On the Holocaust: ensuring accurate historical information is taught in schools and beyond

A recent news report revealed that a school principal ran into some trouble after [allegedly] indicating that his educational institution did not necessarily prioritize the Holocaust as a factual event in history.

Considering the principal's alleged reasoning—something along the lines of 'not all people believe the Holocaust occurred'—it was perceived by an inquirer that the school wouldn't be teaching its students about Hitler's genocide of European Jews during World War II. The school, however, has reassigned the principal and assured the public of its actual position on the matter.

Our Takeaway:

It's difficult to stomach the propaganda that exists which insists the Holocaust never happened. Most of us have surely been confronted with such ideas as we navigate political social media.

One can only imagine that such an unexpected proponent of this discombobulating misconstruction is either uneducated and thus susceptible, or plain malicious. You'd have to know someone very well in order to certainly determine which, so it wouldn't be proper to presume the latter in this case. Still, we believe the content of the report linked above supports the idea that parents and guardians should be adequately involved in the campus experience of their children so as to avoid the neglect of such a situation.

An alertness to the the handling of subjects we'd personally be concerned about is paramount to the effective teaching of our youth and subsequent raising of responsible adults. Especially with modern technology's constant flow of information and perspectives, we should all be vigilant in doing our part to correct any misinformation that occurs in our field of perception. In addition, we should reach beyond our usual boundaries, into those areas around us that affect the lives of others.

It's appropriate to raise our own questions when confronted with addling,  or obviously misconstrued, statements regarding important events.

RE: How Facebook censors your posts - CBS News

We've seen positive and negative outcomes of greater connectivity by way of land travel, shipping, flight and eventually internet. Advent of social media has helped a great number of us connect to others with whom we otherwise wouldn't have been able, and to do so on a regular basis.

For some reason, we've used our newest medium of communication as a sort of frontier to test the limitations of our thoughts. As children, we learned basic humane behavior in the presence of others, and yet we ultimately allowed ourselves to set some of that aside . . . thinking we had a new, unregulated, venue. This seems to prove that without regulatory presence we tend to be quite brutal . . . often as a first resort. While this isn't exactly news, it is alarming. So many of us had been under an impression that we'd overcome most of the horrible tendencies of behavior among humans. Alas, it's just not so.

Since the internet was broadened to include the public, we've used the new capacity to explore, and we've learned to identify that there are certain limitations to free speech and that effective speech requires finesse in any situation, but especially where you want a positive outcome.

Free Speech - What Gives

There are times to speak and times to be quiet. We have speech and we have harassment. We're a brutal, sneaky people and often need behavioral checks. Is Facebook the company to do it?

Some are calling for better Facebook policy regarding practices of censorship. But, come on now . . . is that really what's needed? After all, how could a single company do a better job of detailing what "freedom of speech" means than our all-encompassing national constitution? Well-trained legal representatives are challenged to define free speech in a way that makes everyone happy. How is Facebook-- a social media company-- to succeed in defining it?

It's not; at least, not directly. As usual, it's going to be left to the people to sort out, because it's too complicated for policy to direct. The already-existing policy is our guide, along with the rest of our experiences. The real question may be as simple as, "why can't people just be nice all the time".

We see the struggle most every day, and some of us take hearty part in it. Using "counter speech", we work to regulate conversations. To what end do we do so? Well, it is up to each person participating. This is part of how our freedom of speech is working for us, by maintaining an open venue as much as possible.

How to do Free Speech 

Possibly the greatest service we can do for society today is to acknowledge that free speech exists, and that it doesn't mean we can always say what we want to say . . . not without possibility of some blowback under certain circumstances. It'll help too, to realize that just because a few people might be in full expectation and anticipation of a blowback, doesn't mean that such an action should take place.

If speech is intended to tear something down that is perceived as good by anyone, then expect that there may be some limitation to that speech. In fact, we could consider the limitations to be a light form of blowback-- a term which is being used in the lightest context already in this context.

Essentially, we could make things easier on ourselves if we accept that it is almost always necessary to speak effectively, rather than freely. Such an approach allows us to rely less on supposed principles that are in fact difficult to uphold.

REF:

How Facebook censors your posts - CBS News

Facebook Community Standards Policy

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