Alternative (Facts) History

So I have been recently obsessed with the idea of alternative timelines….like imagine a world that on the surface looks like ours…except the facts in this world are unlike the facts in our world…the way history is interpreted their world is not based on our understanding. This world was purposely curated to develop a skewed perspective of its inhabitants.

Now if it seems like I am writing for the latest Marvel-Disney television show. I am not. In my version, there is no intergalactic space authority manipulating the time thread. In that same vein, there is no superhero/super-heroine who will right the wrongs and make the timeline go back to normal. No, in fact, the worse part of my alternative timeline is that while the villains are real, nefarious, and as far as personality wise, purposely insipid, as not to draw attention to themselves or the work they are doing. Their only objective is to manipulate the world’s understanding of history. They want people to just operate in life, without a real understanding of who they are, or their real history. It’s almost like the Matrix without the robots taking over.

Now, you might be thinking “Camara, your fantasy world…doesn’t exist…not to mention it sounds utterly ridiculous”.

But my question….what if it did? What if the timeline I am talking about….is being created right now? Would that frighten you? I hope so.

But before we get into that… I want to take a journey over to Germany. In 1952, fresh off the embarrassing wounds of World War II. The country of Germany looked to take a bold stance in rejection of his ugly history. It outlawed the use, symbolism and speech of Nazi’s or any other fascist and/or anti-democratic symbolism. Strafgesetzbuch section 86a. This rule would not only prohibit such symbolism, it would outlaw anyone who dares show sympathy to the wicked cause of Nazi’ism. Yes, it’s true that the country of Germany only had a 12-year window of inhumanity and cruelty. But in that span, they murdered, maimed, and pillaged not only a group of individuals for their religious views, but they went out and sought to imperialize the entire world. Can you imagine if Germany were to try and erase this 12 year history from people’s memories as if the world did not bear witness to these atrocities? Wouldn’t that be insane? Well…unfortunately….this is what’s happening in America right now.

The latest culture war attack is the concept of “Critical Race Theory”. A niche academic standard that is only taught in graduate study programs, and certain law school elective courses. On the surface, this hyper focus on a small analytical theory is designed to keep this from being taught in the K-12 program. Yet, the attack on critical race theory is far deeper than that (Hopefully you have or will listen to my podcast, which describes this in great detail). The idea is to not keep a seldom known legal and theory out of K-12 programs, but to eliminate the idea of ‘race’ talk in the schools, and ultimately reframe the idea of history concerning race. The understand….matter of fact…they expect that the public has no idea what it is…and that’s perfect…because in that way….they can reframe the idea in the manner they see fit.

Christopher Rufo, a member of the ultra-right-wing Washington D.C. think tank, the Heritage Foundation, and who was recently appointed in April by the Manhattan Institute, another right-wing think tank, as director of a new “Initiative on Critical Race Theory”, stated on Twitter that:

“The goal is to have the public read some crazy in the newspaper and immediately think “Critical Race Theory”. We have decodified the term and will recodify it to annex the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular to Americans” (March 15, 2021, 3:17 pm).

Now this tweet and this person would seem innocuous enough, but these organizations, and others of its ilk, operate in trafficking information to other right-wing publications, news media (Fox News) and ultimately provide talking points to the politicians. The main objective of these think tanks is to make people feel like the conversation surrounding race is inappropriate, and anything concerning the subject should be banned. Ultimately, these organizations want to endure the imagery of America and its forefathers as wise, and character driven individuals who created a perfect nation of Democracy. If it weren’t for that minor thing of slavery, everything would be perfect. If they can get the general public to believe that anything being to critically analyze race is ‘divisive and inherently racist’ then they have won. They do not want a country to look at its history with a critical lens, they want a mythology of America to stand on its own.

Now, if you think I am being an alarmist. That’s fine. But consider this, Louisiana recently approved history textbooks for middle schoolers, which describes the civil war as a battle to preserve land. In Texas, the textbooks handed out to high schoolers described slaves as ‘workers’. And now you have in Florida a Governor who created a law that is obtuse, vague and without context or history. Thus, opening the door for state legislators to incorporate their brand slavery mythmaking. This is no different from the time after the Civil War, there was a propaganda campaign designed to reinterpret the civil war as a battle for state rights. This campaign was so effective that by the time 1915 had rolled around, a high majority of Americans didn’t believe that ‘Slavery was so bad’, in fact, southerners were deemed with regality of a foregone era. A society that was “Gone With The Wind”. Can you imagine if Germany citizens 35 years after World War II felt the holocaust “Wasn’t so bad”? It would be abhorrent. It would be equally disgusting if Germany created textbooks that reframed the atrocities of their history to maintain its myth of a magnificent country. The sad part about it is… Germany only has to live down 12 years of its history…. America must atone for hundreds of years of government sanctioned tyranny. You would expect a nation with such an extended history of pain wouldn’t have the audacity to reframe it. Yet here we are in 2021…and this is exactly what’s happening.

Yes, the timeline as we stand right now is intact, but make no mistake about it, the fan fiction of American mythology is in full bloom. There are people who will stop at nothing to redesign history according to their terms, and guess what, we won’t have Loki the God of Mischief to blame, we will only have one God to blame, America, The God of Deception.

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If you haven’t already, please check out episode 41 of the Uncultured Bias Podcast titled “Critical Race Theater 🎭 “. This blog entry is designed to be a companion piece to that expansive discussion. Thank You.