Koch Brothers Pushing Garbage Libertarian “Textbook” On Poor Schools

The Koch brothers have been revealed to be one of the major funders of a textbook that is being used in poor community schools that is not only filled with blatant lies, but it strictly tells students that the libertarian vision of free markets and no government is the only system that can work. Through their network of organizations and with the help of other wealthy donors, the Kochs have managed to push this false textbook onto countless lower income students across the country. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.
 
 

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Ethics, economy and entrepreneurship is the name of a textbook that, that most people in this country I've never heard of. In fact, you would have to be in a really kind of destitute school district that has no money whatsoever to have ever even seen this textbook, which is not accredited. There's no bibliography, there's no footnotes, there's no sources listed in any of it, but this is a textbook nonetheless that is being pushed on poor school districts, particularly right now in Arizona by the Koch brothers and their affiliated networks. And here's the thing about this textbook. It is filled with lies and libertarian economic principles, which also happened to be lies by the way. Um, this book is being given out to a school districts for high school students for free. And here's how this little scam works. Let me talk about the scan before I talk about how crappy the book is.

In several areas of Arizona, the Koch brothers starting in 2009 began lobbying to cut funding for their school districts. And the Koch brothers somehow prevailed. People hopped on board and said, hell yeah, we don't need money for schools. So then you end up with cash strapped schools that can't afford textbooks. So then the Koch brothers and their networks and their little members come, came forward and said, we've got a free textbook for you, use this and you won't have to spend any money. And here is what this textbook claims. Uh, their section on trade began 40,000 years ago with the claim that the neanderthals became extinct because they weren't entrepreneurs. So 40,000 years ago we had a bunch of neanderthals, essentially cavemen walking around and because they weren't opening small businesses, they became extinct. That is literally in the textbook by the way. Um, further nonsense included the idea that Jamestown failed because the settlers didn't have private property rights, that American bison almost became extinct because because native Americans drove them off cliffs.

Uh, zero evidence to even suggest that ever came close to happening and that towns were founded in the United States before agriculture. So before we were even growing, things are new. If an area was fertile enough to sustain a population, we just created a population there because screw it, we're Americans and we're libertarians. This book is, is pure nonsense. It's pure insanity. And it is funded by groups associated with the Koch brothers. And they laid the framework in the state of Arizona to force this textbook on to students. And this is what the Koch brothers have been trying to do all over the country, not just in high schools, but also at colleges. Koch brothers have been buying up influence at colleges, school boards all across the country to push their braindead libertarian principles. Libertarianism, much like communism doesn't work in practice, just like trickle down economics.

#rof #trofire #theringoffire #progressivenews

[professionaldouchebag]

Imagine being libertarian and supporting a mini fascist like Trump
"But muh no government involvement!"

[ZZ_Tops_]

Oh god please let 2020 happen to make EDUCATION great again

[robertkeefer]

The Koch Brothers just need to bugger off and leave us the Hell alone!

[nil]

"Who cares about facts when you have money?" - the koch brothers.

[douglashogg]

Economics 101: If you’re poor it’s your fault. Rich people know better than poor people. Taxes are bad. Regulations are bad. Class over, we don’t have the budget for a full school year.

[VeganWithAraygun]

Is the glass half full or half empy?:
A progressive walks in to a bar and asks for a glass of water. Unfortunately since the tap broke halfway through the pour, the bartender could only serve a half glass. "No problem", said the progressive, "the glass is still half full and there's plenty to share". Suddenly the Ayn Rand cult member storms in and whines, "Who drank half of MY water!"

[trajan]

Libertarianism: Because Feudalism is too on the nose.

[helpfulmerman.]

When I was in school they tried to shove right wing politics down are throats.

[MegaToonzNetwork]

Neanderthals...40, 000 years ago WE WERE STILL IN AN ICE

I'm tired of typing exclamation points. Can someone do it for me?

[morlockmeat]

Keep people ignorant and poor and you can control them better.

[TheRazorTongue]

The bit about the bisons is demonstrably false.

The settlers wiped out the bisons and buffalos for their tongues while leaving the rest untouched.

The tribes that did hunt them used almost everything. Over hunting would’ve been unsustainable.

[dr.shawneelazore-sacredflower]

Good to know. Thank You Farron. I will share.

[foxstele]

My inner supervillan is impressed. This is some long thinking deviousness.

[DarthServo]

Both extremes of the economic spectrum (Libertarian and Communism) ironically share a primary weakness--everything is in a giant monopoly. Advocates of both systems use the same terrible "logic" to justify their position: the current system isn't perfect, so scrap everything and go to the extreme.

[shawnnewell]

My sister moved to Tucson in the 80's and the public schools were crap then. That's why she and her husband decided any kids they had were going to Catholic schools. Which is what happened and both boys graduated with honors from high school and got scholarships to private Catholic universities. And the youngest graduated with honors from Creighton's school of nursing.

[sylviahall]

How sad what about the future children it's called keeping the peasants under foot

[andiamador]

It is recent enough history to know that the bison were almost driven to extinction by whites who killed them for their hides and their tongues (skinners would boil and eat those on site).

It is well-understood and documented that the other reasons for removing bison were to remove them from the natives way of life (starving them), from the paths of trains, and from farmlands for settlers.

In the 1800's there were hundreds of eyewitness accounts, paintings made, and pictures taken---numbering them in the 30 to 60 million range, in herds stretching as far as the eye could see in either direction and to the horizon.

Right-Libertarians will make people completely stupid if historians, scientists, politicians, educators, and parents allow them to do it.

[crovax]

I want to write textbooks too! I can tell as good a story as the Koch brothers

[joelstromberg]

The natives actually did drive the bison off cliffs. That's how some tribes did their hunting. Head smashed in buffalo jump in southern Alberta was 1 place this happened. But yeah, claiming that to be the reason for their near extinction is ridiculous

[juanitashatley]

That's what happens when you have to much money makes you say and do stupid stuff!!! 😕💯