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American politics: Discussion and effort posts on the (potential) material impacts of American electoral politics is welcome, but the never-ending circus of American Politics© Brought to You by Mountain Dew™ is not welcome. This refers to polling, pundit reactions, electoral horse races, rumors of who might run, etc.
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I'm not convinced lessons in middle school are what shape an average American's political stances. At most it just teaches them specific vocabulary. No one remembers shit from school. The propaganda is everywhere at once and totalizing.
Your K-12 education absolutely plays a role in your political development. Not more than, say, your parents, but still absolutely narrows the frame of what you think about politics.
Yeah you're right there about your parents. Whenever I want to know someone's politics without asking them directly I always ask "where does most of your money come from" and "what do your parents do for a living." I have a 95% success rate with this tactic.
I'm not convinced that Americans remember much from school at all though. Most Americans read at a sixth grade level and can't even identify all 50 states. The primary political ideology for the average American is "I don't give a shit, that's boring and gay."
Actually I'm with you if you also think that widespread disinterest and alienation is the deliberate shape of ideology being pushed by K-12. Millions of people were confused about Harris being on the ballot in November rather than Biden. And they're the ones who are more interested in the process since they show up to vote. That 50% of people who don't vote are little islands of idiosyncracy whose ideology boils down to various slogans they might half remember, or they'll state outright that they don't care.
Also don't get it twisted, I'm not a liberal who looks down on people who don't care about who the president is or reading theory. That's probably a lot saner of an outlook than I have. The disinterested person at least realizes American is a scam and it doesn't matter who gets elected.
I wanna ask since I'm curious too, what do you think the primary messages in K-12 are? Like, jingoism and xenophobia? That would be my guess about deliberate propaganda. Do you think it's something like that?
I believe this is the bigger factor in the effectiveness of capitalist propaganda. It's so pervasive that is becomes the whole of reality, and you can comfortably take it for granted for your entire life if you don't encounter the right people.