Queen Victoria was a dotty idiot who deserved nothing better than to have sugar poured on her head by a servant, the British Empire was a monstrosity built entirely on slavery, conquest, and pillage, and "there are no British things".
Quite a servings of lies, distortions, omissions, and half-truths here–too many to deal with at the moment. So, what is it? Left-over Soviet agitprop? A university Trotskyite society screed? A remake of an old Lord Haw Haw broadcast set to music? A clip from some late-night "comedy" show?
Nope. It's from "Horrible Histories"; a BBC "educational" programme aimed at British children. That's right. Children. Apparently, the brief of the BBC is now to make British children ashamed of their country, their history, and their culture.
Okay, fine. So be it. I now await the next installment when the BBC returns the favour and gives the same gleeful muck-throwing treatment to Imperial China, the Ottoman Empire, the Soviet Empire, or the career of a certain middle-eastern camel salesman turned prophet by the name of Mohammed.
I shan't, however, hold my breath in the meantime.
Update: Not surprisingly, Captain Scott gets the same libelous treatment.
2 comments:
"Ah, but (rolling eyes) everybody knows that... Only naive little children and assorted -ists think otherwise, you know; which are you?"
I think that the above has become a substitute for actually knowing something, and possibly for not having more to show for one's life than an interesting set of piercings. But mostly, "I hold an unusual point of view, which implies that I came up with it all by myself, which in turn means that the depth and breadth of my knowledge far exceed yours." Columbus? pth! Charlemagne? religious fanatic and nothing more! Washington? you did know that he...
Familiarity with names, plus reasons (one per, making it all easy to remember) they don't need to be known about. This being what passes for learning these days, I'd say that this program gives a very useful, practical education.
I'd like to see their opinon of King Leopold at the end of the 19th century.
Maybe that's why Douglas Adams made 'B******' an obsenity.
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