My nephew has been posting anti-CRT memes on Facebook...

[DemocraticPatriot]

(He was an Obama supporter years ago, but somehow felt that Obama failed us-- I never got a clear explanation on that. However--)
He is also something of an evangelical christian. I presume he watches Faux, or something worse-- I often see him posting their current "talking points" nowadays...

Anyway, his most recent incursion was to post this meme, with a picture of the young actor from 'The Office', I forget his name... lol
that said, paraphrased, 'if you read critical race theory, and take every word that says "white", and replace it with "black", and it sounds racist, then it was racist from the beginning'

I responded 'But it was in fact whites who enslaved blacks, beating, raping, and killing them with impunity, because they were not even recognized as human beings having any rights under US law, and that was codified with the Dred Scot decision. Your meme is only playing games with words, in order to justify the position of those who want to "white-wash" history. Further, there is absolutely nothing wrong with teaching the real facts about American history, even if it were being offered to younger students, which it isn't'


Well, we went back and forth with this for a couple days.... He bemoaned the station of African-Americans down the street and claimed that liberals had done nothing for them, and I replied with the obvious that 'they were helped by the Biden COVID assistance bills, just like everyone else of lower incomes, and perhaps they need more help, but the rightwing will never allow it' and on and on.

I also pointed out that the whole CRT controversy was ginned up by the right to "work their base into a lather", since it is a false issue (among many other false issues), and no "elementary schools" are teaching CRT since it is a college and graduate school course, and they just want to excite their base with this and other false issues "because they have nothing positive to offer that would help the American people."

We went back and forth on this, and a little more tonight--

I was trying to respond again, when he deleted his own thread, so that I could respond no further. LOL!!!!



I was very surprised when he did that-- but it is obviously a victory! LMAO

So I have done my own small part, to improve Facebook

[Mike Nelson]

1. Well...

... the outcome was okay! I've had similar exchanges. The pattern is the same... evangelical Christian views... FOX "News" watcher.

... I had success, recently, with the "All Countries Matter" Facebook meme going around on the 4th of July. Someone said that's true, but we're talking about America. So, I said compare that to "Black Lives Matter" - of course all lives matter, but we're talking about Black lives.

[DemocraticPatriot]

2. yes, of course but white lives always mattered-- obviously---

because they were not unjustly shot by the police nearly so often...

(He did even bring BLM into the discussion, and stated that the "protests seem to happen only before an election". I did not get around to addressing that point, before the thread was deleted, lol)


((And of course by deleting the thread, he also deleted all of my refutations-- apparently he thought he was 'further ahead' by doing so, but I regret that my comments were thus lost to the internet))

[viva la]

12. Unfortunately, asking WWJD no longer seems to work

With some of these supposed "CHRISTIANS". What would Jesus do ? We can point out that Jesus who praised the good samaritan probably would neverHate immigrants, and that The one who's true the merchants out of the temple probably wouldn't be for unbridled capitalism.

But I think all that New Testament stuff just doesn't have a lot of force with them.Too wimpy, I guess. You did well to keep this on a civil and yet insightful level.

[DemocraticPatriot]

3. As an aside--- once I read him posting an OP on Facebook which seemed so far right

that I could not believe that he himself wrote it--- so I googled it, with quotes...
(I can't remember what it was about anymore, just left vs. right stuff)

Sure enough, he had only copy and pasted someone else's words from off the internet, as his own Facebook post, with no attribution or even quote marks....

(I did not publicly "out him" over it, as I had no wish to publicly humiliate him-- but I took it 'under advisement' )



Just more evidence that many of the right-wing posters can't seem to think for themselves.

[uriel1972]

4. Constructive creativity is not an authoritarian trait...

[calimary]

6. I'd guess not.

Authoritarianism requires submission from whatever it encounters, NOT creative-anything, seems to me. Something that qualifies as “creative” might easily resist the confines imposed by an authoritarian imperative.

As I said, seems to me.

[multigraincracker]

5. I one has a problem with CRT,

tell em they should have picked their own damn cotton.

[DemocraticPatriot]

7. I have yet to tell him that one of our ancestors was a slaveholder in Virginia,

(I was saving that back, but he deleted the thread before I could get to it)...

It may or may not have been the same guy who was a Confederate cavlaryman from the 12th Virginia regiment, who died at or near the battle of the Wilderness... an ancestor of my grandmother.

Luckily, I have have 2 other ancestors who marched with Sherman...


(My father was the genealogist who researched all of this)

[progressoid]

8. Yep. Deleting is a common tactic for some.

I think they know they are wrong (or at least that they lost the argument) so they don't want any evidence out there to remind them.

I once shamed an aunt into deleting her entire profile on FB. In 2016, she was touting how great it will be for Evangelicals with T**** in the White House. So I pressed her to tell me what characteristics of his embodied her Christian faith. She didn't respond. The next day her account was gone.

[LittleGirl]

9. I've deleted threads on FB

When it was just like beating my head against the wall. There is nothing wrong with deleting a bunch of crap. I lock down my account so that the public can’t see anything and I don’t befriend anybody I don’t know. Well done!

[TNNurse]

11. I am surprised when I see the kind of things that are posted on FB.

They are always shared elsewhere. Why? Because I unfollow or block anyone who puts up stupid crap.

I do not go to FB for education or news. I read there for family and friend updates, funny stuff and music. Sure I belong to a couple of liberal groups but they are good at keeping out the crazies.

I speak my mind on occasion (I once swore I would not put anything political on there but then that idiot got in office) and if someone insults or challenges with stupidity, I block them...even family.

[LittleGirl]

14. Yup, that's how it is done here. Nt

[DemUnleashed]

10. Great job!

Great job! Maybe at the very least you got him to think about it a little more. To open up someone's eyes, even if it's just a little, is an accomplishment in my book!

[Dream Girl]

13. Please don't use Facebook! Don't support FB by being a user.

They have done quite enough to help destroy this country. They are harming society in the name of profit.

[uponit7771]

15. K&R,

[Demovictory9]

16. k&r

[gratuitous]

17. Maybe he'll be a little more conscientious about what he posts

Hard to say if you changed his mind, but that can come later. If he pauses for a moment before hitting the "Post" button, that may be as much as you could accomplish this go-round. I think people can be persuaded, particularly if they're engaged on a subject or an issue by someone they know. It won't happen all at once, but if your nephew was an Obama supporter once upon a time and had his mind changed, it can be changed back.

[Maru Kitteh]

18. You helped to educate others who read that thread.

Well done.

[Apollo Zeus]

19. Cesar Milan often says that dogs show the most resistance right before they stop

He compares it to "an exorcism"

I have to think there is something about the CRT hoax that has created an internal debate for your nephew.

In general I think the GOP's CRT hoax has created a teachable moment -- "You want to ban history? Hmmm..why?"

He can substitute black for white in his fantasy version of history and yet there is no denying that race-based slavery never happened to white people in America. There are no word games or mental gymnastics that can point to a white version of the Black Wall Street Massacre of 1921 or make Obama into the inverse of Woodrow Wilson.

What DID happen? Real families, real people, real children were chained and groomed and displayed and traded like so many used cars without regard to their humanity. Americans SHOULD be embarrassed and therefore they should have some desire to erase the ugly parts of the truth but they should not be allowed to actually do so.

Facing facts may be the more painful and more challenging path but it is the only path that leads to the future.