Episode
That was then, this is now; let’s move forward
- Podcast
- Freedom Unaffiliated
- Published
- Aug 18, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 373
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://thinkfreedom.org
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Summary
Ethical historians condemn the practice, known as “presentism,” of judging historical events, people or cultures, through the lens of today’s moral standards, political beliefs or social norms, rather than understanding them within their own time frame. This is an element of the strategy of the radical left to undermine our pride in America by magnifying our faults and downplaying our virtues and achievements. It’s roots are in higher education where leftist academics dominate faculties and indoctrinate students. It seeps down into public schools controlled by leftist teacher unions, is amplified by the dominant liberal media and echoed in entertainment channels and social media. America is singled out and damned for practicing slavery in our early years, although it was common worldwide for millennia long before the USA was born (and still disgracefully exists in other places). In 1787, after the Revolutionary War when our nation’s founders were crafting the Constitution, the southern colonies would not have joined the union if slavery were abolished. It took 78 years and a Civil War to right that wrong in 1865. The Brits like to brag they outlawed slavery in 1833 before we did. True, but England, founded in 925, took 900 years to get around to that. Long before White Europeans came to these shores, American Indians enslaved other Indians they captured in battle. Blacks in Africa enslaved other Blacks and sold them to slave traders who brought them to America. Ironically, centuries later the descendants of those slaves have the good fortune to live in America rather than in so many suffering countries of Africa today. When America expanded westward, the Indian Wars were predictably won by the more populous and technologically advanced civilization, overwhelming the mo…