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Bletchley code breaker Betty Webb dies aged 101

(www.bbc.com)
498 points danso | 1 comments | 01 Apr 25 12:55 UTC | HN request time: 0.211s | source
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icosian ◴[01 Apr 25 15:23 UTC] No.43547907[source]▶
Only about a dozen years ago Bletchley was inviting former codebreakers back for an annual reunion. I used to go along to hear the talks, meet some of them and get books signed, including by Betty Webb. I'm glad they eventually got the recognition they deserved.

We have almost lost the chance now to hear personal testimony of WWII. I've met several Battle of Britain pilots too, but the last died in Dublin recently:

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2025/0318/1502596-hemingway/

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andrepd ◴[01 Apr 25 17:13 UTC] No.43549227[source]▶
It's insane how the largest conflict in human history is just now passing out of living memory. It's also insane how 1 in 4 Americans under 40 believe the holocaust is a fabrication or exaggeration.
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dylan604 ◴[01 Apr 25 18:23 UTC] No.43549926[source]▶
the power of disinformation on social media platforms is apparently stronger than classroom teaching. it doesn't help that what is taught in classrooms is just getting worse for $reasons which is only going to get worse now that states are going to do whatever they want with schools now.
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tehjoker ◴[01 Apr 25 18:59 UTC] No.43550249[source]▶
social conditions are deteriorating so people are reaching for alternative explanations. you want people to reach for true history? then you have to show them true history will benefit them. fortunately, there is a way to do this, but powerful people hate it and prefer patriotic history and disciplined workforces instead. then they blame minorities for the problems they cause.
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kiba ◴[02 Apr 25 03:45 UTC] No.43553475[source]▶
It is rather lazy that people 'prefer' patriotic history and 'disciplined workforce'. I see no evidence of this.

I do gather that some parents are rather sanctimonious and scandalized about their children learning anything but the most sanitized version of history. That seems so far to be the most presence in banning anything. Witness Harry Potter being listed as one of the most challenged book at the height of popularity.

History as it was taught in my grade school years certainly wasn't whitewashed and they are rather explicit about some of the horror. Moreover, the problem is that history wasn't taught well and made 'boring'.

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tehjoker ◴[02 Apr 25 05:22 UTC] No.43553868[source]▶
Perhaps I wasn’t clear. Real history is much more persuasive. US elites love patriotic history and try to enforce it in schools.
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andrepd ◴[03 Apr 25 00:04 UTC] No.43563278[source]▶
The vast majority of nations teach an (at best) sanitised or (at worst) jiongoist version of their own history in their classrooms. The US is not an exception.
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1. tehjoker ◴[03 Apr 25 18:18 UTC] No.43573409[source]▶
some are worse than others, or at least, the consequences of the world hegemon teaching jingoistic history has really terrible results for all of humanity. one can envision an ideal world where the most powerful countries both emphasized a scientific and empathetic understanding of history combined with a sense of responsibility to decolonize the world and shepard institutions for constructing a more equal world, but we do not have that. instead we have a murderous former slaver settler-colonial nation that used to pay lip service to human rights doing realpolitik regime change around the world and settler-colonialism in Palestine.