Thread by @Jaaavis

A thread about Nick Freitas teaching extremely far-right content in a homeschool program. Homeschool Life is a brand of homeschooling content that appears to be a program you can personalize to your group. The Culpeper chapter is branded as “Champions for Christ”

Freitas is listed in the course catalog as a government teacher for 10th-12th grade students. His office was supposed to get back to me to talk about the nature of how much teaching he did at the school, but the important thing to note is the assigned textbook and it’s author...

The assigned book written by W. Clean Skousen asserts that the United States prospered because it was established upon universal natural law principles that had been passed down from common law and traditional Judeo-Christian morality. The author of the book, Skousen, founded...

a group called the All-American Society, which Time magazine described in 1961 as an "exemplar of the far-right ultras." Skousen was a prominent figure for the John Birch Society, which supports anti-communism, small gov and is described as a radicalfar-right organization

Skousen opposed all federal regulatory agencies and argued against the creation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the EPA.

He also wanted to repeal the minimum wage, eliminate unions, nullify anti-discrimination laws, sell off national parks, end the direct election of senators, eliminate the income and estate tax, remove the walls separating church and state, and end the Federal Reserve

Skousen was criticized for suggestion in one of his books that "American slave children were freer than white non-slaves." Beginning with his first book, Skousen viewed the U.S. Constitution as a divinely inspired document that was under siege

Some of the key ideals from ‘5000 Year Leap’ include “ A Virtuous and Moral People: A free people cannot survive under a republican constitution unless they remain virtuous and morally strong.”

Some more topics from the book: “Virtuous and Moral Leaders: The most promising method of securing a virtuous people is to elect virtuous leaders.”

“The Role of Religion: Without religion the government of a free people cannot be maintained.”

“The Role of the Creator: All things were created by God, therefore upon him all mankind are equally dependent, and to him they are equally responsible”

“Sovereignty of the People: The God-given right to govern is vested in the sovereign authority of the whole people.” ..... back to the author of the book and his wild views...

Skousen spoke against communism throughout his career. He agreed with John Birch Society co-founder Robert W. Welch Jr.'s contention that President Dwight D. Eisenhower was a communist agent.

He did not believe the U.S. should establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, claiming that the U.S. State Department was engaging in treason with respect to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's visit to "his old friend Mao Tse-tung."

Skousen claimed that the Rockefeller family and Wall Street had conspired to elect Jimmy Carter president,asserting a cabal of bankers like the Rockefellers and J. P. Morgan were conspiring to create a one-world government.

Skousen was also known as a strong supporter of "law and order" and believed that local police departments were being undermined in order to promote a national police state.

He influenced Russell Pearce and Glenn Beck.

In one instance, the constitutional scholar Jack Rakove, of Stanford University, inspected Skousen's books and seminars and pronounced them "a joke that no self-respecting scholar would think is worth a warm pitcher of spit."

A 1971 review in the Mormon studies journal Dialogue described Skousen as "inventing fantastic ideas and making inferences that go far beyond the bounds of honest commentary," and also of promoting concepts that were "perilously close" to Nazism.

In fall of 2007, political commentator Glenn Beck began promoting The 5,000 Year Leap on his show, describing it as "divinely inspired" and written by someone "much more intelligent than myself"