Thread by @tzimmer_history

Excellent dissection of the way rightwing panics work and why it’s difficult to counter them effectively. I suggest we need to focus not on refuting specific claims, which never works with bad-faith actors, but on highlighting the reactionary political project behind them.

https://twitter.com/rottenindenmark/status/1455777819766710272

Instead of playing defense by trying to intercept every accusation rightwingers fire off (No, that’s not what CRT is! No, it’s not actually taught at school!), what does shifting the focus to analyzing these rightwing moral panics as political projects look like?

It means, first of all, we should focus on the people behind this reactionary crusade, and the forces associated with this project - starting with the rightwing activist who has been loudly and proudly telling the world for months why and how he got the CRT panic going.

https://twitter.com/johnshuntington/status/1455216424415375363

Secondly, we should focus on the motives of those involved and the worldview that animates them. Don’t just adopt the language of “concern,” but specify what that concern is: That it’s directed almost solely against Black authors and a bizarre bogeyman version of “the Left.”

Thirdly, focus on what the end goal of this crusade is: If it were to succeed, who would benefit from it, whose interests would be served - and who would be hurt, who would be marginalized? What is the political, social, and cultural order these crusades are trying to entrench?

Finally, focus on the strategies, tactics, and practices of this reactionary political project, on how those people are trying to realize their goals - don’t treat the intimidation, the aggression, the threats of violence, the strongly anti-democratic tendencies as negligible.

This way we can situate the anti-“CRT” crusade in a long tradition of reactionary moral panics - the latest iteration of a struggle to stave off and discredit certain long-term political, social, and cultural developments and changes that conservatives perceive as threatening.

Let’s make clear how the anti-“CRT” panic ties into the larger struggle over power, status, and respect (who deserves it, and who doesn’t), over whether or not the perspectives of traditionally marginalized groups on the past and present deserve to be part of the American story.

Let’s emphasize how this is all part of the larger political project of White Christian nationalism - of an attempt by White Christians to preserve their privilege of defining American identity and delineating the boundaries of what is and what is not acceptable in America.

Conservative White Christians, as @MatthewSitman has put it perfectly, want to be able to look at the country and its history and have their own image reflected back at them. And they are lashing out against everything that would undermine what they see as their prerogative.

Final thought: It’s not a coincidence that mainstream commentary on the anti-“CRT” panic has avoided employing the rubric I suggest, while always adopting it for leftwing causes. Conservatives are described as parents or citizens - people on the Left as “activists.”

People storming school board meetings are “concerned parents,” which implies that their motives are genuine and just, basically shielding their “concerns” from political scrutiny; but students protesting a racist speaker are always “activists,” never “concerned young people.”

I’m fine with focusing on the underlying political and ideological causes of people’s actions in the public square. But let’s not reserve that scrutiny just for leftwing causes: The anti-democratic crusade of White Christian nationalists is where we need to focus our attention.