>"The problem is that Germans have been spoiled by proactive
>government policies designed to fund affordable housing and promote
>mixed-income living spaces."
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>http://latitude.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/bobos-in-berlin/
>
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>Also love the typical neolib description of "globalization" as a
>sheer force of nature, that just sort of magically dismantles
>welfare states.
All I can say is: "Ich bin ein Berliner".
Speaking of propaganda though, I came across an example of the cruder variety this week, my 15 year old daughter came home from school complaining about a video her social science teacher had shown to the class. It was titled The Bloody History of Communism. What she told me didn't make a lot of sense, stuff about it blaming Stalin for starting WW2, and Charles Darwin being a communist.
I did a cursory google and discovered that the fellow who made this film http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Harun_Yahya seems to be a Turkish creationist nut. Bit of an anti-semite and Islamic fundamentalist it seems.
Seems incredible that this kind of rubbish could find its way into a classroom, but perhaps it is simply that the teacher is a blinkered anti-communist who assumes that anything that condemns communism must be right about everything?
Probably also a lazy teacher, so couldn't be bothered reviewing the video before showing it to his class, so didn't even realise what it was. Though he has shown at least two episodes of the thing.
Of course it was quite counter-productive. The claims that Stalin was responsible for WW2 and the theory of evolution is a communist plot inspired only ridicule among the schoolkids it seems.
Anyhow, I helped her with her assignment on "The history of Communism" and explained how Darwin fitted in as an influence on Marx, along with such social scientists people as Lewis H Morgan. Hopefully it didn't all go in one ear and out the other.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas