Part II: How to Revise, Deny, and Obfuscate to Blissful Ignorance.

 

Part II

I worry about the future of places like Cherokee Removal Memorial.  I worry about loosing contact with the parts of our past that serve to remind us of what we have been, and remind us that we don't want to be that anymore.  I particularly worry that there is a substantial part of our society who want to erase those reminders.

There have been some recent instances where I have inadvertently found myself in political conversations that I knew would be pointless and almost surely never-ending...would likely result in hard feelings.  My way out has been to declare "history will tell".  This generally works as a way out.  The expression implies that at some future date the argument will be settled by some studious application of hindsight, and that one "side" will be affirmed, and the others repudiated.  The problem is that people revise history and deny science all the time in order to support their particular narrative.

J-6 was an inside job.

The 2020 election was stolen.

MMR Vaccines cause autism.

Covid is no big deal and the vaccines are a conspiracy.

California wildfires started by Jewish space lasers. (Sorry, I just can't disremember this one.😉)

Climate change is a myth.

The list goes on.

Some of these revisions and denials are so outrageous that only the most gullible or fully indoctrinated will give them any credence.  Others are more insidious and thereby more dangerous for the long term.

Look at statements made by Nikki Haley in a town hall during her presidential campaign.  When asked about the cause of the Civil War, Haley could not, or would not, mention that slavery was a causal factor in the war.  She said it was about different philosophies of government, and then something about tradition versus change.  Now I know slavery wasn't the only cause of the Civil War.  You have contributing factors like the agrarians vs. industrialists, states rights, and the election of Abraham Lincoln, among other things.  But to fail to put slavery high on the list is intellectually dishonest, and she knows it.  This is just one example of how revision and denial are used to confuse political dialogue.

The veiled threat to free thinking:

On the day after our visit to the Cherokee Removal Memorial, the Tennessee legislature passed a bill funding a school vouchers program, euphemistically referred to as a "school choice" bill.  Twenty-eight states have these things.  Most of them I'm sure, like the Tennessee bill, look innocuous enough on the face.  Many are heavily influenced, if not outright written, by conservative "bill mill" American Legislative Exchange Council.  ALEC will mass produce right-wing legislation that they can just give to Republican state legislators for introduction. The bills are skillfully crafted in language that tends to hide their true intent and to ignore their consequences.

What the voucher bills ultimately do is to redirect tax payer dollars from public schools to private schools, religious schools, and home schooling. Many of these are places where right-wing revisionist history and science denial thrive... where truth is malleable.  It is entirely reasonable to speculate that the unstated goal is to make public schools into factories to produce factory workers/laborers, and to use select private and religious schools as indoctrination camps for the next generations of elite rubber stampers in support of our burgeoning authoritarian regime.  This is not to disparage all private schools.  Many of them are excellent.  I fear that many of them will fail to offer the rounded education required to maintain a multicultural democracy.  Just look at what Project 2025 has in mind for public education, and then try to figure out what the end game is.  It is to institutionalize conservative groupthink. 

We need to remember. Do not let them ban ideas.  Do not let them minimize or "edit out" truths like we see at the Cherokee Removal Memorial.  Do not let them steal the spotlight from Black History Month, Juneteenth, Cesar Chavez Day, or any of the other commemorative events that we can use to keep the torch of truth burning.

 

How to Revise, Deny, and Obfuscate to Blissful Ignorance

Last week Kristin and I went on a little expedition to The Hiawassee Refuge which is a wintering spot for Sandhill Cranes at Birchwood, Tennessee.  It is located at the confluence of the Hiawassee and Tennessee rivers.  There is an observation deck from which you can see big groups of Sandhill Cranes as they come in from feeding on local farmland and sit down on the mud flats beside the river.  You might also see Bald Eagles, Great Blue Herons, Ospreys,  several brands of waterfowl, and a big assortment of regular ol' birds including the Eastern Bluebird. We enjoyed seeing, and especially hearing, the cranes as they gracefully glide in and settle in the fields or on the water.

We also got to see a bunch of Cardinals.  Cardinals are still a big deal to us because they don't live in the areas where we spent most of our lives.  Once while I was working in Kentucky I made a comment to a workmate about how thrilled I was to see a bright Cardinal for the first time.  He said, "They're common as assholes 'round here." So I got to hear that expression for the first time, and see my  first Cardinal on the same day!

An unexpected bonus on the trip was the opportunity to see the Cherokee Removal Memorial which is a memorial to this unfortunate chapter in American History.  It marks a location that was central in the tragic story of the exploitation of native people to accommodate white settlement.  A key factor was the discovery of gold in the nearby area of North Georgia.  How many times have we heard that one?

The memorial is well done and well maintained. There is a manned visitor center where you can watch a film that tells the story of The Trail of Tears.  They also have related artifacts from the area and displays that add context.  Outside there are beautiful granite monuments that list the names of some who were lost on the journey, or lost in the miserable encampment they were forced into before the march began.

Truth is on its own trail of tears:

There were a number of things going on in the news in the days surrounding our visit to the Cherokee Removal Memorial that brought its significance into a new light.  The first headline I remember seeing was something like:  Trump Administration Bans Black History Month.  My first thought was, "How the hell do you ban something that is more of an idea than an event."  Of course, it turns out that the real policy change was to disallow the spending of federal funds in support of any cultural recognition events (ideas) in the government workplace.  That's not quite the same as outlawing a thought, but still pretty ludicrous if you think about it.  I mean how big of a problem is it really?

It brings to mind a horribly sexist philosophy expressed by my old mining partner, Scotty Young.  Scotty said that it was a man's solemn responsibility to go out once a month and get drunk and stay out all night.  He said that if you don't give a woman something to bitch about, she'll start making stuff up.  We constantly see MAGA world getting all bent about shit that applies to like one-half of one percent of the population.  I honestly can't remember the last time a transgender person leapt out from behind a dumpster and tried to recruit me.

Sometimes when I'm hard up for entertainment or need a new dose of outrage, I'll go over and check out X/Twitter.  I see a lot of reference to how horrible the Biden years were.  If you think the Biden years were bad, you must have spent the first Trump administration living in a secluded villa overlooking a beach in Majorca getting handfed grapes while being fanned with palm fonds by pneumatic nymphs (or Chippendales, depending on your preference). 

The next news event that ties in is the Tennessee State Legislature passing a school vouchers scam and how it relates disturbing trends.

To be continued.