72 Comments

Fascism and tyranny. Minds and learning in a free society is a hall mark of democracy. This is authoritarian. Dangerous. Read history for precedents. Learn. Sunlight.

Expand full comment

MFL claim of indoctrination should be challenged as to it is what they are wanting. They are not advocating for education. They want darkness. Indoctrination is ignorance. That needs to be used in these court cases. How autocratic regimes like China and North Korea educate is what they are advocating. That must be brought out. They must be put on the defensive, not unlike the pro lifers for using religion under the cover of morality for their campaign.

Expand full comment

Attention RW'z:

If your child must be "protected" because they can be so easily caused to change their sexual orientation by merely LOOKING at a children's book, you think it might be that your child just may be gay already (on account of being born that way, no matter how "christian" your household may be) and you just can't fathom the thought much less open your heart and mind enough to accept them?

I mean; WWJD?

Expand full comment

The only indoctrination that is happening in schools is forcing social studies teachers to use the bullshit curriculum puked out by Praeger U. or the little shit who built a curriculum based on the Christo-fascist white supremacist rantings of Hillsdale College. Pity the students forced to consume this bullshit when they get into a college history course that assumes a level of foreknowledge that they have been denied.

Expand full comment

Didn't Prager recently have troubles in Texas for claiming accreditation that they did not have/had not been granted?

Expand full comment

Yes, they ran into trouble. They announced they had been approved but they had not. Almost seems like they were trying to do that as a way of getting past objections. Hmmm.

The chair of the board of ed said they had not held a vote; the nonprofit has not been approved as an educational vendor & no materials had been submitted for approval. However ...

“Though Ellis [chair] and other members said they were not involved, State Board of Education member Julie Pickren was featured in the organization’s announcement video, titled “PragerU Kids is Now in Texas!

Pickren was elected last year as part of a wave of more conservative candidates. She was voted off a Houston-area school board after going to Washington during the Jan. 6 insurrection.”

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2023/08/23/prageru-said-its-bringing-conservative-lessons-to-texas-schools-not-quite-officials-say/

Expand full comment

Most definitely. Thank you for bringing the facts of the matter Ann.

Expand full comment

Don't know. But would it matter to the ideologues that want to jam this tripe down their kids' throats?

Expand full comment

Uhhhh, no?

Expand full comment

“Indoctrination” “Parents’ Rights” ... just another way of saying the opposite. All over the country the same things are occurring with vague legislation and guidelines on reading material; very specific mandated items in the curriculum; district takeovers -- and removal of all sorts of elected officials. Our state’s curriculum mandates for social studies now include Reagan’s speech when he was campaigning for Goldwater. (They also failed to identify A Time for Choosing as a campaign speech.) Under the guise of aligning with “North American standards” (sounds better than white European ...) it also did a way with much of the authority of local school councils made up of parents, teachers and a representative of the administration.

Yes, PragerU is a pukeable pretender. Not a university or any type of learning center. The Prager description of its mission shows it is a propaganda machine:

“PragerU is the world's leading conservative nonprofit that is focused on changing minds through the creative use of digital media.”

Expand full comment

Thank you for the detailed report, Judd. It is hard to believe we are still arguing about censorship in 2023, just as we were in the 1950s when I was a kid.

Expand full comment

How ironic that FL schools are removing LGBTQ themed books (or ones that present a viewpoint that can be construed that way) over concerns of “indoctrination” when that’s precisely what they’re doing with the Praeger U videos and their book bans. It’s almost as if that was their plan all along....

Expand full comment

Every accusation a confession. Words that ring truer by the day.

Expand full comment

Prager in its own words:

“PragerU is the world's leading conservative nonprofit that is focused on changing minds through the creative use of digital media.”

Expand full comment

So when a first grade class is told to draw a picture of their family, does that mean that little Johnny would violate the law because he has two mommies? What does that do to his psyche?

Expand full comment

Excatly what it's sposed to. Scare the **** out of little Johnny. Scare him into the closet. They say they don't care what you do in the closet.

I hope little Johnny's psyche is inflamed with the desire to fight back!

Expand full comment

Fascism is here—and just as predicted it’s carrying a Bible & wrapped in the flag.

The idiotic part is that the Bible has no business in our secular Constitutional government because this country was not formed as and can not be considered a Christian nation.

Expand full comment

Per the Constitution, First Amendment, yet they are forcing their form of religion on US in direct violation of. Separation of church and State was intentional, not an accident, but if we don't vote the GOP out of office we can kiss our Constitution and our Democracy goodbye.

Expand full comment

Also - see Today's WAPO piece on Michael Farris and his hamhanded and outrageous ploy to fund "home schooling" - an oxymoron if ever - stealing million$ from government to line the pockets of the morons who preach religion over public education. This is what happens!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/08/29/michael-farris-homeschoolers-parents-rights-ziklag/

Expand full comment

How do they think that would benefit anyone, was a plan laid out or is this another "health care plan" where there is no plan beyond lining their own pockets? It would be the blind leading the blind (no offense intended to sight impaired persons) and in all fairness, I told my kids they needed to pay attention in math because I couldn't help them after Algebra I. They'll likely cancel algebra anyway because it asks what X equal, ffs.

Expand full comment

Ron DeSantis may not become the next President, but his "model" for Florida is what Republicans want to do for/to the country as a whole.

Expand full comment
founding

As usual, Judd and team have done thorough research. And, as usual, I wonder, "What is Wrong with Ron DeSantis?" These deeply contentious forces in our country are evidence of how many early issues have never been resolved--slavery and the guilt over using people aginst their will; and the Puritan Ethic about the dangers of sexuality.

I remember when John Oliver came up with the idea of "A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo" as a comedic spoof to challenge Mike Pence, whose wife and daughter created a children's book about their pet rabbit. Good news: the profits of both books go to good charities. Let's not forget to laugh!

Expand full comment

You are oh so right about the unresolved issues that many care not to discuss for fear of feeling "uncomfortable."

I also wonder if they are afraid of having the tables turned on them and receiving the very treatment "they" have been so good at meting out.

Expand full comment

Florida is such a mess.

Expand full comment

Ronnie DeStupid is an authoritarian narcissistic sociopath whose own life is so screwed up he has to take it out in his constituency. The state of Florida has become the biggest joke in this nation, and that’s even more if a joke than Texas, and Governor Abbott! That’s saying a lot, folks!

First off, Governor DeStupid insisted that COVID wasn’t real and insisted on his state being opened back up, early. That smart move, which he personally touts on his ‘campaign trail’ cost 90,000 plus their lives in his state alone!

Now, he’s banning books from libraries, schools, AND threatening educators with lengthy prison terms if any of the subjects is even mentioned.

Children can’t read, or learn about race, racism in this country, LGBTQ+, or anything having to do with sex, or sexual orientation.

I’m questioning how nurses are being taught?

Where does DeStupid expect these children to learn? Behind the gymnasium, or maybe at a bonfire on the beach, or the backseat of a car? It’s quite clear that this hadn’t been thought through at all.

DeStupid even has gone as far as banning books with pictures of African families in them where the family lives in the African Bush. One image was of the family outside their hut, in the Bush, and the children were in their everyday attire, which ones buttocks were exposed, as the loin cloths they wear daily always exposes. That book was banned as sexual material!

You know, if you are going to raise your children in a manner where they will not learn anything until they graduate from college, you are doing a huge disservice to your children. You cannot shield them from sex, race, racial inequalities that are quite present in this world today. If you don’t teach them in schools, where do you expect them to learn? Please don’t say “at home, from the parents”. That’s insulting everyone’s intelligence. Hell, my parents never mentioned “sex”. It was taboo in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and I’m guessing the 80s for “sex” to be openly discussed in the home by parents.

People in Florida better wake up and smell the coffee. Ronnie DeStupid has already gerrymandered that state where Republicans will prevail through elections. He’s already fixed the state where every voting district but one or two are Republican strongholds. He’s already stacked all the courts, the Florida Supreme Court, with justices to do as he needs done.

And he’s campaigning to make all states of the United States as he’s made Florida!

I sure hope this sounds familiar. I sure hope people wise up about this character!

Expand full comment

I am still hoping someone uncovers how much money he made from the private "therapeutics" clinics he promoted using Gilead "Regeneron" (I believe) instead of FDA approved Covid -19 vaccines.

Expand full comment

Popular Information has not listed the threats to overthrow our government that have been issued by the people leading the Gay movement. With all the commotion over books for school children, there must be a fear of government subversion by the Gay community. Why else would the average prson be afraid of a few people who are different than they are? Do they shoot up bars? Do they shoot up schools? Do they shoot up churches? No - all these acts have been done by White Supremists who call themselves Christians. I would worry less about two Penguins in a park, and worry more about the ease of nut cases getting multi-shot guns.

Expand full comment

I want a national law that bans book banning. Illinois passed a state law that bans book bans. We need that nationwide.

Expand full comment

Not originally mine, but I think it's important to consider:

"Tell me a time when those banning books were the good guys."

Expand full comment

The real irony here is that it is the administrators and legislators who are sexualizing these books. These books are only *sexual* if you view same-sex unions solely through the reductive lens of sexual activity and ignore even the possibility of commitment and love of the relationships themselves. Setting aside the educational and first amendment questions, they are framing their quasi-religious views as "parental choice" to deny the very existence or morality of these relationships writ large.

Expand full comment