Primary Season!
If you're in SC, don't forget to vote in the June 11 primaries!
Since the June 11 South Carolina primaries are getting very close, I decided to remove the paywall from a piece I wrote about the ideological war between a certain contingent of far-right activists, led by Chris Rufo, and late-’60s Leftist intellectuals, under the pretense that little-read scholars, like Herbert Marcuse, are somehow responsible for the indoctrination of K-12 and college students in contemporary America.
Rep. Adam Morgan, chair of the SC Freedom Caucus, was an early adopter of this very specific narrative (which strikes me as, essentially, a classic conspiracy theory), and seemed enthusiastic about sharing it with a class full of public school students a few years ago.
Banned Thoughts: Critical Theory
Just as people know or feel that advertisements and political platforms must not be necessarily true or right, and yet hear and read them and even let themselves be guided by them, so they accept the traditional values and make them part of their mental equipment.
This might also be a good time to share a piece I wrote about a similar visit from Senate Education Chair Greg Hembree:
Waiting for McMaster...
ESTRAGON: And if he doesn't come? VLADIMIR: We'll come back to-morrow. ESTRAGON: And then the day after to-morrow. VLADIMIR: And so on. -Waiting For Godot, Samuel Beckett (1954) In October 2020, I invited South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman, and Senate Education Chair Greg Hembree to my classroom. At the time, …
Because of intense gerrymandering, South Carolina’s primaries are often in effect where the final outcome of the election is decided. Because there…
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Other Duties (as assigned) to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.