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There are people who don't know who Goebbels was?
by ginko 13y ago
There are people who don't know who Goebbels was?
- jlgreco 13y agoHopefully not, but I have stopped being surprised by such things.
- wavefunction 13y agoThere are plenty of people all over the world who would not recognize the name. They might even express their appreciation for his sentiment, as well.
- RivieraKid 13y agoYes, me for example and I don't think there's anything wrong about it.
- cema 13y agoThere is nothing wrong with admitting it.
- samolang 13y agoThere is nothing wrong with the fact that he didn't know it either. Only willful ignorance is a sin, not accidental ignorance. Nobody can know everything, you shouldn't judge someone for prioritizing different knowledge than you.
- dllthomas 13y agoThough some encouragement to sufficiently prioritize basic facts about significant events in history might not be inappropriate.
- jlgreco 13y agoThe state of history education is abysmal, at least in the US. I sure as hell was not taught enough (and most of what I was taught, prior to high school history classes, was whitewashed propaganda. Things like "The Russian space program was awful", "The Native Americans and settlers got along swimmingly", or "Columbus thought the Earth was flat". Stuff no adult familiar with the material believes for a moment, but that we teach children anyway.)
- weinzierl 13y agoYou probably meant to say "Columbus thought the Earth was flat".
- mehrzad 13y ago>we teach children Keyword being "children." Starting in middle school through high school, you hear much less biased info.
- jlgreco 13y agoYes, though by that time much of the classroom time that we have available for teaching history has been wasted.
- sillysaurus 13y agoKeyword being "children." Starting in middle school through high school, you hear much less biased info. This isn't true. I was being taught worthless fables at both of the highschools I attended.
- samolang 13y agoKnowing that Hitler heavily leveraged propaganda to further his cause might be of use to an individual. I don't think knowing Goebbels' name is necessary for learning such lessons though.
- jlgreco 13y agoPossibly true, though I would question the quality of any lesson about Nazi propaganda that did not mention Goebbels' name. If you are doing the "3-lesson 10,000 foot overview" of the 1930s and 40s then I can see how Goebbels' would escape mention, but otherwise he is definitely in the top 10 figures to mention.
- samolang 13y agoI don't know about you, but I tend to forget details that I don't regularly use. I have learned about Goebbels and forgotten his name at least once. I focus primarily on remembering the lessons learned because I know I am likely to forget details such as names. I can usually remember the overall lesson learned because it resonates with my intuition and world knowledge.
- dllthomas 13y agoNot knowing the names of prominent figures is some (quite inconclusive) evidence of insufficient familiarity. Any encouragement of the type I was speaking of should recognize that (and should be polite on other counts as well, of course) or is not entirely appropriate.
- nsmartt 13y agoHow should I approach learning more about this sort of thing? I mean obviously reading about Nazi Germany, but what sort of materials? I had no idea who Goebbels was.
- c0nfused 13y agoSomething like "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" following would probably be reasonable, if a bit hefty. The Nazi's managed to document things exhaustively, so it serves as a jumping off point into a bunch of other places you will very likely find interesting books and articles about most of the aspects of the regime.
- nsmartt 13y agoThank you. I'll start there.
- mhartl 13y agoOf course there must be many, but the parent comment drew particular attention to this possibility. Using the Economist house style offers an elegant alternative, wherein virtually all people and organizations are identified explicitly, no matter how prominent. For example, you might see "Google, a search giant", "GE, an American conglomerate", or "Tim Cook, boss of Apple". In this case, the first line of the post could be changed to "A quote by Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany:", and the final paragraph could be eliminated.