this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2026
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Honest question, what kind of propaganda do you get fed in school? I don't know much about US schools, but I think you have to salute to the flag and sing your hymn once a week or so (which is really cringe if it is true)?
So,... it's like this, yo.
In the US in the 90's and 2000's, it's not as though we were particularly lied to in regards to world history, but when it came to national shit like Black Monday or the Civil Rights movement, it was more-or-less glazed over or certain parts were omitted entirely, or certain historical figures were just given completely different motivations.
"Uh, the south wasn't racist, it was taxes and economics, and such..."
"The Pinkertons? Whoms't've? Never heard of them!"
We'd still get Greece, Rome, Europe, Africa and Asia generally unaltered... with some favoritism to Canada and Mexico, but not when it came to Russia and communism or anything regarding anything that isn't capitalism and man, school hated on Cuba.
Asia was glazed over massively, not in the hiding anything sense, more of a "who cares?" sense. Social Studies/History was almost always US-centric at all times. We learned more about Japan from anime than school.
I went to public school in California from the 90's to the mid 2000's. I generally didn't pay much attention in history class but it was made quite clear to me that the south was historically racist and that people of color all over the US experienced racism of one form or another.
Every day bro. We had to sing the pledge of allegiance.
In middle school, my friends and I would stand like everyone else, but we’d say “One nation, under nothing” (we didn’t believe in God), and change the end to “liberty and justice for some” (or ‘none.’)
I wish I could say we were ahead of the game, but really we were just smartass kids who were resentful that we had to make a stupid pledge every day. I can’t speak for the others in that group (since we lost touch in high school), but I just straight up stopped saying anything at a certain point. I’d stand, no hand over heart (for those outside the US - the pledge is meant to be said with your right hand over your heart. I know, it’s cringe), and just zone out for a time while everyone else droned out the obligatory oath in bored, robotic voices.
"indivisible"
"Under god, undivided" ?
I've never set foot in the US but I'm fairly certain that's the right answer
It's been in a lot of movies
EDIT: It was "indivisible". So close though
i went to public highschool in Texas where our football coach taught finance and history due to teacher shortage.
:D I learned that North Korea killed more people than any other country on earth and, Germans were communists during world war 2
He is kinda special case tho. It's usually textbooks casually hiding facts like segregation.
"We've added as little info as possible, so you can fill the rest as you wish."
I like how this implies someone not moving from their seat for a pregnant woman is equivalent to Rosa Parks.
"I was asked to move to a different seat. I did not. I did what I believed was right."
Okay that sounds like the random crazy substitute teacher that exists everywhere :D
The Rosa Parks image however does not make much sense to me. If she was just a random person, why would it be mentioned in a history text book? Also what is the context of the image if not racism, a book chapter about transportation lol?
It's "segregation" chapter for first graders. The change was pushed after the "anti-W.O.K.E" laws. (Yes, what they are called)
Entire chapters were revised to not mention black people being the target. If I was a first grader I would assume "homeless" or "poor people" or even just "generally disliked people" that are being kicked out of shops and buses.
I just read up on this, it seems to be a Florida state law, though not federal, it is still outrageous. But it seems to be in line with modern republican politics in the US. The meme however suggested propaganda that happened in the past, so I thought of my own education which happened around 2000. It felt to me like the propaganda was ubiquitous through the decades, that is why I am asking in such detail. I know of course history is always a strongly biased field, and of course in Europe we are not immune against it. As Columbus was mentioned - especially regarding colonialism there is a lot to talk about in our education system. But, to come to the point, the meme suggests there was kind of extraordinarily propaganda within the US education system? Because I have troubles finding a country where this is not the case.
I hope I don't annoy anyone of you friends, I am just curious :D
No, no, it's perfectly fine. Lemmy is for discudsion.
The "state law" is pretty common because all states want to be treated as a seperate country. Especially for education they all have different rules and organizations.
I came to US in highschool way past 2000s so I can't really talk about that. I had heard a lot of oil and gas companies were funding the schools around that time tho so maybe there are some articles on specific things they did I could look for later?
Not to mention there is a common rewash of history about Parks' motivation. My whole life I was told that she decided on a whim because she had a long and hard day at work and didn't want to stand in the back. Actually she was an active member of the civil rights movement and the bus move was planned.
we spend several years learning about all the presidents (knowledge we will never use again), then we briefly gloss over native genocide (who lived happily ever after once Thanksgiving was invented), then slavery ended with the civil war, fascism ended with world wars I and II, then MLK Jr ended racism when he is shot (probably by the FBI, but we weren't told that), then we learn that communism is bad and ended with the cold war
I'd be interested in knowing how do they explain in schools that communism is bad.
By describing authoritarianism and calling it communism
Every morning when I went to school, it was rough
The Pledge of Allegiance
Lots of history fuckery
What does that mean? Do you get taught wrong facts about the civil war? Do they tell you the indigenous were at fault? I would be really interested in details!
I was taught in school that Christopher Columbus discovered America and was the only one who believed the world was round when he set sail.
That is incorrect, but how is that propaganda?
It gives the impression that Columbus was some genius who knew more than the rest of Europe (or the world at large.) It’s one small part of his heroic treatment in the US for so many years. The town I grew up in still has yearly parades in October commemorating him.
The issue people have with Columbus isn't really that they think he was the only one to know the world was round. The issue is more the atrocious handing of the native people he encountered.
Is that propaganda or just lazy elementary level education?
That's what I grew up with as well in Germany.
It highly depends on what time you grew up and where. I'm not the best person to answer.
See the DARE program for an example.