At least part of my education starting at the turn off the century, we were taught these things happened but that once they were over it was a solved problem, never to happen again.
For me there was a narrative that post 1950 the US was the pinnacle of humanity, the best place on earth. Cold war, Vietnam, Korea, all things on the other side of the world from our walled garden. Civil rights was just a few people in the south having disagreements and 9/11 was either swept under the rug or passed off as some dumb dirty Arab who was irrationally angry and lashed out.
It took me moving to the big bad city for college, where I was supposed to be shot every 5 minutes and robbed of everything including the clothes on my back, to have that world view crack enough to begin questioning what I was told. When I did, I was instantly ostracized from my rural upper midwest hometown and became barely tolerated by my family.
The blinders are very real and it’s too easy to ignore uncomfortable truths
At least part of my education starting at the turn off the century, we were taught these things happened but that once they were over it was a solved problem, never to happen again.
For me there was a narrative that post 1950 the US was the pinnacle of humanity, the best place on earth. Cold war, Vietnam, Korea, all things on the other side of the world from our walled garden. Civil rights was just a few people in the south having disagreements and 9/11 was either swept under the rug or passed off as some dumb dirty Arab who was irrationally angry and lashed out.
It took me moving to the big bad city for college, where I was supposed to be shot every 5 minutes and robbed of everything including the clothes on my back, to have that world view crack enough to begin questioning what I was told. When I did, I was instantly ostracized from my rural upper midwest hometown and became barely tolerated by my family.
The blinders are very real and it’s too easy to ignore uncomfortable truths