When ignorance on right, left sets the lesson plan
By Sid Schwab / Herald columnist
In fifth grade, my teacher gave an example of disinformation. There was a competition, he said, between a Soviet-made car and an American one. The American won. Russia’s newspaper, Pravda, reported an international contest between cars, in which the Soviet car came in second, while the American finished next to last. In Russian, “Pravda” means “truth.” Which it was.
In a local school board race, a candidate’s campaign website featured pictures of a cute, blond, white girl-child and a kimono-wearing (because that’s what they wear) Japanese girl of similar age. “Blaming her for slavery,” it said, referring to the former, “Is like blaming her (the latter) for Pearl Harbor.” Also true. Even though no one is. Presuming voter ignorance, “Take Critical Race Theory out of our public school system,” was the concluding tagline.
It’s not in it, but that’s not the point, either. Republicans cooked up a vote-getting hot-button lie; one that fits snugly behind a forehead, the extraction of which requires too many words for Trumpic consumption. It worked. (Washington Post: tinyurl.com/noCRT4u)
Riding the wishful whirlwind even further, they’re now campaigning on parents’ right to decide what their children learn in public schools. Likely, it won Virginia’s governorship for Glenn Youngkin. Brilliant. As not-brilliant as Terry McAuliffe’s summary dismissal of the idea. Yet again, a proper response requires more thought than Trumpists prefer. Nevertheless, it deserves credible conversation from both sides, not that such a thing exists anymore. Let’s consider it anyway.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/schwab-when-ignorance-on-right-left-sets-the-lesson-plan/