Dear Kid,
Revisionist History isn’t always a bad thing.
When new facts come to light, sometimes what we thought to be true turns out to only be partly true (or thoroughly false). In which case, the historical record should be corrected.
Sometimes revisionist history is a fancy way of saying lying. “What?? No way. That check was in the mail over a week ago.” (I’ll explain what “mail” is another time.)
Sometimes revisionist history doesn’t really hurt anyone. “Wow. Purple really does look better. I meant purple all along.” “Those were really small 4″ brownies, so I’ll just write down here in my food journal that I ate only 2 of them.”
Other times, revisionist history is done with the direct purpose of making someone (let’s say the Dictator of the moment) appear in a better light than he deserves. I mean than the Immoral Media portray.
Sometimes people simply remember things differently (and by “differently” I mean forgot what actually happened and made up their own stories to fill in the gaps”). This (inevitably) leads to a Clash of Wills as everyone tries to ensure their version (the only True and Right version) is Acknowledged as Accurate and preserved for posterity.
History, revised or not, is never an easy subject.
Especially for those living it.
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