree.
This smells a bit of chauvinism btw.
Hard agree.
US education is usually poorly funded and supplemented by local levies so that poor areas get worse resources and the teachers that can make poor pay work while rich areas have fancy schools and can hire anyone. The poor areas generally need more resources, not fewer, to reach parity, because there is more need for things like free food (US schools usually hold back food from poor kids), transportation, and after school programs.
On top of this, the US is socially bankrupt. Community is regularly disrupted and so even is the capitalist nuclear family. Kids are raised in abusive conditions and have high stress households with reactionary parents that often do not care for their kids when they step outsids their preferred views. Students are often tired, hungry, and stressed. So even when they have “access” and “opportunity” on paper, they can’t make use of it, logistically or emotionally. They’re told to have drive while also lacking the energy and support to make themselves a sandwich.
So most US citizens can’t read at a “high school level”.
I wrote up a whole essay saying I agree with you BUT…
Then I hit discard because it was a jumbled mess 😅.
I will say that I know there is no classes except the working class, but there are significant differences between Americans living in poverty compared to the (dwindling) middle class and upper class.
If you don’t have to work throughout high school, have private SAT tutoring starting your freshman year, and still have free time to doom scroll on social media, it kinda feels inexcusable to be so ignorant about the world around you.
I went to school in a pretty diverse area (economically speaking), there were kids who should have known better. You have access to the world’s information at your fingertips and you still hold corrupted views about your own neighbors and loved ones based on their gender, race, or socioeconomic status.
I’m gonna say a hot take but I think americans should be treated the same way as ‘israelis’. No need for coddling or excuses anymore, time and time again we have shown what america’s culture is about. I’ve broken bread with literal war criminals who gloated about what they’ve done at the dinner table.
Our society is inexcusable, and should be treated as such.
EDIT: ALSO ON THIS, “PROGRESSIVE” CALIFORNIA LITERALLY VOTED TO KEEP SLAVERY LIKE THIS YEAR, THIS COUNTRY IS DISGUSTING!
Americans, certainly white Americans, are what Israelis would be if permitted all of their genocidal aims and then told myths for several more generations. Kids are the product of their social circumstances, it is the societies constructed around them that are at fault. But those kids grow up and then become the enforcers of that society or fight against it - and settlers tend to reinforce it.
“Should know better” is basically a question of agency and we always have to think about how we balance thinking of people as products of circumstance vs. moral agents, as the former can lead to sympathy for the oppressor that is counterrevolutionary. But we also do need to understand that it is not just people choosing to be demons, they are deeply propagandized and conditioned to accept and normalize a settler-specific as well as capitalist hosts of violences.
Being disgusted by ubiquitous war criminals is reasonable and on a personal level a righteous position. But if we live in a state with many, we have to formulate our (cynical) approach towards them and construct a political program that accounts for this. Not tailist, but not overlooking the situation nor becoming complacent by writing off every person, which can also happen if you start thinking about how many degrees removed any American is from the imperial war machine. We have to build something oppositional and practical, even if it means small orgs doing outsized direct action or building on and towards generational change, to make joining the war machine shameful and recruit the like-minded. If we hate current society we have to build towards what it could be and have sympathy for who people could have been without this society.
So I agree as well but just wanted to add an addendum that is sometimes missing.
another post lost to the mods’ share
I literally spent two days learning about evolution during the entirety of high school and the teacher made hostile igmorant comments about it the whole time
And that was supposed to be a “well funded” white school
If I wasn’t consciously self-taught I literally wouldn’t know shit
My school had the physics teacher come in to teach evolution because all of the bio teachers were creationists
Americans pay more than almost anyone else to get an education and they are still mostly barely literate by the end of it
This take
Libs’, “you have ‘’‘access’‘’ to healthcare” takeThe US might have a good basic education as far as science goes for example (which is still way behind Europe and China I believe), but no amount of Physics or Maths will counteract the insane amount of propaganda on history, politics and ideology.
That’s why you literally have to rewire your brain if and when you realize that all you’ve been told from childhood to adulthood is lies.
Though the people arguing that the solution to world problems is just better education are completely lost in idealism, the capitalist class would never teach you the way you are being exploited, just like the kings would never tell you the real reason why you’re a serf and the slave owners would never tell you that you can rebel against them.
the capitalist class would never teach you the way you are being exploited, just like the kings would never tell you the real reason why you’re a serf and the slave owners would never tell you that you can rebel against them.
I have always been met with silence when I point this out to libs. Same with, why would a ruling class let the people they rule over vote on anything meaningful?
Libs have no answers for it.
Disagree, I don’t think any other “developed” country has a worse education system, and quite a few “developing / undeveloped” nations have better education outcomes
Uh, Europe is cringe but I swear when I look at bugerland media about education I’m really glad I was born here and not there.
However I totally agree with the second part of your statement. Even if Europeans are better educated we’re still full of fascist brainworms and deep rooted colonial ideology, so one can’t blame the lack of education for that.
That’s a stupid ass take. the capitalists states education systems sole goal is to produce ideologically aligned workers. Like sure, they can go to a lot of school, but you don’t become a communist by reading whatever the state wants you to read.
It’s not lack of education, it’s an abundance of miseducation. The brain worms are planted in the USAmerican skull at a very young age and are fed their entire lives, by the time they reach adulthood they’re more worm than brain really.
(open in new tab)Objectively, no, it isn’t. It’s up there simply for it’s ivy-league universities and the rich schools that exist within it. Majority of the country cannot read past an eighth grade reading level and the literacy rates are abysmal in some of the deep-south.
Schools are assigned funding based on the taxes given to them in the county/area they exist in. Poorer counties tend to have horribly funded schools, with state-owned charter schools not even doing that much better. All schools deserve to have a unified curriculum under a state institution with incredible funding and manpower. China has learned well from this, all though the lib-brainworms leak out when they just mention “Hong-Kong” in the pewresearch link.
Idk, they were “teaching” our kids reading with 3 cueing for decades
I definitely agree that Americans are complicit in their own fascism but that’s true whether or not they have access to education.
I think more importantly than that Americans have access to some of the best amenities in the world. You can go to the hospital. You or your kids can go to school. You can own a car. You can drive on half decent roads. You’ll probably work less than sixty hours a week. Sure Europe has all these things and better, and the situation in the US is worsening, but at the end of the day Americans can still go to the hospital and buy a Funko after and that means we’re in the top 50%. Most people think things are more or less fine because as long as you ignore the crumbling foundation things are fine
I need to know what percentage of kids in the US would say “shit’s borning; who cares” when shown a Bill Nye The Science Guy episode to have an educated opinion on this.
