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The copyright cartel's plot to indoctrinate California kindergartens

theguardian.com

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Re: The copyright cartel's plot to indoctrinate California kindergartens

#51

Post by samuellevy »

Ygg2 wrote: post #26
foobarbazqux wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What have we become? A nation of thieves. Actually, seems we started that way.

I'm pretty sure that's Australia, right? America started as land of religious zealots.

Everyone loves to forget that America was also a British penal colony[1]. They also love to forget that America also has the highest rate of incarceration in the developed world[2].

Stop with the "Australia is a penal colony" bullshit.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_colony

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarcerat...

Re: The copyright cartel's plot to indoctrinate California kindergartens

#52

Post by harshreality »

ars wrote: post #29
seiji wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love to see people stand up to Big Religion, but... how? Religion is institutionalized mental and physical child abuse and everybody seems a-okay with all of it.

> everybody seems a-okay with all of it. Because it's not abuse. Since when did it become socially acceptable to be bigoted in public? If you want to be intolerant at least keep your nastiness to yourself.

Religions that appeal to and demand fealty to a false/unverifiable authority or concept as the truth, rather than encouraging rational discussion and criticism.

Religions that push rules based on those appeals to authority into the political realm, and attempt to force others to live by them...

Believers who seek to proselytize under the flag of a false/unverifiable authority (typically explicitly supernatural) to non-believers...

Parents who pass down the mind-virus of such religions to poor defenseless children...

Labeling criticism of any of those bigotry is a panicked attempt to invoke the strong cultural taboo against narrow-minded discrimination, but the criticism and discrimination against those is hardly narrow-minded.

Re: The copyright cartel's plot to indoctrinate California kindergartens

#53

Post by foobarbazqux »

derleth wrote: post #44
Ygg2 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure that's Australia, right? America started as land of religious zealots.

Mostly, we started as a land of commercial opportunists taking advantage of royal grants. The religious zealots just played better in the history books of 100+ years ago, so they get most of the attention.

It's a good point; the British government was the root source of the thievery. Perhaps we started as a nation of mercenaries.

Re: The copyright cartel's plot to indoctrinate California kindergartens

#54

Post by Natsu »

anigbrowl wrote: post #9

From the Grade 1 lesson: [Select two students who are outgoing and will be able to enjoy this activity. Send the students on a quick (30 seconds) errand before they start drawing. Example: “Please run this note to the library.” When the students leave, tell the class you want them to all copy one of the pictures being drawn on the white board. Remind the class to copy the artwork without telling the volunteer artists…

> I still can't get over the fact that American textbooks also come in teacher editions with the answers to exercises provided so that the teacher doesn't have to work them out.

Pointless busywork is pointless. If they can't find the answers, you're better off addressing the root cause, not driving anyone semi-skilled away from teaching. And just how many times have you graded 50 1st grade math tests, anyhow? Especially when they come up with a new edition every year.

Very sad when we should be able to do more in the way of open source textbooks (and exercise generators), but your gripe is not well-thought out and insulting to decent teachers, of whom I have known many.

Re: The copyright cartel's plot to indoctrinate California kindergartens

#55

Post by derleth »

foobarbazqux wrote: post #53
derleth wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mostly, we started as a land of commercial opportunists taking advantage of royal grants. The religious zealots just played better in the history books of 100+ years ago, so they get most of the attention.

It's a good point; the British government was the root source of the thievery. Perhaps we started as a nation of mercenaries.

If you ignore the fact the various tribes stole from each other. Native Americans weren't a single, homogenous mass, and they certainly weren't Noble Savages ignorant of the ways of war.

Re: The copyright cartel's plot to indoctrinate California kindergartens

#56

Post by derleth »

drdeca wrote: post #46
derleth wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So telling little gay kids that they were born broken and are going to Hell isn't abuse? Don't you dare say that it doesn't happen or that it doesn't matter. Don't you dare.

To me it seems like calling that the fault of "religion" seems roughly analogous to blaming the concept of "government" for the actions of a specific city or state/province government? (that is, either 1 or 2 levels below a national government , though I might have made a mistake with the analogy there) Not all religions/versions of a religion are the same. I acknowledge that an analogy is not always a particularly s…

It isn't a bad analogy. My counterargument is that local government policy can usually be changed a lot more easily than religious dogma, especially dogma surrounding who to demonize. Maintaining a strong notion of who is in the in-group and who is in the out-group seems to be an important mechanism in maintaining tribal cohesion.

My point is that religions seem prone to demonizing people as a quick and easy way to define themselves and maintain cohesion. Look at all the really nasty doctrinal splits through history.

Re: The copyright cartel's plot to indoctrinate California kindergartens

#57

Post by alexqgb »

VLM wrote: post #33
Ygg2 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure that's Australia, right? America started as land of religious zealots.

The people who were here thousands of years before Puritan nutcases started getting dumped here to get them away from the civilized people, would beg to disagree, if they hadn't mostly been genocided away. Thats probably what OP was referencing. America started as a bunch of vaguely Asiatic foragers crossed over more or less in Alaska a couple thousand years ago. The noob bible thumpers arriving a couple centuries ag…

"America started as a bunch of vaguely Asiatic foragers crossed over more or less in Alaska a couple thousand years ago."

It was more like 18,000 - 12,000 years ago, and perhaps earlier, well before civilizations, or even their agricultural precursors appeared anywhere on the planet. You're talking about walking across the Bering Straits a solid 10,000 years after the last ice age ended.

But thanks for the explainer.

Re: The copyright cartel's plot to indoctrinate California kindergartens

#58

Post by foobarbazqux »

derleth wrote: post #55
foobarbazqux wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a good point; the British government was the root source of the thievery. Perhaps we started as a nation of mercenaries.

If you ignore the fact the various tribes stole from each other. Native Americans weren't a single, homogenous mass, and they certainly weren't Noble Savages ignorant of the ways of war.

If you steal a quarter from Bob, and Bob steals a marble from you, are you saying it isn't theft (morally) for me to come along and take your quarter and Bob's marble and all your other toys while I'm at it?

Is it stealing to exchange a grain of sand for your quarter? The Dutch bought Manhattan for around $1000 adjusted.

Re: The copyright cartel's plot to indoctrinate California kindergartens

#59

Post by anigbrowl »

Natsu wrote: post #54
anigbrowl wrote: post #9

From the Grade 1 lesson: [Select two students who are outgoing and will be able to enjoy this activity. Send the students on a quick (30 seconds) errand before they start drawing. Example: “Please run this note to the library.” When the students leave, tell the class you want them to all copy one of the pictures being drawn on the white board. Remind the class to copy the artwork without telling the volunteer artists…

> I still can't get over the fact that American textbooks also come in teacher editions with the answers to exercises provided so that the teacher doesn't have to work them out. Pointless busywork is pointless. If they can't find the answers, you're better off addressing the root cause, not driving anyone semi-skilled away from teaching. And just how many times have you graded 50 1st grade math tests, anyhow? Especia…

It's neither pointless nor busywork. Being able to work the problem or know the material well enough to accurately assess the quality of students' homework submissions is a baseline requirement for effective teaching.

Re: The copyright cartel's plot to indoctrinate California kindergartens

#60

Post by dkuntz2 »

samuellevy wrote: post #51
Ygg2 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure that's Australia, right? America started as land of religious zealots.

Everyone loves to forget that America was also a British penal colony[1]. They also love to forget that America also has the highest rate of incarceration in the developed world[2]. Stop with the "Australia is a penal colony" bullshit. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_colony [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarcerat...

Australia was a penal colony... Botany Bay was a penal colony...

I'm confused by your asking to stop spreading ... truths? Sure, people don't mention that America was also a penal colony, but that doesn't mean Australia wasn't, too.

And, Australia was sort of the British replacement for their American penal colonies.

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