“What begins as a guess- or, perhaps, not infrequently, as a downright and deliberate lie – ends as a fact and is embalmed in the history books.” – 33 Questions About American History You’re Not Supposed to Ask
In the days leading up to the 2022 midterm election, partisan historian and liberal MSNBC cable fixture, Michael Beschloss, opined about the upcoming quadrennial event. In typical hyperbolic absurdity, Beschloss warned that a Republican win, would not only put our democracy itself at stake but could prevent historians, such as himself, from being allowed to write in the future at all. Unfortunately, his unhinged rant didn’t stop there. In what can only be described as utter buffoonery, Beschloss screeched, “At stake tonight and this week was the fact whether we will be a democracy, whether our children will be arrested and conceivably killed”. This is a man writing the history of the United States.
What’s significant about Beschloss’s rabid claims, was answered in a 1995 “Seinfeld” episode, where Jerry asks his friend, George Costanza, how to beat a lie detector test. His reply told the unfortunate state of our current being, “It’s not a lie if you believe it”. Lying seems ubiquitous in modern politics. CNN has told viewers not to do their own research, but instead, to rely on their carefully selected experts, who will tell them everything they need to know. Yet, not only are lies deliberately told to misinform, but it also seems that a lie told often enough will eventually be seen as the truth.
In Thomas E. Woods, Jr.’s 2007 book, “33 Questions About American History”, Woods corrects 33 persistent myths of America that continue to misrepresent actual events and views. And since what we believe about the past can and does affect current debate and policy, understanding how these myths developed is necessary before we can ever hope to correct them. For this blog, we will focus on the following three.
1. Did the Founding Fathers Support Immigration? Most believe that open borders and mass immigration were the founder's wishes for America. But the founders were, in fact, more like us than we could have imagined. They, too, feared immigrants for their cultural differences and how that might affect their attempt to form a more perfect union. Although they never called for any exclusion of immigrants, they were concerned about how dissimilarities could affect American culture. They knew that many who would choose to leave their countries were likely coming from governments very different than ours. They also understood that citizenship was a privilege, and that nationalism and common beliefs were critical to the success of the country. Today, concern over immigration isn’t so much about race or ethnicity, as it is about a collectivist ideology that threatens the very freedoms we enjoy. We have similar concerns when blue state residents flee their dysfunctional governments for the sanctuaries of red states, only to vote for the same policies that forced them to leave to begin with.
6. Was the “Wild West” Really So Wild? How often we are told that the absence of big government means a return to the days of the wild, wild west. But these ideas of the old American frontier are more often the Hollywood version of bank robberies, rampant crime, and gun battles. Another TV series, “Little House on the Prairie” tells a different story of life from 1870-1894, during the period also known as the Old West. In this rendering of history, the government was informal, property rights were enforced, neighbors helped one another, and life was safer. Academic studies concur with the latter, suggesting that a volunteer society is underrated. And like the anarchist symbol, an A enclosed in a circle shows, anarchy is order. A libertarian state, free of coercion, would rely heavily on voluntary cooperation in all areas of life, including sectors previously controlled by the government.
7. Was the Civil War All About Slavery, Or Was Something Else at Stake as Well? The Civil War is almost exclusively believed to be a war to free the slaves. However, due to its already vulnerable state at the time of the Civil War, many thought that slavery would have ended peacefully as it had everywhere it was abolished. But more surprising are Americans’ beliefs about Lincoln himself. Hardly a lover of diversity, he was instead, a typical native who believed in the superiority of the white race. Nor was Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general, supportive of slavery, despite BLM ignorantly toppling his statue. While Lincoln did end up emancipating the slaves, the most unfortunate outcome of the Civil War was its centralization of power under the federal government and away from the very independent and autonomous states. Since then, any resistance against federal power has been met with claims of treason, or insurrection.
Battling misinformation seems to be an unending modern problem, where each side has its carefully crafted narrative on seemingly every issue under the sun. But as we have often been warned: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. History should not be partisan with multiple versions of the past. Woods’, in his book, does his part to correct lingering mistruths.
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