“Here’s the thing,” Robinson said. “Whether you’re talking about Adolf Hitler, whether you’re talking about Chairman Mao, whether you’re talking about Stalin, whether you’re talking about Pol Pot, whether you’re talking about Castro in Cuba, or whether you’re talking about a dozen other despots all around the globe, it is time for us to get back and start reading some of those quotes.”

This is the Lieutenant Governor of a state (North Carolina) saying we can get gems from the quotes of genocidal maniacs. This is where we are now.

    • LegalAction@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      So you know what Hitler actually said? So you don’t fall for something like “the Germans didn’t really know what was happening”? Yes, they did. It was published, and you can cite chapter and verse.

      Same reason to read anything.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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        1 year ago

        No, I don’t fall for that because I read history books. So I don’t have to read Mein Kampf. What’s next, making it required reading in schools?

        Are you really under the bizarre impression that no one who hasn’t read Mein Kampf has any idea of what Nazism was about?

        • LegalAction@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          It’s always worth putting your eyes on the primary source yourself. History texts are not without their own agendas. You’re familiar with 1984, yes?

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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            1 year ago

            Again- should all schoolchildren be reading Mein Kampf so they can understand the horrors of WW2? Or is there another way to do that?

            • LegalAction@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              I didn’t say school children, and I didn’t say all. I said it was necessary for anyone studying ww2. Here, that’s usually done in university.

                • LegalAction@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  It’s functionally impossible to assign whole books to middle schoolers. And don’t confuse what you learn in primary education with real study.

                  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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                    1 year ago

                    First of all, middle schoolers read whole books all the time. You clearly don’t have any kids who are or have been through middle school. Secondly, there’s also a thing called high school and they study WW2 during it.

                    Thirdly, this was what you said initially:

                    We should be reading them though

                    I thought we were the party of “banning books is bad”?

                    Read them with historical context.

                    You didn’t say anything about real study. You just said we should be reading Mein Kampf within historical context. So I’m now confused as to why you don’t think school children should be reading Mein Kampf.