January 02, 2006

• I don't know, it identifies itself as an 'opinionnaire', and moreover looks like it was probably the handiwork of a particular teacher rather than the school district or some institution on a larger scale. I'm finding the handbasket in which we're traveling to the proverbial destination of all handbaskets to be as itchy and uncomfortable as anybody, but I'm not sure its necessary to go this far afield in looking for things to be alarmed about...
• Other articles by this tin foil hat idiot This guy could see a conspiracy in the sunset. Why is this link posted here?
• It's a CONspiracy, of course. Who knows what that test is supposed to accomplish, but just because it's marked an 'opinionaire' doesn't mean anything. The link was posted to "let you be the judge".
• Yeah, Huron, everyone is crazy. That's why people are speaking out about your fascist christian dipwad president. He's the one with the fucking tinfoil hat, and on more medications than your average traveling funk band. We're on the short track to a totalitarian society not unlike that in Iran. All in the name of protecting ourselves against Iran. Does that make sense?
• Bear in mind that the paper has been taken entirely out of context, no statement from the teacher, no discussion of what the students have been studying leading up to the test, no note of how the teacher approached the topics in the classroom. My guess is that this is an attempt to get students to think about these issues, which is, yes, quite shocking, but not in the way the uber-phobe Alex Jones presents it.
• I'd find it more alarming if it bore any of the hallmarks of Standardization. If they were planning to use the results of the test to identify people who should go to the re-education camps, it'd be machine-gradeable and would have those little fill-in-the-bubble circles for the answers. And it'd be multiple choice- you know, 'You should compromise your most fundamental beliefs... a.) never b.) sometimes c.) when asked to do so by a teacher or school administrator d.) b and c' By contrast, this looks like something that, in my high school, would have been the brainchild of our Activist Social Studies teacher, who wanted to Engage Young Minds in Vital Debate. As annoying as the guy was, he wasn't a tool of the fascist overlords, and in fact, any real conversations that people have about these questions are probably a good thing.
• "It can't happen here."
• No, RevChrisMock, of course it does not make sense that we should embrace totalianariansim to combat the same. But the "opinionaire" has the look of a home-grown inquiry, possibly a student in a poli-sci class trying to cobble up a set of results for a paper due in another class. I remember doing surveys similar to this in 11th and 12th grade way back in the 3rd quarter of the last century. Even then, an outside organization needed reams of justification to do a survey on schoolkids (and it has gotten even more prohibitive to do so) but a kid in school could easily get the cooperation of a friendly teacher to pass out a survey of fellow students. Now, you can scream--or Paul Joseph Watson can scream--that this is just one step down a greased grassy slope to the day when we all march jackbooted to the strains of the Horst Wessel song, but how about we concentrate on the real evils going on in and around Washington DC, and let the schoolkids in Washington state figure out what is going on in their school. I would be surprised if this is anything BUT a local instance and not a cooridinated Loyalty Test.
• Actually... I think I'll just step out of this ugly little can of worms I seem to have opened.... You just post away, perhaps this will provoke some outstanding conversation from someone who is more intelligent than I am..... ya'll have a happy new year...
• While watching CBS Sunday monning, one of the comentators mentioned that every time you call tech support and talk to someone not in America, you are one of those people making international calls that the president thinks it is totally justifiable to wiretap without a court order. While meant to be humorous, there is a grain of truth there that shows just how scary our government's thought process is...
• >"It can't happen here." I absolutely believe that it can and very likely is happening here. We have identified the Terrible Enemy in the name of whose defeat no saccrifice is too great, and that's the first two-and-a-half of the Six Warning Signs of Barking Totalitarianism. However, that school handout doesn't look like any of the other three-and-a-half signs to me. If anything, it looks like a homegrown effort on the part of a teacher who wants people to talk about this stuff, and who will probably be fired for it.
• I think I'll just step out of this ugly little can of worms I was going to ask the "WTF link?" question too Huron, but Reverend kRazEemaNN's use of the Oz quote made me realise that he's just the rebellious iconoclast we need to battle the Republibots and usher in a new era of peace for all humankind.
• And, Rev., I'm MR. Bob to you... Only my friends (and other idiots) can call me "Huron"! wait.... never mind....
• I like the way he didn't bother using rational argument either. That would have gone over the heads of all you fucking idiots. Reversing Christian Mopery will tell us what to think, and he says: "THIS BAD". If you disagree, you must be the world's naziest nazi, you fucking nazi.
• It looks like some doubt that there ever was a test. It looks like a nonstory before it ever became a story on FPP. I'm beginning to look forward to new Rev posts like I look forward to my visits to Dr. Jellyfinger.
• Stop being gay.
• It Can't Happen Here. Not got much to say about the article the Reverend linked, but after Chy's comment this seemed an appropriate thread to post this article I read via ALD
• It does like the test was graded.
• > It Can't Happen Here. you've got to hand it to art. when life starts to imitate it, art gets rereleased to cash in.
• Check out this!!! The Utah Shakepearian Festival has THE SAME TEST (scroll about halfway down the page). It seems the thespians are also in on this nazi/commie/bushie/whatever boogeyman under the bed conspiracy.
• A friend is trying to persuade you to do something that is both dangerous and illegal--to drive without a license. How is that more dangerous than driving with a license?
• A google search for "Politics, Patriotism, and Protest Opinionnaire" reveals this "quiz" in lots and lots of places. As grover96 notes, many of them are used to generate discussion for the play Julious Caesar and to try to understand if the actions in the play were justified or not (I don't want to spoil a 300+ year old play based on centuries older events!) So teachers ARE giving the test! ...just not for the reasons that the conspiracy people suggest. Of course just because the intended context is for Julius Caesar doesn't mean that every teacher uses it for that reason...
• Mr. Kniokerbocker - I'm no so sure it was graded. Since A and D are the first letters of "agree" and "disagree", it may be that the student was making notes about the majority opinion, or a change in that student's opinion after discussion. Here's an article about how the test could be used to discuss values and encourage critical thinking in the classroom.
• Oh Drat! Foiled again.. pun intended.
• But pun shit, sadly.
• I'm not surprised these questions are used a lot: they're good teaching material. Not for omfg-polish-up-the-jackboots-jimbob indoctrination, but for good old-fashioned think-about-things have-good-answers teaching. They're interesting questions, ones whose answers are difficult no matter what end of the political spectrum you are on. Sure, a pisspoor teacher with an agenda might use it to grade kids for their allegiance to the Dear Leader, but the rest - the majority, one hopes - might well use it for a kickass Political Science lesson. You may have very strong views on these questions, but if you can't allow them to be answered and discussed freely even by people you disagree with, then your side will lose. Shouting Godwin won't win either hearts or minds.
• Now, see how you are, Rev! With a little effort, you could have turned this around by finding it SHOCKING that schools are teaching values to impressionable youngsters because: It's the parents' place to give kids values; or I wouldn't want those ninnies planting conservative values in my kid's mind; or I wouldn't want those pinkos planting commie values in my kids's mind; or - well, you get the idea.
• They should have all the students read Orwell's Notes on Nationalism. Too few people seem to understand the differences between patriotism and nationalism these days.
• path, those letters look to me like someone else wrote them. It looks like a teacher (or whatever) put down the "right" (or whatever) answer.
• Dunno, Mr. K - but the As and Ds in both columns look pretty much the same to me, within the bounds of sloppy penmanship. Look at the instances of backward leaning Ds, and the tall, thin upper point on the As. We'd have to take this to a handwriting expert to be sure, but I do think they were written by the same person.
• retracted. move along people, nothing to see, move along now...
• I already posted that...no one appreciates my links. sob cry sob
• Oooops, look at this one instead. (its early for me)
• Damn it...this one!!! Nevermind, I'm going to the corner..don't look at me.
• Pupils should only be tested by qualified opthamologists.
• BEEP BEEP! I'm a broom-broom car! I mock you, foolish person! GRR! Mais l'orgie et la camaraderie des femmes m'étaient interdites. Pas même un compagnon. Je me voyais devant une foule exaspérée, en face du peloton d'exécution, pleurant du malheur qu'ils n'aient pu comprendre, et pardonnant! - Comme Jeanne d'Arc! - "Prêtres, professeurs, maîtres, vous vous trompez en me livrant à la justice. Je n'ai jamais été de ce peuple-ci; je n'ai jamais été chrétien; je suis de la race qui chantait dans le supplice; je ne comprends pas les lois; je n'ai pas le sens moral, je suis une brute: vous vous trompez ... I like to eat poo-poo! Hey, this is fun.
• Well, I do like to eat poo. But only my own, of course. What sort of a freak do you take me for?
• An horrible, mutant freak! You're banned! Now YOU'RE banned! Now YOU'RE ALL banned! Wheeee! I'm drunk with power and will not appoint to the position of adminette any quidnunc kids to halt my reign of tyranny! Please like me! Please like me, everyone! I'll keep saying "wacky" things! I am so desperate to be accepted!
• Shit!
• now do beeswacky
• beeswacky can be very hard to imitate less so in haiku
• Don't believe the spin on this. I don't see red ink, I don't see a grade, and if I did, I still wouldn't think the sky was falling, since any polisci teacher might use something like this as a demonstration or discussion starter. When I have to stand in a free speach zone in order to state my opinion, or pass a loyalty test to hear one of my elected representatives speak, or they start tinkering around with the voter registration roles and the tallying of the votes, then I might be a little concerned. But, its not as if the military and big-business are colluding to control the government for the purpose of keeping the money flowing, or national disasters and fear are being used to distract people from the real issues that affect them...
• Wait. Was the patriotism test given on a PC or Mac?
• Atari 800 is what I hear.