Rise of Moms for Liberty in the USA

[TheABC]

I wasn't sure whether to post this here or in politics, but this group assembled in just 30 months and they look set to influence the GOP primaries. It's very much a product of the USA (anti-woke and anti-masking, etc), but it also shows what happens when a bunch of motivated, pissed-off women started organizing properly.

https://www.thefp.com/p/whos-afraid-of-moms-for-liberty?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Whilst I don't agree with many of their aims, what I find interesting were the same tactics and insults being used to shut them down, as we see over here - GCs get reported for hate crimes, they got reported for domestic terrorism.

It appears from that thread that if it did happen it was in England. It's daft. But if I saw something like that I'm perfectly capable of taking it up with the school without starting a campaign for book bans.

But if I saw something like that I'm perfectly capable of taking it up with the school without starting a campaign for book bans.

And when they ignore you? You wouldn't dream of teaming up with other parents to publicise what was happening?

You seem to have some sort of assumption of privilege - that obviously the school would listen to well-founded concerns raised politely over a cup of coffee.

So of course there would never be any need to start anything as gauche as a campaign.

Whilst I don't agree with many of their aims, what I find interesting were the same tactics and insults being used to shut them down, as we see over here - GCs get reported for hate crimes, they got reported for domestic terrorism.

Going back to the OP and the point of the thread I read this article the other day and think it is relevant. It is absurd in the extreme but it really brings home the the techniques used to undermine women who attempt to organise politically by accusing them of being Nazi or KKK aligned.

Mumsnet and Women's Hour even get a mention.

https://libcom.org/article/fascism-and-womens-cause-gender-critical-feminism-suffragettes-and-womens-kkk

I have two children in special education. I am very, very aware that a polite chat has about a 10% chance of getting me a thing.

I reiterate, however, that a book ban remains unnecessary. There is, in fact, quite a lot of territory between a nice cup of tea and a national campaign.

right now, in my very school district, there are parents pushing to take off books mentioning LGBTQ people. (I would like to note, here, that there is a strict list teachers have to use, only 1 book mentions trans people at all, and the motivation is that the parents believe that having their kids taught about gay people violates their religious rights.) You could, in fact, call it a campaign. But it is focused on one specific issue.

When you delve into the history of Moms for Liberty, and how it intersects with a very long history of the American right and its views of "parental rights," you get a very different picture. And as a Jew, I'm not all too fond of a group that seems to not be sure if I should be included in "Americans".

Is it a political party like KJK is setting up? Or a pressure group?

it looks like they have managed to organise anyway, presumably by working together and not squabbling like the current factions in Uk feminism?

MfL is very much a USA phenomenon where the driver is: they are our kids not the governments, and reflects the huge suspicion of the government which is much more an element of the US psyche, which we don't have.

Home schooling in the USA has increased an insane amount over the past 20years. There is a significant number of people in the USA that don't trust schools or the government, particularly with their kids.

I think the lockdowns accelerated this movement, vaccine mandates, CRT, and the Trans issue have all combined to motivate these parents to want to take control back.

I can't see the same thing happening here. We don't have the same shared philosophy to drive it and feel uncomfortable with the religious, nationalist and libertarian language and drivers.

I think we're likely instead to try to tackle each issue individually.

It's a shame as I think there are many parents in the UK who share their concerns but who don't have a shared language or philosophy to unite them.

knitnerd90 Today 10:28

Re What you said here:

right now, in my very school district, there are parents pushing to take off books mentioning LGBTQ people

Please would you be more specific about the umbrella term and say which of,

LGB T Q

• as discrete characteristics - and for which age group

the books are which they want taken off?

Please would you give a list of the book titles?

It would also be very relevant to know the age range for the books they want restricted.

Surely everyone wants kids to have restricted access to reading material depending on age?

It's just a debate on where we draw the boundary.

I think there's probably more concensus on the T material.

But in reality we haven't resolved the LGB material: what we teach children and when.

Teacher's and schools have presumed it's full on equivalence from very young, but many religious families don't want this.

I actually think the Trans issue is obscuring this trickier issue which does need to be resolved. I wonder if it's heading towards removing the 'relationship' aspect of the curriculum and reverting to a biological teaching of reproduction only. Leaving parents to teach their children whatever sexual morality is in line with their world view.

It may be the only resolution?

There is this bizarre idea among American ID politics supporters that not teaching CRT type stuff in schools means not teaching any actual histoory on racial issues in the US.

It doesn't, and it never has. It just means they are taught as history, like any other history. Not with a strong, and controversial, gloss added.

I've never been able to decide if people make this assumption because they are very sheltered and don't realize that history can be, and in fact was, taught without this kind of added layer of commentary. (And frankly is better history taught that way.) Or if they are just lying to make it easier to accuse people of racism.

This thread is a really good example of this kind of manipulation, within the first page there were accusations that these people were white supremacists, were against interracial marriage, etc. With no evidence, on the contrary, it's evidently bullshit. And plenty of black Americans do not love CRT, are very angry about what is going on in the schools, and have strong feelings about parental rights in education.

I'm not sure how it is automatically problematic to quote an evil person to show that what he is saying is evil.

Possibly you could argue that this particular case is hyperbolic, what is going on in schools just can't compare, so better to use a different example.

Except that actually, of all the comparisons I can think off with what Hitler did, in some ways this seems the least hyperbolic I've heard. It's compelling because Hitler, while pursuing evil, was quite convinced that he was in fact good. And his policies were justified and for the good, including influencing children.

If your kids are in schools with this crazy stuff going on in the US, and these activist teachers pushing it, people cutting the breasts of teens for profits, and all the rest - is that not exactly how you would think of those activists? As evil people who think they are good and will go after your kids to achieve that.

Maybe that's not going to appeal to Democrats, but frankly if they are not already disturbed, they are probably a lost cause.

Whether or not a book is appropriate in a school setting isn't the same as banning a book. I's a normal part of developing a library.

Books with the advice that teens that really need sex might try an hook up app; books with a g rendering of a character wearing a strap on dildo receiving oral sex, or licking her vaginal secretions off of her fingers; picture books for young kids showing a man in bondage gear at a Pride parade; these are all things which a reasonable person might argue are inappropriate for children, tweens, and even a school library for teens.

As soon as parents saying they have a problem with these things makes them nazi aligned, you've pretty much given up any boundaries on appropriate sexual content in school libraries.

Doesn't everyone want at least some books banned in at least some schools?

Do you think it would be ok to have, say, the original Noddy books available in a reception class? Or 50 Shades there for 12 year olds?

Censoring books published and available to the public is different of course. But schools have always had (either implicit or explicit) limits on what's available.

Oh well looks like time will tell if this is actually happening in schools or if it is just the Tories creating a fake culture war. Litigation incoming…

https://twitter.com/BadLawTeam/status/1680137789508136960

Critical race theory has never been taught in middle or high schools. It is a university/college level concept. The banning of CRT is a complete straw man - banning something that wasn't taught anyway - but boy do the base lap up this stuff. There is no "strong and controversial gloss" being added. By the way, I'd be very very interested in what you think that "strong and controversial gloss" actually is. Can you describe a "strong and controversial gloss" that is being added in middle and high schools as they teach about slavery and civil rights?

I

Critical race theory has never been taught in middle or high schools. It is a university/college level concept. The banning of CRT is a complete straw man - banning something that wasn't taught anyway - but boy do the base lap up this stuff. There is no "strong and controversial gloss" being added. By the way, I'd be very very interested in what you think that "strong and controversial gloss" actually is. Can you describe a "strong and controversial gloss" that is being added in middle and high schools as they teach about slavery and civil rights?

You can absolutely teach with that being at the university level. Tbh I think people who claim this doesn't happen, or that they don't know what it means, are simply being disingenuous.

But here is a useful discussion, for anyone that's really interested this question:

Critical race theory has never been taught in middle or high schools. It is a university/college level concept. The banning of CRT is a complete straw man - banning something that wasn't taught anyway -

My DDs attends/attended high school in the US. Their curriculum includes mandatory race/identity course in 9th grade (14-15 yrs old) and the coursework includes the theory of critical race lens. It also involves other historical and cultural theories to interpret the readings. I've always wondered how this silly narrative of "CRT is not taught in schools"'came from. I'm not opposed to it, personally, because I think CRT is just one way to analyze US history along with Marxism, feminism, Manifest Destiny, democratic systems of government, colonialism, etc. But it is demonstrably false to claim that no critical race theory exists in school curriculum.

Critical race theory has never been taught in middle or high schools. It is a university/college level concept.

It’s being applied in schools regardless of whether or not it’s being taught.

Exactly this. It is a slight of hand to say that CRT isn't being taught. It probably isn't. It is though, being applied in how subjects are taught.

+1

Do people not realize that the sexual content in Anne Frank's diaries is only a recent addition? And that her immediate family when they were published didn't want it included?

Did you notice that this is a quote from Jonathan S Tobin, who is Jewish and the editor in chief of the Jewish News Syndicate? The quote marks and the attribution are helpful clues.

I don't know why he addressed 'Americans and Jews of all political stripes' but it seems highly unlikely that he was implying that Jews are not included in 'Americans'.

Can't you find a single other organisation which you think has effective organisation skills to learn from? What made you even look at these horrible people?

Because our UK campaigning groups like Sex Matters and the political women's groups are still being ignored. We're seeing university debates blacklisted, the AHF film screenings cancelled and people losing their jobs for daring to be on the opposite side of this debate.

Whereas this organisation - evil, racist, book-banning, anti-semitic homophobic creatures that they are (did I miss anything?), appear to have achieved something across multiple school districts in a way former parents organisations have not. If it's pure racism, why have they not been shut down? How did they convince so many parents to vote their way? What has made them so effective?

If you can point me towards another more wholesome organisation in the the UK or USA to emulate, please do! Right now, the clock's ticking down to another General Election and all the opposition parties are parroting Stonewall's line. We need to think bigger than policy papers and petitions, especially given the level of statutory capture going on. We don't have school boards (a lot of schools are now individual academies), but we do have parish and district councils, by-elections, police crime commissioners, mayor's and by-elections.

Oh well, that's ok then. Lets sacrifice Ethnic, LGBQ, and Jewish women so that white, straight, Christian women and materials which keep them above the riff raff can be protected from the Trans community. That right F*@k every other woman. Do you know who else uses that type of extreme for the 'greater good ideology' - terrorists! People like you are the reason that they have not been shut down.

Ah, the gateway has been revealed. At last!

This post is so utterly dishonest. I can never understand why someone would completely misrepresent an argument like this. Obviously it is an attempt to publicly undermine your opponent but do other people actually look on and go “wow great point well made”.