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Comment by jessaustin | Hacker News Reader

It's understandable that you have been misled in this way; enforcing this particular myth seems to be the primary purpose of USA public schools. I recommend historian Gerald Horne. He has identified Somerset v Stewart as an important event in inspiring American slaveholders and their sometime lawyer John Adams to start the Revolutionary War. That is, they fought a war in large part so that they wouldn't have to give up the practice of slavery.

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Horne is a clumsy propagandist and you've been thoroughly propagandized.

In this kind of history, all nuance (like Adams' views on slavery) is lost and all historical events are made to fit a predetermined narrative. In addition to being wrong, it's incredibly boring stuff.

A clumsy propagandist for whom? A secret cabal of evildoers who plot the day that USA will do less racist shit?

Just because you view all history as the result of a "secret cabal of evildoers" (in this case, plotting to preserve slavery) doesn't mean I have to.

As you let slip here, Horne's writings aren't about history: they're a form public of agitation so that "the USA will do less racist shit". Which would be fine if he was a social critic or a politician. But he's been passing himself off as a historian.

Words have meanings. "Propaganda" isn't just funny stories; it is done for particular interests. You claim he's a propagandist, so you should identify which interests those are. Failing that, you could retract your vicious slur...

I identified his interest. Are you getting all the way through my posts?

> Horne's writings aren't about history: they're a form public of agitation so that "the USA will do less racist shit".

And this is a reason we should disregard history? Please take a long look at your priorities, Ted.

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