But implying it simply doesn't exist is just ignoring reality. Surely you don't do that, do you?
I don't believe it exists the way the left is presenting it these days. I can list a lot of examples, but we'll each retain our position anyways. I have a strong reaction when anyone makes a statement of another person based on race.
An regarding all those white slaver dudes in 1776, they also had about half of their life expectancy, so I fail to see how that relates in any way to how our society works now. People were wed and started having kids at age 12-14 not so long before that, too. Should we normalize that as well?
No, the meme is a meme. But along the lines your talking, I heard a clip from a podcast and went to hear more. It was a short bit from The Chad Prather Show (Ep 453 | Progressives Target Kids' Education). The guest, David Barton is a great historical mind who goes at lengths explaining not just the history being rewritten by progressives, and what's being omitted.
Some of the references were that the AP exams around 2014 had been written with no reference of the Founding Fathers, Lincoln, and even for WW2 there were no Japanese attacks (no Pearl Harbor) nor really any European theater (no mention of Hitler, nor the Holocaust) but only the one note of the US dropping the nuclear bomb and it raising question on America's priorities. This was around the 18m mark of a 45m podcast. At the 27m mark, he's going thru how we dropped 70million leaflets telling Japan which cities and targets we'd be (conventional) bombing leading up to the atomic bomb. He states there was no mention that Japanese beheaded more allied soldiers than the people we killed with two atomic bombs, nor the cannibalism they exercised.
35m mark gets to what caught me with the short blurb = the difference between 19th and 20th centuries. 1920's education changed from going up to the eight level where you diploma'd and went to college or work. School was only 3mo/yr. Barton says, today he brings in 18-25 yo folks (masters, PHD) and start them off by taking the 8th grade exit exam from back then. Even PHD kids can't get 50% on the exams of that day. America used to teach kids to think, since the 20's we have taught kids to memorize what they heard (introduced multiple choice and True-False). School went from 8grades to 12grades, 3mo to 9mo, and went to age based grades rather than the old 'levels' of knowledge and thinking ability. Now progressives are pushing 12mo/yr schooling, making 4y of college near mandatory as opposed to addressing the ability to THINK.
Prather went on a tangent about the citizenship test. Barton took that and shared that states started doin the 100 question citizenship (immigrants can learn it in 3mo, shows 92% pass rate). They tried it in a state and only 7% of the HS seniors could pass. A 3mo immigrant knows more about our country than a lifelong citizen coming out of our 12 grade educational system. 7 states now have it as part of HS graduation criteria. Other odd Barton facts - 62% of Americans can't name the 3 branches, 1 of 1000 can name the 5 rights of the First Amendment.
Closing (41m mark) they get into the Civil War, how "Little John" Clem through bravery on the battlefield was promoted to Sgt right then and there on the battlefield, but another General heard and came by and promoted him to Lt to join his staff. John was 12 - amazing by today's standards, not by what was expected of the youth back then.
Long way to come back to your point - shorter lifespans back then, people matured faster...or at least were expected-required to in order to survive. Now, we have much longer lifespans. I can't imagine we are now slower at maturing, but that is how our society is, unfortunately. I'm pretty sure I just ran in a big circular tangent (geometry joke, for those that care), and I'm not sure how close I came back to your point, but the eras were different, I agree.
