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The Fairfax County School Curriculum, Cancel Culture, and Why You Should Care
I think conservatives are starting to understand – in practical terms – exactly what Andrew Breitbart was getting at when he said “Politics is downstream of culture.”
“Cancel Culture” is the direct result of the Right’s elite class turning up its collective nose at the culture fight. Cultural battles, they sniffed, were a “distraction” from the “real issues” … like reforming the Alternative Minimum Tax.
After the chaos of the last few weeks, the importance of getting involved in the Culture Wars has never been more clear. The time for truces – as once advocated by Mitch Daniels – is over, especially since the other side never put down their arms in the first place.
It’s time to realize that the false canard that allowing America’s children to be indoctrinated for all of their formative years would be cured at their first contact with work and taxes is exactly that; false.
And incandescently stupid.
Fixing this means resolving to slap aside any effort by supposedly “moderate” or “principled conservative” types who try to convince (or gaslight) us that what is actually going on isn’t. They’re the saboteurs or purblind fools who seem to exist only to downplay the situation; to tell us we’re exaggerating, nothing is actually happening, there’s no slippery slope, it’s only one incident, etc.
Right now, there should be no doubt there is a conscious, if uncoordinated, effort to sabotage the American way of life and to target anyone who stands in its way.
In the last few years, we had conservatives complaining about being shadowbanned, censored, demonetized, etc., on social media. Immediately, a chorus of “conservative” voices insisted that it was “bad algorithms” and what we were seeing – that conservatives were being targeted – was a figment of our imagination.
This is exactly what happened – but at a slower pace – in institutions of higher learning. People sounded the alarm at the purging of alternative voices to the left-wing orthodoxy and the creation of ideological echo chambers only to be met with self-satisfied chortles downplaying the clearly approaching danger of an entire generation being taught – on the taxpayers’ dime – to hate and despise their nation.
Right now, universities and colleges have gone from quietly to openly instituting ideological litmus tests for faculty and administration – and are now seeking to apply the same to students.
Let’s be clear here; within the next few years, or even this year, your child will be denied admission into a college based on her tweets, follows, likes, pictures, and those of her family members.
And as more left-wing extremists are graduated to take up positions in corporate America, she will be denied a job, she will be denied a bank account, a credit card, insurance, or a home.
She will not be allowed to start and run a business because some woke bureaucrat in some government agency, or a woke loan officer at a bank doesn’t like her father’s activities on social media – and that could just be having a gif of the Stars and Stripes.
You’d want to dismiss this as impossible. “It cannot possibly happen here!” you think.
But here’s the fact; it’s happening right now. Already, people in legitimate businesses are having bank accounts closed and payment processors refusing to serve them. Is there any doubt that we’ll not soon see a woke executive order the electricity cut off from a home because he doesn’t like the owner’s politics?
That’s where Cancel Culture is going. And in many places, it’s already there.
What does this have to do with Fairfax County’s new and blatantly ideological school curriculum? Because it is part and parcel of the indoctrination that brought us the censorious hordes of ignoramuses who burn the flag, sneer at the Pledge, kneel for the Anthem, attack monuments and our economic system, all while calling for an ideology that has killed over 100 million people over the last century.
The fact is that it’s not just Fairfax County that has placed ideology ahead of knowledge – thousands of schools across the country have openly adopted the New York Times’ farcical “1619 Project” as the primary text for their teaching of American History – knowing full well that it is full of falsehoods and propaganda that teaches children to hate and despise their nation and promotes racial hatred and division.
In other words, your local school’s curriculum was where the seeds of Cancel Culture was first planted. And it needs to start getting uprooted immediately.
Many conservatives think they can avoid the fight by choosing to homeschool or pay for private schools – even though their taxes are paying for the public school down the street. But very soon, even that avenue of surrender will no longer be an option.
First; homeschooled children are going to find it much harder to get into college following the increasing number of institutions dropping standardized tests for admissions. Second; homeschooling may not even remain legal for long.
And that’s not counting on some woke bureaucrat somewhere becoming very concerned that your homeschooled or privately educated child is spending more time learning about Abraham Lincoln instead of Harvey Milk, and seek to have that corrected with the full power of the state.
Make no mistake; this is something that needs to be fought and fought hard. This is not something that can be sniffed away and ignored because even if you do not have children, there will come a time when these indoctrinated kids will grow up and be in positions of authority, and your failure to care will place you at their mercy with no recourse.
So either start caring now, go to school board meetings, start public pressure campaigns now, or, as RedState’s former editor Erick Erickson presciently warned; “You will be made to care.”
Published in Politics
You will be made to
carekneel.Too late, we have already lost. The Left is now just going around the battlefield and shooting survivors.
Hillsdale College presents …….
The Great American Story: A Land of Hope
A remedial history lesson to counteract the detestable brainwashing inflicted upon our children by the angry Leftist teachers and professors for the last several decades. #HomeSchool#PrivateSchool (the only solutions, that may also be in jeopardy now).
You can’t fight something with nothing, which is why I embrace the Scottish Enlightenment, which is the brilliance that actually defined America. That vision is the antithesis of communism and a mindset that can be used to defeat this wall of communism that is once again pressing upon us. It is going to be a lot of work.
I wouldn’t mind a collection of narrative history for kids from a pro-American position.
There used to be books like that years ago but they were old in the 90s. I learned about Morse, Edison, and Graham Bell that way.
It’s not meant to be a deep history, but where facts are, they are accurate where we only know ideas, dialogue is consistent with the ideas.
It’s a better way for kids to learn history and gain interest in it rather than recitation of facts. Yes, you need facts, but for the young scholar, the framework is more important than the details. Details come later as they delve deeper.
“Diversity for me but not for thee” should be the motto of the Fairfax County School Board.
Conservatives and males of pallor need not be present.
Rush Limbaugh had this same idea … Rush Revere series
I agree with everything you have written here, but I do think that a lot of parents will soon be planning to send their children to trade schools. I also think that for awhile, because of schools planning a lot of “virtual” learning, there may be more home schooling, which will make it slightly more difficult to make it illegal, but only slightly.
I read a couple of them but what I had in mind was a bit less gimmicky.
I’ve said before, this isn’t going to end until and unless a conservative “messiah” appears who can provide real, convincing leadership. It’s hard to imagine what such a politician would look like, especially since as you pointed out, so much of the conservative establishment doesn’t seem to care or understand. There are more of us then them, and the trick is to turn the tables on them and make ourselves the squeaky wheel that gets the grease from employers, HR admins, college deans etc. The problem is that cancel culture exists in the first place because leftists have no good arguments for their positions. So their only choice is to exercise brute force. Conservatives on the other hand are confident in their positions and are willing to defend them in open debate, and are therefore uncomfortable adopting the tactics of the left, which has left us unprepared for what we are dealing with now.
But we don’t have to actually adopt cancel culture as an offensive tactic. We just have to learn to defend ourselves with the same ferocity that the left attacks us with. That’s what we need a leader, someone who can pull that trick off. I keep thinking of Tucker Carlson for some reason…
The fact that you used the word messiah shows seems to indicate that there is more to this needed leader than intellectual or debating skills, but has to appeal to a broader percentage of the population. Trump may or may not be able to pull off reelection, but he is this man. He is not just a construct of the frustrated Right, or the demanding and counter-cultural Left, he is (or was) the right man at the right time. Looking back, I think he was the only man who could have beaten hillary. And he certainly is the only man in living history who inspired such unwarranted hatred from the communist/ socialist/ globalist/ CIA/ FBI Left (with the exception perhaps of JFK). And he’s hard-headed and self-confident enough (or call it narcissistic, but I don’t think that really applies) to take a beating and to give back as hard as he gets.
Trump’s power is his ability to fire up a crowd. And to follow through, he seems half-immune to being moved by handlers and left-wing criticism.
Tucker I think plays to the camera, and his anger is stylized show, or seems only half sincere. Cruz is a great debater and a showman as well, but his power is intellectual, not emotional, which is what is required. Cotton I don’t know much about.
The bottom line is that anyone who could carry on Trump’s achievements would get the same four years that Trump got. And I’m not sure that anyone else would be able to stand up to it as well.
I really disagree. Trump can’t do it because the messiah would have to be someone who believes the ideology of conservatism, at least, and who is personally offended by leftist ideology and cancel culture. And who can inspire that visceral disgust in others. Trump isn’t ideological, and that alone disqualifies him. I’m certainly not anti Trump, but the Republican messiah isn’t his role. Tucker probably isn’t either, but he’s got the ideology box checked off.
#DEFUNDWOKEMISEDUCATION
Not to worry.
https://freebeacon.com/culture/virginia-school-district-develops-new-anti-racist-curriculum-shaped-by-southern-poverty-law-center/
I don’t want someone ideological and that shouldn’t be the goal in someone who inspires a majority of Americans.
It should be someone who gets reality. Ideology only gets you so far and it doesn’t always embrace reality. In fact, your thinking a realistic president fails because he isn’t ideological shows even conservatism prides ideology over reality.
Regardless, you need someone who can withstand the lash – stubborn and stalwart – yet who gets other people enough to communicate with rhetoric.
I am still of the opinion it isn’t the president’s job to be a policy wonk. That’s the legislature’s job.
The president’s job is to set a vision and convince the people it’s a good one.
Well, a president isn’t supposed to be a secular messiah; look what happened to our last secular messiah — 0bama. The current president’s ideology is Americanism — to the degree that any functioning world view constitutes an ideology. Jonah Goldberg has an ideology of sorts — he certainly is very smart — but he doesn’t have the temperament, the skills or the inclination to be president. And if he or any pure ideologue were to be president, he would be mired in the same swamp that Trump is wading through.
When I think of ideologues I think or those who have an overt overriding world view. Reagan had one. Carter had one I think (a not so good one). Heck, even Bush 41 had one, and announced it proudly: a New World Order. 0bama had mohamedanism (though he didn’t push it as much). Clinton and Bush 43 didn’t I don’t think.
What would be the characteristics that would distinguish a real secular messiah (with a powerful and convincing conservative ideology) in your view?
Behind all of this is the realization that we are fighting MMA fighters (emotional, lying, juvenile) while obeying Marquis de Queensberry (rational, reality-based, civilized) rules. Conservatives like rules. Socialists and Democrats have no rules. This would have to be in the mix for any secular messiah. Who can fight using reason to fight emotion.
The answer probably can be seen in the micro. When teenagers fight with their parents, the parents either have to use authority and force (when reason fails) and even eviction. These can’t be done in the broader population, I don’t think.
What would winning as a conservative look like? And what would it take?
In the pipe to be rolled out in 2022. By then Northam will be a lame duck with a Republican legislature. And in June there were 3.9 million requests for background checks related to gun purchases in the US, which would be a four fold increase over June 2019.
Politics is changing rapidly.
I don’t have the complete answer. I just don’t think it’s Trump. He thinks out loud, he’s erratic, sarcastic, talks about himself all the time, he takes things way too personally, for example making an enemy out of Sessions (who was a good AG) because he recused himself on an investigation that was completely baseless to begin with. What a waste.
I agree, the messiah can’t be an ideologue. But he needs to understand the ideology instinctively, and believe it. I don’t think Trump does.
The choice of the word messiah points to the magnitude of the feat that must be accomplished. Look at what the real messiah did. The world then was one where “might made right”. No one then could ever have imagined that could ever change. But now it’s changed so much so that victimhood is actually sought out as a badge of honor. That’s ultimately because of Christianity, albeit an extreme exaggeration of it.
So think of the politically correct ethos now, and how hard it is to imagine it being overthrown. Do you really think Trump can do that? If he could, he would be doing it now.
The concept of a time traveler to tell history is a great gimmick for kids today though.
Please stop this, Eeyore. If all is lost – as you’ve claimed elsewhere – then crawl into your little pod, pull the covers over your head, and enjoy your porn and your bugs.
The rest of us are still fighting. If you don’t want to join in, fine, but cease the whining. We’ll let you know when we’ve saved the country.
Maybe you think you’re being funny. You’re not. Work on some new material in that pod.
No, it wasn’t. The Declaration based our way of life on our Creator, and He wasn’t named Smith.
You might try Bill Bennett’s Children’s Book of Virtues. There’s an adult version, too.
There’s also a series called ValueTales, by Spencer Johnson et al.
Do what, tell the truth? You guys aren’t fighting. You do not even want to fight and are willing to hang all that would fight on your side for some crazy purity tests nobody will ever meet.
Save the country? What a joke. Conservatives have been compromising and losing all my life. God I wish they would fight, I really do. The whole country wishes they would fight, but no. Under Republican leadership. A Republican POTUS, senate, etc. cities burn, people riot, economies close, police defund, status fall and GOP leadership is crickets.
Well, that’s a good answer. Do I think Trump can do it? Yes, if he can miraculously be reelected despite the google algorithm onslaught and this newly legalized vote tampering. And yes, if he can then miraculously convince the 45% of America’s democrats that most welfare in most of its forms is not good (and then balance the budget); and if he can downsize the government and reduce the number of government workers and remove most of the power their unions, or convince them to willingly give up their power (along with deregulation); and if he can wipe out the web of internal terrorism as well as he wiped out ISIS; and decapitate and reform the FBI and the CIA. This last one is why Trump has been targeted in the first place, for with making Flynn the Director of National Security.
Then he can start reeducating the half the American public that socialism is wrong and unworkable.
There are probably a few other important things, but this is the general idea. Come to think of it, if you’re looking for a messiah, I don’t think anyone can do this. And if Trump can’t then from here on out no one can. Please! Show me that I’m wrong.
Added: Oh, and get rid of teachers’ unions and reform the school system.
Maybe invent Adventures in Odyssey.
Then again maybe I’m wrong. See Dr. Bastiat’s new post:
Will leftists eventually overplay their hand?
Trump could lead this. And he could do it right now.
I loved adventures in odyssey, but my kids are totally spoiled rotten for radio theater.
What we are fighting is not a set of ideas, but a false religion that apes the structure of Christianity, replacing its elements with degenerate (perhaps even demonic) substitutes. That’s really what Communism is, a false religion, not merely a political philosophy. The BLM movement has its own version of Original Sin with White Guilt, requiring Confession and Penance. Unlike Catholicism, the Confession and Penance have to be public, and also unlike Catholicism, there is no Absolution.
Marxism has remained popular despite its manifest failures both in reason and history because it taps into human nature at a much deeper level than political philosophy does. Mainstream conservatism has failed to stem the leftwing tide because it still thinks it can win the political/cultural battle by just pointing out how much more reasonable and historically defensible free markets and limited government are than central planning. This is Jonah Goldberg’s approach in Suicide of the West. Well, if there is one thing history has shown, it is that leftwing ideas can prosper despite their historical failures and obvious rational deficiencies.
The cure to bad religion is good religion or, put another way, fighting a religious war with a set of ideas rather than an actual religion is bringing a knife to a gunfight. Conservatives keep losing because they haven’t figured this out, and keep being puzzled why they lose despite how sharp their knife is.