It not being taught is not quite the same as the outright denial / suppression that China does though.
Like there are only so many hours in the school day, you can’t teach literally every historical event.
Comment on Memory Wiped
Krono@lemmy.today 1 day agoI think there are many events in American history that could be analogous to Tiananmen.
Were you ever educated on the 1985 MOVE bombing? The destruction of black wall street? The house un-american activities committee? The battle of Blair Mountain?
Were you ever taught about any of the coups we did to overthrow democratic governments in latin america? The death squads we trained? The authoritarians and fascists we put into power, and the oppression and death they caused?
Or, in general, the 70-or-so countries we invaded since WWII? I think most Americans can only name Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam.
And that’s just the stuff I can name off the top of my head, I’m sure there are countless American atrocities that I am unaware of.
Personally, the American education system taught me none of that. Many of these subjects are not discussed in broad American culture.
Strykker@programming.dev 1 day ago
Krono@lemmy.today 1 day ago
Both US and China actively deny and suppress information. The Chinese method is more authoritarian, the US method is more effective.
I argue this point on another comment in this thread.
ReporterCivil1937@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
I didn’t even know about the Bonus Army until yesterday.
Cethin@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
You’re right those usually aren’t taught but that’s very different than denying they happened. Honestly, it’s more effective too probably. China denying it is part of why it keeps being brought up. They’re in too deep now, but if they had just said “yeah, it happened and it’s regretful” then people probably wouldn’t bring it up all the time.
kuato@lemmy.world 1 day ago
That’s the thing, though: The Tiananmen riots are not a secret in China, and they are taught, while you have been mistaught by Western propaganda that they’re a secret in China.
Carrolade@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I learned about around half of that in junior high and high school. Where did you study? That has a lot to do with it, our education system is controlled at the local level by individual school boards.
Krono@lemmy.today 1 day ago
So you were left ignorant of the other half of the atrocities I mentioned, just like we suspect Chinese citizens are ignorant of Tiananmen?
I went to high school in North Dakota btw.
Carrolade@lemmy.world 1 day ago
North Dakota makes sense, that’s a fairly conservative region if I’m not mistaken. I’m from a more purple region.
I don’t expect everything to be covered in junior high or high school, there isn’t enough time in a general US history or world history class to focus on most details. They’re not US imperialism classes, they’re generalist with a lot of material worthy of time and attention. This is what more advanced studies are for.
This is entirely different from actively suppressing information. The information is available, even if teaching it to all teenagers is not mandatory. One thing is active suppression, another is prioritization of limited time.
Krono@lemmy.today 1 day ago
Well I thought we were discussing education, but as far as information supression is concerned, I think both countries are heavily supresssing information, but the US method is simply much more effective.
Take for example an event similar in scale to the Tiananmen massacre, the Haditha massacre. The US military actively suppressed all info after it happened, classifying everything related to the killings. The only information from the state dept about this incident were leaks to the press downplaying the severity of the incident. Later, the DoD spends millions funding a Hollywood film to whitewash the incident, focusing on the perspective of the poor sad soldiers who did the massacre.
The result, I would argue, is that the Haditha massacre has been whitewashed, justified, and erased from history much more effectively than the Tiananmen massacre.
MothmanDelorian@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Fun question for Americans: how much were you taught about the struggle for labor rights?
Glytch@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Late nineties Midwest public school: barely talked about, Henry Ford given credit for the 5 day work week. The many atrocities were never mentioned.
MothmanDelorian@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Early 1990s and my boarding school taught it but not the public school.
caboose2006@lemm.ee 1 day ago
In school? Almost nothing. We learned a little bit about the passing of the Fair Labor Standards Act as “part of the new deal” but like the gun battles fought at mines, railroads etc… not a peep.
drbluefall@toast.ooo 1 day ago
I actually got a somewhat decent education on it. Learned about unionization, the fight for weekends, battle of Blair Mountain, and the teacher even played “Solidarity Forever” in class.
I fully recognize my experience isn’t standard, though.