New from me: Efforts to ban books are up by 60%, reflecting a new censoriousness and a culture of fear in schools.
The people who say they want patriotic education seem indifferent to American values like free speech and due process.
Plz share & subscribe.
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-book-ban…
It's not just that efforts to ban books are on the increase, they are targeting books related to race, gender, and sexuality identity. From @DanikaEllis's analysis of the 850 books a Texas legislator targeted. bookriot.com/texas-book-ban… 2/
It's no secret that progressives are in a reactive stance when it comes to talking about education right now. But I see reason for optimism that reveal how progressives can talk about this topic. Protestors are rightly calling book bans unAmerican. 3/ donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-book-ban…
Attacking school officials - and in some case firing them on the basis of thinly-evidenced smear campaigns - will remind people of the excesses of red scare tactics. 4/
I write about how progressives should look for alternative language to the carefully constructed "CRT" bogeyman brand.
@PENamerica has proposed "educational gag orders" which is both more accurate and the best alternative I've seen thus far. 5/ donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-book-ban…
Like lots of immigrants, I appreciate values like free speech and protection against arbitrary actions by an intrusive government as inherently American. This makes me optimistic we can talk about the assault on education while reclaiming patriotic language. 6/
From Kurt Vonnegut's letter to a school principal who banned "Slaughterhouse Five": "books and writers are very unreal to you people. I am writing this letter to let you know how real I am."

(h/t @EricPatashnik) 7/
Hat tip to the people whose work I've drawn from with this post @michelleinbklyn @JeffreyASachs @jzfriedman @DanikaEllis @Mike_Hixenbaugh and lots of local reporters covering what is happening on the ground.

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More from @donmoyn

18 Nov
Two observations:
1) I worked at UW-Madison in social sciences for 13 years and never heard reference to CRT once
2) You could teach an entire course about CRT just using the career of Robin Vos. Let me explain. 1/
We know that lead in water hurts kids brain development. In WI, the kids most at risk from lead are Black kids living in in Milwaukee. Robin Vos has been the biggest opponent of helping those kids. 2/ jsonline.com/story/news/pol…
Vos and colleagues have turned efforts to honor Black leaders during Black history month into an annual troll fest.
Read 5 tweets
18 Nov
New President's Management Agenda released from Biden via @OMBPress. Emphasis on rebuilding federal workforce, excellent & equitable federal customer service, and capacity improvements to enable the BBB agenda.
performance.gov/pma/
The Presidential management agenda lays out what the President says are their top nuts-and-bolts plan for fixing the types of problems that don't get much attention. Not surprising there is an emphasis on reinvesting in the federal workforce, but there are longstanding problems.
The second priority area is the one most interesting to me, since it relates to administrative burden. It marries the idea of customer service and reducing burdens, and includes language about access: assets.performance.gov/PMA/Biden-Harr…
Read 5 tweets
12 Nov
New Washington Post column. Derrick Bell and Kimberlé Crenshaw went back in time and started Nazism.
This would be hilarious if there were not real consequences. Speech is being suppressed, books are being banned, school officials are being fired and threatened.
The clear goal here is to suggest that critical race theory is so radical - it has killed millions of people! genocide! - that extreme measures are needed to suppress it.
Will write about this at some point, but I dub this the Flight 93 Mentality (after the Michael Anton's essay comparing Hilary to 9/11 hijackers, justifying Trumpism): any disagreement has to be elevated to an existential threat to justify radical response
Read 4 tweets
11 Nov
There is a serious point here about branding. Right now "CRT" is a winning brand for the GOP, and every discussion of it seems to play into their hand. Some thoughts about what to do. 1/
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/bullshit-bra…
The anti-CRT movement has real consequences.
Reframing the discussion in terms of the red scare atmosphere, the McCarthyite witchhunts will make clearer to people the costs of this approach. 2/
The anti-CRT movement, which banned particular texts like the 1619 project, is leading to broader book bans and even talks of book burning. "Book banners" is a negative frame that again points to the cultural intolerance inherent in this movement. 3/
Read 4 tweets
11 Nov
The first Black school principal in a Texas community removed from his position after unsubstantiated claims he was teaching CRT. washingtonpost.com/education/2021…
Here are some previous threads about this case, which is an example of how the anti-CRT educational gags has led to red scare like conditions where even the mention of CRT is enough to cost someone their job.

You can see an interview with Whitfield here.
Read 4 tweets
10 Nov
New from me: Come gather round children and hear the tale of Johnny McEntee: a simple college quarterback-turned-body-man-turned-political-enforcer. His story offers an insight into Trumpist politicization of government
Plz share & consider subscribing.
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/trumps-loyal…
All Presidents try to balance some mix of competence and loyalty in choosing their political appointees. After his first impeachment Trump saw disloyalty everywhere. To root it out, he appointed his 29 year old body man (body man = the job of Tony Hale's character in Veep).
There have been millions of pieces about Trump, but to understand Trumpism as a governing philosophy you need to understand people like McEntee. With no real qualifications and despite a failed background check he was given control of one of the key offices in government. Image
Read 7 tweets

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