Replies to post #424106 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[DesertDrifter]

So, you identify with Comatose instead of being awake and alert. figures.

[brooklyn13]

Funny, you guys were good with "alternative facts" for 4 years. Having a problem with them now?

[blackhawks]

The other side of that story. Like the writer of this piece I regularly watch Maher; the 'New Rules' at the end is as good as comedy gets, week in week out.

That said, he is increasingly, lazily, more prone to sweeping generalizations, conclusion jumping, cheap shots and outright misinformation, much like some posters here.

This is one such time.

https://hinessight.blogs.com/salempoliticalsnark/

September 17, 2022
Bill Maher wrongly makes fun of Portland schools "wokeness"
I've watched Bill Maher for many years, most recently via his Real Time show on HBO.

Generally I enjoy Maher's blend of political humor and observations, but sometimes his tendency to criticize perceived liberal excesses rubs me the wrong way.

Not because I object to Maher making fun of extreme left-wing stances, which indeed can be deserving of ridicule now and then. Rather, I don't like it when Maher oversimplifies a complex issue just for the sake of making it a more convenient object of scorn on his show.

Yesterday Maher had a bit in his New Rules segment where he featured a headline from a story along with a quotation.



Maher didn't mention that the author of the story was Christopher Rufo. Today the Oregonian had a story about Maher's ridiculing Portland Public Schools for claiming in its elementary school curriculum:

When the United States was colonized by white settlers, their views around gender were forced upon the people already living here.

The Oregonian story describes Rufo.

Rufo, who lives in Gig Harbor, Washington, is a controversial figure who makes frequent appearances on the Fox News Channel and who, as The New York Times noted, is a conservative activist “who probably more than any other person made critical race theory a rallying cry on the right -- and who has become, to some on the left, an agitator of intolerance.”

So in no way is Rufo a scholar of our nation's early history, or a respected commentator on childhood education regarding gender issues. Maher offered a platform to a controversial conservative.

In his story Rufo shares a slide presentation that does look like an authentic product of Portland Public Schools, though whether it was actually used by teachers is another question. I didn't read all 198 slides thoroughly, but I scrolled through the slides looking for the ones that referenced colonization.

Here's screenshots of what I found, along with my comments on the slides.



Discussion of gender as it relates to colonization of our country comes in a 4th and 5th grade section. Thus when Maher combined the title of the story, which mentions kindergarten, with the content of material intended for 4th and 5th graders, that's misleading the viewer.



Maybe I'm excessively woke also, but I don't find much, if anything, to criticize in this slide. I suspect what it says would be endorsed by most reputable scholars of early American history.



I've heard about the notion of Two-Spirit but don't know much about it. Some Googling indicates that gender fluidity indeed was a part of Native American culture. For example, see here.



This slide also strikes me as being mostly or entirely accurate.

Here's a video of yesterday's New Rules segment. The Portland mention is at about the 5 minute mark.

[fuagf]

conix, In watching that video did you wonder at all about how good a history lesson Maher gives in his treatments of topics as woke and presentism.

"Wake up call to the Woke. A History Lesson....
So true--and the Portland Department of Education needs to come back to reality.
It should be grounds for dismissal to teach--TEACH--non-facts like Portland is."

Putting aside quibbles of the exact wording of the tiny bit of the Portland curriculum Maher gave you - context has seldom seemed
important to you - have you considered at all the basic message of that tiny bit could be closer to the truth than you have imagined.

How homophobic were the indigenous people of N America. Were they as into binary sexual identity as acidly as you are today.

Trump was your hero once. What was it about Trump that allowed you to put aside his terrible basic character to
allow you to vote for him twice. What is is about Maher that makes him your latest hero. His smugness perhaps.

Two last for now. What exactly are the non-facts you say Portland teachers are teaching.

And since you say Portland people should dismiss Portland teachers for teaching non-facts how (although you have not identified any) how do you
you think this board should treat you the next time you post a non-fact, which we have easily identified. You have posted many. you know.

At one time in history i guess humans thought there was only one type of dog.

Perhaps you could ask Maher about how many different types of presentism there are.

PS: No question marks as all are simply rhetorical, for you.