the right has always had nothing but scary boogie men, and monsters under the bed to whip the lumpenproletariat into right-think. seems like that 'soon enough' has already happened. witness the idaho guy asking when 'we' can start shooting.
It’s revolting and infuriating, but I think most of us realized after Trump was elected – and was very nearly re-elected: Biden’s 7 million vote advantage gave the illusion of a landslide, but in the battleground states it really came down to only thousands of votes – that the resurgence of white rage wasn’t going to subside quietly.
With the GOP’s (narrow) win in Virginia it is absolutely correct that conservatives are encouraged and will continue to flog this particular horse. When you have no governing plan other than to line the pockets of the wealthy, and all your policies suck ass and are unpopular, fanning the flames of racism has unfortunately always proven an effective go-to electoral strategy.
Blacks and race traitors are the new/old enemy. Just like commies, mooslims and fags, it’s always the “other.” Pure fascism. Also there isn’t an other 50% - they’re all racists. It’s critical RACE theory, not critical physics theory.
Lemme just spitball something here... if you read Beloved for the first time are NOT TRAUMATIZED (in some way) there is something absolutely wrong with your ability to empathize with others.
To create (or maintain) a nation & a hemisphere entirely built on pillage, piracy, rape, torture, & genocide, you need functionaries incapable of empathy, of mercy, of pity. I've wondered if classic models of the British educational system were designed to stamp out human connection & warmth so the Empire would be tidier to maintain. US systems have had a similar part to play, & it seems we're just at a crisis point at the moment: continue traditonal dehumanizations or think beyond them to actual franchisement & equity. This was the instigation that's made RWers gnash their teeves about "Leftist teachers" all those years ago, & here we are, still jumping when they gnash.
We might get caught up in a media cycle which thrives on disaster blaming "CRT" for McAuliffe's loss, but y'know maybe even he had been able to campaign on things he had actually accomplished, like incumbents have the advantage of doing usually, VA might have still a Dem Gov.
[Jury's still out on NJ, my state, where there could be a recount, & Murphy the blue incumbent as not yet been able to deliver on recreational MJ, allowed by referendum in 2020, and had only unsexy victories otherwise.]
Well, yesterday I came out in support of the Progressive side of the party and today I'm all in for charter schools. I'm surprised at myself.
I've always been a good socialist at heart but I'll be honest- I never much cared for the Dem Progressives. Seems like they talked down to me in the same way Conservatives did. Yesterday made it pretty plain though- Same Old White Guy from the Clinton Years ain't gonna cut it. We need young people and minorities to get through this.
Can I wear my Taylor Swift "Squad T-Shirt or do I have to buy a new one for AOC?
If righties want to fuck up schools let's just open our own. They got the Charter School scam already set up. Evidently you can open a school to teach any kind of dodgy shit you want and get fat government checks for it.
If they're gonna fuck up public schools use the same system to open up places where kids can actually learn stuff. Won't take long before the white folks are working at Jiffy Lube and the kids that someone cared to teach are in charge of the accounting department and IT.
You know, one would like to believe the unhinged, deranged cohort — the part of the GOP that’s the target of their leaders’ bullshit — would snap out of it and revert to something of a sane norm and one would clearly be wrong.
Minor quibble: McCarthyism (at least implicitly supported by Truman) can’t be the OG attack on the commie symps — the OG attacks on the reds were ca. 1919. And actually predated the Russian Revolution in the late 1800s.
And I dunno; I’m enamored of the commies calling us decadent. If we weren’t back then, we clearly are now. And Xu’s crackdown on zillionaires, well, I’m jealous. I guess I’m becoming a commie symp in my old age. Gonna have to start tracking down red Depends soon…
Well, now that Virginia's AP Literature teachers have been scared off of ever assigning Toni Morrison, I'm sure the lives of the people of Virginia will improve immeasurably.
That's what gets me about people who actually base a vote on this shit, just like the folks who voted for Trump because that wanted store clerks to stop saying "Happy Holidays", they've got no idea what government actually does, so they don't even know what to ask for.
Democratic voters, God love 'em, know how to act like an actual interest group, demanding practical things that could materially improve their lives, but I suppose that comes from believing government can actually do stuff.
"Now that there’s some heat over that, school officials are claiming Whitfield was ousted for being bad at his job"
I often think we let this sort of change in narrative slide far too easily.
Wouldn't changing their story like this mean they were either lying initially or they're lying now? Both can't be true. And it's a bit too self-serving to write off as an honest mistake if you ask me.
And Iowa is out here circling the drain. 3 Qanon freaks were elected to the school board of an ex-urb just north of Des Moines. I know a high school Social Studies teacher there, he has been vocal about his progressive views of teaching and he's developed software to support that. He spoke at school board meetings as a union rep, as a teacher and as a parent and has written op-eds. He's young and eloquent and passionate, and now he's a target. He woke up yesterday to several abusive and threatening messages on his personal Facebook page. I was actually reading about them in a Twitter thread at the moment he deleted it. The FBI has been contacted. He's worried about his wife and two young children and they are seriously thinking about leaving the state. In the neighboring ex-urb anti-maskers won the night. I think Democracy is teetering on a knife edge and some days I don't have a lot of hope.
So the people who were mad because the Covid school shutdown forced them to participate in the education of their kids are mad because now they have to pay attention to what the kids are reading?
Typically intelligent and eloquent to boot. Depressingly so considering the content.
The Hawn case is particularly disgusting. What initially triggered his dismissal was a parent complained that the Ta-Nehisi Coates essay he assigned conveyed a "somewhat angry, and hateful opinion towards President Trump," and contained words that should not be "introduced to our children by a high school teacher." That would be "pussy," and you can guess who was being quoted.
We live in dark times overrun with benighted people. When Trump lifted that rock, the worst of his fellow sewer creatures were released.
If you haven't read the Coates essay it's here, and it's excellent:
the right has always had nothing but scary boogie men, and monsters under the bed to whip the lumpenproletariat into right-think. seems like that 'soon enough' has already happened. witness the idaho guy asking when 'we' can start shooting.
It’s revolting and infuriating, but I think most of us realized after Trump was elected – and was very nearly re-elected: Biden’s 7 million vote advantage gave the illusion of a landslide, but in the battleground states it really came down to only thousands of votes – that the resurgence of white rage wasn’t going to subside quietly.
With the GOP’s (narrow) win in Virginia it is absolutely correct that conservatives are encouraged and will continue to flog this particular horse. When you have no governing plan other than to line the pockets of the wealthy, and all your policies suck ass and are unpopular, fanning the flames of racism has unfortunately always proven an effective go-to electoral strategy.
Blacks and race traitors are the new/old enemy. Just like commies, mooslims and fags, it’s always the “other.” Pure fascism. Also there isn’t an other 50% - they’re all racists. It’s critical RACE theory, not critical physics theory.
I heard this decade described as "the Terrible Twenties" and I think that's about as prophetic as one can get.
Lemme just spitball something here... if you read Beloved for the first time are NOT TRAUMATIZED (in some way) there is something absolutely wrong with your ability to empathize with others.
To create (or maintain) a nation & a hemisphere entirely built on pillage, piracy, rape, torture, & genocide, you need functionaries incapable of empathy, of mercy, of pity. I've wondered if classic models of the British educational system were designed to stamp out human connection & warmth so the Empire would be tidier to maintain. US systems have had a similar part to play, & it seems we're just at a crisis point at the moment: continue traditonal dehumanizations or think beyond them to actual franchisement & equity. This was the instigation that's made RWers gnash their teeves about "Leftist teachers" all those years ago, & here we are, still jumping when they gnash.
We might get caught up in a media cycle which thrives on disaster blaming "CRT" for McAuliffe's loss, but y'know maybe even he had been able to campaign on things he had actually accomplished, like incumbents have the advantage of doing usually, VA might have still a Dem Gov.
[Jury's still out on NJ, my state, where there could be a recount, & Murphy the blue incumbent as not yet been able to deliver on recreational MJ, allowed by referendum in 2020, and had only unsexy victories otherwise.]
"Conservative state legislatures are passing laws banning . . ."
Teaching evolution because science is a secular religion.
Gay marriage because it makes too many "straight" men get tingly feelings they can't cope with.
The institution of Shari'a law because you KNOW Obama is going to impose it ANY DAY NOW!!!!
Affirmative action because Blacks already have too many advantages.
Teaching CRT because it makes White people feel bad.
cordon sanitaire."
That's funny AF.
Well, yesterday I came out in support of the Progressive side of the party and today I'm all in for charter schools. I'm surprised at myself.
I've always been a good socialist at heart but I'll be honest- I never much cared for the Dem Progressives. Seems like they talked down to me in the same way Conservatives did. Yesterday made it pretty plain though- Same Old White Guy from the Clinton Years ain't gonna cut it. We need young people and minorities to get through this.
Can I wear my Taylor Swift "Squad T-Shirt or do I have to buy a new one for AOC?
If righties want to fuck up schools let's just open our own. They got the Charter School scam already set up. Evidently you can open a school to teach any kind of dodgy shit you want and get fat government checks for it.
If they're gonna fuck up public schools use the same system to open up places where kids can actually learn stuff. Won't take long before the white folks are working at Jiffy Lube and the kids that someone cared to teach are in charge of the accounting department and IT.
Cordon Sanitaire- Ha!
You know, one would like to believe the unhinged, deranged cohort — the part of the GOP that’s the target of their leaders’ bullshit — would snap out of it and revert to something of a sane norm and one would clearly be wrong.
Minor quibble: McCarthyism (at least implicitly supported by Truman) can’t be the OG attack on the commie symps — the OG attacks on the reds were ca. 1919. And actually predated the Russian Revolution in the late 1800s.
And I dunno; I’m enamored of the commies calling us decadent. If we weren’t back then, we clearly are now. And Xu’s crackdown on zillionaires, well, I’m jealous. I guess I’m becoming a commie symp in my old age. Gonna have to start tracking down red Depends soon…
"Soon we’ll get an essay in the New Republic about how health care reform is critical race theory."
You thought that was a joke, but Commentary got there first https://www.commentary.org/christine-rosen/social-justice-is-coming-for-your-doctor/
Well, now that Virginia's AP Literature teachers have been scared off of ever assigning Toni Morrison, I'm sure the lives of the people of Virginia will improve immeasurably.
That's what gets me about people who actually base a vote on this shit, just like the folks who voted for Trump because that wanted store clerks to stop saying "Happy Holidays", they've got no idea what government actually does, so they don't even know what to ask for.
Democratic voters, God love 'em, know how to act like an actual interest group, demanding practical things that could materially improve their lives, but I suppose that comes from believing government can actually do stuff.
"Now that there’s some heat over that, school officials are claiming Whitfield was ousted for being bad at his job"
I often think we let this sort of change in narrative slide far too easily.
Wouldn't changing their story like this mean they were either lying initially or they're lying now? Both can't be true. And it's a bit too self-serving to write off as an honest mistake if you ask me.
And Iowa is out here circling the drain. 3 Qanon freaks were elected to the school board of an ex-urb just north of Des Moines. I know a high school Social Studies teacher there, he has been vocal about his progressive views of teaching and he's developed software to support that. He spoke at school board meetings as a union rep, as a teacher and as a parent and has written op-eds. He's young and eloquent and passionate, and now he's a target. He woke up yesterday to several abusive and threatening messages on his personal Facebook page. I was actually reading about them in a Twitter thread at the moment he deleted it. The FBI has been contacted. He's worried about his wife and two young children and they are seriously thinking about leaving the state. In the neighboring ex-urb anti-maskers won the night. I think Democracy is teetering on a knife edge and some days I don't have a lot of hope.
Maybe this is the GOP's unconscious, or not-that-unconscious, strategy:
1. Racism is bad, yes, but it's wrong to teach it to students, because it makes them feel bad.
2. So we don't teach it.
3. If we don't teach it, it's not *necessary* to teach it, by definition.
4. If it's not necessary to teach it, maybe it's because racism isn't bad, and there's nothing to teach.
You could recite this "reasoning" to a crowd of thirty million MAGA choads at a Trump rally, and all of them would burst into applause.
So the people who were mad because the Covid school shutdown forced them to participate in the education of their kids are mad because now they have to pay attention to what the kids are reading?
Typically intelligent and eloquent to boot. Depressingly so considering the content.
The Hawn case is particularly disgusting. What initially triggered his dismissal was a parent complained that the Ta-Nehisi Coates essay he assigned conveyed a "somewhat angry, and hateful opinion towards President Trump," and contained words that should not be "introduced to our children by a high school teacher." That would be "pussy," and you can guess who was being quoted.
We live in dark times overrun with benighted people. When Trump lifted that rock, the worst of his fellow sewer creatures were released.
If you haven't read the Coates essay it's here, and it's excellent:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/10/the-first-white-president-ta-nehisi-coates/537909/
MATH used to make me feel uncomfortable.