this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2024
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Explain Like I'm Five
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Holy hell! This was the most succinct, concise, and "yeah, your high school history textbooks whitewashed all this shit" summary of the modern Conservative political machine. It's like Robert Evans, Matt Taibbi, Jake Hanrahan, and Kurt Andersen had a love child that came out as a summary text.
If anyone got to my comment here, but only skimmed parent comment, please do yourself a favor and bask in that bit.
Damn, that's high praise, thank you! It makes me feel better because I woke up fighting myself on "Oh man I wrote way too long a rant" and "DAMMIT! I didn't even mention the Evangelicals worming their way into politics!"
To everyone else, reading this... read about history folks! I, like everyone else, thought history was boring in school. If I were to put on my tin foil hat, I worry it's done on purpose as it helps realize nothing happening is actually all that new. And it's rather easy to do, put a coach as the history teacher who just hands you a textbook and makes you regurgitate names and numbers that don't mean anything but meets criteria (No Child Left Behind, Bush Era for me) just makes everyone hate history.
Yes, I did drop names, policies, and a few dates, but those are examples to point to and you better believe I don't remember a single one of those by heart, I have to look them up when I reference them. The theory is there, and once you get into devouring the actual meat of history it is absolutely bloody fascinating.