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What?
When I went to school, we didn't skip anything. We went over the smallpox brought over (and sometimes transmitted delibrately) by Europeans, we read about the Trail of Tears and the rest of Jackson's Indian removal policy, Custer, the way we stole Texas from Mexico, imperialism, the Spanish-American War, slavery, Japanese internment camps, Hiroshima, the firebombing of Dresden, and our support of various dictators around the world, including the coups we've instigated. There wasn't any hiding.
Of course, I grew up in one of those east-coast godless liberal states... so we were dealing in facts, not "isn't America the most perfect nation ever?" jingoism. If you grew up somewhere else, I'm very sorry.
For the record, although people will be debating the atomic bombing of Japan forever, I think it was justified. There's a lot of evidence that it was a "better watch out" to Russia, who had become aggressive in the area, but I think it stands on its own anyway. The fact is, by that point Japan was going to lose the war. Hirohito had already tried to get his generals to surrender, but it wasn't working. And the US's experience with island-hopping was miserable - effective, but heavy casualties (especially for the Japanese). They literally built planes designed for kamikaze so there were no questions about a willingness to fight to the death. The argument has always been that something overwhelmingly powerful would be the only way to "shock" them into surrender, as opposed to simply destroying their ability to wage war, which would have been a huge number of casualties. Arguably, an atomic bomb (being so powerful on its own) was more effective than a massive conventional bombing campaign would be for that task
Think what you want. Hiroshima is among the most unspeakable crimes in history. I don't think it was justified in the slightest and innocent people are still suffering to this day. . But you don't change people's (wrong) opinions endlessly debating on slashdot and you can't teach someone base morality on the internet.
What?
When I went to school, we didn't skip anything. We went over the smallpox brought over (and sometimes transmitted delibrately) by Europeans, we read about the Trail of Tears and the rest of Jackson's Indian removal policy, Custer, the way we stole Texas from Mexico, imperialism, the Spanish-American War, slavery, Japanese internment camps, Hiroshima, the firebombing of Dresden, and our support of various dictators around the world, including the coups we've instigated. There wasn't any hiding.
Of course, I grew up in one of those east-coast godless liberal states... so we were dealing in facts, not "isn't America the most perfect nation ever?" jingoism. If you grew up somewhere else, I'm very sorry.
For the record, although people will be debating the atomic bombing of Japan forever, I think it was justified. There's a lot of evidence that it was a "better watch out" to Russia, who had become aggressive in the area, but I think it stands on its own anyway. The fact is, by that point Japan was going to lose the war. Hirohito had already tried to get his generals to surrender, but it wasn't working. And the US's experience with island-hopping was miserable - effective, but heavy casualties (especially for the Japanese). They literally built planes designed for kamikaze so there were no questions about a willingness to fight to the death. The argument has always been that something overwhelmingly powerful would be the only way to "shock" them into surrender, as opposed to simply destroying their ability to wage war, which would have been a huge number of casualties. Arguably, an atomic bomb (being so powerful on its own) was more effective than a massive conventional bombing campaign would be for that task
Here's one I read in a scary book by the Canadian prof. Bob Altemeyer ("The Authoritarians"):
Apparently there's a high correlation between the people who don't understand logic and the people who are "right-wing authoritarians" (in the USA that would be mostly Republicans I guess). :-)
.. (Z) have the following structure:
Spoiler follows
A "republican" would reason backward, yes, I know that sharks are fish, therefore the conclusion (C) is correct, therefore A and B are also correct, therefore all three statements are true.
A "filthy godless pinko commie smelly hippy liberal gay-loving America-hating intellectual" would reason forward, let's assume (A) all fish swim in the sea. OK. Let's assume (B) sharks swim in the sea. OK. (C) do we conclude that sharks are fish? Hang on, I know they are fish, but OTHER things can also swim in the sea, e.g. jellyfish, lost long-distance swimmers, inflated car tires.. I KNOW that sharks are none of those things, but logically they COULD HAVE BEEN, therefore the conclusion may be correct but it doesn't follow logically from the premises (A) and (B) so maybe there are OTHER causes that make sharks indeed fish. And I bet those premises (D)
Microsoft is under particularly intense scrutiny by the public because of the monitoring and threat of a break-up of the company many years ago. Once you've been accused of monopolistic practices, you are forever branded as a monopolist at heart. Your company may survive unbroken, but the public trust is permanently dead.
The only company to ever protect their image in the face of such an investigation was IBM. Even AT&T was never as respected post-breakup as they were prior to being labelled "monopolist", "competitive market place" or no.
Apple has only escaped "unscathed" in the sense that no one has been willing to put it on the table: Apple's predatory supplier pricing is what forces slave-like conditions on their foreign employees. Local market value is irrelevant when the foreign provider is not complying with generally accepted international human rights standards. Buying from such suppliers is unethical and immoral, and Apple is being pressured heavily for it.
But even condoning wage-slavery is not as "evil" in society's eyes as being branded "monopolist."
The only thing that gets an 'merican more ticked off than an abusive monopolist is a "Godless Communist" or "Socialist" (like us Canajuns.)
... the vast majority of carriers in the world already do this...
Since you're familiar with "the world" you must not be an American and perhaps you even live in a society where government "kinda just works"
Well, Americans are so phenomenally bad at designing, creating and running government that we've all developed an instinctual fear and loathing for not just government but any collective thought or action.
The summary rang that Pavlovian anti-collective bell just by mentioning the FCC. And I would bet that most Americans would rather the kids from Who's Smarter than a Fifth-Grader were running the program than any of those useless, hopeless, faceless, godless, genitalia-lacking federal bureacrats.
Not that I'm bitter. I live in the greatest country on Earth! USA! USA!
The new excuse.
Bu, bu, but . . . this new tech is based on science! The same evil that gave us godless eviloution, inconvenient climate change, unspeakable information about reproduction and people's naughty bits, and god-circumventing treatments for impotence and aids.. Next, you'll be trying to convince us the sun rises in the East.
Are you surprised? Look back at the Texas textbook controversy from a couple of years back. The most interesting bit of information to come out of that for me was that Texas somehow supposedly has in their laws that they are required to promote "free enterprise", among other conservative ideals. Now, I don't have a citation for any such law, but check this article for a quick review: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/16/texas-schools-rewrites-us-history
The relevant quote:
The board is to vote on a sweeping purge of alleged liberal bias in Texas school textbooks in favour of what Dunbar says really matters: a belief in America as a nation chosen by God as a beacon to the world, and free enterprise as the cornerstone of liberty and democracy.
"We are fighting for our children's education and our nation's future," Dunbar said. "In Texas we have certain statutory obligations to promote patriotism and to promote the free enterprise system. [Emphasis mine] There seems to have been a move away from a patriotic ideology. There seems to be a denial that this was a nation founded under God. We had to go back and make some corrections."
You must know that recycling and anthropogenic global warming are anti-god, anti-patriotic, and anti-free enterprise, right?
So, while you may have been indoctrinated in one direction in Minnesota, a direction motivated a real practical reason (we're quickly running out of resources), your friends in Texas were indoctrinated in the opposite direction, motivated by an ideology of "we don't wanna be no godless commies".
It's more heresy from the Godless heathen Democrats and their witches brew called "science".
Well, of course! The UN is populated by godless communist dictators. Pretty ironic the types you see on that 'human rights' commission of theirs. Fucking farce the whole thing
Well, Jesus did place uncle Fred in a country full of godless scientists who could figure this stuff out.
the afterlife.
But I thought they were a bunch of godless communists!
The French should remind themselves that their motto is Liberté, égalité, fraternité, and that all three bits are important.
Yeah, well America's is E Pluribus Unum (Latin: "From Many, One") and we're doing a pretty shit job of upholding that ourselves. It was especially horrendous when we slapped "In God We Trust" right next to E Pluribus Unum on our money as a response to the "godless Communists".
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddle masses yearning to be free...*
.
.
.
* unless they're Communists, or Atheists, or Muslims, or...
Only a godless commie paedophile would say something like that. So, are you a godless commie paedophile? Huh?
All religions do eugenics. They control the sex life and breeding of their adherents to produce a populace that is submissive and loyal to their eugenic breeders, the religious administration. This is a crime against humanity which should result in incarceration of all the religious eugenicists (including the godless religion of political correctness, administered by your politicians.) In order to protect themselves from prosecution, the religious and political eugenicists must legislate that evolution is false and therefore eugenics is impossible.
I would run, but I'm a college-educated atheist who doesn't come from a blue-collar background, don't think that giving up fundamental freedoms is the right way to fight terrorism or child porn, I like single-payer/universal health care, I don't support ridiculously long sentences for literally victimless crimes like marijuana possession, and I'm all for gay marriage.
In other words: I'm godless and therefore lack a moral compass; I'm an intellectual elitist who is out of touch with the working class; I don't Think of the Children; I'm soft on crime; I'm weak on terrorism; I'm a radical socialist; I support the gay agenda and want to take away our religious freedoms
Why Apple is not in the world's largest democracy is completely infuriating.
India with its western democracy, respect for human rights and property, and feckless puppet of we western neo-imperialsts.
Instead Apple (and every other western tech company) choose to send all their work to the godless regime of commie China.
Physics is the study of how the universe works at a fundamental level. Geography is the study of how geological processes work. History is a description of humanity's past, what happened in the past, why it happened, and so forth. That wasn't very hard.
ok I walked right into that one, but that was hardly my point. Consider the Sistene chapel where art, history, an understanding of symmetry, biology, culture, religion, chemistry are all involved in its creation and even in our deconstruction of it through the modern eye. But do you really think that Michelangelo thought in terms of those meaningless labels?
Of course I understand that those labels usefully help us in teaching the next generation when there are too many ideas to fit in one persons head. But there is a danger that we start to believe that those labels offer a truth of their own and that we no longer need to examine an idea in its own right, just which "box" it goes in. Which then gives us carte Blanche to talk about "illogical religious maniacs" or "godless science geeks".
Which brings me back to my original point: there's no such thing as a universal definition of religion or science, not even close.
Yet the bleeding heart liberals are accused of being tolerant of crime, destroying the institution for being tolerant of gays, being hippies for being tolerant of drugs, being godless for being tolerant of other religions, being naive for being tolerant for other forms of government...
I know it's in vogue to go all Rove on stuff, but sheesh.
Reagan's first term, IIRC. Particularly, the 'guru' of the NeoCons, Leo Strauss, Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Strauss & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Nightmares for starters. 'The Power of Nightmares' should be available on any torrent site you choose to use, and I highly recommend you watch it sometime. They talk about all the usual suspects, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Kristol, Rumsfeld, et. al., the political disciples of Strauss and why it's important to flood America with myths to keep us from becoming 'selfish liberals' with 'no patriotism'. Said disciples started coming to power during Reagan, including the infamous 'Team B' project where the CIA was politicized to provide propaganda for American consumption to whip up the American people to 'fight the Godless Commies'. The Team B reports have become declassified, and make for some seriously disturbing reading.
Is there any other reason to lionize Teller at this moment in time? The text of the link includes the phrase "a matter of life and horrible death". In other words, an existential threat to Western Civilization. The implied parallel is that Islam and international Communism are similar threats to the West. If Teller is a hero for his position, the all the Republican presidential hopefuls are also heroes for calling for an attack against Iran. And Obama, along with anyone else who advocates caution, is a spineless traitor who want to destroy democracy.
Pure right wing propaganda.
Instead of looking back more then 60 years to the late 1940's, let's consider a much more recent and infinitely more relevant event: G. W. Bush's invasion of Iraq. This was a war of choice, and has emerged as the single worst policy mistake in the history of the USA. It cost the US and it's allies hundreds of billions of dollars, tens of thousands of US casualties, and over one hundred thousand civilian causalities in Iraq.
It made Iran much more powerful, and alienated the entire world from the US. All the European leaders who supported the war fell out of favor. Radical Islamic movements, who really do want to destroy the West, have much more influence in Islamic politics. Even with the nominal end of combat, no one knows when it will really end or how much it will cost, in both life and treasure. We still don't know how badly screwed up we are over this.
And now Republicans, who lied their teeth out over Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, are screaming that WE MUST ATTACK IRAN RIGHT NOW!!! So someone decides it's time to raise H-Bomb Teller from his crypt, wrap him up in the stars and stripes, and declare that he saved civilization from the Godless Hoards. Meanwhile, G. W. Bush, who is very much alive and well, is completely missing. He is so off the charts it's like he never existed.
As far as the Republicans and the mainstream media is concerned, Clinton left office, the world hibernated for 8 years, and then Obama took over. Now there is talk of more war in the Middle East, and no one even speaks the name of Bush. It's not like someone asked his opinion and he responded "no comment". No one is even asking. He has been edited out of history, like in 1984.
This topic is a de facto intelligence test. If you looked at it and wondered why anyone would be saying these kinds of things about Teller then you pass. If you saw nothing unusual, you failed. Given the kind of comments I've seen so far, everyone reading Slashdot is politically brain dead. If there was some way I could turn off life support for all the flat-lined Slashdot readers, I'd do it in an instant.