Christ, it was cruel of them to expose you to that at such a young age.
I remember being shown a rather brutal scene of an Civil Rights activist being shot a point blank range and left to bleed out, and I am glad I had education that was uncompromising on "The Civil Rights movement was valiant and opposed by monstrous people", but it probably could have been communicated in a more age-appropriate way. I think I was at a similar age.
Weaponizing the "education by trauma" of things that you really have no basis for believing in is just terrible. I feel like there's some "generational trauma" around gusano descendants that is like an intensified version of this, where they will be told completely fatuous myths that are emotionally impactful to them as credulous little kids and it will scar them into falling in line. I once met someone descended from people who fled the Chinese Civil War who told me about Mao's guys burning down some old library. Now, I've spent some time reading absolutely hairbrained accusations, some real "Private Life of Mao" shit, and I have never once seen the accusation that, during or around the Civil War, his guys burned down even a single library (it surely must have happened, but by accident as with burning down any other kind of building). Even deliberately fishing through crank blogs and such, I could not even find the accusation that this was done, much less proof. You will be unsurprised to find out that this did not sway my interlocutor even in the slightest, because what can I say compared to the gravely recounted stories of memaw and pepep?
This was all well before the school curriculum got completely changed too. A christofascist and card carrying member of the "victims of communism foundation" got elected and changed the school curriculum, because it was too woke of course.
I'm dealing with some of that kind of "generational trauma" in my own family now and it's really interesting. I'm far enough removed from it that it's not a big deal for me, and the people closer to it didn't turn it into any sort of amped up family mythology, but it's still quite a trip unpacking it all. I took it all at face value for most of my life, thinking, as you say, it's my great-grandparents' life stories, who am I to question them. Until a couple years ago I realized they sound pretty made up, and sure enough, I'm basically descended from Kulaks.
Christ, it was cruel of them to expose you to that at such a young age.
I remember being shown a rather brutal scene of an Civil Rights activist being shot a point blank range and left to bleed out, and I am glad I had education that was uncompromising on "The Civil Rights movement was valiant and opposed by monstrous people", but it probably could have been communicated in a more age-appropriate way. I think I was at a similar age.
Weaponizing the "education by trauma" of things that you really have no basis for believing in is just terrible. I feel like there's some "generational trauma" around gusano descendants that is like an intensified version of this, where they will be told completely fatuous myths that are emotionally impactful to them as credulous little kids and it will scar them into falling in line. I once met someone descended from people who fled the Chinese Civil War who told me about Mao's guys burning down some old library. Now, I've spent some time reading absolutely hairbrained accusations, some real "Private Life of Mao" shit, and I have never once seen the accusation that, during or around the Civil War, his guys burned down even a single library (it surely must have happened, but by accident as with burning down any other kind of building). Even deliberately fishing through crank blogs and such, I could not even find the accusation that this was done, much less proof. You will be unsurprised to find out that this did not sway my interlocutor even in the slightest, because what can I say compared to the gravely recounted stories of memaw and pepep?
This was all well before the school curriculum got completely changed too. A christofascist and card carrying member of the "victims of communism foundation" got elected and changed the school curriculum, because it was too woke of course.
I'm dealing with some of that kind of "generational trauma" in my own family now and it's really interesting. I'm far enough removed from it that it's not a big deal for me, and the people closer to it didn't turn it into any sort of amped up family mythology, but it's still quite a trip unpacking it all. I took it all at face value for most of my life, thinking, as you say, it's my great-grandparents' life stories, who am I to question them. Until a couple years ago I realized they sound pretty made up, and sure enough, I'm basically descended from Kulaks.