May 19, 2016

Google Rewriting American History




[From article]
Google (now under the Alphabet umbrella) leverages its ubiquitous platform to doodle about holidays, anniversaries and famous people. Since about 26% of us are unsure from whom we got our independence; many believe that Karl Marx helped author the Constitution, and untold others cannot name our 3 major branches of government, they could provide a useful civic service.
Instead, the insular techies are enmeshed in Silicon Valley’s progressive orthodoxy, choosing to superimpose today’s mores on yesteryear while ignoring many heroic figures and religious holidays
that weave together the grand tapestry of American history. Contrary to their claims, Google Doodles more often celebrate obscure anniversaries and niche figures, retroactively applying modern leftist sensibilities tainted by sexism, multiculturalism, secularism, environmentalism and racialism.
[. . .]
On March 16, 2016, Google celebrated the 266th birthday of astronomer Caroline Herschel. By all accounts she was diligent, but her brother, Sir William Herschel, was more consequential in the field. [. . .] Even though William worked tirelessly to develop a natural history of the heavens, you won’t find a Google Doodle of him.
Amelia Earhart (who failed spectacularly) was celebrated by Google on July 24, 2012, but in the Google Doodle archives it’s Charles Lindberg who has gone missing.
[. . .]



If Google were intent on providing a public service faithful to our history, they’d spotlight Anthony with a doodle since a majority of Americans can’t identify her as a founder of the Women’s Rights movement.
[. . .]
Even though Christmas has been a federal holiday since 1870, we’re always greeted with a generic “Happy Holidays.” Their doodling started in 1998 – that’s 19 years of avoiding “Merry Christmas.”
In a nod to multiculturalism, I’m sure the clever artists at Google/Alphabet could contrive to combine Christian and Jewish traditions. Even many of the Jewish faith appreciate the glorious Nativity scene, and are content to see it beside the menorah in public. Yet you’ll find neither in the Google Doodle archives.
[. . .]



We all agree that while promoting economic development and creating good paying jobs that we must also protect our pale blue dot that hovers majestically in the vast void of space. But 16 Earth Day Doogles? That hardly reflects their mandate of being “fun, surprising and sometimes spontaneous”; rather, it bespeaks their political agenda, reinforced by their contributions.
Not many would begrudge MLK his Google Doodle. Actually, he has 12, which is far more than for all the U.S. Presidents combined. I couldn’t actually find many Google Doodles celebrating President’s Day, but I don’t want to definitively accuse them of gross negligence in case their search engine algorithms are absentminded.
[. . .]
Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman: let’s be magnanimous and concede they both deserve a Google Doodle. But Abraham Lincoln, who signed the Emancipation Proclamation and is generally considered one of our greatest presidents, is omitted.
[. . .]



On April 15, 2016, Google’s Doodle highlighted Samuan Samadikun’s 85th birthday. Apparently he’s a bright scientific mind from Indonesia who specialized in electrical engineering. But brighter or more influential than the plethora of great American electrical engineers, including Charles F. Kettering who holds 186 patents? Sorry, Charles, even though you gave so much back through your eponymous Kettering Foundation, you just sound too American to be recognized by Google.
[. . .]



I’m not sure whether Google should be intermixing business with iconography, but they like Earth Day so much they could at least remind us about the people and events that made America the “last best hope of earth.” We need it, since about 1/3rd of us would fail a naturalization test.
Google’s Doodles aren’t absentminded; they aren’t even spontaneous fun. They don’t celebrate our religious holidays with relish nor emphasize our American luminaries. They are deliberate, agenda-driven, social action propaganda that apologizes for American greatness. As Google parent Alphabet has surpassed Apple as the world’s most valuable company, the old question “does Google hate America?” deserves a huge doodle

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/05/google_doodles_redrawing_american_history.html

May 12, 2016
Google Doodles: Redrawing American History
By Noel S. Williams

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