The Right's War On Teachers

[ZiprHead]

TPUSA

Ron DiSantis

Metaphor

 

[steve_bank]

Please include a summary of what the OP is about when creating a thread.

 

[Jarhyn]

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Trump and dominionists planning a Pogrom against the educated.

 

[Politesse]

Funny thing is, I think most people, even conservative-minded people, still think of education in very Cold War terms, as an institution existing for its own sake. Kids go to school, it's just a fact. If there isn't a school to put them in, even for a few months, it's a disaster and an outrage, as we saw during the pandemic closures. Schools, at least for children, are considered a right not a privilege by most Americans. And for the vast majority of Americans, that school is a public school, whose existence, reach, and reliability are dependent on a strong instiitutional infrastructure, guided by the federal government and managed by the states. Even private schools follow the public model, seek public accreditation, survive on public grants, and draw from the same employee pool of administrators, teachers, and substitutes.

Yet, conservatives glibly vote for politicians who are trying to dismantle the public educational system. And I think it's because they don't really understand what's going on, even though said politicians are making no real effort to hide their intent. Color it with emotional language, yes, blame it imaginary boogeymen like "social Marxists" and "CRT", yes. But they aren't actually making any effort to hide that the destruction and privatization of schooling is their end goal, even though that is a goal that would screw over a vast swath of the American public and that, regardless of political sympathies, is not something most of us would actually want.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Yet, conservatives glibly vote for politicians who are trying to dismantle the public educational system. And I think it's because they don't really understand what's going on, even though said politicians are making no real effort to hide their intent. Color it with emotional language, yes, blame it imaginary boogeymen like "social Marxists" and "CRT", yes. But they aren't actually making any effort to hide that the destruction and privatization of schooling is their end goal, even though that is a goal that would screw over a vast swath of the American public and that, regardless of political sympathies, is not something most of us would actually want.

I see it as simple anti-intellectualism. Knowledge, diversity, inclusion, scientific advancement, etc., these things actually scare a lot of people I guess because it threatens their social status and identity. They can't envision themselves as anyone but themselves.

 

[Jarhyn]

Yet, conservatives glibly vote for politicians who are trying to dismantle the public educational system. And I think it's because they don't really understand what's going on, even though said politicians are making no real effort to hide their intent. Color it with emotional language, yes, blame it imaginary boogeymen like "social Marxists" and "CRT", yes. But they aren't actually making any effort to hide that the destruction and privatization of schooling is their end goal, even though that is a goal that would screw over a vast swath of the American public and that, regardless of political sympathies, is not something most of us would actually want.

I see it as simple anti-intellectualism. Knowledge, diversity, inclusion, scientific advancement, etc., these things actually scare a lot of people I guess because it threatens their social status and identity. They can't envision themselves as anyone but themselves.

And moreover, they know somewhere that when many people have what someone like @No Robots might consider "the power of God", that's going to scare a lot of people, too. It's moreso that there's some real and material advantage that education gives, that merely exercising the organ of understanding and knowledge gives an advantage in a number of social interactions.

I'm sure many see this power and wonder why they as Christians lack it. They should have "god" and all the power of it, so this must be from somewhere else they reason.

It's a kind of superpower that they were offered but never managed to figure out... And they are terrified it will make them obsolete and unnecessary and unwanted and unimportant.

They're not entirely wrong, either.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Please include a summary of what the OP is about when creating a thread.

Trump and dominionists planning a Pogrom against the educated.

This is more specifically aimed at the educators. They are actively trying to get these people to quit. Being a teacher was hard enough. These days they now need to deal with irrational Don Quixote parents verbally accosting them over things that don't exist in the curriculum.

The anti-CRT movement shows just how people can be weened onto conspiracy theory bullshit. It isn't easy to get to that point, but the alt-right has proven they have a system in place that can get some people so riled up and very angry about things that are not happening in the classroom. And people that angry will vote.

 

[laughing dog]

Would anyone who actually cares about their children let them near Mr. Trump for even a minute? The irony of the shitpost of a human being disparage teachers is overwhelming.

 

[Politesse]

Would anyone who actually cares about their children let them near Mr. Trump for even a minute? The irony of the shitpost of a human being disparage teachers is overwhelming.

I think a boy might be safe, but I would not let him alone in a room with a adolescent girl for any length of time, and I say that with all honesty, not (just) as a political jab. I still fundamentally do not understand how that craven man has captured the support of the evangelical Christians I grew up around, who blanched at the very verbalization of words "sex" or "damn"...

But alas, this problem of American anti-intellectualism and mass suspicion of public schoolteachers has much older and deeper roots in our national culture than do Trump or his followers. Margaret Mead was analyzing the root causes of anti-intellectual political mobilization as early as 1942, and it was already an "antique problem" to her by that time.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Would anyone who actually cares about their children let them near Mr. Trump for even a minute? The irony of the shitpost of a human being disparage teachers is overwhelming.

I think a boy might be safe, but I would not let him alone in a room with a adolescent girl for any length of time, and I say that with all honesty, not as a political jab. I still fundamentally do not understand how that man has captured the support of the evangelical Christians I grew up around, who blanched at the very verbalization of words "sex" or "damn"...

For the judges and SCOTUS, that was the argument by the intellectual right-wing in the fall of 2016. And they got Roe shredded. They sold their souls for that. And they won.

Alas, this problem of American anti-intellectual has much older and deeper roots in our national culture than do Trump or his followers. Margaret Mead was analyzing the root causes of anti-intellectual political mobilization as early as 1942, and it was already an "antique problem" to her by that time.

Very true. "Moral outrage" ain't a new thing.

 

[steve_bank]

Over the last few decades suppression of intellectual freedom on campus has mostly been by the left. Violent demonstrions and threats against conservative speakers.

Here in Washington at Evergreen State College a day was dcelred when only blacks were to be on campus. A teacher exercised what he thought was his rights and went on campus. He got suspended and publicaly ripped as being racist..

I am actually more fearful of te left than the right.

If there is a pogrom it is one of enforcing a progressive political correct speech and condemning anyone contrary racist.

Try going on campus in Ca and make an objective critique of black culture.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Over the last few decades suppression of intellectual freedom on campus has mostly been by the left. Violent demonstrions and threats against conservative speakers.

That is a bit much regarding "violent" demonstrations. Yes, there have been attempts to stop people like Ann Coulter from talking. But people like Richard Spencer have no right to use a college as their microphone.

Here in Washington at Evergreen State College a day was dcelred when only blacks were to be on campus. A teacher exercised what he thought was his rights and went on campus. He got suspended and publicaly ripped as being racist..

I am actually more fearful of te left than the right.

Funny, the right is forcing women to have babies, marching while chanting against the Jewish, and most recently, tried to pull a coup in DC. Yes, we get it, Seattle is experiencing a different trend in crime than most other areas.

If there is a pogrom it is one of enforcing a progressive political correct speech and condemning anyone contrary racist.

So all those people yelling at teachers over CRT, something that doesn't even exist in curricula below college?

Try going on campus in Ca and make an objective critique of black culture.

"Objective critique of black culture"... I'd probably want to make certain it was a bit more organic than being based on Hip Hop videos.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Please include a summary of what the OP is about when creating a thread.

Is that really necessary 100% of the time? In this particular case, there are 25 seconds of words, not a 3 hour video, the thrust of the words in the 25 second video are spelled out, and the summary is the thread title.

 

[Politesse]

Over the last few decades suppression of intellectual freedom on campus has mostly been by the left. Violent demonstrions and threats against conservative speakers.

Here in Washington at Evergreen State College a day was dcelred when only blacks were to be on campus. A teacher exercised what he thought was his rights and went on campus. He got suspended and publicaly ripped as being racist..

I am actually more fearful of te left than the right.

If there is a pogrom it is one of enforcing a progressive political correct speech and condemning anyone contrary racist.

Try going on campus in Ca and make an objective critique of black culture.

Ridiculous. I am a California educator, and we discuss sociological and race issues in my courses all the time. I suspect what you really mean is that you aren't protected from the social consequences of saying racist things, but even there, if a student is staying within the confines of what is actually objectively true, why on earth would I try to stop them from doing so? An objective point of data is non-controversial in nature or at least demonstrably true whether or not there are objections, that's what makes it "objective". Nor have I myself ever faced any community backlash for discussing race in the classroom, not in eleven years of teaching. If a student says something factually inaccurate, I'm not embarassed to correct them. If they are struggling to distinguish between fact and opinion, we work through it. Even my conservative students have never lodged any sort of complaint, and despite what you say, they are far more likely to. Weinstein sued Evergreen for alleged racial discrimination, not the other way around. And that's a fact.

And of course you are once again misrepresenting the Evergreen College affair, considerably, but if you ignored it the last time I pointed this out, it is safe to presume that repetition will make the facts no clearer...

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

...an objective critique of black culture.

This is pretty damning, right here:

Elaborate rituals and ceremonies were a significant part of African-Americans' ancestral culture. Many West African societies traditionally believed that spirits dwelled in their surrounding nature. From this disposition, they treated their environment with mindful care. They also generally believed that a spiritual life source existed after death and that ancestors in this spiritual realm could then mediate between the supreme Creator and the living. Honor and prayer were displayed to these "ancient ones", the spirit of that past. West Africans also believed in spiritual possession.[5]

At the beginning of the 18th century, Christianity began to spread across North Africa; this shift in religion began displacing traditional spiritual practices from Africa. The enslaved Africans brought this complex religious dynamic within their culture to America. This fusion of traditional beliefs from Africa with Christianity provided a commonplace for those practicing religion in Africa and America.[5]

After emancipation, unique African-American traditions have continued to flourish, as distinctive traditions or radical innovations in music, art, literature, religion, cuisine, and other fields. 20th-century sociologists, such as Gunnar Myrdal, believed that African-Americans had lost most of their cultural ties with Africa.[6] But, anthropological field research by Melville Herskovits and others demonstrated that there has been a continuum of African traditions among Africans of the diaspora.[7] The greatest influence of African cultural practices on European culture is found below the Mason-Dixon line in the American South.[8][9]

For many years African-American culture developed separately from American culture, both because of slavery and the persistence of racial discrimination in America, as well as African-American slave descendants' desire to create and maintain their own traditions. Today, African-American culture has influenced American culture and yet still remains a distinct cultural body.[10]

African-American culture is influenced by the culture of the Southern United States. Their food and language is influenced by White Southerners who enslaved them on plantations in the South.[11]

 

[laughing dog]

I think a boy might be safe, but I would not let him alone in a room with a adolescent girl for any length of time, and I say that with all honesty, not (just) as a political jab. I still fundamentally do not understand how that craven man has captured the support of the evangelical Christians I grew up around, who blanched at the very verbalization of words "sex" or "damn"...

A boy might be safe from sexual molestation, but no one would be safe from his overall emotional and intellectual depravity.

 

[Jarhyn]

Would anyone who actually cares about their children let them near Mr. Trump for even a minute? The irony of the shitpost of a human being disparage teachers is overwhelming.

I think a boy might be safe, but I would not let him alone in a room with a adolescent girl for any length of time, and I say that with all honesty, not (just) as a political jab. I still fundamentally do not understand how that craven man has captured the support of the evangelical Christians I grew up around, who blanched at the very verbalization of words "sex" or "damn"...

But alas, this problem of American anti-intellectualism and mass suspicion of public schoolteachers has much older and deeper roots in our national culture than do Trump or his followers. Margaret Mead was analyzing the root causes of anti-intellectual political mobilization as early as 1942, and it was already an "antique problem" to her by that time.

Are biblical metaphors off the table with you? Because there are several. Apparently this is common enough of a process that it gets documented and predicted.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

...an objective critique of black culture.

This is pretty damning, right here:

What I find funniest is the use of the word "objective". Because while I am absolutely certain Steve Bank's analysis would attempt to be objective, it would almost certainly be paternal, presumptive, and most of all grossly ignorant of what it means, how it feels, how it is to be black in America.

I can just see Steve Bank trying to convince them that his critique is "objective", as he is being mocked and handwaved away, "But my critique is objective! It's objective!!!"

I mean heck, the term "black culture" itself is fucking insulting seeing the term should be "American Culture". Who is talking about "white culture" in the US? Is there even a "white culture"? I mean beyond eating large portions of meat? People only seem to want to discuss "culture" when belittling a group of people, even when objectively doing so.

 

[Metaphor]

...an objective critique of black culture.

This is pretty damning, right here:

What I find funniest is the use of the word "objective". Because while I am absolutely certain Steve Bank's analysis would attempt to be objective, it would almost certainly be paternal, presumptive, and most of all grossly ignorant of what it means, how it feels, how it is to be black in America.

I can just see Steve Bank trying to convince them that his critique is "objective", as he is being mocked and handwaved away, "But my critique is objective! It's objective!!!"

I mean heck, the term "black culture" itself is fucking insulting seeing the term should be "American Culture". Who is talking about "white culture" in the US? Is there even a "white culture"? I mean beyond eating large portions of meat? People only seem to want to discuss "culture" when belittling a group of people, even when objectively doing so.

You're kidding, right? What do you think "antiracists" are talking about when they are talking about whiteness?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

...an objective critique of black culture.

This is pretty damning, right here:

What I find funniest is the use of the word "objective". Because while I am absolutely certain Steve Bank's analysis would attempt to be objective, it would almost certainly be paternal, presumptive, and most of all grossly ignorant of what it means, how it feels, how it is to be black in America.

I can just see Steve Bank trying to convince them that his critique is "objective", as he is being mocked and handwaved away, "But my critique is objective! It's objective!!!"

I mean heck, the term "black culture" itself is fucking insulting seeing the term should be "American Culture". Who is talking about "white culture" in the US? Is there even a "white culture"? I mean beyond eating large portions of meat? People only seem to want to discuss "culture" when belittling a group of people, even when objectively doing so.

You're kidding, right? What do you think "antiracists" are talking about when they are talking about whiteness?

So enlighten me on white culture.