I'm sure this is far from the most egregious rightwing, anti-communist propaganda, but in like 7th grade (1990s), we read the Vonnegut short story Harrison Bergeron. I'm still not sure if the short story itself is explicitly red-scarey. It may well be, but I'd have to read it again as an adult to judge it fairly.
Either way, it was very much taught as a cautionary tale about the evils of communism and the kind of dystopia socialist ideas would inevitably lead to. We were basically being told that any society that attempts to treat people fairly is destined to become a totalitarian hellworld where all freedom of expression is stifled and any kind of unique beauty is destroyed so that ugliness can be the norm.
I remember at the time thinking it was pure bullshit, even feeling like what they were trying to teach us there was a weird contradiction when they also talked about equity being a good thing. Of course I had no idea how to express this or what they were trying to achieve by drilling in this strange slippery-slope argument, but I did feel like something was really "off" at the time.
Edit: Yeah, most of what we were taught in school was anti-communist propaganda. I mean, have you seen American grade school history books? It's fucking blatant. But I mention the above because it really stood out to me even at the time as something that was being pushed on us, something that was totally counter to the kinds of ideals I held even as a dumb kid with extremely naive politics.
I like Vonnegut too. Honestly, the way it is in my memory is that the story was a Ray Bradbury work, which would make perfect sense if it were rightwing propaganda bullshit. But of course it's not Bradbury. I'm going to have to read it again, but is Harrison Bergeron as bad and cringey as I remember it?
I'm sure this is far from the most egregious rightwing, anti-communist propaganda, but in like 7th grade (1990s), we read the Vonnegut short story Harrison Bergeron. I'm still not sure if the short story itself is explicitly red-scarey. It may well be, but I'd have to read it again as an adult to judge it fairly.
Either way, it was very much taught as a cautionary tale about the evils of communism and the kind of dystopia socialist ideas would inevitably lead to. We were basically being told that any society that attempts to treat people fairly is destined to become a totalitarian hellworld where all freedom of expression is stifled and any kind of unique beauty is destroyed so that ugliness can be the norm.
I remember at the time thinking it was pure bullshit, even feeling like what they were trying to teach us there was a weird contradiction when they also talked about equity being a good thing. Of course I had no idea how to express this or what they were trying to achieve by drilling in this strange slippery-slope argument, but I did feel like something was really "off" at the time.
Edit: Yeah, most of what we were taught in school was anti-communist propaganda. I mean, have you seen American grade school history books? It's fucking blatant. But I mention the above because it really stood out to me even at the time as something that was being pushed on us, something that was totally counter to the kinds of ideals I held even as a dumb kid with extremely naive politics.
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I like Vonnegut too. Honestly, the way it is in my memory is that the story was a Ray Bradbury work, which would make perfect sense if it were rightwing propaganda bullshit. But of course it's not Bradbury. I'm going to have to read it again, but is Harrison Bergeron as bad and cringey as I remember it?
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