I’m so tired of my US History class. We’re approaching WW1, and my teacher is talking about communism. Firstly, he’s a hardcore liberal, but oh my goodness for him to teach AP, he doesn’t even SOUND like he knows what he’s talking about. His articulation and the way he talks, along with his word choice just shows he doesn’t know shit about communism.
Today he was talking about communism and I told him “communism is a moneyless, stateless, classless society.” Then he said “no, communism is where EVERYTHING is equal.” Then I proceeded to tell him that there’s different types of communist ideologies apart from the one he’s talking about, such as Anarcho-communism who believe that “true” communism is accomplished by dictatorship of the proletariat, however without a class and state. He ignored that then went back to his flawed point where communism is where “everything is equal” and that the “government controls everything, not a market.”
Then he proceeded to ask the class “What if I graded you all like a communist? Everyone in here would have a B.” And everyone was like “OH NO NO NO!!”
It’s just so ugh… He sounds so dumb it pisses me off, and the students just gobble that bullshit up, which pisses me off even more.
You should have responded that him grading like a communist would mean everyone would be able to reach their true potential, and their education would take their flaws or difficulties into account and help the students reach higher. Grading like a capitalist would mean that everyone else gets and F and two people get A’s.
Then he would bring up the meritocracy argument in terms of grading :((
You could then tell him to shove his meritocracy up his ass, because you already addressed the problem and proved him wrong.
I had this exact experience in highschool, in my AP european history class too!
I wish I had read Lenin’s greatest diss track back then, debunking the “communism = everyone equal” myth.
We even read the communist manifesto in class, but it was prefaced as being “idealistic”, and “leads to anti-democracy totalitarianism in practice”, and no pro-communist views outside of those were allowed.
Imagine teaching any other science by only looking at one side of the debate.
Today, we’re going to learn about phlogiston. Next week, Lombroso. And finally, the curative properties of tobacco.
Oh, hang on. Wait. Now that I think about it, a lot of subjects are taught this way.
The idealistic argument is so annoying as well. I’d rather be idealistic and achieve 80% of what I strive for than do nothing and accept life as it is. For a system that likes to suck itself off for it’s promotion of innovation, calling people with other visions idealistic seems a bit dumb.
Also the “communism is idealistic” is just blantantly false… the USSR became a superpower within two decades, and now China has brought more people out of poverty and hunger than any other country in world history.
In the span of 250 years the US has caused more harm than good. Liberals don’t ever emphasize on that though. Hurr durr USSR bad!!
I wish I had read Lenin’s greatest diss track back then, debunking the “communism = everyone equal” myth.
This is beautiful. I wish I’d had this to hand in secondary school
Another one of their favorite things to say is “good on theory but bad in practice.” My brother in Christ, what’s so hard about explaining a damn system without being biased? I can EASILY explain capitalism without bashing. It’s SOOO easy. Good God, American education is trashed. Might as well throw the whole country away. Man they piss me off.
Give him primary sources from the books of Marx Engels and Lenin, they themselves literally disprove the libshit propaganda that he spews.
Unfortunately, you’re going to have to keep engaging with people like this for what will feel like forever. It will only get more frustrating, unfortunately. But you’ll also get better at navigating it.
(As an aside, who wouldn’t say yes to a free B? Is that a bad grade? Sounds like a bargain to me if it’s automatic.)
There’s a possibly useful book by Bertell Ollman, How To Take An Exam: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/H/bo33810559.html.
It’s got it’s problems, but Ollman explains how to navigate bourgeois education as a radical. As cathartic as it would be to challenge your teacher(s), you’re unlikely to change their mind(s), and hardly anyone is going to read your assigments so you won’t prove much by taking a radical stance; it’s not the place for starting a revolution.
I’m not saying don’t highlight the contradictions in class. Just be careful with jeopardising your grades. You won’t do yourself any favours even if you’ll sleep better.
This applies to all levels of education, right up to and including a PhD if that’s where you want to go (you might not, which is entirely acceptable): if you want to learn, you better learn to teach yourself, because the great teachers are few and far between, and even they can’t sit watching while you read, and it’s the reading that makes the difference (whatever the subject and whether the student is orthodox or a radical).
In class, it may be more useful to apply historical materialism to the sources rather than bringing up revolutionaries (without saying that that’s what you’re doing). Because if there is any error in your explanation of Marxism, it will be taken as evidence that you’ve not learned anything, that you failed to pay attention when the teacher was telling you what communism really is. Even typos could be used against you in that scenario.
As Parenti warns, when you go against the current, everything you say will be challenged. In my writing, I’ve been challenged for ‘being biased’ by mentioning that liberal democracies are capitalist, or for quoting government policy, in context (apparently, most people don’t like to see evidence of how totalitarian are liberal democratic states). I.e. it’s okay to regurgitate the government’s summary of what it’s doing (which makes the government look good), but it’s ‘not okay’ to unpack the real implications (increased inequality) even if that is admitted somewhere in the fine print.
Unless you have a great teacher, you won’t make them read Marx, Engels, Lenin, etc. If you’re asked to criticise sources that claim communism is about making everything equal, criticise it and say how that kind of system would not work. Just leave out the bit where you would say, ‘… and that’s why no communist believes that.’
I’m sorry I don’t have more a positive response for you, but I hope this helps.
Thank you, this was enlightening and very humbling.
You’re welcome, and I hope there’s something useful in what I said. Please don’t take it as me telling you not to speak up. There will be plenty of people who do that, and I don’t want to chorus them. This is more of a pick-your-battles kind of thing.
I have had the displeasure some time ago of being in a similar situation. Actually, several times.
I distinctly recall one ‘history’ teacher lamenting that Stalin was worse than Hitler, and that more people should recognize it. They genuinely believed Stalin didn’t want to fight the Nazis and that he was the greater evil as well. Most of their World War 2 unit was your typical “communism bad” rant, and in retrospect some Hitler apologetics in the form of “less bad” and “lesser evil” rants. Not to mention any criticism of the US in the US history class of course.
Other teachers I’ve encountered all where varying degrees of the same anti-communist narrative.
Ironically, what might have radicalized me the most was inconsistencies in the propaganda narrative(s). If your curious, these contractions will stand out to you, and upon investigation one tends to find the truth; hence one becomes radicalized.
Good job on speaking up. A lot of people would have just tuned out and switched off.
Thing is they didn’t tune it out. They ate that shit up and licked their lips. They’re all greedy capitalists who desire to step over others to get to the top of that rat race. They all have crab mentality, so hearing about caring about others apparently turns them off.
I mean people of our politics. A lot of us would just quietly roll their eyes and keep their heads down.
Ah I see wym. That is true. Sometimes I do this so I don’t ruin my day by another’s brainrot lol
Everyone would have a B without doing anything? Noice.
For real, people are so greedy, a B is a good grade. Capitalist or communist grading, everyone has a B in that class anyways, I don’t see why they’re complaining lmao. Literally no one in that class has an A.
AP? Is that in the Philippines.
AP is Advanced Placement. It’s a special type of class here in the US run by a “nonprofit” that makes profit called CollegeBoard. Every student here hates CollegeBoard with a passion. They’ve done things such as set up a fake subreddit for studying before the test at the end of the year, and then automatically failed everyone in it because they were “cheating”. They then bragged about how many people they caught “cheating”. These tests are extremely expensive and you are basically just paying for more work. If you pass the test, then depending on which college you decide to attend, you MIGHT have a higher GPA if they factor it into their calculation, which MIGHT give you a better chance of getting in. In order to even have the ability to take that chance, you have to stress yourself with extra work, then overpay for every single test for every subject in which you have AP, then stress yourself even more with a test that lasts hours. More important tests cost more.
Glad I don’t have CollegeBoard in the Philippines.
You can probably take AP exams in Philippines if you want. People outside the US take them if they are seeking admission in an American college.
Nah, I don’t need to waste money in an expensive private college,
WHAT?! These tests are paid?! No way… sigh… I’m in two AP classes…
You don’t have to take them. It will just count as a normal non-AP if you don’t. Of course, that does mean it’ll be a lot of extra work for no reason, but still. This is why CollegeBoard is the worst.
Edit: Also, depending on your school and which district it’s in, they might pay part of the cost depending on your family’s income.
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Thank you! It just really sucks being in history class. They gobble that slop up so easily and bird feed it to other people. It’s gross. I’m always the odd one out, they now proclaim I’m someone who “loves” dictators and even recommended me Hitler’s autobiography. Apparently I support evil lol
