Fake news is bad; the belief that all news is fake is worse and fake history, is the worst of all.
Bending, twisting, or erasing history to support a particular set of beliefs is a crucial 1st step in getting people to accept a bogus narrative. The next step is repeating it over and over again.
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Prime example, if you ask people what was the primary cause of the U.S. Civil War? The absolute overwhelming primary reason was slavery. No doubt, the North and South had other issues at play, but when you put it in a nutshell— no slavery, no Civil War.
That the civil war was fought over slavery is not something a lot of people want to hear... Enter alternative history and mythical reasons for the Civil War.
Some people like to say it was about, States rights. You could say it was about State's rights, alright -- the State's right for people to own other people. Another insidious fairy tale about the war not mentioned in the video is the so-called Lost Cause. It goes like this, the noble South was hopelessly outnumbered, fought gallantly but lost the battle with the barbaric North.
Some things you just have to get right if you ever want them to get better. History is one of those things.
How important is history? In the book 1984 George Orwell wrote this famous line.
"He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past".
If America refuses to call out people who lie about a horrible chapter in our past. As long as history means his story, we'll never put America's original sin in the rearview.
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