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no_hypocrisy

(48,781 posts)
Mon Nov 21, 2022, 05:48 AM Nov 2022

How can you be 43 and not know who Hitler was and what he did? [View all]

Last edited Mon Nov 21, 2022, 06:30 AM - Edit history (1)

My friend has a son who is 43. He is a single father (wife left him), only has a HS education, and is a driver for a transport company.

He was approached by coworkers in the warehouse who apparently are either Proud Boys or something like them. They started talking about nationalistic USA and were "envious" of his German heritage. They told him of all the good things Hitler (and Trump) did.

This guy is admittedly not the sharpest knife in the drawer. He listened. They sent him videos and texts and he looked at them. And he accepted it all without a filter.

It got to the point where he texted a photo of Hitler at Nuremberg to his aunt's husband, who is not only elderly and German, but grew up during the Nazi years in Germany. (He truly believed his uncle would be "pleased" with his interest in his German heritage.) The uncle's head flew off and really yelled at his "nephew".

His mother's father dropped out of HS at age 17 to enlist to fight the Nazis. (He was in the Second Battle of the Bulge.)

And when asked, the guy had no idea of Hitler, the Holocaust, the Nazi regime whatsoever. And I believe him. He IS that stupid.

And therefore, I wonder how he went K-12 without a single minute dedicated to Hitler, the Nazis, the concentration camps, the Jews, the Holocaust -- and what about his family? His father is the son of two German immigrants from the Twenties. His father said nothing to him?

This guy has transferred to a new location with a new warehouse, ironically in a region with a concentrated Orthodox Jewish demographic.

I don't get it. I just don't get it.

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"only has a HS education" Behind the Aegis Nov 2022 #1
I've been thinking about that, but no_hypocrisy Nov 2022 #2
"Are textbooks scrubbed clean now?" Behind the Aegis Nov 2022 #3
Perhaps it is regional, but I've dealt with many who took whatever foundation and continued hlthe2b Nov 2022 #13
So you're saying that "Only a H.S education" JPPaverage Nov 2022 #14
+10 nt reACTIONary Nov 2022 #22
This Ferrets are Cool Nov 2022 #27
THIS! This is why the working class orthoclad Nov 2022 #28
Depends on the High School and what Reagonomics did to it here in the US. TigressDem Nov 2022 #33
That is the accepted dialogue about those who did not go into crippling debt. OldBaldy1701E Nov 2022 #37
No! They are saying it's not his fault he didn't know. raging moderate Nov 2022 #49
Most of the people in my family PatSeg Nov 2022 #50
My rural public high school taught us about the holocaust and WW2 IronLionZion Nov 2022 #51
Schools here have holocaust week, or murielm99 Nov 2022 #4
Educated after Reagan began the great republican disintegration of the USA sanatanadharma Nov 2022 #5
+ 1000 Prop 13 / California 1978 began the attack on education TigressDem Nov 2022 #34
Back Story no_hypocrisy Nov 2022 #6
Just goes to show that old saying, "We are only as sick as our secrets." IS STILL TRUE. TigressDem Nov 2022 #35
When I was aged 13 or 14, my father had me read Treblinka elias7 Nov 2022 #7
I can imagine thinking it was too horrific to ever mention to a kid femmedem Nov 2022 #8
Schools could add more info on WWII and the Civil War. multigraincracker Nov 2022 #9
Stupid is as stupid does SouthernDem4ever Nov 2022 #19
I've lived in the deep South all my 66 years... Ferrets are Cool Nov 2022 #30
Slavery was the economy of the South. multigraincracker Nov 2022 #31
I've been hearing that Civil War "economic" argument since I was in elementary school in Florida. sop Nov 2022 #45
Yup Ferrets are Cool Nov 2022 #56
I've lived in the cold north my whole life IronLionZion Nov 2022 #53
Where did he go to school? I'm not buying his claimed ignorance. oldsoftie Nov 2022 #10
A rural region of Passaic County in New Jersey. no_hypocrisy Nov 2022 #11
Well that makes even LESS sense! I fully expected a state down south oldsoftie Nov 2022 #16
I tend to agree SouthernDem4ever Nov 2022 #21
Unfortunately "willful ignorance" seems to be a "thing" these days too. oldsoftie Nov 2022 #46
I taught in two N.J. high schools. WW II and Holocaust was not part of curriculum in either 3Hotdogs Nov 2022 #29
That he didn't learn in school is abysmal, but I am quite certain I knew the truth of Hitler and hlthe2b Nov 2022 #12
I graduated from high school in Pennsylvania in 1989 Orrex Nov 2022 #15
I encountered someone with a Masters who had never heard of Bastille Day bucolic_frolic Nov 2022 #17
Let's hope the Masters wasn't in History SouthernDem4ever Nov 2022 #20
I remember hearing about it from school, but mostly parents and news orgs SouthernDem4ever Nov 2022 #18
He serks attention like many others (on the right) Catherine Vincent Nov 2022 #23
Patient political education is needed. David__77 Nov 2022 #24
towards the back of the book and the class never reached it dembotoz Nov 2022 #25
Another Wisconsin education survivor here keroro gunsou Nov 2022 #52
given all the crt bullshit you would trust national standards? dembotoz Nov 2022 #59
If left in the hands keroro gunsou Nov 2022 #60
Yes. I have seen this happen. raging moderate Nov 2022 #57
It's been a long time since HS for me but Joinfortmill Nov 2022 #26
Everything you said. Same experience. I have been ranting about it for years. twodogsbarking Nov 2022 #39
Maybe there needs to be a popular video game that illustrates the reasons for WWII and Ferrets are Cool Nov 2022 #32
Kids now mollie8 Nov 2022 #36
If the RePutinicans and Shitstains like DuhhSantis have control NoMoreRepugs Nov 2022 #38
I graduated from HS without knowing anything about WW2 Demobrat Nov 2022 #40
Ignorance is celebrated ramapo Nov 2022 #41
As troubling as it is to think of an adult being ignorant of the Nazi regime... Harker Nov 2022 #42
Someday it will be 43 year olds not knowing what slavery was in America Ohioboy Nov 2022 #43
Too much college football. Not enough fancy book learnin. Ray Bruns Nov 2022 #44
We should attack the issue. The issue is education. The Jungle 1 Nov 2022 #47
My elementary school showed newsreels of emaciated bodies being bulldozed into a pit. Never forgot. Marcuse Nov 2022 #48
Heads on Desks Desert_Leslie Nov 2022 #54
Education is not failing over the details of past events, it is failing because it doesn't teach Chainfire Nov 2022 #55
Boomer here ... Texaswitchy Nov 2022 #58
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