Is my irony meter broken...

[alexpgp]

...or is there good reason to despair of the state of the Republic when its citizens seem to be aggressively ignorant of history?

Via LJer deadro:


Cheers...

The image is reproduced here under the doctrine of "fair use," i.e., "...for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, ..." in conformance with copyright law.

Comments

[astroprisoner.livejournal.com]

I fear that it may be even worse than you realize...not just an ignorance of history, but even an ignorance of current events. A dumbing-down syndrome, including an inability to understand what is happening around us.

Here's the example that chills me the most. In late September or early October of 2001 as the US was gearing up to invade Afghanistan in response to the 9/11 attacks, there were some serious anti-war protests held out on the Boston Common.

The Boston Globe had a reporter out interviewing the protesters. One stated his objection to the planned invasion because "It's not like we were attacked."

The reporter noted "But we were attacked."

The protester's response was reportedly something to the effect of "Oh....yeah...that's right."

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

I cracked up when I first saw that one ;)

[ice-hesitant.livejournal.com]

Not that I am a particularly big fan of the previous Afghani government, but you weren't attacked by Afghanistan. Bin Laden & co. were independently wealthy private citizens who happenned to be based in Afghanistan at the time. AFAIK, harbouring sufficiently unpleasant people is a legal cause for war, but it's not the same as bearing responsibility for an attack.

[days-unfolding.livejournal.com]

Despair sounds about right.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

I want to find that person and tell them! :D

[love337.livejournal.com]

*facepalm*