Right-wing Republicans prefer ignorance
To the editor:
Right-wing Republicans have decided that it’s necessary to edit school curriculum to present a sanitized version of U.S. history because (they claim) that the actual truth will “make kids hate America.” I think their real concern is that through education, people will learn the truth about how dominant people in our country have systematically used manipulative control, whether it be male over female, rich over poor, light-skinned over dark-skinned or native-born over immigrants.
The right-wing Republican politician/media’s antidote to enlightenment is diverting attention to topics that keep people stirred up. That’s why they purposely drop word bombs like “election fraud” or “radical left-wing socialism.” If someone is upset that Trump lost the election or told to fear erasure of white Western civilization, a person’s emotions surface before the rational brain demands analysis of any facts leading to a different conclusion.
Neuroscientists understand this: that the brain is designed to feel and act before it thinks. Education, on the other hand, is intended to develop strong neural pathways that lead to higher levels of thinking, like analysis and logic. It’s no coincidence that eight of the 10 least educated states voted for Trump. Right-wing Republicans don’t want centuries of white male masterminded supremacy in economics, religion and politics to be analyzed or acknowledged in public education.
Right-wing Republicans keep drumming up patriotic, religious “feelings” which effectively divert attention from their orchestration of an exclusivity agenda. It’s their method of maintaining power and preventing all men (and women) from being treated equally.
We cannot be a nation of “liberty and justice for all” when right-wing Republicans perversely advocate (to their advantage) a whitewashed curriculum that hides the history of how certain groups were, and continue to be, denigrated in this country.
Martha Hodges
Massena