22-Year-Old Instagram Influencer Pushes For Schools To Stop Teaching World War 2 So Much Because It's "So Intense"
INSIDER — Instagram influencer Freddie Bentley said in an interview with "Good Morning Britain" Friday that kids should learn less about World War II.
The 22-year-old said that he wishes he learned less about one of the most important events in human history while he was in school, saying "it's so intense."
"I don't think it needs to be in such a young way to young children. Like, mentally. Mental health, to be told this certain amount of people died for you," he said. "I just learned, as a child, it's so intense."
"I don't think encouraging death or telling how many people died in a world war is going to help," Bentley said on "Good Morning Britain."
I don't really enjoy "taking people down" when they have good intentions, especially 22-year-old kids. I mean it's not like this Freddie kid is malicious or evil. It's not like learning about how to get a mortgage and how Brexit and climate change effect society are bad suggestions. It's not like his intentions of helping with mental health are wildly out of line. Sometimes things that have the best intentions are just really, really stupid. Like they're just dumb stupid ideas. And while I wouldn't pick a 22 year old out randomly on the subway to tell him he's stupid, unfortunately this one is an "Influencer" with 100K+ followers and interviews on Good Morning Britain — meaning that it's right there in his name, he has an actual influence on people.
That's why I've decided to explain this nicely instead of being a dick, which comes much more naturally to me.
Advertisement
Sometimes you have to learn about bad things to make sure those bad things don't happen again, even if it makes you feel a little :(
Sometimes you have to honor the 70 million people who died fighting for honor and country, who literally gave their lives for your right to make a living posting filtered pictures, even if it's like, totally a drag.
Sometimes you have to be taught that 6 million people were rounded up and slaughtered in gas chambers simply because of their religion, especially when a study last year found 66% of millennials didn't know what Auschwitz was and there are large groups of people who deny it ever even happened, even if it bums you out.
Mental health is super important, I agree, and I also agree that there's some really bad shit out there, stuff I'd love to stick my head in the sand and say LA LA LA to block out so I could live in a happy bubble where everything is perfect and nobody is ever mistreated or dies.
Bentley doubled down on his position in an Instagram post Saturday, offering a zero-sum view of education. He said he wishes schools focused more on current events. He said those lessons should be taught at the expense of lessons about one of the most important events in the last century, where a charismatic fascist leader rose to power in a Democratic society and enacted brutal policies that led to death on a mass scale around the world.
Freddie the Instagram Influencer, you know what's a place that is a hell of a lot more toxic for kids and teenagers than the history classroom? Social media.
Maybe the next time you're going to the studio to do a shoot for the promo code of your next hawaiian-shirt sponsored post, you spend the time picking up trash at the beach and/or putting together online lesson plans on "Brexit For Beginners" to post for your young influencees?
#StandingUpForBeterFuture (sic)