Read Book, Learn Thing

Andrew Foley Sucks

Later this week I’m publishing my American Documents article about the Declaration of Independence. You should read the Declaration if you haven’t.

Speaking of the Declaration, do you remember that semi-watchable 2011 movie called Cowboys & Aliens? I actually kind of like it, it’s fine, despite its flaws. Not exactly high art but a cool aesthetic. Orci and Kurtzman handled the scriptwriting duties, which explains why it’s basically hammered dog crap pretending to be a screenplay. Those guys must have pictures of someone in a compromising situation with various farm animals because they keep somehow getting work on big-brand IPs, but I digress.

Well, PointlessHub has a great YouTube video about how the making of that movie was a con job from top to bottom. Some producer guy paid a bunch of money to fake a bunch of sales of a graphic novel so that he could pitch it to Hollywood for a film adaptation. I tried reading the comic about five years ago and didn’t make it past page 20 or so, it’s unreadable dreck. (And IIRC the movie isn’t even that much of an adaptation of it.)

But there’s one line from the book that really stuck in my craw because of how the writer—credited as Andrew Foley—misrepresented one of the causes of separation enumerated in the D of I. I had read that D of I. I didn’t recall this particular clause in the D of I…and then I realized why.

Now. Is that a quote from the Declaration of Independence?

Yes, it is. Verbatim.

Is it complete?

Not at all.

Is it in context?

Not a chance in hell.

Does the author know that?

Most definitely. But he can’t say that, or the entire point he’s trying to make (“conquerors bad mkay, america really bad mkay”) falls apart.

This line from the Declaration is the last of twenty-seven points made by the colonial Americans in a list of grievances against King George. Most of those points had to do with legal abuses, military overbearance, and economic tyranny. The final few points specified that George liked to stir up beef between different colonial groups (the white people) so they’d fight each other instead of him, and when he found that to be ineffective, he’d poke at the Indians until they started crap with the colonials.

Why was this relevant?

Because the Indians didn’t fight the way the English, French, Dutch, or Spanish did. They didn’t duke it out between military-aged men of sound fighting condition. They’d kill you if you were old or young, male or female, lame or whole. Condition didn’t matter, it was the blood and the provenance that they cared about.

Did these practices differ from tribe to tribe? Sure. Some were civilized and others were outright savages. Various Native peoples knew this and the colonists dealt with them accordingly. They were all at each other’s throats for centuries before Whitey showed up, Europe just added some new spices to the soup until it turned into something else.

All of this is too complex a thought for the average comic reader (or moviegoer) to process—especially in the late 2000s/early 2010s, the age of Obama, when the nouveau racisme was in fashion, and anything condemning the past of America as sooper rayciss was somehow enlightened.

The antidote to this mindset is literacy, combined with a willingness and a hunger to read. If these people could actually put themselves through a competent nonfiction text, they’d learn that America wasn’t stolen, it was purchased, and in many cases the previous owners had seller’s remorse. In several cases the Indians would go to war to take back lands that had belonged to their ancestors, giving rise to the term “Indian giver,” which persists to this day (though it is not as common as it once was.)

Where there instances of theft? Yes. Were treaties broken? Yes. And that’s a whole other subject. Jeff Fynn-Paul’s book NOT STOLEN goes into it. That’s not the point. The point is that most people who have a generalized understanding of American history, granted to them by cultural osmosis, have no idea what the s**t they are talking about when they opine on that same history. Popular culture feeds them manipulated garbage and outright lies. They gobble it up and believe it.

Because they haven’t actually read about it on their own.

So they don’t know anything.

I still remember having a discussion with a guy in October of ‘22 after I read Columbus’ journal of his first voyage. (Great book). We were shooting the breeze and I mentioned I’d read it, and he started going off about how terrible a man Columbus was, and how he prefers to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day instead. I asked him which books he read to come to that conclusion of Columbus. He flat-out said he didn’t read. At which point I didn’t bother pushing the conversation.

It doesn’t work. You can’t fight the willfully ignorant. You can’t make them hunger for knowledge. If anything you’re cursed to endure their belligerent stupidity, and on top of that, they vote.

(This guy was like 5’5” too, life had already dealt him a losing hand, it wouldn’t help him if I was taller and better-informed.)

That’s petty as all hell. Smug. Unhelpful. I don’t care. It also happens to be correct.

So what’s the solution?

Damned if I know. Maybe be a trucker and start a Substack. Share what you read and why you read it and what’s good about it. Point out when you can that people don’t know what the hell they’re talking about, and cite your sources. You’ll be able to do that if you put in the work to read.

Read book, learn thing.