Teaching Our Kids … WHAT??????

Posted on by under education, History, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

I have written more than once about my disgust at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and others whitewashing the teaching of history.  I think it is criminal to hide from our young people the past that had such a significant effect on who and what we are today.  Failure to teach the true history and the lessons learned from our past mistakes can only lead to making the same mistakes again at some point in the future.  But last night I read something that made my jaw drop even more, and I think you will agree that this is even more damning than the whitewashing of history – the teaching of false history!

At Mount Eden High School in the San Francisco bay area, English teacher Henry Bens has basically been teaching a class in anti-Semitism.  Worse yet, students have been complaining to school officials for two months and nothing has been done until this week!  Even now, Mr. Bens is on leave for two weeks while school officials ‘investigate’ the allegations against him.

Students in his class said that Mr. Bens frequently uses the Nazi salute while chanting “Heil Hitler” in class, but that is only the beginning.  Part of the curriculum for the tenth grade English class is Elie Wiesel’s holocaust memoir Night.  Mr. Bens apparently felt that somehow the Holocaust had two sides, and thus he also handed out a pamphlet, The Hidden Tyranny, which details wild conspiracy theories about Jewish world domination.  Teresa Drenick of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) calls it one of the “most virulently antisemitic texts in existence.”  The pamphlet falsely claims that Jewish people secretly control a “brainwashing” media monopoly as well as the economy and U.S. government.  Sound familiar?  Rather like a certain former guy saying, after a neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 that “there are good people on both sides.”

Bens has told his students that “Hitler was not a bad person” and that they (the students) have been indoctrinated to believe only one side of the story of the Holocaust.  He told them that everything they knew was a lie and that he would “remove the blindfold.”  A senior student at Mount Eden said that “The administration was made aware on Dec. 13th, and they have not yet intervened by stepping into the classroom to help students.”

One student recorded Bens in the classroom, and Bens can be heard telling the class, “If I was alive during Hitler’s time, I would have an interview with him. I would let him share his views.”

Numerous students have complained on more than one occasion, but for whatever reason, the school administration has done nothing until this week.  But not all students are complaining, and notably some are buying into his hate-filled rhetoric.  Some even told school staff that they believe the information and agree with what Bens said.

Annie Mladinich, chair of the school’s history department, said she and her colleagues are very concerned about this and they plan to create a lesson plan on antisemitism, to present to all classes on a chosen day in the coming weeks.

“As a department, we’re very upset. There’s no two sides to the Holocaust or to Hitler.”

Another student, currently a senior, said he’d seen the same kind of behavior two years ago when he took the same class.

“I ignored what he said then. I’m not going to ignore it [when he’s] saying the same anti-Jewish hateful conspiracies I heard from him then.”

Mr. Bens is also, believe it or not, the pastor of a local church.  He frequently posts anti-semitic posts on Facebook, but when I sought them last night, they had either been removed or made ‘private’, but in one news story I read that he praised Kanye West’s support of Hitler and also taken potshots at the LGBTQ community.

I will be keeping an eye on the continuing developments of this story.  I find it unconscionable that school officials did nothing for two months but at the very least I expect him to lose his job and his teaching certificate!  I’ll keep you posted.  Oh, and you might be surprised to see Mr. Bens …

109 thoughts on “Teaching Our Kids … WHAT??????”

  2. He’s probably one of many, especially in the religious fanatical world we now find ourselves…not so slowly rolling towards the cliff of ignorance, apathy and hate…

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      • Me too…sometimes I wish I was young and had skills to get me a job overseas and a second language wouldn’t hurt either…then I’d be outta here.

        Liked by 1 person

        • Eh, if we were young, we’d probably be trying our darndest to change the way things are headed in this country, to make a difference. It’s only in our dotage that we realize we can’t change what is happening and seek to escape, but by then there are too many ties that bind us.

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  3. Jill, I am sick and tired of you and other liberals continuing to perpetuate this falsehood that he said there were good people on both sides. this is a direct quote from the president at that time and you can look it up if you really want to know the truth.
    “we condemn in the strongest possible terms this agregious display of hatred, biggotry and violence. It has no place in America.”
    As a blogger who influences thousands of people with your writing, are you not obligated to tell the truth, no matter how inconvenient that truth may be to what you yourself want to believe about someone with whom you do not agree or even like?
    Maybe your blog is just for entertainment purposes like tucker carlson’s show?

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    • Scott, I am independent here, not a liberal. The Trump quote you cite was bookended by two very poor quotes. The one you cite was after his people managed him after he did not handle his initial comments well. Then, come Monday, he doubled down on his first remarks. This is not unusual for Trump where he will often go back to an earlier claim as he does not like the massaged version. The takeaway I have is his more visceral and normative reactions that provide bookends. You should also know his Jewish National Economic Advisor decided to resign (after he got the Tax Bill through) after Trump’s reactions. My source is Bob Woodward’s book “Fear” based on 750 hours of interviews. Keith

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  6. I read all the comments and love them, I think it would take a whole team of doctors to find a cure, if indeed there is cure for hatred and stupidity. It looks like the professor has learned much about spreading the hate of anyone unlike himself, but is he aware that Hitler boycotted the Olympics the year a black person won the gold for track? I had his name on the tip of my tongue but it has left what’s left of my feeble brain. Sorry, but a long day of unpacking and finding a place to put things. Failing miserably on part of that, but I’m sure I can make it all go away visually soon by making curtains to put around the worst offenders. Jesse Owen I think! Maybe the brain freeze has lifted. The Olympics were held in Germany in 1937? 1939? I’ll have to look that up again. But is this idiot going to argue that Hitler refused to hand Mr. Owen his Gold Medal? Thats part of Olympic history, so is that false as well?

    I was very young during the Hitler reign but three of my uncles fought that war and saw first hand what that person did to so many people. Six million is a very real number and to think of the agony they suffered under the reign of terror back then is horrible. But even worse is to know so many idiots are buying in to the propaganda being spread by the blooming idiots of today is so unreal to me. You can’t make history go away by saying it didn’t happen. Will these sick idiots ever wise up?

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  7. I normally don’t read comments. Seems to me they’re part of another conversation.
    Yet, I “browsed” and read “anonymous” aka Keith… Two sides? Seriously? There is only one side. Truth. Historical facts… (Shaking my head in disgust…)

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    • Keith is a good guy, but I’m with you on this one. Most things have two sides, but things like genocide simply don’t. Hitler was cruel, bigoted, and evil, and the 6 million + people he murdered were innocent of any wrongdoing.

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      • It seems like there shouldn’t be two sides to things like genocide but there are. History should have had it’s judgement of that Hitler down pat but we all know that it has not and that the “true” narrative is still under assault. So we have to still keep the conversation active as obviously there will be a constant stream of tabula rasa adolescents to convince either way.
        The devil finally won the day when humanity was convinced that the lie was the truth.

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      • Glad he’s a good guy… 😉 (I may have seen some of his posts before, and I seem to have seen what looks like a reply in my mail. I’ll look it up)
        Having said that, 6 million is six million. (Even though some, or many dispute the fact…)
        Cheers.

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    • Another Sadly! I would wager that you and I agree on 80% of beliefs at least, yet here we are 180 apart. Ms. Jill’s article is a well thought-out, articulate rendering of her feelings on an issue, magnificent. The comments are the reactionary feelings and thoughts of others. Please notice the order of thoughts and feelings to possibly glean a better understanding of what the combination of statement and critic can offer. Is your contribution not valuable? I would argue that it is. Ms. Jill’s creation has sprung to life in the AI of humanity!

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        • I guess some of us are just curious, especially when confronted by a closed door. May this day be the best of your life.
          “Not-knowing is true knowledge. Presuming to know is a disease. First realize that you are sick; then you can move toward health.”

          — Lao Tzu

          Liked by 3 people

          • Agreed. “Lao Tseu” (I keep getting confused wiht the different spellings) is a good source. Reminds me of Socrates’ “All I know is that I don’t know anything”, or something like that… Humility is good…
            Cheers. 🍻

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    • It seems that instead of getting rid of it, we are picking up more and more of it. People like this teacher, school administrators willing to turn a blind eye, Ron DeSantis banning the teaching of anything related to race … we are traveling backward in time in this country. Sigh.

      Not until March … I’m sorry, I haven’t kept you posted … been battling a respiratory infection for 3 long weeks now that has knocked me down a bit. I will let you know, though. I’m just about to give up on it … sigh.

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      • Hopefully the spinning of the wheel will take us forward again.
        No worry about keeping me posted. respiratory infection can knock one down. I hope you get better soon. And march is just around the corner…
        Stay well…

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  9. As a Floridian I’m appalled by this Hitler wannabe Ron DeSantis spreading hate and racism. Of course if 70 percent of the people in Florida were not white supremest racist bigots misogynistic MAGA extremist this would not be happening. He is writing a book on Freedom as he holds this state under his thumb and aspires to be Dictator of the US , the one who didn’t fail like twice impeached disgraced Trump.

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        • Impeach them all??? How can so many people be so blind about what is going on in front of their eyes? In saying that I admit I am a Democrat, think Trump was bad but this guy makes the turnip look close to okay. I also have a brother and a sister who bought all of Trump(the turnip)’s horse c**p! I always thought they were intelligent but have been wondering about them since 2016. Jill and I are looking for a used space ship we can take to colonize Venus. Want to go with us? Or maybe send DeSantis, Trump, and all of their followers(plus idiot high school fanatical teachers) to Mars instead. That would be a better idea as far as I’m concerned. I have a problem with motion sickness!

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          • There are a lot of folks who would like to leave the US right now. I fear for this country that I love. We seem helpless to stop the takeover. Biden needs to bump it up or get out at the end of this term. His placement of Merrick Garland as DOJ has been a disaster and he doesn’t say boo about it.

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            • I hope Biden doesn’t seriously try to run again and keep someone else from possibly running and winning. He would just be throwing the election to the Republicans and that will be the end of this country!

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              • There is nobody else in the Democratic Party with both the respectability and name recognition to win in 2024. If not Biden, then it will be either DeSantis or Trump, thereby ushering in an authoritarian ‘president’ and waving ‘goodbye’ to democracy. Time for the Democrats to start promoting some of their brighter lights, but right now, I think Biden is the only hope the Democrats have for winning in 2024.

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                  • That is anybody’s guess, but he is doing a good job, keeping his nose to the grindstone and getting things done despite the opposition. Kamala Harris is more than qualified, should anything happen to Joe. I think … we cannot risk letting Trump or DeSantis enter the Oval Office, my friend.

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        • Yep…I live here too and all around me are Magots and DeathSantis lovers…old angry white men and their brain addled wives…and the rednecks….with their trump flags, Nazi flags and confederate flags..
          Luckily I have great like minded friends…there are a few of us…

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    • I fully agree with you. DeSantis seems intent on taking this nation back at least 50, perhaps 80 years and it amazes me that the people of Florida voted for him by such a large margin last year! I have a number of blogging friends who live in Florida and not a single one of them can stand DeSantis, so … where did all his loyal followers come from? I heard he was writing a book, and even planning a book tour … I won’t be reading it! I believe his long-term goal is to do to this nation what he has done to Florida and … we simply cannot allow it to happen!

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      • But what can a non-citizen of Florida do? Legally we can’t vote there, although the way things are looking we probably could if we were Republicans. Maybe that’s how he got in? Put him on that space ship to Mars? That’s one book I DEFINITELY will never buy! Will never accept it as a gift, a freebee from Amazon, or something to use to start a fire even!

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        • We can do nothing about Florida laws, BUT … we can make damn sure DeSantis does NOT get the chance to carry his bigoted, autocratic policies to the nation by voting against him in 2024 if he becomes the Republican nominee, as I fully expect he will. Yep, I’d send him and about 300 others to Mars in a heartbeat. It wouldn’t be fair to the Martians, but hey … we gotta do what’s best for planet Earth, right?

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      • That is his plan exactly and he’s not through with Florida. The extreme Republican Party in Florida stated they will not stop until not one democrat holds office in Florida. If it means manipulating voting rights by gerrymandering or other illegal means they will do it. Then it’s on to conquer democracy in America.
        Sadly we’ve many Latinos who are confused about democracy and socialism and fearful of what they have fled under the name of socialism.retired folks also would love to go back to the past not accepting that the Republican congress and the likes of (R) Rick Scott (R) Marco Rubio ( #1 recipient of NRA contributions) of Florida want to eliminate SS and Medicare as it presently exists under the guise of decreasing the deficit, still unwilling to tax wealthy corporations for fear of losing campaign contributions.

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        • I wish there was a button for “dislike” beside the one for like. SS has been a target for polittions for years. It was stripped down to almost nothing 50 years ago when the house and senate voted themselves a secret raise in an after midnight meeting. The only place they could find the money was the SS fund. So they stole our money to give themselves a large raise and depleting most of the money we had paid into the system for our retirement.

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        • It’s telling that Florida is the most vulnerable state in the nation to climate change, and yet DeSantis is more concerned about the teaching of Black History in schools, about promoting racism, about promoting his slogan that “Florida is where ‘woke’ goes to die’. Also interesting that Florida’s economy is heavily reliant on the tourist industry, yet he is making it a very UNwelcoming place for the majority of us. Frankly, I would not set foot in Florida today! If he ever becomes president, I will leave this country once and for all within 30 days, one way or another. I’m amazed by the number of people who do not see the threat behind his rhetoric. He looks dumb, but there is a conniving mind behind those seemingly sleepy eyes.

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          • He’s a reckless self assured moron. His attack on Disney World because they refused to go along with his hateful plans and rhetoric is an example of his assurance that the MAGA population had taken over Florida. I hope he lives to regret his outrageous behavior.

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            • I won’t be surprised if Disney pulls out of Florida before much longer, and the people of the state will suffer the loss. Will they realize that they should point the finger of blame at DeSantis? Like you, I will welcome the day that he pays the price for her perfidy!

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              • It would be a major nearly impossible task to “move” DW. The people love it so much I can’t see anything keeping them away and DeS is counting on that. I would love to see his bluff called. It would shatter Florida’s tourist industry and open the eyes of corporations and his minions.

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                • I suppose you’re right, but by now I should think Disney is beginning to feel like “persona non grata” by DeSantis, and I’m betting they’ve at least considered moving elsewhere. Not Georgia, since there is a Six Flags there, but perhaps North or South Carolina? But, as long as the people keep paying to visit, I suppose they’ll stay and pay lip service to DeSantis. Does the point ever come that DeSantis oversteps and the people open their eyes and say, “WHOA … hold on there!!!” It never happened with Trump … even today, he is revered, despite his many and obvious failings. Sigh.

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        • I’ve long heard it said that when people from the northern states retire, they migrate to Florida. Still … I would expect those people to have better sense than to vote for an authoritarian like DeSantis. And, I’ve recently read that a large portion of the population of Florida is Hispanic, and it would surprise me greatly if they cheered his bigoted policies. I’m really not sure who is supporting him or why!

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            • That surprises me, too! Sigh. I hope he falls before November 2024, but I also don’t want Trump … or Haley … or Pompeo … or Pence. Sigh. Can’t the GOP find at least one humanitarian in their party?

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  10. Interview Hitler to get his views on things? I wasn’t alive in those days (born in 1960) but EVEN I know that you didn’t have to sit down with Hitler & interview him to get his view on ANYTHING … he broadcast it on the radio to the ENTIRE WORLD in a VERY LOUD VOICE. & honestly, even if you didn’t understand a word of German, you could get the basic idea. WTF

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    • I wasn’t alive then either (born 1951) but I had an aunt and an uncle who lived through the Holocaust, and a father who fought in WWII, so I grew up hearing the horrors of Hitler and the Holocaust. I find it unconscionable that anybody today could excuse the brutal slaying of more than 6 million people simply because of their ethnicity and religion!

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      • My father worked in the defense industry & I remember when we lived in the Greater Boston area, one of his co-workers was a former German soldier who married a Jewish woman who had been in one of the camps … she had the numbers tattooed on her arm. I remember seeing them. I remember the discussion we had about this … my father explaining that his friend had been a young kid who hadn’t had a choice & had been indoctrinated into the whole Nazi thought-train … the two of them met right after the war ended & fell in love & came to America, because it was still not cool for Jews & Germans to be together.

        I was 10 when this happened & this triggered my lifelong fascinated with the Holocaust. I first read the Diary of Anne Frank (which is why I started my own diary) & then read every book I could … I read The Rise & Fall of the Third Reich when I was only 13. I took a class about Nazi Germany when I was freshman in college (1978), taught by a professor who had been a professor at the University of Vienna until he was kicked out for being Jewish & he got out just in time. I used to have a GIANT collection of books about the Holocaust & Nazi Germany but they were lost in one of my moves … I’ve been slowly rebuilding this collection.

        BTW, the family doctor when I was a little girl, Dr. Stern was also one who “got out” just in time … he was the sweetest, gentlest man in the world. His wife was the nurse in the office.

        WWII & the Holocaust was REAL when I was a kid & it’s remained real to me but to the generation younger than me (& you), it’s ancient history & “debatable”. Which, to use the word of a former politician, is deplorable.

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        • How are children supposed to know this? It is our responsibility to pass this on as those who lived it pass into history as well. The burden must be borne!

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          • Agreed 100%. BUT … when you lived through it, it is VERY meaningful. When you hear it directly from those who lived through it, it is still pretty darned meaningful. When you hear it from the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th generation past those who lived it … somehow it loses the … vibrancy, the feeling, and becomes just another story. I think this is why we are doomed to keep repeating our mistakes over and over.

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            • I saw that an AI was tasked with learning to play Atari Breakout. It took it 100 games to learn to use the paddle, another hundred to get good and 500 to learn the breakout. It might not be our doom but our purpose. I believe that we are standing t the end of war. Learning is HARD!

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        • My aunt and uncle also had the numbers tattooed on their arms and had stories to tell. Even though I was young, I remembered those stories, grew up with them, and thought that surely the world had learned from this. Sadly, today we can see the truth … that we do NOT learn from the lessons of history, that as those lessons dim and fade, we just go right back and make the same mistakes over and over ad infinitum. Sigh. I have lost hope for the human species … if they are so intent on their own self-destruction, then the other 8.7 million or so species will be better off without us anyway.

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          • I have real issues when people say “we” like there’s a monolithic consciousness for the entire group of humanity. Some people learned & some people didn’t. Some people will never learn, they don’t want to. Some people never had to learn. But there’s no “we”. There never was a “we”. There never will be a “we”.

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              • I couldn’t live like that. I stopped watching the news when trump was elected & I barely watch it now … just to catch the weather & that’s about it. I read newspapers, because I can control when & how I get the information. I’m not getting all upset anymore. I want to enjoy the few years I have left.

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                • I don’t watch the news, either, but I do subscribe to a number of news services online and spend hours a day perusing them. Everyone is different. I couldn’t enjoy anything if I knew that things were happening that I wasn’t even aware of. It’s just how I am.

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  11. Jill, yes the Holocaust had two sides, but the 6 million executed Jews cannot tell the real story because they are dead. And, many Germans did not know Jews were being gassed to death or shot to death as they disappeared in front of their eyes. They did not know as they were gaslighted to believe the Jews were evil and subhuman and it was OK if they were taken away. Yet, they were not told their leaders were murderers. There are the two sides. Keith

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    • I suspect that most Germans did know, but chose to turn a blind eye, believing that they were safer in doing so. I still cannot say that there are two legitimate sides to the Holocaust, for to do so would be to say that Hitler actually had just cause, and … no, he did not. He was a cruel, evil racist.

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    • For once Keith I have to take a differing opinion.
      If the German Public were not alerted by the Nazi outpourings on their rise to power, then the Kirstallnacht of the 9th November 1938 in which systematic attacks on Jewish properties took place should have opened their eyes.
      Maybe it did. But as is the case with so many societies when faced with brutal regimes folk turned away and said nothing, lest they or their loved one were ‘next’…like Herr Schulz ‘down the road’ who had been writing letters of protest to many newspapers and seen arguing with local Nazi officials.
      The old adage written in many ways ‘For evil to prosper it only requires good men to do nothing’ held true then, albeit in a stark form.
      Sadly for the German public, because of the violent intransigent approach of the regime to other nations, violence was to be visited upon it in Old Testament proportions.
      True many folk who did not care to look, were forced (by some American commanders to visit at the camps- At least one mayor and his wife hung themselves as a response)

      Hence, we should always be alert to the forces of evil, intolerance and ignorance, lest they drag us down in their demise.
      Roger

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      • Agreed. Keith and I don’t necessarily see eye-to-eye on this, either, but I know his heart is in the right place. The German public, in my view, chose to turn a blind eye, for it was the easier path. Is the same thing starting to happen here? Take a look at the Scott Adams/Dilbert situation. Of this one I wrote about, the teacher teaching the Nazi view. Or many other little details that we see and shrug off on a daily basis. Sigh.

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        • Keith is ever the voice of reason and calm assessment- you get the BS comment from Keith you know you are trouble!
          That was just me sounding off….reading history has a certain danger, you can form hard opinions and get a bit judgemental on some topics.
          Anyway
          Y’know, I never did care much for Dilbert; something about the occasional throw away lines used to unsettle me. I can’t say why; must have been a vibe.
          There is some hope that some commercial outfits react to to toxic statements.
          Now Adams is saying his income will dry up….Somehow I think he will get an instant cult following amongst ‘certain groups’ who will buy his books and merchandise as a matter of principal, he might even start getting donations as a ‘victim’.
          Good luck with that sort of fan-base.

          Still the general reaction does indicate a lot of folk do care. Hope Jill. Ever nurture Hope.

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          • Yes, Keith is always the gold standard to which I aspire, but … I can still disagree with him on the details sometimes. 😉

            If Scott Adams income dries up, fine … the wound was self-inflicted. We don’t need any more arrogant white supremacists in this country, and I’m damned sure not gonna pay to read the words of one. I haven’t read Dilbert for years … I used to find it mildly humorous, but it must have lost its appeal, for I took it off my list years ago. Clay Jones, who is the creator of Claytoonz political cartoons, has just been banned from Facebook for posting a cartoon showing Scott Adams as a white supremacist. Says something about the management of Facebook, doesn’t it?

            I try, Roger, but frankly I’m rapidly losing hope in the human species. The idiots seem to outnumber us these days.

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            • Facebook flounders in chaotic directionless state parallel to a student house party drunk and blitzed on smuggled in drugs; which it hosted, invited everyone to and expected them to be sensible and convivial.

              That’ll be The Noise and The Rampant Jill; they are not the majority, just seem so. Flash back to the mirror image times of the 1960s – We thought the Hippies were the shape of things to come. Faded and the echoes morphed. This crew have self-destruct written like bad tattoos. What happens in their demise is variable.
              I’ll try and live out my days on an old formulae Expect and Plan for the Worst; Hope for The Better.

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              • So true, Roger. I posted Clay’s cartoon on Facebook, the one that got him banned, wondering if I could get banned, too, but so far no reaction at all! Double standard?

                I know, but sometimes it sure seems like they are the majority. I guess they just make more noise than the rest of us. I will be happy enough to see the current crop of bigots and haters go down in flames! Yeah, that’s about the best we can do. I was telling Chris tonight that I remember being a small child, and every morning when my grandmother finished reading her newspaper, she would put it down with a sigh and say, “The whole world’s going to hell in a handbasket!” And here we are, some 70 years later. 🙄

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                • I hear you talkin’ sister!
                  And here’s me, trying my very best to convince myself that stern, vigilance but benevolent socialist government does not work, and the true way is liberal open and fair government.
                  And yet every day I read the latest evidence of Terminal Stupidity.
                  Annnnd I have to start all over again.
                  Frib!!

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                  • Yeah, you’ve just about got me convinced that people are not capable of self-goverenance, that they are too susceptible to the whims of greed and the voices of the masses. Still, I rebel against an authoritarian government, for they are never people-centric, never kind/compassionate/empathetic, but always cruel.

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                    • Yep that’s where the argument breaks down Jill.
                      It assumes all those involve in government are stern, but fair paternal / maternal sorts who have dedicated their lives solely to the ethical and efficient running of a nation; then they too with Yoda / Obi-Wan Kenobi care will pass on their wisdom to the next generation of leaders who will dutifully take the lessons to heart.
                      Rrrrright.🤨

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            • “Says something about the management of Facebook, doesn’t it?”

              It doesn’t tell me much. It has been obvious for a long time, that facebook management cares only about the money. It has no evident moral principles.

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          • Rest awhile my dear, let another carry the load for a bit. I have been honored to work with the old and the young. We will be OK. The few can make a loud noise but courage comes only when there is fear.

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            • There isn’t anybody to carry the load. Granted, what I do may have very little meaning, may not make much of a difference, but I like to think that somehow what I do matters. At least a little bit. Will we be okay? I’m not so sure any more.

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              • Bob made the poetry and Jimmy made it soar. My favorite lyric:
                No reason to get excited
                The thief, he kindly spoke
                There are many here among us
                Who feel that life is but a joke
                But, uh, but you and I, we’ve been through that
                And this is not our fate
                So let us stop talkin’ falsely now
                The hour’s getting late, hey
                “…Walter [Bergen] reckoned that in a world that was forever changing, we were only as sure, and only as good, as our next step.”
                ― Jonathan Evison, Small World
                We are not alone, we are legion. What we do means something. What we do is important!

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                • Thank you for that! “All Along the Watchtower”. Perfect quotes for the times, and yes, what we do does mean something … I don’t think we’re exactly changing the world, but maybe a few minds here and there.

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                  • Emergent AI is a hobby. What would an AI look like? The only example I have ever seen is a newborn. Change/influence just one mind and you HAVE changed the world.
                    Barry McGuire – Eve Of Destruction is playing in the background. I was there 13 getting ready, my cousins were already “in country” and we all knew we would have a turn. I liked the edge and spent 58 years on the eve of destruction. I’ll catch it one day. So will you. Let us agree to not make it today a most magnificent day.

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                    • Ohhhhhhh … thank you! I was pondering my music post for this morning, and now I know! Okay, I’ll agree to try to make today a magnificent day … let’s see … grocery pickup at 2:00 p.m., laundry, kitchen cleaning … but I shall whistle while I work and remind myself that life is good.

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