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Brace yourself for the hot take on World War II for the week. Freddie Bentley, a 22 year old British “Instagram influencer” and reality TV participant, believes that period in history is just really too much for children’s mental health.
No, really. This all apparently began when the British version of “The Apprentice” had a team that was clueless about the dates of World War II. The TV show “Good Morning Britain” then brought on Sir Michael Wilshaw, the former chief inspector of schools in England, and put him next to Bentley, who is apparently famous through reality TV and Instagram… which means he’s famous for being overexposed, not for anything of substance.
Freddie Bentley is of the opinion that learning about World War II is just too “intense” for kids.
https://twitter.com/GMB/status/1190315061170102272
And he’s not talking about elementary age students, either. His concern extends beyond younger age groups.
“There are so many problems going in the world at the moment, like Brexit, that’s not taught in schools and climate change, which is a situation that I feel like we should be aware of,” the reality show star offered, adding, “when I left school, I felt like it hit me like a ton of bricks, because I didn’t know anything” about practical living such as “how to save for a mortgage.”
Bentley added that “instead of focusing so much on our history and holding onto this past, that we could let it go a little bit — I’m not saying get rid of it totally — but let go of it a little bit and replace it with a subject that is gonna be beneficial to us in the future … more relevant.”
Well, Freddie Bentley, maybe you should have gotten more of an education instead of jumping on to reality TV and Instagram. Just a thought. If you are so concerned about Brexit and climate change, maybe you could make the attempt to educate yourself. As for “saving for a mortgage” – why didn’t your parents teach you about saving money? While I heartily approve of learning about money management, it’s not something that schools routinely offer. Are you making the argument that it should be a subject that British schools cover? If you are, then why take away from history in order to teach more math?
It needs to be taught in moderation to promote mental health and focus on teaching young people real life skills and to prepare for current issues that are relevant to us such as how to get a mortgage, what are the real impact of Brexit and climate change for future generation!
— Freddie (@freddiebbentley) November 2, 2019
Bentley insists that he’s not being “disrespectful.” I agree. He’s just displaying his ignorance for all to see, which makes for excellent morning television. This is a morning show, not an actual serious news show. “Good Morning Britain” brought in one expert and one social media star to comment on a TV show. Clearly, it worked for them, as here we are, watching their clips about this airhead, who apparently doesn’t realize that he could have been Instagramming in German right now if Great Britain had not struggled and sacrificed in order to stand up against the Nazi regime.
And this isn’t just a British problem. This same issue keeps coming up again and again. The further away we get from a historical event, the less the younger generation thinks of it, and the less important it becomes to that younger generation. To put it bluntly, a 22 year old like Freddie Bentley is too young, immature, and self-centered to realize just what has been sacrificed for him to live his life in front of an Instagram camera, “influencing” people to do… I have no idea what, honestly. Thanks to social media, a vast majority of Millennials and Gen Z think that everyone can be a “star” or an “influencer” if they just tap into the right thing and get enough fans. Eighty years ago, the 22 year olds were fighting and dying on battlefields, because that was what had to happen in order for the free world to survive. No such demand is on the average 22 year old of today, so they are allowed to sink into indolent self-complacency, wondering why World War II is so important when, ew, it’s all about war and dying and it’s just so BAD for one’s mental health to think about that kind of stuff.
With age comes wisdom. Hopefully in ten years, Freddie Bentley will look back on this clip from “Good Morning Britain” and cringe at his own earnest arrogance and stupidity. But let’s hope that it’s because he chose to become more educated on his own, and not that the world decided to provide an education for him by way of another world war.
Featured image via Pixabay, Pixabay license
Paladin says: If that Soy Boy or his ilk had been charge during the Battle of Britain —we’d all be speaking German now and I’d be a cake of soap.
Joe in PNG says: There’s also the Marxist derived Myth of Progress- humanity has evolved for the better since those years, so history is pretty much worthless as a guide. Much as a user’s manual for a TRS-80 is to a modern programmer.
The people from that era were less enlightened, and can’t be trusted to teach lessons, as they are tainted by endemic racism and sexism and homophobia and ect. As such, those people are less than people, and not worth looking to. Besides, our times are so much more difficult and sophisticated, with all the internets and tech things one must know.
The above is all foolishness, of course. People haven’t changed since WWII, or even the Hundred Years War for that matter.
GWB says: Absolutely true. And is merely a step on the way to a Year Zero – a time before which nothing mattered, and after which everything was that is.
GWB says: it’s not something that schools routinely offer
And that is a problem. The schools (all throughout Western Civilization) have removed useful classes like “Home Economics” and “Machine Shop” for more esoteric indoctrination.
He’s just displaying his ignorance for all to see
Which does not actually equate to “disrespect”.
here we are, watching their clips about this airhead
Ummm, no, actually. Because I learned enough to have better things to do with my time.
The further away we get from a historical event, the less the younger generation thinks of it, and the less important it becomes to that younger generation.
Well, you nailed that. Then you missed the point of it. There’s also this little fact: the further you get from something, the more stuff there is since then to actually know.
Now, I’m a big h8er on the whole “young people are glorious and we should listen to their new and innovative ideas which no one has ever thought of before” thing – because almost nothing they think is actually new or innovative. But this is a bit of oldism that’s common: we tend to think that the things that came before us are “history” and things that happened to us are just something that people should know. Well, that’s now HISTORY to those younger folks. And there’s only so much history you can cram into the formal school years.
An important perspective question: If you’re offended by this, what was 53 years from your birth year? How many of you learned anything adequate about the Spanish-American War? (For those born in ~1951.) Or the Franco-Prussian War? Or the Mexican Revolution (for those born ~ 1963)? Or the expedition to hunt down Pancho Villa (born ~1969)? Heck, how many of us learned adequately about WW1? (Probably just that Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated, and that started a whole chain reaction of alliances, and BOOM! trench warfare and gas! Oh my, how simplistic that is.)
No such demand is on the average 22 year old of today
Exactly. THIS is a prime difficulty. That meme about hard times and hard men and easy times and weak men is so very true. But, heck, this was true all the way back in biblical times. God, Himself, identifies it:
“Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery
Deuteronomy 8:11-14, ESV (emphasis added)
to provide an education for him by way of another world war
Unfortunately, this is what it will likely require. Because he doesn’t know history (and it requires a better understanding than you probably received in school, sadly) he will end up letting it repeat. It is part of the curse of our arrogance. As Benjamin Franklin said:
Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other, and scarce in that.
(And Edmund Burke: Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other.)
Bill Dumanch says: Examinations of ‘influencer’ web page is one of not shock, nor of horrific what-ifs.
It is here.
Overgrown Hobbit says: Maybe it’s a feature?
After all, they may not be speaking German, but the English are ruled by foreigners (And Germany appears to drive the E.U.). From Rotherham and other state sanctioned rape gangs, to thought police and book burnings, to replacing local religion with made-up pagan gimcrackery, the British government is giving Nat Soc a serious challenge.
History isn’t written by the winners (sans genocide) but which history is taught, and which is suppressed IS.
Gavin J. Hale says: Oh if Britain would have not tried in WWII, this queer faggot lookin thing would have never been alive to begin with, because i know for one thing is that the Nazi regime would have not allowed jackasses like that to exist.
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