“As we’ve seen too often in the last decade, what happens online can have the most terrifying of real- world impacts… From climate denial to vaccine conspiracy theories to the Jan. 6 attack on our nation’s Capitol, the spread of online misinformation has had global and deadly consequences.”
California Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park)
If you live in an anti-woke red state, where “climate change” is viewed as exaggerated, racial strife no longer exists, LGBQT+ rights are “ungodly,” doctors are manipulative quacks and immigrants are vermin, then learning how to identify fake news in public schools ain’t gonna happen! But the explosion of “decisions and actions based on conspiracy theories” may just be the BIG DISEASE that has infected the United States, polarizing our society perhaps beyond reconciliation. This social media trend has generalized a “solution” based on “I’m right and you’re wrong” retribution and violence. With TikTok, Facebook/Meta, Instagram and X replacing traditional and more ethical news sources, if children grow up not knowing how to spot fake news, those negative realities will simply amplify.
Children educated in American public schools that censor reality, bury notions of inequality, excise unpleasant historical facts, deny racial/religious/ethnic/gender strife and negate scientific and medical facts seem to fall into the George Santayana paradigm trap: “Those who do not study history are condemned to repeat its mistakes.” Students in school systems where this is the new normal are expected to vote, perhaps enlist in our military, perhaps move on to college, participate in society, enter the workforce and, most probably, have and then raise their own children. What could possibly go wrong?
It is interesting to note that we are not alone in hiding a shameful past. Japan, for example, edits mention of the ‘Rape of Nanking’ from their texts and history books. On December 13, 1937, to “break the spirit of Chinese resistance, Japanese General Matsui Iwane ordered that the city of Nanking be destroyed. Much of the city was burned, and Japanese troops launched a campaign of atrocities against civilians. In what became known as the ‘Rape of Nanking,’ the Japanese butchered an estimated 150,000 male ‘war prisoners,’ massacred an additional 50,000 male civilians, and raped at least 20,000 women and girls of all ages, many of whom were mutilated or killed in the process.” History.com. Japan’s treatment of Korea after annexation in 2010 is also purged from texts, especially the use of Korean “comfort women” as forced prostitutes for their military in the WWII era. “Right thinking” is a hallmark of brutal autocrats.
On the other side of the ledger is the rare national recognition in Germany of the Holocaust during Nazi rule during the same era. Not only are these horrors preserved in history books and texts, but to graduate from a public high school in Germany, students are mandated, via a carefully orchestrated tour, to visit at least one well-preserved concentration camp.
We seem to be more like Japan, particularly red states which have adopted new laws and regulations that make teaching and including in texts information that might make students (read: white students) uncomfortable with their past or have to deal with gender, racial and ethnic discrimination. Murders and taking the property of masses of minorities are ignored. Gone are factual presentations of events like the forced migration of Native American (the Trail of Tears), slavery, lynching, the Jim Crow era and modern day continued discriminatory practices.
Teaching reality in such states is considered anti-American “woke” indoctrination. Conspiracy theories are accorded equal validity with facts. Few students ever learn how to separate truth from fabrication. Social media falsehoods become embedded as truth, promoting continued ignorance as well as scientific facts and justifying discrimination.
But there is another path, as blue California has determined. Writing for the November 20th Los Angeles Times, Brennon Dixson, describes a new statewide program to train young minds to entertain healthy skepticism: “Beginning next year, California’s public school students will be required to take media literacy courses that will help them identify fake news posted online while also being able to tell the difference between legitimate news articles and paid advertising.
“The new instruction will slowly be integrated into the curriculum of students from kindergarten through high school under Assembly Bill 873, written by Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park) and signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in October. Media literacy content will be included in English language arts, mathematics, science, history and social science curriculums.
“The law was necessitated by young people’s growing reliance on the internet and social media platforms, such as TikTok, Instagram and X, for news and information, Berman said. Texas, New Jersey and Delaware have also passed strong media literacy laws, according to Media Literacy Now a nonprofit research organization... ‘Teaching media literacy is a key strategy to support our children, their families, and our society that are inundated with misinformation and disinformation on social media networks and digital platforms,’ said Berman... ‘We have a responsibility to teach the next generation to be more critical consumers of online content and more guarded against misinformation, propaganda, and conspiracy theories.’”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ anti-woke legislation has resulted in fired teachers for teaching truth, texts and school lesson plans tightly controlled to purge truthful but “uncomfortable” historical facts about our nation. The above images are from Florida. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, apparently a DeSantis wannabe, followed suit as did a majority of MAGA-controlled states. Students who have not learned to distinguish between facts and conspiracy theories by the time they graduate high school are simply uneducated and destined to promote conspiracy theories that assure that, assuming the United States survives, it will remain highly polarized and incapable of unification for the foreseeable future.
I’m Peter Dekom, and this horrific trend to hide facts and truth from our rising young citizens makes a mockery of the word “United” in our national name.
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