Here are 29 pages promulgated by the state of Oregon laying out standards for "social sciences integrated with ethnic studies." Whether you like it or not, states already have granular requirements for education. oregon.gov/ode/educator-r…
Here's one of the standards for kindergarten:
For first grade:
For second grade:
Here are some high school standards:
More high school:
And one more high school:
The point here is not whether or not they are good standards. It's that they are granular, non-neutral standards. They enshrine a certain intellectual approach.
So to say that it's "un-American" for some people to want to have different standards misses how US public education currently works (policymakers are already imposing standards, some with significant ideological weight).
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It's not surprising that hyper-polarization should cloak itself in the language of righteous enmity ("Enemy of the people!....Enemy of democracy!"). But it is nevertheless corrosive.
One of the things that Sullivan's piece captures is the increasingly "Animal Farm" nature of elite American political discourse. Post-reality politics is inevitably fiercely tribalistic politics.
About 200 million vaccination shots have been delivered, so the pool of people who can even get COVID is radically shrinking. Yet US still has tens of 1000s of new infections. If Biden can't suppress COVID even with a vaccine, how was Trump supposed to without one?
A constant claim throughout the summer of 2020 was that, if Trump would just show "leadership," COVID could be suppressed.
But one of the lessons of the past year is the limits of policy NPIs to suppress COVID. They can help contain it, but they face real limits. (Look at EU.)
From a certain member of Congress in the summer of 2020: If you're going to "protest safely," be sure that you wear nondescript clothing so that you can't be identified and bring along some heat-resistant gloves. instagram.com/p/CA0jzCdg_vR/…
June 1, 2020: "Since the beginning of this country, riots and violent rhetoric have been markers of patriotism." theatlantic.com/culture/archiv…
May 29, 2020: "What we’re missing when we condemn “violence” at protests." vox.com/first-person/2…
This is an interesting window into narrative formation.
As videos circulate of Capitol Police officers putting their bodies on the line and being overwhelmed by a violent mob, the former president links to a piece calling their response "tepid."
One path that does not seem promising for the preservation of "liberal democracy": Increasing agitation for popular violence, sustained efforts at constitutional delegitimization from major stakeholders, roving paranoia, calls for economic/political unpersoning, etc.
Whatever it public-health benefits, sustained social distancing is also extremely destructive to political stability.
American elites have all too often sought to channel this instability into factional violence (from May 2020 onward). It's a catastrophic failure of leadership.
Or maybe they've attempted to try to harness such violence toward factional ends. Either way, a massive failure.
Congressional Research Service report on removing per-country caps on green cards (which unanimously passed the Senate yesterday) reveals how transformative this proposal would be. It basically shuts down high-skilled immigration from most of the world. cis.org/sites/default/…
The EB1 visa is for applicants with "extraordinary" abilities in the sciences, research, the arts, business, etc. Currently (outside of India and China), there's only a 1-year wait for this visa. Under HR1044, that will become a 7-year wait.
For EB2 (professionals w/advanced degrees, etc.), the backlog for the rest of the world (other than India/China) is less than a year. If the caps are removed, that will become 37 years.