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CIRCLE WITH A DOT

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  3. I just finished talking to a man I don't know.

I just finished talking to a man I don't know.

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  • courtcan@mastodon.socialC courtcan@mastodon.social

    I just finished talking to a man I don't know.

    He's a Goodwill volunteer.

    He thinks the Iran war is justified because "if they get nuclear weapons, they're just crazy enough to fire one."

    I said, "Well, our nation is the only one that's been crazy enough to do that so far."

    He looked at me blankly.

    Further conversation revealed that this man, who is in his late 40s or early 50s, did not know about Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

    I was too floored to do more than suggest researching the history.

    1

    woe2you@beige.partyW This user is from outside of this forum
    woe2you@beige.partyW This user is from outside of this forum
    woe2you@beige.party
    wrote last edited by
    #18

    @courtcan As a bonus he might even get to learn about the world's unluckiest man (or possibly luckiest, depending on how you look at it), Tsutomu Yamaguchi. He was in Hiroshima on business on the 6th of August 1945. He survived the bomb at 3km from ground zero, with ruptured eardrums and burns, and went home the next day. To Nagasaki. He was there when the bomb went off and survived that one too, also around 3km from ground zero. He died of cancer, though. In 2010.

    bltpizza@mastodon.socialB 1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • courtcan@mastodon.socialC courtcan@mastodon.social

      I just finished talking to a man I don't know.

      He's a Goodwill volunteer.

      He thinks the Iran war is justified because "if they get nuclear weapons, they're just crazy enough to fire one."

      I said, "Well, our nation is the only one that's been crazy enough to do that so far."

      He looked at me blankly.

      Further conversation revealed that this man, who is in his late 40s or early 50s, did not know about Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

      I was too floored to do more than suggest researching the history.

      1

      jredlund@social.linux.pizzaJ This user is from outside of this forum
      jredlund@social.linux.pizzaJ This user is from outside of this forum
      jredlund@social.linux.pizza
      wrote last edited by
      #19

      @courtcan And the argument that "Iran must not have a nuclear weapon" fails to account for the fact that the withdrawal of the U.S. nuclear umbrella from Asia and from Europe will inspire many other countries, including Japan, South Korea, and probably Ukraine, to develop their own. If wars of conquest become the norm again, everyone will think they need a nuke. "Iran must not have a nuke" is just a slogan that ignores the collapse of the world order that this regime has set in motion and the consequences thereof.

      1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • courtcan@mastodon.socialC courtcan@mastodon.social

        I just finished talking to a man I don't know.

        He's a Goodwill volunteer.

        He thinks the Iran war is justified because "if they get nuclear weapons, they're just crazy enough to fire one."

        I said, "Well, our nation is the only one that's been crazy enough to do that so far."

        He looked at me blankly.

        Further conversation revealed that this man, who is in his late 40s or early 50s, did not know about Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

        I was too floored to do more than suggest researching the history.

        1

        laughingmaus@glammr.usL This user is from outside of this forum
        laughingmaus@glammr.usL This user is from outside of this forum
        laughingmaus@glammr.us
        wrote last edited by
        #20

        @courtcan <sharp intake of breath>

        1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • courtcan@mastodon.socialC courtcan@mastodon.social

          GET IT TOGETHER, HUMANS. Especially, at this moment, humans of the Oklahoman variety!

          5/5

          #ignorance
          #education
          #history
          #WWII
          #PearlHarbor
          #Hiroshima
          #Nagasaki
          #OklahomaEducation
          #EDUCATE
          #RESIST

          autolycos@beige.partyA This user is from outside of this forum
          autolycos@beige.partyA This user is from outside of this forum
          autolycos@beige.party
          wrote last edited by
          #21

          @courtcan Do not get me started on George Armstrong Custer

          1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • courtcan@mastodon.socialC courtcan@mastodon.social

            I just finished talking to a man I don't know.

            He's a Goodwill volunteer.

            He thinks the Iran war is justified because "if they get nuclear weapons, they're just crazy enough to fire one."

            I said, "Well, our nation is the only one that's been crazy enough to do that so far."

            He looked at me blankly.

            Further conversation revealed that this man, who is in his late 40s or early 50s, did not know about Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

            I was too floored to do more than suggest researching the history.

            1

            alienghic@timeloop.cafeA This user is from outside of this forum
            alienghic@timeloop.cafeA This user is from outside of this forum
            alienghic@timeloop.cafe
            wrote last edited by
            #22

            @courtcan

            So maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to require that any American who visits Japan has to go to the Hiroshima or Nagasaki Memorial Peace Parks.

            Link Preview Image
            Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park - Wikipedia

            favicon

            (en.wikipedia.org)

            1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • courtcan@mastodon.socialC courtcan@mastodon.social

              I truly cannot comprehend how any US-American GenXer or older Millennial (or any US citizen currently over the age of...15? 18 at the most?) can be wholly unfamiliar with the names Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

              I had to tell him they were in Japan.

              "But they're our allies."

              I shook my head. "They weren't in WWII."

              Our species has got to get curious and dig deeper. This futzing about on the meager surface is juvenile.

              Furthermore, GER YOUR EDUCATION THE FUCK TOGETHER, OKLAHOMA. 😡😡😡

              3/5

              blogdiva@mastodon.socialB This user is from outside of this forum
              blogdiva@mastodon.socialB This user is from outside of this forum
              blogdiva@mastodon.social
              wrote last edited by
              #23

              you’re in Oklahoma?

              if you see them or this happens again, ask them:

              1. are their family evangelical?
              2. were they homeschooled or sent to a charter school?
              3. were they raised in a rural-ish area?

              i often half joke NYC isn't part of USA because this country is basically, at their best, a series of self-segregated silos stringed together by the land. but “self-segregation” is sociology-speak for a cult.

              way too many americans are raised in cults without them even knowing.

              @courtcan

              1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • courtcan@mastodon.socialC courtcan@mastodon.social

                I truly cannot comprehend how any US-American GenXer or older Millennial (or any US citizen currently over the age of...15? 18 at the most?) can be wholly unfamiliar with the names Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

                I had to tell him they were in Japan.

                "But they're our allies."

                I shook my head. "They weren't in WWII."

                Our species has got to get curious and dig deeper. This futzing about on the meager surface is juvenile.

                Furthermore, GER YOUR EDUCATION THE FUCK TOGETHER, OKLAHOMA. 😡😡😡

                3/5

                kimlockhartga@beige.partyK This user is from outside of this forum
                kimlockhartga@beige.partyK This user is from outside of this forum
                kimlockhartga@beige.party
                wrote last edited by
                #24

                @courtcan I regret to inform you of how bad the situation is:

                Kim Possible :kimoji_fire: (@kimlockhartga@beige.party)

                @purplepadma J says that none of the new attorneys she works with knew what was significant about Pearl Harbor. None.

                favicon

                beige.party (beige.party)

                zenheathen@beige.partyZ 1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • kimlockhartga@beige.partyK kimlockhartga@beige.party

                  @courtcan I regret to inform you of how bad the situation is:

                  Kim Possible :kimoji_fire: (@kimlockhartga@beige.party)

                  @purplepadma J says that none of the new attorneys she works with knew what was significant about Pearl Harbor. None.

                  favicon

                  beige.party (beige.party)

                  zenheathen@beige.partyZ This user is from outside of this forum
                  zenheathen@beige.partyZ This user is from outside of this forum
                  zenheathen@beige.party
                  wrote last edited by
                  #25

                  @kimlockhartga Cripes. Now I really want to quiz my kid, but I'm kind of afraid to. @courtcan

                  kimlockhartga@beige.partyK 1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • courtcan@mastodon.socialC courtcan@mastodon.social

                    I just finished talking to a man I don't know.

                    He's a Goodwill volunteer.

                    He thinks the Iran war is justified because "if they get nuclear weapons, they're just crazy enough to fire one."

                    I said, "Well, our nation is the only one that's been crazy enough to do that so far."

                    He looked at me blankly.

                    Further conversation revealed that this man, who is in his late 40s or early 50s, did not know about Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

                    I was too floored to do more than suggest researching the history.

                    1

                    bltpizza@mastodon.socialB This user is from outside of this forum
                    bltpizza@mastodon.socialB This user is from outside of this forum
                    bltpizza@mastodon.social
                    wrote last edited by
                    #26

                    @courtcan Very similar to any conversation I have at work that involves current events.

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • woe2you@beige.partyW woe2you@beige.party

                      @courtcan As a bonus he might even get to learn about the world's unluckiest man (or possibly luckiest, depending on how you look at it), Tsutomu Yamaguchi. He was in Hiroshima on business on the 6th of August 1945. He survived the bomb at 3km from ground zero, with ruptured eardrums and burns, and went home the next day. To Nagasaki. He was there when the bomb went off and survived that one too, also around 3km from ground zero. He died of cancer, though. In 2010.

                      bltpizza@mastodon.socialB This user is from outside of this forum
                      bltpizza@mastodon.socialB This user is from outside of this forum
                      bltpizza@mastodon.social
                      wrote last edited by
                      #27

                      @woe2you @courtcan I can't imagine the terror he felt when the second bomb detonated

                      woe2you@beige.partyW 1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • bltpizza@mastodon.socialB bltpizza@mastodon.social

                        @woe2you @courtcan I can't imagine the terror he felt when the second bomb detonated

                        woe2you@beige.partyW This user is from outside of this forum
                        woe2you@beige.partyW This user is from outside of this forum
                        woe2you@beige.party
                        wrote last edited by
                        #28

                        @BLTpizza @courtcan Right? He must've thought he was cursed.

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • zenheathen@beige.partyZ zenheathen@beige.party

                          @kimlockhartga Cripes. Now I really want to quiz my kid, but I'm kind of afraid to. @courtcan

                          kimlockhartga@beige.partyK This user is from outside of this forum
                          kimlockhartga@beige.partyK This user is from outside of this forum
                          kimlockhartga@beige.party
                          wrote last edited by
                          #29

                          @ZenHeathen @courtcan I mean, I know it was decades ago, getting close to a century, but it is such important history.

                          zenheathen@beige.partyZ 1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • courtcan@mastodon.socialC courtcan@mastodon.social

                            I just finished talking to a man I don't know.

                            He's a Goodwill volunteer.

                            He thinks the Iran war is justified because "if they get nuclear weapons, they're just crazy enough to fire one."

                            I said, "Well, our nation is the only one that's been crazy enough to do that so far."

                            He looked at me blankly.

                            Further conversation revealed that this man, who is in his late 40s or early 50s, did not know about Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

                            I was too floored to do more than suggest researching the history.

                            1

                            thejen@beige.partyT This user is from outside of this forum
                            thejen@beige.partyT This user is from outside of this forum
                            thejen@beige.party
                            wrote last edited by
                            #30

                            @courtcan Omg

                            1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • courtcan@mastodon.socialC courtcan@mastodon.social

                              Up to a point, a person's ignorance is not their fault. We all (with some glaring exceptions) know that there are things we don't know. When it comes to things we do know, sometimes we don't realize there's a gap in our knowledge. We can't know what we don't know.

                              But in this, the Year of Our AOC 2026, when the global conversation concerns a specific topic and plenty of information lies literally at our fingertips, there's not much excuse for *not* having done the assignment.

                              2/

                              feisty_lemming@zeroes.caF This user is from outside of this forum
                              feisty_lemming@zeroes.caF This user is from outside of this forum
                              feisty_lemming@zeroes.ca
                              wrote last edited by
                              #31

                              @courtcan I once had a conversation with a MAGA family member in which I took the position that if I don’t feel I know enough about a topic to form an opinion about it, I can wait until I learn more before I express a position. They maintained that one *must* have an opinion about every topic, no matter how uninformed.

                              1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • R relay@relay.mycrowd.ca shared this topic
                              • courtcan@mastodon.socialC courtcan@mastodon.social

                                This is a perfect example of what happens when your leaders are concerned with putting a Bible in every classroom and stripping school library shelves of books about penguins with two daddies -- instead of being concerned with actually *EDUCATING*.

                                Last I checked, Oklahoma is still dead last in quality of education nation-wide. And our leaders, despite their words to the contrary, like it that way.

                                Ignorant people are damned easy to hook by the nose and lead to the slaughter.

                                4/5

                                oldclumsy_nowmad@mastodon.socialO This user is from outside of this forum
                                oldclumsy_nowmad@mastodon.socialO This user is from outside of this forum
                                oldclumsy_nowmad@mastodon.social
                                wrote last edited by
                                #32

                                @courtcan

                                Yes, "Ignorant people are damned easy to hook by the nose and lead to the slaughter."

                                For sixty years, they've been applying this goal to education in America, wherever the cultists have been able to take power. So now we have three generations of helplessly ignorant people deciding who will hook them by the nose.

                                Thanks for the bold statements of truth.

                                susiemagoo@mstdn.socialS 1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • kimlockhartga@beige.partyK kimlockhartga@beige.party

                                  @ZenHeathen @courtcan I mean, I know it was decades ago, getting close to a century, but it is such important history.

                                  zenheathen@beige.partyZ This user is from outside of this forum
                                  zenheathen@beige.partyZ This user is from outside of this forum
                                  zenheathen@beige.party
                                  wrote last edited by
                                  #33

                                  @kimlockhartga I think if you asked... well, GenX, for example... the top ten historical events of the 20th century, it would be on basically everyone's list. Yes, kids today aren't Xers, but the importance of the event which (largely) ended World War II and began the Cold War didn't just go away. Like, these kids are aware of the Apollo program, right? The Great Depression? Challenger? Hitler? @courtcan

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • courtcan@mastodon.socialC courtcan@mastodon.social

                                    I just finished talking to a man I don't know.

                                    He's a Goodwill volunteer.

                                    He thinks the Iran war is justified because "if they get nuclear weapons, they're just crazy enough to fire one."

                                    I said, "Well, our nation is the only one that's been crazy enough to do that so far."

                                    He looked at me blankly.

                                    Further conversation revealed that this man, who is in his late 40s or early 50s, did not know about Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

                                    I was too floored to do more than suggest researching the history.

                                    1

                                    laughingmaus@glammr.usL This user is from outside of this forum
                                    laughingmaus@glammr.usL This user is from outside of this forum
                                    laughingmaus@glammr.us
                                    wrote last edited by
                                    #34

                                    @courtcan My sister b. Late 60s recently said also that the war was justified because she saw a video of Iranian men burning the American flag and calling for death to America and I thought, what? they have been doing that for generations. The difference is that I remember warm our living room was before the oil crisis in the 1970s. What can we do against the stratifying of generations now that everyone has a label and an in-group with which to identify?

                                    1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • oldclumsy_nowmad@mastodon.socialO oldclumsy_nowmad@mastodon.social

                                      @courtcan

                                      Yes, "Ignorant people are damned easy to hook by the nose and lead to the slaughter."

                                      For sixty years, they've been applying this goal to education in America, wherever the cultists have been able to take power. So now we have three generations of helplessly ignorant people deciding who will hook them by the nose.

                                      Thanks for the bold statements of truth.

                                      susiemagoo@mstdn.socialS This user is from outside of this forum
                                      susiemagoo@mstdn.socialS This user is from outside of this forum
                                      susiemagoo@mstdn.social
                                      wrote last edited by
                                      #35

                                      @oldclumsy_nowmad @courtcan Hopelessly ignorant.

                                      1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • courtcan@mastodon.socialC courtcan@mastodon.social

                                        I just finished talking to a man I don't know.

                                        He's a Goodwill volunteer.

                                        He thinks the Iran war is justified because "if they get nuclear weapons, they're just crazy enough to fire one."

                                        I said, "Well, our nation is the only one that's been crazy enough to do that so far."

                                        He looked at me blankly.

                                        Further conversation revealed that this man, who is in his late 40s or early 50s, did not know about Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

                                        I was too floored to do more than suggest researching the history.

                                        1

                                        bob@beamship.mpaq.orgB This user is from outside of this forum
                                        bob@beamship.mpaq.orgB This user is from outside of this forum
                                        bob@beamship.mpaq.org
                                        wrote last edited by
                                        #36

                                        @courtcan

                                        I see the exact samething every day. It doesnt help that last summer Terrist Trump deciced that 771,000 people are drug users, drunks or mentaly ill. Who am I talking about? Homeless people. Having named us, let #TheSilenceContinues begin.

                                        1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • uastronomer@mastodon.monoceros.co.zaU uastronomer@mastodon.monoceros.co.za

                                          @courtcan I mean... you don't even need book learnin' to know that, I'm the same age group and I'm pretty sure we didn't cover it in high school history but damn it, I've seen movies! I've been on the Internet! There used to be documentaries about it on TV when I got home from school, it was pretty difficult to NOT hear about this from somewhere!

                                          nishcott@mastodon.socialN This user is from outside of this forum
                                          nishcott@mastodon.socialN This user is from outside of this forum
                                          nishcott@mastodon.social
                                          wrote last edited by
                                          #37

                                          @uastronomer @courtcan I had so much fun watching PBS growing up. There was always something interesting for me to watch in the afternoons.

                                          1 Reply Last reply
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