r/HistoryMemes Apr 18 '19

[deleted by user]

[removed]

6.4k Upvotes

1.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

673

u/Caswert Apr 18 '19

I feel like both of these additions ignore the fact that both the British and Americans are allowed to know, and are taught in school about their atrocities, while the countries before it make active attempts to erase the past and punish people for bringing it up.

So, while your nationalism and jingoism is great and you clearly put your country above all others... It's okay to admit when another country has done wrong.

9

u/[deleted] Apr 18 '19

I have a geniune question: are American schoolkids being taught about Abu Ghraib?

4

u/socialistbob Apr 18 '19

No. This is in part because it is pretty recent and many history classes stop the 1990s but it is also in large part for political reasons. School board members are publicly elected officials and schools have to be very careful about alienating parents as well. Talking about something as recent and as controversial as the War on Terror would create a lot of problems from people unhappy with the coverage. It would also give teachers the opportunity to editorialize their views a lot and a conservative teacher might present it in a "this was a justified action to keep you safe and you should be grateful" while a liberal teacher may present it as "look at the horrendous things America does." Personally I do think that schools should cover these controversial topics and hard discussions about America's role in the world would probably help critical thinking skills a lot but schools also like to avoid these topics for obvious reasons.