/freedu/ - Free Education

Everything is political, anon. There is no such thing as an a-political education, especially when dealing with anything outside the physical sciences. May as well be upfront about it.

>>494

You may have a point about the stuff posted here, but the board itself doesn't have to be political. And even then I think being objective and balanced is an ideal you can strive for.

>>495

I think it's more honest to acknowledge that true objectivity is impossible, and embrace the fact that all education is political. If we're allied to leftypol, there's no point in keeping it hush.

>>497

>all education is political

This simply isn't true. What's political about learning calculus? Or music theory? And besides, I don't see how you can't learn about political things from different viewpoints without having such an obvious agenda within the board itself.

>>498

perhaps the subject matter isn't political, but the educational system itself is

see: public education, university

no, fuck /pol/ fuck /leftypol/. I just want to get down to the studies, not having my head far up in the skies, discussing irrelevant garbage.

>>503

What does this board have to do with the educational system?

>>516

Politics should be irrelevant to any study that does not directly involve politics. Otherwise it is not an intellectual pursuit, but a tool of propaganda. Even Politics itself can be studied without bias if you examine factually the ideas and not your feelings towards it. Fucking humanities students and their 'feels before facts' crap, I swear

>>518

This board has to do with the educational system because people wouldn't need to come here for free educational resources if the educational infrastructure existed to provide them with that.

Politics can never be studied objectively, examining the ideas "factually" is a fallacy, and you've bought into this idea that objectivity can exist when we're talking about human behavior and interpretations thereof. Of course mathematics and the physical sciences can in a sense be said to be a-political in their subject matter (although what can be studied is certainly not an a-political question), but any social science or humanity is inherently subjective to some degree and therefore political. If you're struggling to understand this concept, consider the fact that to study history, for example, in a truly unbiased way would be to list every event that ever happened (because considering some more important or essential than others before analysis would be a bias) and then to attempt to find some way to analyse this ridiculous list of events without any preconceptions.

>>519

>This board has to do with the educational system because people wouldn't need to come here for free educational resources if the educational infrastructure existed to provide them with that.

I don't see how that means the actual content of the board needs to be related to the system. That's like saying that because 8chan exists from the failures of 4chan every thread should be about how bad 4chan is. The post was saying that the board should be political even though the subject matter isn't. That makes no sense.

>mathematics and the physical sciences can in a sense be said to be a-political in their subject matter

IN A SENSE? Mathematics and science are completely objective, only how they should be applied could be a political issue, and that should be nothing to do with actually learning about the stuff. Furthermore that would be more akin to engineering than science.

If someone's interpretation of history is based upon their biased emotions rather than the actual recorded facts they are a bad historian. Of course it would be impossible to study every bit of information as a historian, just like it would be impossible to study every particle in the world as a physicist. That doesn't mean you can't gain an understanding of the events through studying as much of the evidence as possible that you think will be accurate, nor does it mean you should selectively cherrypick evidence to support your ideology. Are you seriously saying having preconceptions is a good thing?

>>534

> If someone's interpretation of history is based upon their biased emotions rather than the actual recorded facts they are a bad historian

An interpretation of facts is always based on subjective values and understanding. That's what an interpretation is. Without that, it is simply the recorded facts alone. Or would you prefer to study history as a timeline of events, with no analysis provided? Or, with no analysis of your own (which is inherently subjective, as it draws meaning out of "objective" facts)

>>535

There's a difference between an interpretation based on values and an interpretation based on evidence. An analysis of to what extent the invasion of Russia caused the downfall of Nazi Germany should have nothing to do with your personal opinions of Nazis. Otherwise you might as well say that physics can't be considered objective either because the theories are derived from people's interpretation of data.

>>491

OP, the reason that this board doesn't keep its political affiliation quiet is three-fold:

1) We exist on a largely right-wing site. /pol/ is one of the largest boards, and users of other big boards are often also /pol/-users. Small boards - especially boards like this, which have a clear political potential (it was inevitable that an education board on 8chan would get political) - are liable to become right-wing by default unless they make a clear stance otherwise. By allying ourself with /leftypol/ openly and directly, we remain relatively untouched by hundreds of threads about "race realism" and Nazis.

2) As said in >>494 , everything is political. And yes, you're right >>498 , not everything is political. I welcome every subject discussion here, and of course calculus is not a political question. But history, politics, economics - any social science - are all highly political, no matter any attempt at objectivity, because humans are subjective creatures. If anyone ever tells you that their opinion on any form of social question is objective, do not trust them.

3) Propaganda is important. Propaganda has such negative connotations, as a word; propaganda is called persuasion or education when we like it, and propaganda when we don't. I don't want this place to simply be a place for neutral and a-political discussion of educational topics (of course, I do want people to do that!). But I want people to do more, I want people to understand the principle here; education is something that everyone should have access to, for free. And that is a political question.

>>491

I'm from /leftypol/ and I agree. This is an education board, political opinions need to stay out of education, education should be about facts and nothing else. You can say that a few companies own the world but you can't say whether it's good or not. A communist won't like it, a capitalist will like it, both will be informed by the fact.

>>550

>>>/edu/ is not right-wing.

>>552

Education is not just lists of facts. And even if it were, facts are selected.

>>553

Fair point, sorry if I implied it was. I just feared that an education board could become easily co-opted by the majority of users here (right-wingers) unless it took a deliberate stance otherwise. I may have been wrong about that.

>>554

Both of the boards have their fair share of retardation and stupid content that is constantly reposted. While I can't speak so much for /leftypol/, except for when I participated in a thread asking why there wasn't IDs and the BO came along, spouted autism, didn't respond to anything and left. /pol/ on the other hand is a completely controlled environment that consists of circle-jerking vague ideas and disinformation. They both have good content, it's just hard to pick through the bullshit if you aren't willing to put up with it. Also consider the demonization that either board has been subject to on the other. By associating yourself with either board you are playing into the 'Us vs Them'/'left vs right'/'Divide and Conquer' bullshit that is used commonly throughout politics and the retards on these boards.

By "allying" yourself as "comrades" :^) with either board you are just forcing an association that doesn't need to be there and is actually harmful to your board.

Also why further the stupidity that is associating yourself completely with a group?

>>560

I think it's far more stupid to sit on the fence as a matter of principle when one side is evidently preferable to the other.

>>561

>One side is better

You have the desire to associate yourself with something larger than yourself, so you choose to associate with some vague ideas and with retards on a political board? WHY must one associate themselves with one thing or another though?

They're both shit and have more than their fair share of shit-posting and circlejerking. People who say one or another are better are just more able to filter out the shit from which board they use.

Choosing to not associate yourself with retards isn't sitting on the fence.

>>562

> vague ideas

There is nothing vague about Marxist Socialism or Historical Dialectical Materialism. I choose to associate myself with those views, which are represented on a political board, as well as elsewhere in the world. I choose to associate myself with that political board because I don't think that most of its users are "retards".

>>563

>Starting to sage

Careful now buddy, this is a pretty fast moving board. Wouldn't want this to get lost somewhere on page 1.

I'm quite sure your version of those things are all well and good and work the right way so that everything is fairy tales and magic, but what of the rest of the board that doesn't agree with your brand of utopia? You do not have the same ideas as everyone on the board and you associate yourself with them?

>I choose to associate myself

You associate yourself because you have the unexplainable burning desire to associate yourself with something that is greater than you and you got stuck with /leftypol/. Nice one, m8.

>>491

>>552

>>560

Honestly guys, I'm sorry that a banner and a sticky are offending you. I'm not going to change them. Sorry. I hope you can still enjoy the board regardless.

>>565

I'm not offended, I just don't think political agendas are appropriate for a board about sharing information resources. I want to come here to to learn about things from different perspectives, not to be force-fed mindless propaganda.

>>591

Do all the adverts feel like being "force-fed mindless propaganda"? What about the banner with Homer Simpson (the one I can see now) is that propaganda to watch Simpsons? It's a banner mate just calm down. You can still come here and learn things from different perspectives.