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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   34382 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 13, 2023

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The Simpsons seems to be accusing anti-CRT parents of practicing a motte and bailey, where the motte is being anti-CRT and the bailey is being anti-teaching about slavery and Jim Crow. It actually looks like The Simpsons is practicing one themselves, where their motte is wanting to teach about history, and their bailey is wanting to teach CRT. Nobody watches The Simpsons anymore, but the existence of this is still boggling my mind. I'm not offended, just confused. In 20 years, will anyone understand what this was about? Will they think that there were literally people trying to whitewash history in this way?

teaching stuff in the school that reflects negatively on certain groups is always going to be tricky. it seems like it is an instance of the [Cardiologists and Chinese Robbers problem] (https://slatestarcodex.com/2015/09/16/cardiologists-and-chinese-robbers/). you can imagine kids being subjected to an avalanche of facts that reflect negatively on a particular group and then when challenged the people who set the curriculum claim these are just facts and you are anti-history. Then there is also the duality that if someone doesn't like some facts being taught they can claim its a 'Cardiologists and Chinese Robbers' problem.

I hadn't seen that Scott post. Thank you for sharing it.

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