Interesting thread just popped up on r/AITAH

It reads:

AITA for causing a scene after a class discussion about Holocaust ended up with my son being bullied?

My son (11M) has always been proud of his Polish heritage. Were Polish-American, and weve taught him a lot about our familys history. His great grandfather fought in the Armia Krajowa (the Polish Home army), which was one of the largest underground resistance movements in Nazi occupied Europe. He was wounded during the Warsaw Uprising, an effort where thousands of Polish civilians and soldiers rose up against the Nazis. Unfortunately, he was eventually captured by the Nazis and sent to KZ Stutthof, a concentration camp. Despite the unimaginable horrors there, he survived and later came to USA to rebuild his life, though he never forgot what he fought for.

Recently, my sons class had a lesson about World War II and the Holocaust. After school, he came home unusually quiet. When I asked what was wrong, he told me the teacher said Poland helped the Nazis carry out the Holocaust. Apparently, the teacher claimed that Polish people were active collaborators and shared blame for the genocide. My son was horrified and so was I.

He told me that after the lesson, one boy turned to him and said I guess that makes you a Nazi sympathizer. Other kids laughed. My son was devastated and just broke down crying. How could anyone say that? Poland was one of the first countries invaded by Nazi Germany, and over 6 million Polish citizens were killed, half of them were Jewish. The Nazis considered Poles to be subhuman and executed entire villages in retaliation for resistance efforts. And yet, even under the threat of death, many Poles risked their lives to save Jewish families. The egota Council was established solely to aid Jews, and people like Irena Sendler smuggled over 2,000 of Jewish children to safety.

I emailed the teacher, assuming there was some misunderstanding. But instead of acknowledging the issue, he doubled down saying it was important to explore all perspectives and that Poland wasnt completely innocent. I was furious. Spreading falsehoods like that not only distorts history but also fuels antisemitism and hatred. It also completely disrespects people like my great grandfather, who put their lives on the line to fight the Nazis and endured unimaginable suffering in KZ Stutthof.

The next day, I went to the school office and demanded a meeting with the principal. Ill admit, I wasnt calm and could've handled it much better and that's probably where I was the asshole for yelling and swearing at the staff who had nothing to do with it. But I told them how offensive it was to teach blatant misinformation, especially when it led to my son being bullied. I brought up historical facts, ncluding how the Armia Krajowa fought against both the Nazis and the Soviets, and how Polish resistance fighters were often tortured and executed. The teacher was there too, and instead of apologizing, he accused me of overreacting and claimed I was pushing nationalist propaganda. I reminded him that Yad Vashem honors over 7,000 Polish citizens as Righteous Among the Nations for risking their lives to save Jews, more than any other country.

Now my wife (who doesn't have Polish ancestry) is saying I've made a scene and embarrassed the teacher, myself and my son and overall disagrees with me doing what I did. My sons still being called names, though the school promised to look into it. My wife thinks I should've handled it differently and not cause a scene or make a big deal about it, but my sister says supports me in my actions.

While I agree I could've been calmer and handled it maybe privately, am I really the asshole for standing up for my history and most importantly my son? Am I also wrong to think that it's not acceptable that my wife is okay with my son being bullied in school?

I replied:

ESH, with the asshole scale pointing towards you.

The Armja Krajowa was actively anti-Semitic and spent a lot of the time and effort they could have spent fighting the Nazis harassing Jewish partisans instead. They refused to share any intelligence with the Jewish underground and were adamantly opposed to the ghetto uprisings.

During the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, the AK continued to harass Jews, accuse them of being Soviet spies, forced them to do the hardest most humiliating tasks, beat, and murdered them. The Armja Ludowa was better to the Jews, but there was still great anti-Semitism within its ranks.

Though subject to genocidal conditions themselves, many Poles were complicit in the Holocaust, and felt strongly that if Hitler had to be there, at least he was getting rid of the Jews.

The Polish undergrounds were heroic and exposed to genocidal conditions, but that doesn’t erase their complicity, and that complicity is 800% relevant in the context of Holocaust history.
You behaved like a nationalist, revisionist, dick and you owe your child’s school an apology.

THAT SAID. Your child’s teacher was also wrong. There were ordinary Poles across all levels of Polish society (the righteous gentiles) who risked their lives to aid the Jews. The righteous gentiles are important, and require a presence in these types of lessons.

Source: am a Holocaust historian. My first book, a history of the Jewish resistance in Warsaw, will be released in October.

ETA: Your kid's teacher also sucks for not intervening in the situation which led him to tears.

Downvotes can't change the past, y'all.

The way Poles and Jews of Polish ancestry choose to remember these events is....fascinating, from a memory standpoint. But NUANCE, always.

elphabaaa

Thinking constantly about that post that's like "[goyim] wanted to see us argue with g-d, not argue with them."

They really will just pretend to like us and tolerate us when they can memeify our culture and think of us as silly, quirky weirdos who don't have Christmas trees and don't eat certain foods and will fight g-d behind a Denny's (because we're so Weird, you see). But the second we do anything that reminds them we're actually people who have priorities other than pleasing or entertaining them, they lose their shit.

Jews are only acceptable to goyim when we're funny little mascots they can use to prove how totally not antisemitic they are, or dead, passive props in their stories where they take Jewish suffering and death and make it into an allegory about anyone but Jews.

Some people, when presented with a situation where it's plausibly justifiable to be mean, will choose meanness every single time. And it's sort of subtle, because they can make an argument that they're being reasonable in every individual case, but, in aggregate, they're poisonous, absolutely psychically corrosive to their whole environments. And the attitude is sort of contagious because it always looks strong, even as it weakens and hollows everything it touches — it gives you lots of opportunities to score points, you're always on the offensive, you keep everyone permanently on the back foot. And it makes everyone fucking miserable. You have to look at those situations and say, actually, it's also perfectly plausible and reasonable for you not to be an asshole about this, you're choosing this, and you always choose this.

Transandrophobia is a made up white, western concept:

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Sure seems like the transphobia that these "white westerners" talk about occurs in non-white, non-Western contexts as well

Source

By the way, you can improve your executive function. You can literally build it like a muscle.

Yes, even if you're neurodivergent. I don't have ADHD, but it is allegedly a thing with ADHD as well. And I am autistic, and after a bunch of nerve damage (severe enough that I was basically housebound for 6 months), I had to completely rebuild my ability to get my brain to Do Things from what felt like nearly scratch.

This is specifically from ADDitude magazine, so written specifically for ADHD (and while focused in large part on kids, also definitely includes adults and adult activities):

Here's a link on this for autism (though as an editor wow did that title need an editor lol):

Resources on this aren't great because they're mainly aimed at neurotypical therapists or parents of neurdivergent children. There's worksheets you can do that help a lot too or thought work you can do to sort of build the neuro-infrastructure for tasks.

But a lot of the stuff is just like. fun. Pulling from both the first article and my own experience:

• Play games or video games where you have to make a lot of decisions. Literally go make a ton of picrews or do online dress-up dolls if you like. It helped me.
• Art, especially forms of art that require patience, planning ahead, or in contrast improvisation
• Listening to longform storytelling without visuals, e.g. just listening regularly to audiobooks or narrative podcasts, etc.
• Meditation
• Martial arts
• Sports in general
• Board games like chess or Catan (I actually found a big list of what board games are good for building what executive functioning skills here)
• Woodworking
• Cooking
• If you're bad at time management play games or video games with a bunch of timers

Things can be easier. You might always have a disability around this (I certainly always will), but it can be easier. You do not have to be this stuck forever.

not to swing a bat at a hornet’s nest but. everyone loves lesbians until they’re transmasc.

Getting really tired of antizionists only citing the early Zionists who hated Palestinians, instead of the many who were promoting peace and coexistence.

God, it really felt for a little while like there was an uptick in NPD positivity, and general awareness that lacking empathy/experiencing "abnormal" empathy levels has no bearing on whether someone is a good person or a bad person. I saw an increase in PSA posts about how people with NPD are human, deserve compassion, and are typically the victims of abuse or other trauma. There was still a lot of bullshit discourse, but it really seemed like people with NPD were getting treated with a little bit more respect and compassion.

And then the "sin of empathy" shit happened and everyone reverted back to "oh my godddd, republicans are evil because they don't have empathy! The left is better because we have EMPATHY! Narcissists are evil monsters with soulless black eyes! Empathy empathy empathy! "

Sigh.