More On Obama "Indoctrination"

Follow this post series: SO Katie: Consequences of Republican Hysterics

SO Katie: Consequnces of Republican Hysterics Cntd.

SO Katie: Consequences of Republican Hysterics Cntd. - Projectionism

And: SO Katie: Gingrich and Alexander: Obama's Speech to Children is "Good"

Also check out Drew Tatusko's latest post---here is a snippet of that:

This hub-bub over the President's address to students irked me this weekend. How stupid are we as a public to lack any form of discernment?

It's not indoctrination. Indoctrination is what happens during basic training for the military which is literally called "indoctrination school." A non-coercive presidential address is indoctrination as much as teaching evolution is indoctrination. Indoctrination is a form of rhetoric that requires a coerced consent among the recipients of it. Those who maintain that a public speech given to school children is indoctrination sound to me like the ones who have been indoctrinated in the form of self-justified assent to what others have told them. Read that last sentence one more time and you can see the irony. This is the GOP sponsored press release that is at the very root of the problem:

The idea that school children across our nation will be forced to watch the President justify his plans for government-run health care, banks, and automobile companies, increasing taxes on those who create jobs, and racking up more debt than any other President, is not only infuriating, but goes against beliefs of the majority of Americans, while bypassing American parents through an invasive abuse of power.

Top News Story: Obama Plans To Make The Sky Fall

His evil plan revealed---by speaking to schoolchildren. *Gasp* How dare he---that's pure socialism and socialism is blasphemy! Did that get your attention? But in all seriousness---here is part of Halden's latest post:

What freaking out tells us about Conservatism

The internet is all abuzz about how conservatives across the country are utterly flipping out about the fact that Obama is going to be addressing children in schools at the beginning of the school year. His speech amounts to nothing more than your standard “work hard, stay in school, you’re the future” line, but for some reason conservatives stand appalled. A simple presidential statement encouraging students to work hard and value education has immediately been compared to the actions of Charles Manson and Adolf Hitler by conservatives all over the place.

WTF? Why would anyone be mad about the president plugging a stay in school message? What could possibly be bad about that? Do they really think he’s going to get on the air and tell children to have abortions and euthanize their parents as soon as possible?

(Read the rest: Here).

And here is my comment on that post:

Interesting discussion…it does seem like these days the wing-nuts act more and more like chicken little with their sky is falling attitude. Both sides are like this like during Bush’s administration—all the left wingers were up and arms when Bush breathed and now with Obama the right wingers seeking revenge are throwing temper tantrums over Obama speaking to schoolchildren. It is like a large segment of society hasn’t evolved beyond grade-school and the mud-flinging and name-calling of playground politics. Also, schoolchildren aren’t as dumb as wing-nuts make them out to be and a large majority of schoolchildren make more sense than the wing-nuts do.

Right Wing Nutcase Brannon Howse Calls Former President Bush A Socialist

Here is the latest screed I got in my email box from Worldview Weekend:

Posted: 09/02/09



Boycott Obama's Worldview Propaganda Machine
By Brannon Howse

www.brannonhowse.com
www.worldviewtimes.com



Two important news stories broke this week that reveal that President Obama is building a worldview propaganda machine. This should be offensive to all Americans in both parties for many reasons that I will explain. However, I believe that it will not be offensive to enough Americans to make a difference because our nation's citizens have largely lost the ability to use reason, logic, and context. To those who think I am only writing this article because Obama is a democrat, you are wrong. I was one of the first conservative talk show hosts to refer to George W. Bush as a socialist and a globalist. Both parties are destroying our country.

Though the last sentence I can agree with to some extent but here is the main agenda of Howse's screed:

Item #1:

On September 8th at 1pm EST, President Obama will be the first U.S. president to speak to America's school children in an address that is directed specifically to them. I would not agree with this even if it were President Ronald Reagan delivering the speech. It is highly offensive for our children and our schools to be used by the President to push a political agenda. The U.S. Department of Education event put out an activity package for students to use before, during, and after the speech including making posters that will hang on the walls for several days. I read the activity sheets and I noticed that the questions students were being asked assumed that they would agree with whatever the President's agenda might be. The questions were written in such a way as to discourage dissent and to seek group consensus on the President's agenda.

Parents from all political parties should be offended and outraged by this disrespect of parental authority and personal family values and should reveal their disapproval by removing their child from any class period that will broadcast this speech. Take your child or children to lunch and then return them to school when the propaganda program has ended.

Sadly, most Americans do not know history and thus they do not understand why children should not be used or recruited for a political, worldview agenda by any national leader. These children do not belong to the State as the humanist elite choose to believe. The people that do not think this is what is happening are only revealing their ability to be easily manipulated.

President Obama understands that a revolution, as called for by his hero, Saul Alinsky, requires three things. First they need a crisis, secondly they need the youth (for sure the youth of the middle class), and thirdly they need an impotent church that does not oppose them. In my new book, Grave Influence, I explain how all three of these ingredients are coming together to make this perhaps the most dangerous time in America's history.

(Read more: Here)

So what are your opinions on all of this?