#ElvesTeachCivics

[elfpuddle]

The others are a version of these:

Dear redditors, the majority of important world events and breaking news may look like this:

So don't immediately scroll past these posts.

I'm not even fucking joking. That's just how shit works on this hellsite (derogatory)

[elfpuddle]

Start your New Year with something to learn. No, elections aren't rigged. The electoral college is not perfect, but is also not keeping your favorite person from winning. it's math. It's the math of people not voting, and of occasionally voting against a thing instead of for a thing.

[elfpuddle]

[elfpuddle]

Banned doesn’t mean what you think it does.

banning books is bad unless i hate the author

[elfpuddle]

I was teaching The Diary of Anne Frank as a student teacher. One student told me that God created white people, but Jews and N*ggers evolved from apes. I had no support from my assigned teacher, and didn’t have the skills to confront that stupidity and hatred. I left the assignment early, after the same student threatened my life.

Assuming the young man is still alive, he’d be in his thirties now. I hope he’s had enough people in his life who could help him fix his damage that he has done so.

If you do not believe that Jews are indigenous to the place that was called Judea, Judea being the source of the words Judaism and Jew, then where are we supposed to be from?

[elfpuddle]

Spoiler: It’s not.

Spoiler the Second: It is also not a checklist of things to achieve or collect.

“People think of education as something they can finish.”

— Isaac Asimov

[elfpuddle]

Why do I dialogue (or try to) instead of merely letting people rant about letting on certain people talk? It doesn’t matter if it’s a “conversation” about race theory or gender theory, or any necessary action...if you are excluding anyone from the table for any reason, then you are encouraging hate. And that is not going to end well. Ever.

Not the Bee.

This is real life.

Look y’all. We can talk about how racism and segregation in the past could have contributed to generational poverty. We can talk about how to help break bad cycles and support those who were marginalized.

But when you are actively pushing the idea of hating white people - with the exception of those who have dedicated their entire lives to a cause with ever-moving goal posts and constantly changing definitions - we have a problem.

In Germany there was decades, even centuries of anti-Semitism before Hitler came to power. It didn’t happen overnight. And before you yell at me for comparing white people today to Jewish people in Germany, pause for a moment and ask:

What did the anti-Semites say about Jewish people?

They said that Jewish people were wealthy, controlled the banks, and had institutional power that they used to oppress Germans.

If we have a few more decades of the White People Bad narrative that says white people have all the power and wealth and are responsible for the poverty and oppression of others - and we tie those characteristics to skin color - we are setting ourselves up for something Very Not Good.

Again, I don’t think we’re living in 1930s Germany. China is, at least as far as how they are treating the Uighurs.

But the whole point of “Never Again” is to never let it even get close to the point where someone could make that comparison.

The point is to recognize the signposts that point that direction and choose a different path before it’s too late.

Hating someone based on their skin color is racism.

And if you have a published book sold at Target that promotes hatred of a group based on their skin color, you do have institutional power, so don’t give me that crap.

Now, I don’t want the book to be banned. That doesn’t solve anything. I want us as a culture to recognize where that book is pointing and say NO, we will not go that way.

[elfpuddle]

No.

People not voting didn't elect a president.

If no one had voted, no one would have been elected.

Our president was elected because people voted for him.

If more people had voted for the same candidate as I did, then Mr. Maturen would be president. If more people had voted for (person's name here), then (person's name here) would have won. It's basic math: find the biggest number in a group of given numbers.

Yes, voting is important, but let's not pretend that the United States was suddenly taken over by something unexpected. It's a voting process. People voted. End of story.

You're welcome, of course, to be disappointed. You're encouraged to "get out the vote" for your preferred candidate. But let's acknowledge that the winners win by getting more votes than others.

Tomorrow is election day.

Reminder for Americans: 100 million didn’t vote, Trump is the result.

Please vote.