• TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    “history books:”

    Which ones? My high school US history textbook talked about the Coal Wars with a mention of Blair Mountain. Which isn’t necessarily representative, but then “history books:” is an unfalsifiable claim.

    • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      4 days ago

      It’s not unfalsifiable (James Loewen does an excellent job of thoroughly reviewing information across dozens of the most commonly sold American history textbooks), it’s just a pain in the ass to do it.

      • TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Sorry, I should’ve clarified that I meant “unfalsifiable” not in the sense that it’s impossible to evaluate statistically but in the sense that it’s weasel wording, where regardless of the evidence, you can always retreat and declare what you said isn’t false because you never made a specific enough claim compared to what you’re implying.

        “Doctors believe vaccines cause autism.” is true in the sense that there are doctors who exist who believe that, even if the overwhelming consensus of the medical community is that the claim is fraudulent nonsense.

        (Yes, I recognize the irony in retreating to a clarification of what I said; it wasn’t intentional.)

    • VitoRobles@lemmy.today
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      3 days ago

      My high school history book had a small paragraph about the trail of tears. I don’t believe any American history book for high schoolers fully explain it. So OP isn’t wrong.

      • Doomsider@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        I remember spending a lot of time on the Holocaust in history and almost zero time on the Native American Genocide.