Untold History of the United States

[sandinista]

ignore buttons are for babies.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

[Coito ergo sum]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/201 ... it_to.html

[Seabass]

Your reply seems to suggest you prefer to remain at the other end...

I don't know what I said to give you that impression. Truth be told, I disapprove of probably 80-90% of America's post-WWII foreign policy.

I just find it a little odd that you're bringing the "redneck view of the world" and "the whole 'America, love it or leave it' thing" into a discussion about history documentaries. Yes, it's true, there is a large segment of the American population who are hyper-patriotic. It's also true that there is a large segment of the American population who see America as the Great Satan, the most evil, imperialistic, warmongering country ever. But what does any of this have to do with accuracy and objectivity in history documentaries?


Look, I'm not bothered by Oliver Stone's political views--I probably agree with many of them--it's his historical revisionism I disapprove of.

[Coito ergo sum]

Apparently, this Oliver Stone thing is just a rehash of We Can Be Friends, by Carl Marzani. Regurgitation of Stalinist propaganda.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Look, I'm not bothered by Oliver Stone's political views--I probably agree with many of them--it's his historical revisionism I disapprove of.

TV has to dumb down issues. There's not enough time to do any serious topic justice. Ken Burn's "The Civil War", for example. Hours and hours of "lecture", but no reading outside the class room other than not so subtle hints from historians who wrote books on the topic.

[sandinista]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/201 ... it_to.html

well, can you imagine that? A bad review from a magazine owned by the washington post Who would have thought?

http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2012/1 ... ret-state/

[Gawdzilla Sama]

[JimC]

You could probably get someone to write a little program for you that automatically posted that after every sandinista post...

[Gawdzilla Sama]

You could probably get someone to write a little program for you that automatically posted that after every sandinista post...

Bum custard.

[sandinista]

You could probably get someone to write a little program for you that automatically posted that after every sandinista post...

Because it's Oh so clever. Wow, he can put a smiley in a post! Amazing! although look who's impressed. No surprise.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

[tattuchu]

I've seen episodes 1-8, and I would have to say this could very well be the most biased, ideologically tainted "historical" account I have ever seen. They lay the blame for the Cold War entirely at America's feet, and portray the Soviets as hapless victims. Hilarious.

Oliver Stone is a ridiculous man.

Such a position is certainly absurd, I quite agree.

But so is a portrayal of the US as a white-hatted warrior for truth, justice and democracy, whose motivations are as pure as the driven snow. That ideological position has had a lot of air play over the years...

Nuanced and realistic appraisals go out the window in the polarised debate on these issues...

Change the white hat to a cowboy hat and you've got it. This is pretty much the image of the U.S. that's taught in history class and portrayed in the popular media. Even proposing the suggestion that we might possibly have perhaps done something that wasn't maybe the best thing to do, and you're a fucking traitor. We're the good guys, we're always the good guys, and not just good guys but heroes every one of us. And even if we do something bad, well, it was with the best of intentions, surely. Because after all we're the good guys. And heroes.
Witness Fox News's Shep Smith, when it was discovered that we waterboarded prisoners (and illegally held prisoners at that). "We don't torture people!" he said, outraged. "We're the good guys! We do not torture!" And this was met with a collective shrug. Nobody cared. It's okay if we torture people, apparently. Y'now. Because it's us. It doesn't count.
Witness Bill O'Reilly putting his fingers in his ears and yelling "La-la-la-la-la!" as loud as he could while Ron Paul tries to put the 9-11 attack in historical context for him. "I don't need a history lesson!" he said angrily. And yet a history lesson is precisely what he needed.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Tat, it's not that much different from high school curricula around the world.

[sandinista]