US what do they teach you about WW2

Discussion in 'History' started by Asguard, Jul 6, 2013.

  1. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    I am a member of a game forum and one of the threads that came up was "why don't we have any WW2 games where Stalin is the main bad guy"

    The thread went on to say that Stalin was far worse an enemy than Hitler was and so why don't we have games where your fighting him and the red army rather than Nazis all the time

    Anyway I was a little surprised so I explained to him that in order to have a game like that you would need to be playing as a Nazi and that wasn't going to happen for various reasons such as having to show your side committing horrendous warcrimes and possibly your character being involved in that, not to mention that the game would receive an automatic ban in Germany. In the end after some back and forth I pointed out to him that the main enemies were Japan, Germany and Italy and he came back "yea pearl harbor I know about that" and around this time I realized something. Some how he believed that WW2 was the US vs Germany, Japan and Russia. The fact that he put the Russians on the wrong side wasn't what surprised me, he didn't even realize that the UK was involved, or France or Australia or even Canada I don't think. He simply thought it was the US fighting

    So I'm wondering, what do your schools actually teach about WW2? What are the sorts of media programs which surround 11/11 and whatever your equivalent of ANZAC day is?
    How could someone grow up not knowing about Churchill?
     
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  3. Russ_Watters Not a Trump supporter... Valued Senior Member

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    So I'm not sure what your main question is: history is what it is and if a game designer wants to be historically accurate (they could choose not to be), they put the USSR on the side of the allies because that's how it happened.
     
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  5. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    umm the question is at the bottom

    What do they teach you in school if people don't even know who Churchill is and think that the war was the US vs Japan, Germany and Russia
     
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  7. gmilam Valued Senior Member

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    I hope they're teaching kids better than that these days. Then again, it's been almost 40 years since I was in high school.

    Maybe you just talked to a stupid one.
     
  8. Janus58 Valued Senior Member

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    Not necessarily, You could play as a Finn. Finland's main military involvement in WII was defending itself from incursion by the USSR.

    Same here. However from my memory, we never actually got as far as WWII in any of the history classes I had. It was in the US history text, but we never ever got around to studying it in class; we always ran out of time. You had to read ahead in the book if you were so inclined.
     
  9. andy1033 Truth Seeker Valued Senior Member

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    Russia won the european war in ww2. But if you watch hollywood, you would think that usa won it.

    Amazing how powerful media is. With hollywood they can shift so many opinions.

    Also another thing, you do not win a war by being nice. How many ww2 films show these socalled nice guys the usa doing over the nazis with there nice nature, lol.

    American military was just as horrible as any military can be. They carpet bombed much of germany, but for some reason left out the roads and train tracks to the concentration camps.

    The holocaust happened, but uk and usa where just as much involved. Hollywood does not tell us that and never will.
     
  10. Read-Only Valued Senior Member

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    It's been well over 50 years since I studied it in school and I still remember it quite vividly. Although U.S. history dealt with it, we covered it in depth in a class called World History. And yes, I certainly remember Churchill ("We've nothing to fear but fear itself!) and all the other big players including a guy named Eisenhower, who, despite Andy's stupid claims, led the Allies to victory in Europe. Do I also have to mention guys named Patton, McArthur, Nimitz? In addition to Roosevelt, Truman, Hirohito and Mussolini and the madman that led Germany? And Stalin?
     
  11. andy1033 Truth Seeker Valued Senior Member

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    Its a fact that the russians beat the germans, and kept them occupied while usa came up the rear and stole the headlines.

    Explain too why america even though knowing about concentration camps, never bombed the roads or trains to the camps. Usa stole all the research germans got from the camps, so they benefited greatly from the holocaust.
    ^^
    Thats a fact. Yep the holocaust happened but americans where also behind it, as much as germans were.

    You and people like you do not want people to think.
     
  12. gmilam Valued Senior Member

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    We covered it in US & World History. But it was towards the end of the year because it was recent history. My parents lived through it, and I had uncles who fought in both Europe and the Pacific.
     
  13. AlexG Like nailing Jello to a tree Valued Senior Member

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    Is andy getting any kind of treatment? Or do they just let him roam around on his own?
     
  14. gmilam Valued Senior Member

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    Uh, I think that was Roosevelt... and he was talking about the depression.
     
  15. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    Yep,

    the famous Churchill quote is this

     
  16. AlexG Like nailing Jello to a tree Valued Senior Member

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    Churchill was (among others) "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
     
  17. Read-Only Valued Senior Member

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    Yes, I believe that's correct - the one I actually intended to post was: "This was their finest hour!"

    At any rate, I believe that I and others here have shown that not all Americans are as silly/uninformed about WWII as that kid you were talking about in your opening post. Remember - there are dummies in ALL parts of the world.
     
  18. Read-Only Valued Senior Member

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    Actually we DO think and would like very much for everyone to do so. Unfortunately, you are completely unable to do so in a rational fashion. The more you post the worse you make yourself look.
     
  19. gmilam Valued Senior Member

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    I'm working on the assumption that Andy is a role someone is playing.
     
  20. Read-Only Valued Senior Member

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    Possibly, but he's still nothing more than an annoying distraction AND pops in all over the place.
     
  21. Janus58 Valued Senior Member

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    My father was in Europe, as were some of my uncles. My mom actually spent some time as a welder at a shipyard in Vancouver, WA.
     
  22. gmilam Valued Senior Member

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    Yeah. I've got him on ignore, so he just bleeds through via other people quoting him.

    I am glad other people debate him.. sort of. (I know that I don't have the patience to deal with whacko trolls.) But seriously, I prefer to think someone is playing a role, as opposed to someone really being that out of touch.

    I could be wrong. It has happened before.
     
  23. Buddha12 Valued Senior Member

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    Since I've been away from school I can't comment about this only those attending school today can answer this.
     

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