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To: 2ndDivisionVet

When I was a kid Polish jokes were common and always impugned the intelligence of Poles.

This article testifies to the uncomfortable truth that our citizenry is becoming increasingly ignorant compared to much of the rest of the world.

Germany and Eastern Europe clearly understand the significance of Ronald Reagan, while half our country still believes the narrative of studipity about Reagan spewed by the media and liberals.

It’s very saddening and frustrating.


10 posted on 07/14/2012 2:56:36 PM PDT by almcbean
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To: almcbean
the jokes about Polish lack of intelligence date from the 1800s. Poland had been partitioned by Russia, Prussia and Austria in the period around 1793.

The poles had defined literature, art, etc. in the prior years -- and the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth was the largest country in Europe for a long time until the rise of Muscowy.

the entire "dumb Poles" was planned propaganda by the Prussians to explain their destruction of their former overlords (Prussia had been a subordinate state to the Polish-Lithuanian union from the battle of Grunwald in 1410 and arguably started off as one in the 13th century) -- and the Prussians succeeded -- in trying to stereotype Poles as stupid oafs.

This was false -- we need no further proof than that the Polish language and culture survived when Poland was obliterated for 130 years. A strong culture, an educated one, survives even under strong Germanization/Russification (in the PRussian and Russian partitioned parts of Poland the Germans and Russians made it compulsory that learning etc. was to be in german/russian and aimed to destroy Poland as a concept... Hitler continued on the same track and the Soviets would have liked to do it as well)...

incidently, the English did the same to the Irish from the 1700s onwards -- prior to that Ireland was known as the land of the poets and where Roman culture was kept alive after the march of the Germanic barbarian hordes

33 posted on 07/14/2012 11:14:36 PM PDT by Cronos (**Marriage is about commitment, cohabitation is about convenience.**)
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