Lies they teach you in HIstory class

[sneakypenguin]

The USA didn't defeat Soviet Russia. Reports were issued by economists and professors to the US gov in the 1960's that communism, the way it was set up in Russia, would collapse on its own, either that or be seriously and radically altered, in the next 20 years.

One could argue that the arms and technology race of the 50s 60s 70s and star wars in the 80s hasted their economic ruin.
So in a way the US did defeat the USSR. Just economically over a long period.

 

[sneakypenguin]

American students are taught that the war of 1812 never happened. That is bullcrap, their whitehouse got burned down and they don't want to admit it.

Really? I think I had a whole chapter dedicated to 1812.

Lie #8:
USA is founded on Christian beliefs and principles, and the signers of the Declaration of Independence were all Christians.

Umm really I hear this all the time but where are these people? I know not all where christians but reading all the documents and letters amongst each other God, morals, Christianity, are all throughout them. So to declare that the US wasn't founded on "Christian" beliefs seems to me a bit off.

 

[lostclause]

I actually heard the reverse, I thought that Germany invaded Poland in 1939 and then declared war on Britain.

"Her majesty's government, having received no reply as to the fate of Poland, has declared war on Germany." (from memory so something like that)
They issued an ultimatum after the invasion. Germany refused. Britain declared war.

How is Anarchy like Communism? First of all I acknowledge that there has never been a successfully implemented form of true Communism because it doesn't work. Anarchy is not everyone sharing everything as in Communism, there is still ownership. Also, Anarchy is the lack of government as opposed to Communism or Socialism which has a large Government.

Anarchy is like communism in that it believes in the equality of it's citizens, there is no social elite (as I said in my previous post). It's not the same but it's closer than facism because the central belief in anarchy is equality as it is in communism.

He's right about the Stalin one. Up to 60 million people were killed by him.

I said it in my previous post I'll say it again, body count does not dictate quality of leadership. Remember we are talking about Europe. Stalin pulled many resources from Russia in order to endear himself to the people of europe, they were better of than his own people. Furthermore 95% of warsaw, for example, was destroyed by the nazi's, how can anyone claim that stalin was worst? And remember that Soviet rule in Europe lasted over 30 years beyond stalin's death.

snip

Okay, this was badly worded on my part. Facism is traditionally classified under the right wing and communism on the left. This is because they have very different values and more importantly usually clash on a number of issues. Thus you could say they were opposites based on that system. There are similarities but basically that's what I was saying. If you don't subscribe to that classification then you may see it differently.

 

[JaredXE]

I remember an elementary school teacher talking about a fire in the president's house, and that when it was rebuilt it was named the White House and has been the home of our presidents since, but it was always implied that the fire was an accident.

Then I learned to read.

 

[lostclause]

The USA didn't defeat Soviet Russia. Reports were issued by economists and professors to the US gov in the 1960's that communism, the way it was set up in Russia, would collapse on its own, either that or be seriously and radically altered, in the next 20 years.

One could argue that the arms and technology race of the 50s 60s 70s and star wars in the 80s hasted their economic ruin.
So in a way the US did defeat the USSR. Just economically over a long period.

Adding to this: America also pulled some dirty tricks, like convincing the ME to produce triple the oil so prices dropped. This was disasterous for the Soviet economy.

 

[The_Prophet]

Fascism, pronounced /ˈfæʃɪzəm/, comprises a radical and authoritarian nationalist political ideology and a corporatist economic ideology.
Communism (from Latin: communis = "common") is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general.
Thanks wikiped, no they aren't the same.
Here's one for you:
Lie: George Washington was badass, a great leader and tactician.
Truth: George Washington was actually a psychotic, traitorous, racist farmer.

EDIT:

Lie #1
Communism and Fascism are opposites. The truth is they are both totalitarian governments run by dictators who oppose individuality. In fact the Nazis were the National Socialist German Worker'S Party.

Oh and OP, are you some kind of great historian here. This clearly shows that you generalise. Just because stalin was a psychotic doesn't mean that every communist is.

 

[JaredXE]

Lie #8:
USA is founded on Christian beliefs and principles, and the signers of the Declaration of Independence were all Christians.

Umm really I hear this all the time but where are these people? I know not all where christians but reading all the documents and letters amongst each other God, morals, Christianity, are all throughout them. So to declare that the US wasn't founded on "Christian" beliefs seems to me a bit off.

Most of the Founding Fathers were Deists, they believed in a Supreme Creator, but felt that knowledge of the world should come from science and observation of the natural world. They tended to scoff at faith and religion and especially churches telling people what to do.

Benjamin Franklin said it best when he mused that lighthouses were more useful than churches and therefore more should be built.

 

[Strawb]

Lie #8:
USA is founded on Christian beliefs and principles, and the signers of the Declaration of Independence were all Christians.

Umm really I hear this all the time but where are these people? I know not all where christians but reading all the documents and letters amongst each other God, morals, Christianity, are all throughout them. So to declare that the US wasn't founded on "Christian" beliefs seems to me a bit off.

Most of the founding fathers were either pantheists or believed that God does not interfere with us, so them putting in Christian "beliefs" in the DoI would be odd. Also, them writing texts about God and so on, on their own is a different thing.
Besides, Christianity can't call dibs on "morals". It is possible for the founding fathers to just be decent human beings and wanting good behaviour(even if that sounds quite controlling).

 

[TheSunshineHobo]

Lie #1
Communism and Fascism are opposites. The truth is they are both totalitarian governments run by dictators who oppose individuality. In fact the Nazis were the National Socialist German Worker'S Party.

True communism IS in direct contrast to facism, but in practice communism devolves into a totalitarian state. Facism on paper is facism in practice whereas Communism on paper differs greatly from communism in practice.

Lie #2
Europe was better under Stalin than Hitler. The fact is Stalin was responsible for more deaths in Europe than Hitler was.

Stalin controled Eastern Europe, at the peak of Greater Germany's power Hitler hand control of Southern, Northern, Western, and Central Europe. This lasted for a short amount of time. Stalin allowed for the deaths of over 60 million people, about 6 million deaths can be atributed to Hitler. Whomever told you this was not a very good teacher or you misunderstood them. The atmosphere in Greater Germany was not kind to the Jews, but German people lived relatively good lives. The people of the USSR were poor and starving because the majority of supplies and goods were funneled to the leaders, not the peasants. The view of the USSR at the time, however was that its people were well fed and theior economy was doing fine, this was due to a massive and extremely successful propaganda capain Stalin created.

Lie #3
Inflation is a natural process of the Economy. The truth is inflation can be avoided or at the very least minimized if the Government didn't continue to over mint money and if we actually had money that was backed by something.

In a capitalist economy the rise and fall of the market Is inevitable. Any form of capitalism, be it demand-side, socialist, supply-side, or laize fair, it will rise and fall. governments can intervene to lessen the blow of a crash, but they cannot stop them. All economies feature some form of a rise and fall system. Canada uses welfare capitalism which is one step to the right of socialism and America uses a supply-side doctrine which is a little more right than Canada, as such Canada has more government intervention than the US does, but it still suffers from the effects of a capitalist economy.

 

[Brett Alex]

The opposite of Communism is Anarchy, the political spectrum is not exactly linear.

Then how do you explain Anarcho-Communism?

 

[TheSunshineHobo]

Another lie, the War of 1812 didn't happen. During the war Canada burnt the white house to the ground, GO CANADA! Although the only reason we won was due to the fact that we, or more accurately Britain, exploited the Aboriginals. Still paying for that one.

 

[Deadpoolsbrain]

Lie #8:
USA is founded on Christian beliefs and principles, and the signers of the Declaration of Independence were all Christians.

Umm really I hear this all the time but where are these people? I know not all where christians but reading all the documents and letters amongst each other God, morals, Christianity, are all throughout them. So to declare that the US wasn't founded on "Christian" beliefs seems to me a bit off.

Most of the founding fathers were either pantheists or believed that God does not interfere with us, so them putting in Christian "beliefs" in the DoI would be odd. Also, them writing texts about God and so on, on their own is a different thing.
Besides, Christianity can't call dibs on "morals". It is possible for the founding fathers to just be decent human beings and wanting good behaviour(even if that sounds quite controlling).[/quote]
Two of the main contributers were known atheists John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. There is also some speculation that Benjamin Franklin was an atheist as well but he was most likely a deist or agnostic.

 

[Zacharine]

Lie #9: The ancient egyptians used mainly slave labour to build the pyramids.

Also, about Lie #3 in the OP: Yes, inflation could be avoided in theory, however a small inflation is a lot better alternative than large inflation or any deflation. That's the way economy works.

Also, most of these other lies I've never even heard of.

 

[Brett Alex]

Another lie, the War of 1812 didn't happen. During the war Canada burnt the white house to the ground, GO CANADA! Although the only reason we won was due to the fact that we, or more accurately Britain, exploited the Aboriginals. Still paying for that one.

Which is, in itself open to interpretation, as most evidence points to the bulk of the fighting throughout the entire Anglo-American War of 1812 being carried out by Regulars of the British Army, not Canadians.

Its called the militia myth for a reason.

EDITED: For clarity, now available at all supermarkets. Get yourself onto the smooth taste of clarity... Mmmm thats what I call 'Clarified'

 

[PatientGrasshopper]

People believed that the world was flat. No they didn't, even in the 13th century people accepted it was round, it was only Christopher Columbus.....the twit. Thank you QI!

Yet another great example. Columbus really is over hyped in many ways.

People believed that the world was flat. No they didn't, even in the 13th century people accepted it was round, it was only Christopher Columbus.....the twit. Thank you QI!

It goes back even further. Even in ancient Greece they had already calculated that the Earth wasn't anything resembling flat.

Lie #8:
USA is founded on Christian beliefs and principles, and the signers of the Declaration of Independence were all Christians.

Yea, people like Thomas Jefferson were Deists, and him as well as others were Freemasons, which many Christians reject. I would say it was founded on a belief in a God.

The opposite of Communism is Anarchy, the political spectrum is not exactly linear.

Then how do you explain Anarcho-Communism?

That did always confuse me yes. You see I think they were trying to combine two things that don't fit together very well. Anarchy in a pure sense is a society where there is no government whereas Communism has a government to enforce that everyone gets equal protions. Also as opposed to Communism, people have to work for what they get so no, in anarchy not everyone has the same because not everyone does the same work.

In a capitalist economy the rise and fall of the market Is inevitable. Any form of capitalism, be it demand-side, socialist, supply-side, or laize fair, it will rise and fall. governments can intervene to lessen the blow of a crash, but they cannot stop them. All economies feature some form of a rise and fall system. Canada uses welfare capitalism which is one step to the right of socialism and America uses a supply-side doctrine which is a little more right than Canada, as such Canada has more government intervention than the US does, but it still suffers from the effects of a capitalist economy.

That is just the thing, it is the government interference that got us into the problem in the first place. They think they can get us out of debt by printing more money. Now with the bailouts but that is a whole other matter. Also there was a time when our money was backed by gold but not any more meaning our money has no true value.

 

[bodyklok]

Yea, I think I remember something about that. Also,in the US we claim that WWII started in 1941 when Europe puts the date at 1939,while Hitler gained power even before that.

are you serious? USA is alot more arrogant now, its like you guys think that a war doesn't start until you join it.

Well I can sorta understand why people say that. Aside from the fact that the USA didn't join until 1941.

You could argue that, until the USA began fighting in the east, it wasn't a 'world war' that included all of the worlds contents.

 

[Agayek]

Umm, Lie one is wrong. They are left and right wing, they're just opposite in names and methods. Just because they have a couple of similarities doesn't mean they're not opposites (for example they're both governments!)

No.

Extreme Left wing means total government control over everything.

Extreme Right wing means total anarchy.

As such, both Fascism and Communism are extremely Left Wing, in that the State becomes more important than the individual.

Ideally, Communism results in anarchy, because once the State achieves total control and enforces equality, it ceases to exist because it is no longer needed. Unfortunately, that's quite impossible in practice, so you have a totalitarian government dictating the lives of the people in every possible way.

Fascism is a system of government wherein the needs of the people are subservient to the needs of the State. From this, any sacrifice is acceptable so long as it furthers the purposes of the State. In the end, you have a totalitarian government dictating the lives of the citizenry to further its agenda.

There are some small differences between them, hence the differing names, but from a general point of view, they are essentially the same.

 

[headshotcatcher]

I have one lie to add to the list, though it is just as much biology as history.

Birds did not evolve from Therapod Dinosaurs (such as raptors or compsognathus). The theory was based purely off speculation based off generic, external appearances. Internal evidence such as hip structure (and therefore how breathing occurs since the pelvic boot in the saurian hip is thier answer to the diaphram a birds vastly complex breathing system is a modification of) and even the chronological evidence (earliest birds predate dinosaurs) are big red flags in that theory. *sniff* I could never enjoy Jurasic Park as a kid because I spent most of the movie picking up the pieces of my exploding brain...well OK, it was still awesome...but it hurt my brain.

Exactly the point I was trying to make, and as far as the Birds Evolving into Dinosaurs thing is concerned, I could give a ton of examples to things like that where the Scientific community either falsified data or made assumptions that were wrong.

Then what did they evolve from? Dino's like Pterydactyls? Or Archaeopteryx? (which I thought was a well established theory already?

 

[Deadpoolsbrain]

I have one lie to add to the list, though it is just as much biology as history.

Birds did not evolve from Therapod Dinosaurs (such as raptors or compsognathus). The theory was based purely off speculation based off generic, external appearances. Internal evidence such as hip structure (and therefore how breathing occurs since the pelvic boot in the saurian hip is thier answer to the diaphram a birds vastly complex breathing system is a modification of) and even the chronological evidence (earliest birds predate dinosaurs) are big red flags in that theory. *sniff* I could never enjoy Jurasic Park as a kid because I spent most of the movie picking up the pieces of my exploding brain...well OK, it was still awesome...but it hurt my brain.

Exactly the point I was trying to make, and as far as the Birds Evolving into Dinosaurs thing is concerned, I could give a ton of examples to things like that where the Scientific community either falsified data or made assumptions that were wrong.

Then what did they evolve from? Dino's like Pterydactyls? Or Archaeopteryx? (which I thought was a well established theory already?

They did not evolve from therapod dinosaurs this is a common misconception. They share a common ancestor.

 

[yonderTheGreat]

Um... since when do Americans claim that WW2 only started in 1941? Being American, I'm highly offended. *OUR PART* didn't start til 41, but we generally acknowledge that we were late players (thanks Germany!). And it covered the whole world starting in... oh... 1939... with this little thing called The British Empire.

Now, as for the OP's alleged lies:


Lie #1
Communism and Fascism are opposites. The truth is they are both totalitarian governments run by dictators who oppose individuality. In fact the Nazis were the National Socialist German Worker'S Party.

Nazis were capitalists, straight and simple. Ignore the 2nd word in their party name. Germany was still producing volkswagons after Barbarossa started. America was on a full war economy before Germany was.

Lie #2
Europe was better under Stalin than Hitler. The fact is Stalin was responsible for more deaths in Europe than Hitler was.

Sure, that's all technically true, but Stalin ruled much, much longer. The point being is *IF* Hitler had lasted, he would have been much worse than Stalin turned out to be.

Lie #3
Inflation is a natural process of the Economy. The truth is inflation can be avoided or at the very least minimized if the Government didn't continue to over mint money and if we actually had money that was backed by something.

If there was no inflation before the Great Depression (when we went off of the Gold Standard) or the Civil War (when we started printing money) then you MIGHT have a point... but facts slap your theory in the face. Inflation is *NOT* avoidable. Tis a fact of life. Unless you're a commie.

Lie #4
The civil war was fought primarily over slavery. The fact is, although slavery was on issue,the main one was state's rights vs. Federal power. If the main focus was slavery than states like Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri would have joined the South, they had slaves and were Northern states, and additionally the Emancipation Proclamation didn't apply to them.

Um... yet another wrong. The civil war happened because the Southern states seceded. This happened because they were opposed to Lincoln's views. Which of Lincoln's views were they most opposed to? Slavery. They feared he would end it. They feared his other views more, but slavery was #1.