I never learned about this in American History class.

[Moostache]

17. Well, there was a hell of a lot that was never taught in schools...

Everything that was passed over tended to paint whites in a negative light ... native American genocides? Nah...that was simply the fruits of "manifest destiny"... systemic exploitation of blacks through peonage? no, no, no...that was merely "maintaining the natural order" (so it looks like slavery, sounds like slavery and quacks like slavery, but I SWEAR...its not a duck.

THAT is why I have maintained to many that the "good old days" so many pine for and wanted to "go back to" are not the 1950's...it was the 1850's for them...though they would settle for anything between 1820 and 1880 really.

The murderous, exploitative TRUE history of the United States is quite different from what most people have internalized and believe. The truly terrifying thing to watch is the mental gymnastics required to continue to deny this reality, especially when it comes to the (FAKE) arguments against things like affirmation action or any other attempts at systemic corrections (or even systemic alleviation).

America the place has NEVER lived up to the potential of America the IDEA...and likely never will, but we are dangerously close to the point when we collectively stop TRYING to get better or stop striving to reach higher, correct the sins of the past when possible and build a better tomorrow. The hope of doing so is the last thing holding together this whole experiment in self-rule.

As imperfect and inadequate as it feels at times, there is only ONE party even trying to keep that dream alive today. And it is NOT the one in charge of stacking the courts through a captive Senate or the one actively blowing the response to the moment from the White House. I firmly believe that to my very core, but the first rule of holes is when you're in one, the first step is STOP DIGGING, and the only way for us to move forward is to really confront reality and accept that America was never "great" in the first place and in fact, its been down right evil quite often...