> You never hear anybody say, "Thomas Jefferson and his posse owned slaves and
> committed genocide against the indigenous peoples. Or the U.S. slaughtered
> millions in Indo-China for "democracy". Maybe the term "democrat" has been
> besmirched and we should get a different name."
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I heard this stuff starting in the 4th grade in a public school in MD [although when I went there the number of Vietnamese killed might not have hit the million mark]. I was first exposed to the idea of evolution in the second grade in a catholic school [Woolly Mammoths *freaked me out*]. My HS books were loaded with stuff on the Robber Barons, carpetbaggers, the CR movement, feminism etc. For every Washington Irving there were teachers trying to teach kids as best they could given materials they had. No society is exempt from mythologizing itself and generating ethnocentricity. Perhaps you would like to start human history over again?