(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Changing the Message: Learning how to Teach Politics [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-01 Tyson does not mince words when talking about education. First of all, by way of disclosure, I am not and have never been a teacher. But I’m sure many here at KOS are just that and are/were fine teachers. The above quote by Tyson references children, but I think it also applies to adults and politics. Personally, having been an activist most of my life, I was never satisfied that our politics was reaching people the way it could. People don’t often change their political views and mostly seek out groups that will re-enforce the ones they already have. It’s a rare individual that seems to have that ability to overcome such obstacles and help change those views. We see such a person only occasionally in both left and right circles. Obama, Capable of Teaching Moments but . . . Former President Obama Obama had such abilities, and from time to time displayed them, but could not escape the limitations placed upon him both by his office and by his loyalty and ties to centrist party leadership. Ultimately, he could not meet the very high expectations many of his supporters had for what they believed he might have been able to accomplish. Progressive activists face a particular problem when facing individuals with closed minds that have lost the ability to learn, create, think for themselves and develop a sense of what a given political movement will lead it. What Tyson had to say in the video linked below reminded me of something I always had the ability to do, but not while I was wearing my political hat. And that I was to communicate with many people on the right side of the political equation, but not when I spoke for a political party. Not everyone of course, and I can’t begin to estimate the response in terms of %, but I was often surprised at the number of people that were willing to listen to what I had to say when politics were discussed informally. They in fact wanted to ask questions and you had to exercise patience and not let on how poorly informed, no matter how intelligent and educated they were. All you can ask in these discussions, is to get the door open enough for people to listen. Not easy, but I watched many of my comrades fail badly at outreach and politicking who were smarter and braver than me. The Pitfalls of Authoritarian Education Some schools operate like prisons. The way our system of education is set up, it warps many children for the rest of their life. For every kid that likes school there are 3 times as many that can’t wait until classes are over. Our schools are so concerned with “law and order” in the classroom that they neglect the potential abilities, creativity and curiosity of their students. I acknowledge that some kids already come to school with behavioral problems, as teachers reading this well know. In the poorest and most unstable of our communities, such problems cannot be kept out of the classrooms. Often turning them into little more than daytime detention centers, with the school entrances graced with metal detectors due to the prevalence of guns on the street and education badly compromised. Only rudimentary education take place in the most neglected of schools, preparing the students for little more than a continued life of poverty and low wage employment. Despite this, some students still manage to persevere and escape such a fate, but all too many are not so fortunate. It’s an indictment on our entire approach to education directly connected to our failure to address poverty in a structural, social and economic way. A New Approach to Politics? January 6th attack on Congress. Back to politics, I think most of us have learned firsthand the difficulty in reaching people with words alone. But let me ask the reader a question, do we only approach those we are sure will listen, or do we develop a strategy which can reach those inclined to gravitate toward the fascist movements? Fact is, in most patriarchal countries with authoritarian tendencies, fascism is always a dark possibility. And while the most extremist messengers of fascism are not the ones to approach first as a general rule, what really brings anti-fascism theory and practice into the picture are when ordinary people start drifting in that direction. Fascism remains a threat in many countries to this day for that very reason. And the partially successful polarization of significant numbers of white Americans remaining in a Republican Party which has gone all-in on fascism should give us pause. Republicans have succeeded in “walling off” many of these folks by convincing them that progressive minded people (aka those they call liberal democrats) are to blame for all our troubles. Keeping their ears closed to understanding what is really causing our woes. Ultimately, we can still lose the battle against fascism for this very reason. Education, in politics as well as in school, as Tyson reminds us, is not having the student or individual believe in something because so-and-so with a big title or is famous says so. People that are compelled to follow leaders blindly have lost their ability to reason and think critically for themselves or understand the deadly path of destruction the Trumps and Putins of this world are leading them down. Teachers are not the Police A scene from Blackboard Jungle, made in the mid-50s, with Vic Morrow, Sidney Potier and Glenn Ford in the foreground. Clearly, something must have been very wrong in our methods of education long before misleaders like Trump arrived on the scene. To various degrees, both political parties have historically used jingoistic, nationalistic and militaristic ways to deceive voters and keep them from learning how the system works to disenfranchise them. This started in our schools as American history and history in general were distorted or never fully told. And who were supposed to be the nation’s heroes and villains. The working-class area I grew up in rarely voted, viewing the political classes as a choice of Tweedle dee or Tweedle dumb. That has carried over into present times, and many alienated voters went over to Trump because he talked like them and openly shared their fears and biases, and they became convinced he was one of them and could lead them to the promised land. Fascism will not Disappear Even if Trump Does “History is a people's memory, and without a memory or education, a man is demoted to the lower animals.” I would argue that the most serious factors pushing the country towards fascism is white political alienation/ignorance and racism. A mentality of white supremacy/superiority and anti-government rhetoric absorbed in part in some cases from our own parents and friends and the fiction that is taught in our schools in civics and history classes. Resulting in us not knowing who or what we are, and who might be our true friends and enemies. We have been fortunate at the ineptness of the fascists and Trump, but the fascists could make a thousand mistakes and still be a threat because of the extent of their base, which is currently impervious to anti-fascist education. Why Anti-Government Propaganda Works Centrist former President Bill Clinton The undeniable role of racism in spreading fascism is indisputable. What is given less credit for fascist development in the white masses is the ironic fact that much of Republican propaganda and rhetoric revolves around their anti-capitalist overtures, usually laced with antisemitism and dutifully reported by the right leaning mass media. They have in recent years ramped up antisemitic dog whistling and covered it with links blaming wealthy (often Jewish) Democratic supporters for the evils and corruption of capitalism. Their base tends to combine their hatred and mistrust of intellectuals with the more logical expressions of Democratic politicians, some of which do go foolishly out of their way to defend capitalism, the economic root cause of fascism today. The Democrats Drifted Right for Many Years Centrists single handedly opposed the leftward pushes during the Obama period, blocking attempts to socialize medicine and eventually passing a bill more acceptable to the insurance industry. Democrats in the past have even backed mass incarceration and have never put forward a program/policy anywhere near what is necessary to address poverty, the primary breeding grounds of crime. I Don’t Have a Magic Bullet but . . . Welcome Back Kotter put a different 60s spin on education. Some of us learn in schools, some from our life experiences. The most fortunate among us learn from both. Fascism did not start yesterday. You can find fascist behavior in the history books going back thousands of years. While capitalism today promotes it, it did not create the ground upon which it grows. The Trumps of the world existed long before the Donald. Same goes for racism and white supremacy, which was born in America long before our own Constitution was written and turned out by design to powerless against it. I don’t have a magic bullet . . . but a message that cannot reach racist whites cannot transform the country and should force use to find a better message. If people are hearing the fascist message, which offers them little but death and destruction, something must also be missing from ours. Passivity and silence in the face of fascist promotion guarantees it will prevail. If citizens do not understand our anti-fascist message, then we are speaking in the wrong “language.” Continuing to do so meets the textbook definition of insanity. Changing the Message As bad as the Republican message was, “Blond Women with Guns” works better than the previous one in some districts. As bad as their message may be, the Republican’s gradually changed it after they cratered to about a 20% national popularity on Congressional polls and stood there. They selected fascism and assorted craziness as a message and as a cover page because it disguised who they were, i.e. the same old phonies. Trump is not popular for some folks because he’s a Republican, which is why is personally “owns” his supporters. Democrats have not realized, or perhaps not cared, about the implications that they did almost as low on same national polls. It’s time we changed our approach to how we deliver politics. And by that I do not mean to copy the Republicans. What is clear is that because politics in America, as in other capitalist countries, has a very bad reputation. As it is attuned to the way we vote, wearing your political party hat largely prevents your message from being heard. Political education is just as essential in the period well prior to elections. But should probably never be labeled as “political” education. I’d rather label it “How to Make the Political System Work for You”. Especially if you’re talking to people that have bought the anti-progressive and anti-Democrat message the Republicans are selling. The bottom line is when something isn’t working, you try something different! (The clip below is by Neil deGrasse Tyson. Wish I had a teacher like him in school.) [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/1/2159631/-Changing-the-Message-Learning-how-to-Teach-Politics Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/