Taking Sides in the Joyful War

My Superintendent of Education is part of the Moms 4 Liberty conference, along with a bunch of other anti-public school extremists.

Updated to include more information on the other speakers at the conference (see footnote for most of the updates).

From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the Party:

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.

-George Orwell, 1984

What does it mean to be a “joyful warrior”? Evidently, this utterly dystopian slogan means feeling pretty good about trashing public educators, schmoozing with elected officials, and pretending to be “grassroots”. Peter Green just wrote an especially great encapsulation of the real danger posed by Moms for Liberty here, in which he delves into their financial and political connections, including connections to extremist groups like The Proud Boys. While Moms for Liberty entered many people’s radars a few weeks ago when they quoted Hitler and then essentially doubled down with a rationale that only makes sense through the lens of conspiracy theory, teachers are sa…