Goodbye, America
How is America to be defined? By its failures or its triumphs? Today, there seems to be an obsession with the former and a dismissal of the latter. Is this dark vision of the freest and most prosperous nation on earth an accurate narrative or a cynical distortion? James Robbins, columnist for USA Today and author of "Erasing America," considers that question in this video. How we view America's past will very much shape America's future.
Film maker Michael Moore stated that America is a nation ______________________.
founded on genocidebuilt on the backs of slavesmaintained through the subjugation of women to second class citizenship and economic disempowermentall of the aboveWhat happens when you raise a generation of Americans to hold their country’s past in contempt by exaggerating America’s faults and ignoring its triumphs?
they become patriots and openly express acceptance and love of their countrythey embrace American values and proudly uphold themthey have no respect for American institutions or the beliefs on which the nation is basednone of the aboveUntil the last few decades, liberals and conservatives alike shared a common understanding of America’s origins, its history, and its mission of spreading liberty – within America and around the world.
TrueFalseInstead of uplifting, inspiring, and uniting the country, the progressive narrative started in the 1960’s sought to ____________________________________________.
exclusively elevate white, male historical figures to legendary statusreplace the pride of American achievement with shamedemonize social warriors and identity politicsall of the aboveThe United States is a country that overcame and abolished slavery at the cost of how many lives?
6006,00060,000600,000
- Liberal politicians, celebrities, and history books portray America as a land of oppression—and many young Americans are buying it.
Popular progressive filmmaker Michael Moore famously described America as “a nation founded on genocide, built on the backs of slaves and maintained through the subjugation of women to second class citizenship and economic disempowerment.”
View sourceDemocratic Representative Ilhan Omar (MN) summed up her grim view of America as a "country that was founded on the history of Native American genocide.”
View sourceThe Left’s contemptuous vision of America goes all the way back to the discovery of the continent by Columbus in 1492, a moment now portrayed almost entirely in terms of racism, brutality and colonialism.
View sourceFeminist historian Joan Hoff Wilson claims that the American Revolution “produced no significant benefits for American women. The same generalization can be made for other powerless groups in the colonies—native Americans, blacks, probably most propertyless white males, and indentured servants."
View sourceThe indoctrination into this disparaging view of America is taking root among young people. A 2018 survey by the Foundation for Liberty and American Greatness found that half of Americans under 21 said America is a racist and sexist country.
View source- The Left’s attempt to erase the unifying, positive aspects of America’s history is erasing Americans’ sense of unity and optimism.
George Orwell said the “most effective way to destroy a people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” Orwell illustrated this concept in “1984,” writing: “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped.”
View sourceLeft-wing activists are now not only calling for the removal of Confederate statues, but for the removal of statues of the Founding Fathers as well.
View sourceNotre Dame University recently covered up 12 murals from the 1880s depicting Christopher Columbus’ life after complaints that they were offensive to Native Americans.
View sourceRelated Reading: “Erasing America: Losing Our Future by Destroying Our Past” – James Robbins
View source- A generation raised to hold America’s past in contempt will have no respect for American institutions or ideals.
According to the progressive narrative, Christopher Columbus discovered America only to despoil it.
View sourceProgressives believe the founders wrote the Constitution only to codify their ownership of slaves.
View sourceProgressives claim great captains of industry, the so-called “robber barons,” enriched themselves only by exploiting the poor.
View sourceThe rewriting of American history into one defined largely by oppression and racism is having an impact on young Americans, about half of whom have a deeply negative view of the country.
View sourceContrary to the progressive narrative, America’s founding ideals rejected slavery, racism, oppression and greed. Benjamin Franklin, along with many other founders, believed slavery was "an atrocious debasement of human nature.”
View sourceWATCH: “Erasing America” – James Robbins
View source- America isn’t defined by its greatest failings, which it has repeatedly faced and overcome. It’s defined by its unifying founding ideals.
America fought a bloody Civil War, overcoming and abolishing slavery at the cost of 600,000 lives.
View sourceAn American president signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
View sourceAmerica has struggled since its founding with discrimination, but it is also the country that passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
View sourceWomen gained the right to vote in 1920 with the ratification of the 19th Amendment.
View sourceAmerica saved the world from the threat of fascism in WWII, leading the charge to liberate Europe on D-Day.
View sourceAmerica stood against the Soviet Union and defeated communism.
View sourceWATCH: James S. Robbins talks about the Left’s attempts to erase America's history
View source
Do you remember America?
If you read about it in a history textbook, you probably learned about a land of oppression, racism, sexism, income inequality, police brutality, and imperial wars. (Aside from that, it was a great place.)
That is how America is portrayed in most American high schools and colleges—and in America’s media, films, and by its progressive politicians.
In the words of filmmaker Michael Moore, America is “a nation founded on genocide, built on the backs of slaves, and maintained through the subjugation of women to second-class citizenship and economic disempowerment.”
Is that America’s history? Is that who Americans were—and are?
George Orwell understood that the most effective way to destroy a people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.
History is much more than a collection of facts. History, and our understanding of it, tells us who we are as a people in the same way your personal memories and experiences define and shape who you are.
Wipe out your memory, and you wipe out your identity.
When you raise a generation of Americans to hold their country’s past in contempt by exaggerating America’s faults and ignoring its triumphs, then they will have no respect for American institutions or the beliefs on which the nation is based.
It hasn’t always been this way. Until the last few decades, liberals and conservatives alike shared a common understanding of America’s origins, its history, and its mission of spreading liberty—within America and around the world.
They recognized America as the country of the Pilgrims and Jamestown, of the self-evident truths of the Declaration of Independence, of the individual rights won through revolution and secured in the U.S. Constitution.
This was the country of the frontier spirit and of almost unlimited possibilities; the country that paid for the sin of slavery with the carnage of its Civil War; of economic dynamism and endless invention; of unparalleled individual opportunity; and the country that defeated fascism and communism in the 20th century.
Previous generations took all this for granted and reveled in it.
So what changed?
Starting in the 1960s, a new, so-called “progressive,” narrative took hold that sought not to uplift, inspire, and unite, but to demean, degrade and divide. It sought to replace the pride of American achievement with shame.
Ironically, this all happened while America was making extraordinary strides in civil rights—especially for minorities and women.
But anything less than perfection—which can never exist, given that every society is composed of flawed human beings—is now considered a total failure; and victims of the past are elevated as an indictment of the present.
Along the way, all the classic American touchstones have been undermined. According to the progressive narrative, Christopher Columbus discovered America only to despoil it; the Founders wrote the Constitution only to codify their ownership of slaves; the great captains of industry enriched themselves only by exploiting the poor.
American traditions that were perfectly acceptable even a few years ago—pledging allegiance to the flag, singing the national anthem, even saying “Merry Christmas”—have been called into question, mocked, and sometimes banned.
The outcome of this new, non-violent civil war between those who hold America and its history in contempt and those who, without denying its flaws, revere America, will determine the future of the American experiment—the new history we will make.
Is America a country that was built by slavery? Or a country that overcame and abolished slavery at the cost of 600,000 lives? Is America a country of rampant discrimination? Or an accepting people in active pursuit of a more perfect union? Is it a country of grinding exploitation? Or a land of limitless opportunity?
The time has come to choose.
How will you remember America?
I’m James Robbins, columnist for USAToday and author of Erasing America, for Prager University.
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