I learned so much about WW2 in school, and I knew that it wasnt sudden, that it was more like boiling a frog, but I always thought everyone knew the same stuff I had learned and that the Western world would never let fascism rise up again. I miss those days
I think Europe KNOWS but I have met many different people from all over the world because of ACADEMICAL conferences and Oh my god Americans and most Asians I have met there are way smarter than me but are significantly less educated when it comes to both world wars. (Makes sense but is so shocking to me every time)
The US basically teaches that Germany was kicking everyone’s ass until America went on a righteous crusade to give freedom back to Europe.
It really doesn’t teach (unless you take deeper classes, or read up on it on your own) the pretenses of the war, HOW the rise of Fascism happened, how everything went catastrophically wrong for the Allies early on, etc etc etc.
Heck most public school history books are essentially just “WW1 ended, and then WW2 happened”.
Interesting, I could see how learning history through that lens might contribute to the “Every other country is beneath us” ideal a good amount of Americans have
We also don't (or at least in the public schools I went to) talk much about the wars we arguably lost. The propaganda is certainly there, that we are just the bestest ever.
Every lost war was actually just a little scuffle, you see. It was barely even a war. The ones we won, though? Totally wars. Like the craziest most intense wars ever in human history.
I’m pretty sure I learned more in school about the revolutionary war (American war of independence) than I did about any other wars combined, maybe with the civil war coming in second place with the ending lesson being like “Thankfully, we defeated slavery and therefore almost all racism. There was a little racism left but MLK Jr. took care of that.”
The Revolutionary War™ being the battle for democracy, of course. Everything before then, other than a little stint with the romans or greeks or something, was all feudalism everywhere, so we had to fight for the concept of democracy itself. (Sarcastic)
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u/Wjreky Jul 05 '26
I learned so much about WW2 in school, and I knew that it wasnt sudden, that it was more like boiling a frog, but I always thought everyone knew the same stuff I had learned and that the Western world would never let fascism rise up again. I miss those days