Be Careful Where You Dump Your Liberal Guilt

[Note:  I wrote this before the Uvalde massacre, which only makes this seem even more relevant.]

I don't want to seem like a Trump supporter or an apologist for idiots who bitch about "Critical Race Theory" or really to whine about "both sides" but when I see something like this on Facebook, I get a little irritated.

NOTE:  I added the apostrophe to "ITS" because it bugged me.

This seems as paranoid a delusion as the people who talk about "Pizzagate" or JFK Jr. is alive and supporting Trump.  What it suggests is that every teacher you had in grade school, junior high, and high school was a racist or friend of racism.

Which is utter, complete bullshit.  I think about my history teachers and sure they were all white but I don't think any of them were racist.  They didn't have Confederate flags and use the "n" word and stuff like that.

If you think practically--which many fellow liberals have a hard time doing--teachers have a hard enough time of it as it is.  Too many kids, not enough money for supplies, ancient textbooks, annoying parents, dumb administrators--and that was before mass shootings and Covid.  The last thing they need is some jerk dumping liberal guilt all over them like the pig's blood on Carrie.

What it reminds me of is when soldiers were coming back from Vietnam and jerk protestors would throw paint or blood on them and call them "baby killers" and shit.  Most of the troops back then were drafted and didn't even want to be there but unlike Trump or George W they couldn't get a doctor's note or hide in Canada or Mexico like other "brave" souls.  They didn't start the war or really have any power to stop it, so why dump on them--literally in some cases?

Thinking back to my schooling, my teachers barely had time to cover all the basic shit like Columbus, the colonies, the Declaration of Independence, Revolutionary War, Constitution, Civil War, Great Depression, World Wars, Cold War, Watergate, and shit like that.  There wasn't really a lot of time for nuanced shit.  It was even harder in World History where there's all the ancient cultures and Dark Ages and Renaissance and whatnot to cover.  For the most part, teachers are just trying to give you the basics so you can pass standardized tests.  Maybe you should blame the people who write those tests that they don't put enough nuanced black history on there so schools would have to teach it.

Part of the problem with outrage culture on social media is it's so easy to make memes like these.  Then your followers Family Feud clap and say, "Good answer!" and no one really considers what's actually being said.  But for the record I did NOT learn about Helen Keller--not even a showing of The Miracle Worker.  I DID learn about WEB Dubois and Booker T Washington and the difference between them.  I think "states rights" were mentioned but we also talked about slavery.  Since I was in junior high in the early 90s of course we talked about the LA Riots that happened during that time.  As for Washington's dentures, that was mentioned but just like a stupid folk tale like the chopping down the cherry tree thing.

On Pluto TV there was an ad from MTV about women's history and it was the same thing as that meme only about women's history.  Bringing up all this stuff about women's rights organizations and how "pages are missing" from history books about them.  And again it's largely idiotic.  Just because your teacher doesn't talk about every women's rights group that ever existed doesn't make them sexist or mean they're trying to "erase" something.  That's just another paranoid delusion.

But maybe I'm looking back at it with rose-colored glasses to some extent.  Still, the point is, when making a meme, maybe consider who you're actually insulting with it.  And think about what it actually means before sharing it with your "friends" online.