Don't Look Now, But the Far Right May Be Trying to Steal the Future

[LawDem]

Steven Day
Common Dreams

If you're a well-informed Republican leader, you know you have a problem. The extreme right-wing, which is really the only right-wing that exists these days, is losing the future. Baby boomers may still love them, but millennials and Generation Zers largely reject their agenda. Year by year, as more boomers disappear, Gen Zers, the age group Republicans do by far the worst with, are not only coming of age, but also voting in greater numbers than many expected. Meanwhile, while the data is somewhat mixed, recent evidence suggests millennials may actually be growing even less conservative as they age.

So, what's a political party facing this reality supposed to do? They could try making themselves more attractive to young voters. But for that to be successful they would have to be willing to alter their positions on the social and cultural issues that have made them a pariah to the young. And that is something their base, voters they can't afford to lose, will never allow.

* * *

But how do you steal the future? If you're playing the long game, and you don't like the voters the future is likely to produce, you can try growing different ones. What follows includes speculation. But it's informed speculation that makes sense based upon established fact. Think about how you would proceed if you had almost limitless resources and wanted to change the political vision of future voters. You would want to gain control of the institutions that will influence their worldview. And if we set aside parents and friends, the biggest such influence is their schools.

And, sure enough, a right-wing effort to seize control of education in America is underway. Step one is the destruction of the public school system. Destroying public education advances a number of right-wing goals, including damaging public unions and decreasing the role of government.

But it will also redirect students to private academies, many of which are operated by conservative-religious organizations and for-profit corporations, most of which will be happy to push conservative views. And these institutions can be expected to explode in size and number as more public money becomes available to private schools.

* * *

If we lose this battle and comprehensive public education is allowed to wither and die, America is unlikely to ever see it here again.

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/the-right-wing-gop-plan-to-kill-education

[Irish_Dem]

1. Democracy depends upon well educated voters.

So yes the GOP must destroy public education.

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

2. 100% spot-on comment.

So the GOP wants schools with a dumbed-down curriculum with a lot of religion thrown in.

[Irish_Dem]

3. And propaganda.

Forget critical thinking skills and accurate and important science, history, literature.

We will soon have Big Brother teaching us all we need to know.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. Key point. . . . nt

[Chainfire]

4. "May be?"

[2naSalit]

6. +1

[cachukis]

5. My time in teaching was rescuing seniors who had never read

a book to pass a 10th grade reading test. They came to me with a 1.4 GPA.
My contention in so many meaningless meetings was that these students left the fourth grade unable to enjoy the learning process because they could not read.
Expecting teachers to make up this shortcoming in our society only works with those students somehow willing to take it on. Thankfully, most in the teaching profession are willing to work at it, but no teacher can get all their kids.
My rant was that if we didn't get the 30 million word conversations to preK students, we would leave so many behind. Guess what, they are left to their own devices.
The Republicans have been coming for education for many years. I am in Florida and our lunch discussions centered on this topic regularly.
Religious sects get the kids early. Those with the wherewithal get their legacies embedded in their offspring.
One of the most intense, eye opening experiences of my life was in a linguistics class when the professor explained that it was nearly impossible for a post pubescent student to become native in learning a foreign language.
I took the conversation, after class, to discuss the impact of puberty on language development. He said the language skills you took to post pubescence would be the language skills you would use for life unless you therapized development.
In other words, if you head into post pubescence with social language skills, that would be your game unless you were willing to rehab like someone suffering a brain injury to relearn speaking.
If you went into post pubescence with academic language skills you are miles ahead of your competition.
If we lose education to a religious mentality that my god is better than yours, then we will Talibanize America.
Thankfully, Gen Z isn't buying religion too much, but the Republicans know how to spend money to reach their ends.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. What on earth would "the 30 million word conversations" be?

[cachukis]

9. It is a concept in education that intelligence is passed from generation to generation

with conversations that begin in infancy. Those with academic inclinations speak to their children as though they understand and when they don't, explain to them.
One learns 50% of what you will learn by 4 and 80% by 8 years of age. Those numbers are guesses of course but rooted in studies of early childhood development.
It is said that those who miss those 30 millions words of exposure in the early years are well behind the thinking process of those who do.

I've been pushed to write a book about this and may.
The reality is one's vocabulary is one's key to not being bamboozled.

Think about the guy in China some 200 years ago who could present his own spice scale in the market. It cost him a lot to get one, but he wasn't getting ripped off like his peers.

Language gets you in or lack of, keeps you out.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

10. Thank you. It would be an interesting book. . . . nt