Just my two cents, but I think there’s something to this. There was a time in the US when, as a kid, if you did something odd or questionable, you’d get called out—and if it was bad enough, maybe even shamed by your peers. Sure, it wasn’t perfect and could be taken too far, but overall, it maybe helped shape people into more self-aware adults.
Somewhere in the late ’90s, this started fading out. Suddenly, everyone was ‘special’ and ‘living their best life.’ You couldn’t mention weight or bad behavior without backlash. Teachers became scapegoats for entitled parents. And now, here we are—half the country can’t make informed decisions, can’t have a productive discussion, and drives like traffic laws are optional.
Point being, the goal posts have moved. There really should be protests on the streets based on these picks, but bat shit crazy and lying have become normal and acceptable behavior.
That’s just not fair. Most people received a decent public education and had acceptable U.S. history classes. That’s how I learned how messed up U.S. history really is. This is coming from someone who grew up in a farm town in the 90s.
These religious extremists and southern followers allowing all of this to happen are loud and now in charge. The U.S. education system has been defunded, criticized, and abused by the GOP for decades and, more recently, by the people in these states. It’s easy to point at it after all that and say it’s not working. But let’s be fair—it’s being dismantled on purpose.
Today, as far as American Exceptionalism goes, that’s the core curriculum for these folks. They’ve successfully created an alternate reality and history.