Remember, These People Are So Much Smarter Than The Rest of Us

I rate the stupidity level of this tweet at 1150 millikohns, it's just that dumb:

The USA, created by int'l community in Treaty of Paris in 1783, betrays int'l community by withdrawing from #parisclimateagreement today

— Joyce E. Chaplin (@JoyceChaplin1) June 1, 2017

Great googly-moogly, this is like one of those "what's wrong with this picture?" pictures. And this is not some Vox "hot take" written by a 27-year-old know-nothing hipster trying to come up with something clever before a deadline, but rather the considered opinion of an academic. About which, more later.

So, she thinks the U.S. was created by international consensus. Really? And here I've been thinking all along that it was created by a bunch of liberty-loving patriots who shot the British army in they hiney enough (and got the Frenchies to help out a bit) to convince the Crown that Britain would be better off if it just packed up and went home.

And her dates are wrong. The United States wasn't founded in 1783, but rather 1776. July 4th, 1776. to be precise. I believe we have a document floating around from that time period with that specific date on it. Perhaps Ms. Chaplin is unaware that it is still extant.

Here is what wiki has to say about the Treaty of Paris:

The Treaty of Paris, signed in Paris by representatives of King George III of Great Britain and representatives of the United States of America on September 3, 1783, ended the American Revolutionary War.

The Treaty of Paris wasn't some sort of international, multi-lateral agreement that created a new country, it was just a peace treaty between two sovereign nations. And the fact that one of the nations was the United States means that it wasn't created in 1783, but was already in existence.

Oh, and here's another giant chunk of stupid: WTF is this "int'l community" Chaplin is referring to? There was no "int'l community" in 1783. There was no UN or EU or League of Nations. None of that globaloney crap had been invented yet. There weren't any "international" bureaucrats, just diplomats representing the interests of the various countries they served.

Note the irony here: Chaplin is accusing Trump of pursuing an historically misguided course of action by bringing in a huge anachronism that is itself historically misguided.

That's pretty dumb.

I suppose it could be that she's being *deliberately* ironic. But I doubt it. I just think she said something that's really, really dumb.

Anyway, I'm sure you're all wondering, who is this Joyce Chaplin? And why should we care about what she has to say? Well, we shouldn't. It's not like she's some sort of Thought Leader (ahem). But, just for grins, let's look at her CV she put on her Twitter bio page:

Chair, American Studies @harvard, and James Duncan Phillips Professor @harvard_history.

That's right, she's a history prof. At Harvard. Which is probably the most prestigious university in America.

Let that sink in.

Meanwhile, I'll let Ted Cruz have the last word on this:

Lefty academics @ my alma mater think USA was "created by int'l community." No--USA created by force, the blood of patriots & We the People. https://t.co/zOxVdj21en

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) June 2, 2017

(h/t CBD and also Drill Thrawl)

posted by OregonMuse at 11:28 AM

| Access Comments