Everything the world needs to know about world history they can learn from viral e-mails.
As proof, I offer you the following, in no particular order:
Everything Americans needed to learn about Islam they learned on 9/11.
Everything the world needed to learn about Christians they learned from the pastor in Gainesville, FL who successfully garnered world attention by threatening to burn the holy book for Muslims, the Quran.
Everything the world needed to learn about Americans (abridged) they learned from:
--The genocide of American Indians
--The Spanish-American war of 1812
--The period of Black slavery and the Civil Rights struggle
--Their occupation of Iraq, and innumerable other countries
--The assassination of Iran’s democratically-elected leader Mossadeq in 1953 followed by insertion of US puppet Shah Reza Pahlavi, followed by the Islamic uprising led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
Everything Americans needed to learn about Iran they learned from the hostage crisis--444 days between 1979-1981.
Everything the world needed to learn about Israelis (and Ariel Sharon) we learned from the massacre of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon in 1982.
Everything the world needed to learn about Judaism we learned in 1948 when Zionists occupied Palestine, and in 1967 when Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza, and briefly, the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt.
Everything the world needed to learn about Germans they learned from WWII.
Everything Germany needed to learn about the Allied Forces they learned during the bombing of Dresden.
Everything Japan (and the world) needed to learn about Americans they learned when we dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
Everything Americans needed to learn about Japan they learned on Dec 7, 1941 in Pearl Harbor.
Everything Arabs needed to learn about Britain and France they learned when they occupied and divvied up the Middle East following WWI in 1917.
Everything Indians needed to learn about the British they learned during the British occupation of nearly 200 years.
Everything Arabs needed to learn about the French they learned during their occupation of Algeria from 1830-1962.
Everything the French needed to learn about Algerians they learned from Algerian immigrants in France.
Everything Arabs needed to learn about Christians they learned during the Crusades over a period of nearly 200 years, between 1095 and 1291.
For a more local/American level, follow the jump.
Everything we needed to learn about the Catholic Church we learned with the exposure of centuries of sexual abuse of children by priests.
Everything we needed to learn about Mormons we learned from the trial of Warren Jeffs.
Everything the world needed to learn about Oklahomans they learned during the OK City bombing.
Everything the world needed to learn about Wisconsinites they learned from Jeffrey Dahmer.
Everything we needed to learn about American Southerners AND Northerners we learned during the Civil War.
Everything African-Americans needed to learn about White Americans they learned from former Alabama governor George Wallace and/or the Little Rock Nine (1957—See Wikipedia).
Everything I needed to learn about Texans (and African-Americans) I learned from my ex-husband and his family, who laughingly referred to the poor part of Andrews, TX as Niggertown. Andrews has a billboard that reads, “Jesus Loves Andrews.” I don’t know if that includes Niggertown.
Everything I needed to learn about men from Ohio I learned from a work associate who refers to the women in his family as the Kotex Gang, to Arabs as ragheads, and to a former African-American female work competitor as a nigger cunt.
Everything I needed to learn about people from Indiana I learned from the friend who sent me the truck covered with pictures of the WTC in flames and the Confederate flag that stated “Everything I needed to learn about 9/11 I learned from 9/11.”
Everything I needed to learn about Virginians—and NASCAR fans—I learned from the VA license plate on that truck.
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What a relief we don’t have to think anymore. It was really giving me a headache.
