Is this indoctrination?

So if ya didn't know, Texas has decided to change around some stuff in the text books.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts1253

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...2.4bcac76.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_498003.html

Especially irking is the removal of Jefferson as a because he "founded" separation of church, replacing him with a priest and christian philosopher and state and Their "more positive" look on anticommunism.

WTF? so now we are teaching that christianity is good and communism is bad. At least that is how it seems to me. Please share your opinions on the matter

BTW: i found the links on the toribash forum and though I would share with you guys.

"History is written by the victors.


History is full of liars."

Sounds like indoctrination to me, yes.

Hopefully this will go to the courts, where these people tend to have little success.

They are not going to get very far with leaving Thomas Jefferson out of an American history book. It is like leaving Albert Einstein out of a book about the history of the theory of relativity.

It is very definitely indoctrination.

No, this is attempted alteration of history.

This is embarrassing...to say the least. We'll see how it plays out.

Saw this subject raised on the Daily Show.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/we...with-textbooks

Brilliant, as always.

One positive development I came across in a NYTimes article on this subject is that the Texas board's influence on other states is not what it once was. Current technology makes it much easier for publishers to tailor textbook content to individual states, so that while Texas still establishes the default curriculum, other states are not necessarily stuck with it.

And yes, the board is making an overt effort at ideologically indoctrinating other people's children. In all likelihood, few if any of those board members have kids in Texas public schools--private schools and especially Christian schools are much more prevalent in the South than other parts of the country, so those board members' kids were almost certainly being indoctrinated with this tripe and worse already. This is purely an abuse of office to spread their conservative agenda.

That agenda goes beyond conservative. Most conservatives see Thomas Jefferson as a hero, but they minsconstrue his separation of church and state beliefs. They quote his "endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights" wording from the Declaration of Independence and interpret it to mean that the U.S. was meant to be a nation where the government imposes Christianity, which is waaaaaaay off from what Jefferson really stood for.

Religion and conservatism go hand in hand,
in every age, in every land.

Specifically, fundamentalists with skewed, absurdly literalist, xenophobic takes on their own religions adhere to conservative movements wherever said movements are found.

A lot of left wing activist preachers are liberals, like Farrakhan, Wright, and Pfleger. Hindu and Buddhist gurus are usually liberal, and so are a lot of cult leaders who are worshipped, like Charles Manson. His followers were as left wing fanatic as it gets, and they believed Manson was Jesus and worshipped him maniacally. Conservatives in the United States generally praise the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Those are what they claim they are conserving. They just have warped views on what those documents mean.

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Originally Posted by Universal Mhttp://www.dreamviews.com/community/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=1395550ind

A lot of left wing activist preachers are liberals, like Farrakhan, Wright, and Pfleger. Conservatives in the United States generally praise the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Those are what they claim they are conserving. They just have warped views on what those documents mean.

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Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam are about as left wing and liberal as Pat Robertson. In any case, the presence of religious people on the left hardly negates the near-universal affinity between fundamentalism and conservatism in human cultures. Fundamentalism and nationalism are the two legs conservatism stands on, the Texas school board and the movement they represent being a case in point.

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Originally Posted by Taosaur

Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam are about as left wing and liberal as Pat Robertson. In any case, the presence of religious people on the left hardly negates the near-universal affinity between fundamentalism and conservatism in human cultures. Fundamentalism and nationalism are the two legs conservatism stands on, the Texas school board and the movement they represent being a case in point.

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How is the Nation of Islam conservative? Farrakhan was a big supporter of Obama during the campaign.

I know right wing fanatics are religious fanatics, but that does not mean all religious fanatics are right wing fanatics. I illustrated that with examples other than Farrakan-- gurus, Manson and other cult leaders, Pfleger, Wright...

The word "conservative" is rooted in "conserve". American conservatives believe they are conserving the funamental and traditional principles of the country, including what is in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. What is conservative about trying to erase the Declaration of Independence from history? That's radical change, so it alone is very liberal.

I wouldn't say the liberal/conservative scale is very applicable to cults, which tend to be their own brand of kooky.

As for the revisionism, it's part and parcel of conservatism. That which conservatives seek to conserve is rarely a version of the past that ever actually existed. All that is ambiguous or unflattering toward God and Country must be purged. This circus in Texas is a textbook ( :D ) example of conservatism in action.

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Originally Posted by Universal Mind

How is the Nation of Islam conservative? Farrakhan was a big supporter of Obama during the campaign.

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They are trying to conserve the traditions of their people. Conservative does not just mean conserving traditional ideals of the US.

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Originally Posted by Taosaur

I wouldn't say the liberal/conservative scale is very applicable to cults, which tend to be their own brand of kooky.

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There are conservative cults too. I was just saying that there have been a lot of liberal cults. Manson's cult was very left wing.

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Originally Posted by Taosaur

IAs for the revisionism, it's part and parcel of conservatism. That which conservatives seek to conserve is rarely a version of the past that ever actually existed. All that is ambiguous or unflattering toward God and Country must be purged. This circus in Texas is a textbook ( :D ) example of conservatism in action.

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People on both ends of the spectrum are into revisionism. Did you see how the American left pretended that Bush made up the whole thing about WMD's even though it was the Democrats pushing the idea before Bush was even in office? You can't truthfully label something as conservative just because it is revisionary... or religious. The far left is just as dishonest and nutty as the far right.

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Originally Posted by Xaqaria

They are trying to conserve the traditions of their people. Conservative does not just mean conserving traditional ideals of the US.

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Who exactly are "their people", and what traditions are you talking about?

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Originally Posted by Universal Mind

Who exactly are "their people", and what traditions are you talking about?

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Islamic Traditions? :whyme: Sharia law and all that. I honestly don't know a whole lot about it.

Screwed up, yes. Least parents can still seek refuge for their offspring through home schooling.

:? We already were indoctrinated. Christopher Columbus discovered the New World, wooo! Education as a whole has seem to gone down hill..........

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Originally Posted by Xaqaria

Islamic Traditions? :whyme: Sharia law and all that. I honestly don't know a whole lot about it.

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They are way out of the ordinary even for Muslims. Their views are liberal and about radical change on an American stage and would probably be considered liberal even in the Middle East.