Dreyfuss Civics Initiative Farce

Friday, April 28, 2017

Today on Fox News while watching Tucker Carlson he had a segment with Richard Dreyfuss. I understand Richard sent Tucker and email and requested time on his show to "school us in civics". I'm proud to confess I did not laugh out loud, change the channel, or even start to criticize Richard before the segment began. Another confession, before I get to a remarkable segment and brilliant observations by Richard Dreyfuss. I do not know how or why, but internally I had developed some rather harsh opinions about Richard as being a moron who is anti-American and fundamentally supports socialism and the ideals that would certainly destroy this country. I am giving myself the benefit of the doubt and assuming I did not develop these harsh sentiments about Richard arbitrarily. Because I do not doubt myself I found myself confused as today's segment with Tucker Carlson left me slack jawed, silenced, and then even reluctantly supportive of his "Richard Dreyfuss Initiative".

Mr. Dreyfuss schooled us in civics. He said things that may cause himself to be forever unemployable in Hollywood1. He spoke as an avid supporter of free speech. Ultimately he went on about the necessity of civics education in USA and pondered the sad state of affairs in this country being directly related to the lack of civics education among a massive number of people in the United States. If I'm not mistaken, he claimed that civics has not been taught in our public schools since the 1970s and without that fundamental and essential education our leaders, or at least anyone born after, (my guess: 19652), is not likely educated enough in civics to serve in any political leadership position in the country.

I agree. In fact, one of my fundamental disappointments about this country is its complete lack of education. Worse, the education that has been perpetuated upon the population for… (maybe Richard is correct, let's say 1965 as an arbitrary best guess), 50 years has been designed to destroy this country in a very precise and planned way that has a step by step formula.

I applaud Richard's initiative IN PART. Everything he says about our history, the foundations of our country, the necessity for civics, and history education is without question urgently needed. I believe it is so urgent that, if I had my way, every American born after 1965 would be required to complete every free online course offered on Hillsdale College3.

I almost immediately went to Mr. Dreyfuss's Initiative site to learn more and hope I found him sincere so I could fully support these honorable ideals. My first learning experience was the "mission" statement. Sadly, due to overwhelming interest from the Tucker Carlson show the web site was experiencing overload issues, but good for America! Right! One of the best actors of all time advocating for the instruction of civics! I could not be more pleased.

The first statement that caught my attention and stirred my outrage was Richard's statement that "Legislation has been 3:06 introduced in one of our states that 3:08 would end the teaching of all history 3:10 prior to 1877 because it isn't relevant."

I must now stop my excited reverence for the wonderful sentiments of Richard Dreyfuss and his advocacy for the instruction of civics at this point and confess I've watched the remaining seven minutes of his foundational speech supporting his efforts. There are multiple videos but I believe the first tells the entire story he intended to tell. I believe sticking with this one will be sufficiently educational. 

Disclaimer:  Feeling misled, duped, and a solution I find abhorrent being pressed in Mr. Dreyfuss's appeal left me glib, sarcastic, and pulling information out of my imagination.  Mr. Dreyfuss probably does care about civics and I suspect he does believe his solution of educating uneducated teachers has validity to him, despite how insane it sounds to me.  I am sincere in my beliefs about teachers unions (free speech) although I doubt they are overtly scheming communist, only that they are socialist in nature as are all unions.  I used to run one, I know.  My point is after researching Mr. Dreyfuss's video and finding it more an appeal for large government spending than for civics, this 'article' became satire and sarcasm and should be considered as such.  The transcript is accurate and Hillsdale College does offer free online civics courses.

Fair warning, sarcasm follows. Mr. Dreyfuss and the author of his first video deserve another academy award. I have not seen such an excellent example of neurolinguistic programming in over a decade and Mr. Dreyfuss's acting execution exceeded any historically patriotic presidential speech on record, including any by the great orator Ronald Reagan or similarly moving Bill Clinton, and even his holiness Barrack Hussein Obama paled in comparison to this performance by Richard Dreyfuss.

The whole deal is a scam and a farce. It is covered in caramel sweetness and apple pie patriotism that would cause Bill Clinton's pants to fall off as if he were offered a blow job.

Now that you've been delivered the truth of it let me try to explain how an emotional heart felt appeal to enhance the civics education of our country full of coach potatoes and Snookie worshipers is not a great idea, at least based on Richard Dreyfuss's true appeal.

Richard is 100 percent correct in his little speech and in our need for civics education until the 5:19 mark in his video when he jumps off the ship into a swamp of bullshit and deception that an alligator ought not swallow.

You had to notice I agree with Richard and my first instinct was to provide the needed education that is currently available and free. Where I part from his deception is when he claims the reason the last 50 years of indoctrinating our students into half wit socialist with heads full of pseudo science is because teachers lack proper training.

The last seven minutes of his neurolinguistically loaded speech hypnotizes you into accepting that the only truly non-partisan, patriotic, and even heroic way to enlighten our - uneducated civics-challenged population is to spend more money educating our poor, horribly treated, uneducated teachers who deserve the opportunity to gain the precious civics knowledge that is so desperately needed so they can pass it on to our beloved but dumbed down children.

The thing that escapes liberals, socialists, social justice morons and similar idiots is logic. If you do not have a true and solid premise then nothing true or logical can follow. Richard identifies the problem as lack of money to educate teachers as the problem to a civics-challenged population that has been educated by the best trained teachers money can buy.

On the face of it, Richard's farce seems logical, honorable, even patriotic. And if the problem were that there were not enough money to properly educate teachers in civics, then his solution to spend money and educate the teachers -- for God's sake and the sake of our crumbling country, everything would come up roses instead of sulfuric swamp gas.

Everything about this stinks of socialism and bullshit. I can almost smell the farts of the massive number of teacher union members trying to hide behind the tree stump this farce adds up to.

Richard, and whoever is behind this farce are actually brilliant. I could not find anyone I associate with who could disagree with Richard's appeal… that the last 50 years of students need a damn heavy handed dunk into some serious civics education.

Then the answer to this problem being the problem to begin with. I don't believe all teachers intentionally work for the communist party and work to undermine our government through multiple communist bullet points, but I do know these bullet points exist. I do know that unions are essentially communist, socialist at minimum, and that any real need to organize teachers has been unnecessary for at least 25 if not 50 years. The solution proposed is government provided money. Roughly this means that someone will have to vote to steal my money (your taxes too) and give it to teachers to learn what they have paid dearly to learn already. And those teachers will probably being paying the college loans that paid for that great teacher's education for the next 50 years.

Government, and notably bad government public education, which has already failed, and is at least partially the object in this issue, is never the solution to failed bad government. I immediately had a free market, free choice, fully funded private educational system, that specializes in the topics on the table at just the mention of the problem. How many truck loads of money have been by this initiative on nagging and political action committees to dig more money out of government with no real plan to educate anyone so "the precious children" can be enlightened in civics?  No... I don't want to know.

I would not be surprised to learn these efforts provide money to fund many unfunded public teachers union retirement pension funds. If the civics appeal is sincere why not put all its effort into helping Hillsdale college freely educate anyone online who is interested in learning multiple aspects of civics?  I'm no fund raiser for Hillsdale, but it is there and does the teaching for free online already. 

Sorry folks. Just another socialist propaganda play on emotions to get you to try to grow government a great deal larger to achieve precisely nothing of value.

Here is Richard's brilliant speech that turned me sour on his civics idea. I can't recall why I was sour on Richard to begin with but I suspect that is a memory problem, not that I'm mistaken to be sour on his political posturing.

Below is a transcript on his speech. If you are interested in neurolinguistic programming it might be educational to study Richard giving this speech and studying the transcript. Neurolinguistic programming is an old advertising psychological ploy that is diabolical in its effectiveness. Too much to explain it all here, but if you fall into a NLP ploy, unless you are aware of it, you will almost certainly become of a victim of it. Maybe find you own some piece of junk you actually never really wanted…. Yeah… it is diabolical.

TRANSCRIPT:

Friday, April 28, 2017 10:41:04 PM

0:01 The principles upon which our country 0:04 was founded shattered and bettered all 0:07 the old world notions of governance that 0:10 had ever been and our Constitution 0:13 remains to this day nothing short of a 0:16 political miracle because it offered the 0:19 world safe haven and the opportunity to 0:23 rise on merit above the class and caste 0:26 system that had kept them paralyzed for 0:30 the entire history of civilization.

As a 0:33 result we have, in time, been able to 0:36 establish a philosophy of education that 0:40 reflects those revolutionary principles 0:42 that no one is above the law, that the 0:46 people are the final arbiters of 0:48 political power, and that education is 0:51 the essential ingredient for all groups… 0:55 born here or who come here regardless of 0:59 gender, cast, class, religion.

It took a 1:04 long time for us to learn how to live by 1:06 these principles, and our educational 1:09 system, like our Constitution, is a work 1:12 in progress.

That's why America became 1:18 more admired than any other nation, 1:21 because we really did create a 1:24 meritocracy and we became known as the 1:28 political miracle we are. And this 1:31 miracle is still known to the entire 1:34 world, except our own kids who aren't 1:38 taught about it anymore.

And as the only 1:42 nation ever in history to be bound by 1:45 ideas only. The notion of not teaching 1:51 civics -- which is simply how to run the 1:53 country — and values unoffered -- the 1:57 values that suffuse the Constitution and 2:00 the preamble. Reason. Logic. Clarity of 2:04 thought. Common sense. That's as 2:08 wrongheaded and damaging as an illness 2:11 of the soul.

2:14 Our kids don't understand the uniqueness 2:17 of the notion that the ruler and the 2:20 ruled could be one thing -- which is the 2:24 real revolution we triumphed in -- and 2:26 gifted to the world.

That no one had had 2:31 the guts to do what we did until we did 2:34 it. Proved it, and became the most free, 2:38 most wealthy country in history, because 2:42 of it.

And now Governor O'Malley of 2:45 Maryland reaches in past all the other 2:48 subjects and takes out civics and the 2:52 specific money behind teaching civics 2:54 and deliberately takes from our kids the 2:58 only way they have to learn how to run 3:01 the country.

Legislation has been 3:06 introduced in one of our states that 3:08 would end the teaching of all history 3:10 prior to 1877 because it isn't relevant. 3:15 Really? There can be no greater mandate 3:20 in education than enabling and guiding 3:24 our children to act as responsible 3:27 citizens engaged in their community, 3:30 their nation, and the world around them.

3:33 That is our promise to our future. That 3:38 is our oath. We know that our children 3:43 will be the source of new ideas, new 3:46 industries, and new jobs, the source of 3:49 solutions to new problems facing our 3:52 world, but in recent decades we began to 3:58 systematically dismantle those very 4:01 potent things that got us to the top of 4:04 the world.

In an unprecedented spasm of 4:07 doubt we began to dumb down our 4:10 children's education. And worse -- to stop 4:15 striving for excellence in any subject. 4:18 But most especially, in the excellence in 4:22 understanding and maintaining our unique 4:25 system of governance. 4:26 This Republican democracy -- that 4:30 ironically calls for more intelligence 4:33 from its public body than any other way 4:36 of governing. Monarchy or Fascism didn't 4:41 even ask people.

And we demanded that 4:44 people be the boss. And they need 4:48 training in that. Not removing it from 4:51 them.

That was the greatest gesture of 4:55 respect to the majority of mankind ever 4:57offered.

And when our national stats 5:01 began to reflect that senselessness we 5:05 looked around for someone to blame.

And 5:07 we found them.

Hiding in plain sight 5:10 right at the scene of the crime. TEACHERS

5:14 Now let's talk some sense to the 5:17 American people. Teachers are not the 5:19 problem.

Teachers are the solution. But 5:23 good teachers require training and 5:26 schooling to be good.

And we deny them 5:30 the same excellence that we deny our 5:33 kids.

And then politicians blame the 5:37 teachers… instead of admitting they're 5:39 voting for a decay in education… without 5:42 the vision to see how they are 5:45 condemning their own children… to be as 5:48 ill-equipped as our children will be.

5:53 Life is not pro-American. Life doles out 5:59 bad and good and our kids must be able 6:03 to handle both. They must have agility of 6:07 mind.

And they're taught now to handle 6:12 NOTHING. Certainly we're not teaching 6:15 them how to prevail. And our kids will 6:19 not thank us for that!

Teachers must be 6:23 given the same room for excellence that 6:26 we ask for our kids. They must have the 6:29 tools the knowledge and resources they 6:32 need to convey these truths we hold 6:36 self-evident to the 6:38 students they serve. Who in turn serve 6:42 our future.

By cutting the ground from 6:46 under teachers you are guaranteeing 6:50 failure in the future. Failure of this 6:54 nation. We will be out fought, 6:58 outmaneuvered. and out of the game.

And 7:01 the self-evident truth of today's 7:03 America is we are taking out the money (from education of our teachers?) 7:06 and dismissing civics as we seem to 7:09 dismiss the notion that intelligent is 7:12 better than stupid. (We dismiss the notion that intelligent is better than stupid?)

We have no bragging 7:16 rights about our education system — which 7:19 seems to be more concerned with 7:21 suspicion about teachers -- than obligating 7:24 ourselves to the mobility of mind of our 7:27 young.

Our kids aren't taught anything 7:31 resembling reality or quality. So we 7:36 blame teachers…. (who are as shackled as 7:39 their students).

Excellence in civic 7:43 education is the linchpin of our success 7:47 or failure in the world being created right now.

An education was a 7:54 non-partisan obligation for 200 years. 7:58 Our effort today must also be 8:03 Non-partisan. We are now passing up and 8:06 out kids who cannot read or write much 8:10 less think as a responsible members of 8:13 Society. Do we really, as Americans, think 8:17 we can win with something like that.

8:22 Civics unoffered is a crisis. Values 8:28 shared that are not offered are a crisis. 8:33 Some problems are damaging to all and 8:38 some solutions should never be left to 8:42 partisanship.

Can't we look above party 8:46 and join together to rid ourselves of 8:50 this disgraceful mindset and stop blaming those who 8:55 are in close daily touch with the 8:58 difficulties of this problem and it's 9:01 possible solutions? Because teachers are 9:05 the ones we remember. Who gave us 9:08 knowledge which is the beginning of

9:11 wisdom.

Let's respect and treat them 9:15 fairly. Let's give them the tools and 9:20 knowledge and resources they need to do 9:23 what they have dedicated themselves to 9:25 do in the first place. To nourish and 9:29 cultivate bright eager civic minded 9:35 responsible citizens.

A big part of 9:41 citizenship is speaking out on things 9:43 that matter like the state of our public 9:46 schools. The excellence in education 9:49 event is a chance for all of us to stand 9:54 together and remind our leaders that 9:57 education is about a lot more than test 10:01 scores that test teachers and not 10:04 students anyway.

It is about music. it is 10:07 about art, is about history. It's about 10:10 critical thinking and it's about running 10:13 the country with knowledge and pride 10:16 before its time for them to run the 10:20 country. I urge you to join the save our 10:26 schools march this summer.

---

1 Actors who publicly express patriotic or conservative ideas in a favorable manor are frequently "black-balled", prohibited from working, shunned, shammed, for straying from the overwhelmingly socialist viewpoints held by the power brokers in the entertainment industry.

21965 is an arbitrary year. Richard claims civics have not been taught since the 1970s. Someone born around 1965 would be around 15 in 1980 so that arbitrary year would likely be the approximate cut off date as to when you may be born and still be relatively certain to get a civics education. I guessed you would not have been afforded civics education in the normal course of schooling if Richard's 1970s statement was relatively accurate provided you were born prior to 1965. The point is that it is entirely unscientific and is provided only as a mental reference if all of the assumptions were relatively accurate.

3There are a few of those Hillsdale courses that could be excluded, but not wisely. The offerings do represent a good selection and background in civics and essential fundamental education.