Bertrand Russell

[Pogo]

Well, it's a nice sentiment. But yet, I don't speak German.

Lucky you.

He never did explain what the hell that meant, but there was a time when we had a conservative wacko group running around trying to ban the teaching of German in schools supposedly as a moronic "patriotism" thing. They'd change the names of stuff like German Shepherds into "police dogs" lest the snowflakery be offended by hearing the word "German". There were even Dachshunds ripped from their owners and stoned to death in the street for the crime that we gave them a German name. It's where mob mentality and its attendant ignorance lead.

I dunno, actively rejecting a language and trying to make sure nobody else speaks it, that's just pig-ignorance.

 

[Pogo]

Well, it's a nice sentiment. But yet, I don't speak German.

Lucky you.

Luck had little to do with it. Beating the Nazis and their Axis to a bloody (or glowing) smear did.

I didn't mean it like that. It's a language for horses.

It teaches the student a ton about English (which is a Germanic language)....

 

[irosie91]

Well, it's a nice sentiment. But yet, I don't speak German.

Lucky you.

He never did explain what the hell that meant, but there was a time when we had a conservative wacko group running around trying to ban the teaching of German in schools supposedly as a moronic "patriotism" thing. They'd change the names of stuff like German Shepherds into "police dogs" lest the snowflakery be offended by hearing the word "German". There were even Dachshunds ripped from their owners and stoned to death in the street for the crime that we gave them a German name. It's where mob mentality and its attendant ignorance lead.

I dunno, actively rejecting a language and trying to make sure nobody else speaks it, that's just pig-ignorance.

ya mean like ERDOGAN and the banning of the Kurdish languages ????

 

[Pogo]

Well, it's a nice sentiment. But yet, I don't speak German.

Lucky you.

He never did explain what the hell that meant, but there was a time when we had a conservative wacko group running around trying to ban the teaching of German in schools supposedly as a moronic "patriotism" thing. They'd change the names of stuff like German Shepherds into "police dogs" lest the snowflakery be offended by hearing the word "German". There were even Dachshunds ripped from their owners and stoned to death in the street for the crime that we gave them a German name. It's where mob mentality and its attendant ignorance lead.

I dunno, actively rejecting a language and trying to make sure nobody else speaks it, that's just pig-ignorance.

ya mean like ERDOGAN and the banning of the Kurdish languages ????

Are you European? I notice the surname rendered in ALL CAPS ?

I don't know what Turkey did with Kurdish but no, that's a colonial thing. When populations of Irish or Cajuns or indigenous Americans were prohibited from, and punished for, speaking their home language, that's cultural steamrollering sometimes called cultural genocide. That's a master-race mentality trying to subjugate a population it sees as its colony or its slaves.

What I'm referring to though is the overt slurring of a culture where its language, its music and other arts, its cuisine, anything associated with it is either banned or has its name changed -- propagated as an adversarial tactic rather than a colonial one. You might remember the attempt at "Freedom Fries" a few years ago born out of butthurt that France would not go along with our illegal invasion of Iraq. That sort of thing.

I'm thinking here primarily of the National Security League and that sort of wacko far-right fringe that bubbled up at the same time, and with many of the same hypernationalistic ideals as, the Klan:

>> Initially, the NSL worked to indoctrinate school children and the public. Under the guise of encouraging the teaching of US history, the league worked to eliminate the teaching of foreign languages, especially German, and later Russian. It encouraged physical education in schools as a means of "strengthening American manhood" for war.[6] By advocating civil defense, the league proselytized for more defense spending and a stronger national military.[1][6] However, "Americanism" and universal conscription were meant to strengthen the military but also to weed out "religious or political dissenters, sexual 'deviants,' those who frequented prostitutes, and people convicted of crimes who had completed their punishment...."[8] The goal was to create an elite meritocratic class that would take decision-making away from the electorate.[1][6]

The NSL reached its highest point of influence in terms of its popular support and the adoption of its policies during World War I. It whipped up Germanophobia with its Committee on Patriotism Through Education, directed by Princeton University professor Robert McNutt McElroy, and it strongly supported the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918. With the support if US Department of Justice, the NSL began to question the patriotism and the loyalty of thousands of Americans suspected of being pro-German or, later, communists. League supporters published newspaper stories or wrote letters to the editor alleging that labor unions, universities, some churches (particularly those with large ethnic German congregations), the League of Women Voters, and a host of other organizations were under communist control.[1][6] <<​

In other words Naziism in the US. Mind control. Propaganda.

I can't tell if that's where Silly Kineticenergy was going with his weirdo "German" song and dance or not, it's a guess.

 

[Billy_Kinetta]

Well, it's a nice sentiment. But yet, I don't speak German.

Lucky you.

He never did explain what the hell that meant

With that complaint you indicate you wouldn't have understood it had I spelled it out for you.

 

[Pogo]

Well, it's a nice sentiment. But yet, I don't speak German.

Lucky you.

He never did explain what the hell that meant

With that complaint you indicate you wouldn't have understood it had I spelled it out for you.

That's OK. Apparently I spelled it out for you. Either that, or you actually think Bertrand Russell was "German".

Care for a "freedom fry"?

 

[Pogo]

Fun fact: Bertrand Russell's daughter is named Catherine Tait (not that Catherine Tate) who had the good sense to be born on my birthday.

She's 95 years old.