Blogging the Apocalypse: 5

When you drain resources away from  schools, colleges and Universities  you're going to get crap like this. Authoritarian governments thrive when people can't get decent education in all subjects. The NYT 1619 Project fiasco is just one example of what can happen when funding no longer encourages people to read about history, geography and the arts. We should be campaigning for a huge increase in funding to schools and  protecting the curriculum so that it remains broad, balanced (Science/technology and humanities and arts) and free. Alongside a free heath service and free legal aid, education should be where we start building alliances against the predatory rich.  For the NYT to have run this sort of shit is a disgrace.  Read about it here.

An extract: 

' The 1619 Project has been a case study in historical ignorance and dishonesty. Silverstein’s latest exercise in self-justification continues the pattern of falsification and evasion. When the 1619 Project was criticized as poor journalism, Silverstein claimed it was history; and when it was criticized as bad history, he claimed it was mere journalism. Now, when it is proven that the 1619 Project’s central thesis is false, Silverstein announces that the argument was merely metaphorical and not meant to be taken literally.

In the end, the New York Times’ argument is a variation of a crooked politician’s age-old evasion: “We know that you think you know what we said. But what you read is not what we meant.”'