Governments don't want a population capable of critical thinking, they want obedient workers, people just smart enough to run the machines and just dumb enough to passively accept their situation.
After college, I realised this after working in a stressful job. Much of what they teach us in school about being on time, wearing uniforms, obedience to authority and meeting project deadlines, it is to prepare us for the cut throat working environment and conditions. Of course we have to be taught common manners, how to be polite and all other basic things, but a lot of it is to train us to be efficient and unquestioningly obedient workers. The legacy of Prussian education system still lingers.
At the risk of getting downvoted to oblivion, honest discussion. Obviously capitalism isn’t working in America. But in Russia, starting under Lenin, tons of people still suffered and died, and still do to this day, no? So is Lenin’s ideology really better than the US economic system, when either he failed to implement it, or he did and it still resulted in serious issues?
By and large, Socialism was an incredible improvement compared to the Tsarist system, though not some fairytale perfect wonderland, and Socialism was far better than current Capitalism is in the Russian Federation. 7 million excess deaths occured from the transition from Socialism to Capitalism, as the previous safety nets were dissolved or sold off at bargain prices to foreign Capitalists.
The Bolshevik revolution was positive, suffering was dramatically reduced with its implementation, not increased. With Socialism came a dramatic and sustained improvement in worker's rights, equality of the sexes, a doubling of life expectancies, an end to famine, incredible scientific achievement in a country that began the century as an underdeveloped agrarian backwater, and a democratization of society in a way that far supercedes the former Tsarist system and the future Capitalist system in the Russian Federation.
I don't know what you mean by "to this day," to this day Russia is now Capitalist, it hasn't been Socialist since the beginning of the 90's. If you want a nuanced critique of the USSR, Blackshirts and Reds is a good option, it's the second item in my reading list if you want a link.
Moreover, Russia transitioned to Socialism when Russia was a feudal backwater and the US was transitioning to the world superpower, it was always far behind in world power and yet did a better job of maximizing resource usage in favor of the Workers, despite the US's Imperialism.
Ask yourself how much you actually know about Russia, and how much qas taught to you by people who wanted to maintain capitalist superiority. Then do some research outside of a lemmy thread.
Nothing will work until people get a few basic things straight. Two simple thoughts humanity still avoids:
I want to live well
It is my responsibility to make my life well
Until each and everyone understands that and starts acting accordingly, no amount of -isms or whatnot is going to make anything better. Now, some can argue like "but today's world is much better than slavery", to which there is a simple answer:
slavery has not died yet. Oh, the language was removed from legislature of some countries? Go tell people who are enslaved (literally, like documents taken away, chains on hands etc) how good that is
more generally, exploitation is still a thing. Who cares what language it is spoken about?
So... yeah, Lenin and the gang did exactly zero things better, tons of people continued to suffer and die and there was no end to it long after Lenin died
Exactly. In fact, didn't Trump once say he loved the uneducated? An informed electorate, one that's capable of critical thinking, is the one thing every dictator would fear. Makes it harder for them to manipulate the masses. Which would explain why Trump wants to close down the Department of Education.
Americans should crowd source to get this in every newspaper and on social ads across the country. Don't know if it'll do anything but... Fingers crossed.
Stuff You Should Know did an episode on him and I don’t know how people come to that conclusion. The Wikipedia on Franklin gives some background on it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_(Peanuts)