Textbook tells truth about RAYGUN & wingnuts (corrupt lazy sexist racist), wingnut heads explode!1

[deutsey]

53. Maybe

I see your point, but I was imagining the textbook being used more as a prompt for the real education that comes from discussing opposing viewpoints. For me, the important part of my take on this is the need for people to engage each other in explaining (and defending) why they believe what they believe. Not in the FAUX News/Corporate media shouting fests, but in presenting *uninterrupted* defenses of what a proponent believes and why.

That's what I liked about Nye's recent "debate" with the creationist. Hamm, or whatever his name was, could not really explain why he believes what he believes, just that it's in a book that's thousands of year old and has been interpreted, reinterpreted, and misinterpreted for just as long.

I understand the criticism people have of that debate that it gave Hamm legitimacy to put him on the stage with Nye and that it most likely didn't change the minds of any of those on Hamm's side. But it also has at least initiated a larger discussion that can help to reach and possibly influence a larger audience.

If there was the approach I'm talking about in the classroom, for instance, this person in the article probably would not be influenced to change her mind about Reagan, but what of other people in the class who were neutral or didn't know much about Reagan or whatever? If she offered up her FAUX-Dittohead veneration of Reagan and the wealthy to defend her beliefs and someone who knew Reagan's record and how it has shaped our country today (including crushing student debt) could actually lay out why he or she sees his presidency as a devastating thing for America's working and middle classes, minorities, women, etc., it would perhaps prompt these students at least to question their assumptions or neutrality.

Honestly, though, I haven't read the actual context of the textbook in question, so I don't know the larger context is (I'm at work and not able to do that kind of review).

I'm just saying that I believe it would be better to use the classroom to initiate that kind of discussion than to continue talking past each other in our respective echo chambers.