Left-wing Nation columnist Eric Alter scans his daughter’s eighth grade reading list and suddenly finds himself a paranoid right-wing nutjob who hates science, hates brown people, and is terrified even to encounter the views of the Other.
Albeit one who probably takes great care to limit his carbon footprint.
(h/t Baseball Crank)
Not a mensch, but a -man, man.
– Its doubtful that the Left will ever understand the difference between exposure and indoctrination.
– I suppose if they did they would cease to exist as a group.
I note that Alterman is very careful to make sure his Leftist creds are still in good standing by spending the rest of his column bashing Texas, Christians and religious Jews.
What twaddle.
Where, if anywhere, is the argument joined? Is it here? (I’d say not, on the whole.)
Unbelievable.
Just for the contrast B Moe:
” by compelling individuals who refuse to look beyond their own immediate concerns to contribute their share to the common future.”
So now he hates teh gheys too.
Alterman’s description of Christian objections to liberal bias in media and n’education demonstrates how deeply inserted into his “liberal” echo chamber his head has been for at least 30 years.
Interesting to see one become self aware of their own projection, and then move on to rationalizing it away.
After all, it’s “quite different” to be all right wing extremey and “rewrite history”(by “de-emphasize[ing] the civil rights movement, paint McCarthyism in a friendlier light and reduce the role of Thomas Jefferson), and to be a rational leftist, implementing the practice wherein “all you read about on American history are leftists who object to most everything about it”.
The latter is just plain understandable but perhaps not in the best self interest, the former censorship. Or so Alterman would like us to believe.
His daughter should be a real rebel and insist on going to Hillsdale College.
Call me crazy, but that reading list seems a bit much for 8th Grade. Sounds like it would be the reading list at Reed or Columbia. Not that 8 graders couldn’t read it, but I suspect an 8th grader would get more from Twilight or Percy Jackson (which isn’t saying much). How about starting with the great book classics and moving on from there?
Where did this come from?
sdferr: “I play the stock market of the spirit and I sell short.” Ellsworth Toohey, The Fountainhead (let me guess, this one did not get on the list).
Alterman is one of the more serious, honest, professional people I have ever encountered on the “Professional Left.”
Make of that statement what you will.
I make it hedged round with qualifiers Roddy. Am I wrong?
At issue, Joe, is not that the reading is above their reading level (Moore writes like an idiot), but that 8th grade is wholly inappropriate for that type of material. Many homeschoolers advocate a classical approach to education, which divides the learning process into three stages. Logic, grammar, and rhetoric stages.
grammar is elementary. Reading, writing, ‘rithmatic. Then comes logic – how to think. You’ve learned the fundamentals, now you need to hone your thinking skills. Rhetoric starts in high school – 9th grade – where you get to the “idea- centered” part of learning.
While some kids “may” be ready at 9th grade, certainly most aren’t – especially in today’s state of education. No, there is only ONE reason to introduce that type of material (from left or right sources) at that age – you’re trying to programmed minds not fully able to respond. Get’em before they can fight the propaganda.
When did your Dad become a Republican? … I have always been an anti-communist
Then, Mr. Alter, let me introduce to the wall. You will be one of the first up against it come The Revolution.
It was like a “Saturday Night Live” sketch version of what Tea Party-types think about Upper West Side Jews.
And you are here to report that we were absolutely correct.
Maybe we can take desegregationist busing to the next level, and start sending Upper West Side Jews to school in Texas and Kansas, and vice-versa. Even if it fails as an educational experiment, it should be entertaining as hell.
15. Sdferr,
Yes and no. Unlike his writings, which are plenty whiny, uber-partisan and screedy, he’s actually a kind of nuanced, rational guy, at least in my few dealings with him.
The world he comes from, where the Mainstream media draws its numbers, has many, many such screechy jackasses, happy to have strength of numbers, and less concerned about decency, accuracy and the like.
…something something faint praise…
Because The Nation is such a hotbed of anti-communism.