Matt Taibbi published an essay on Substack Tuesday called, “The Democrats’ Education Lunacies Will Bring Back Trump.” He pointed, obviously, to the Virginia governor’s race and Terry McAuliffe’s argument that parents shouldn’t be telling schools what to teach.
It's one thing to tell voters they need to defer to "experts" in economics, foreign policy, and medical science. But parenting? Why elitist attitudes about education are destined to fail politically:https://t.co/oEVhS3tXAH
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 28, 2021
Taibbi also brought up an appearance by the New York Times’ Nikole Hannah-Jones on Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” in which Hannah-Jones reiterated her agreement that experts and not parents should be telling schools what to teach children. We even did a post on her appearance.
Taibbi writes:
On the full Meet the Press Sunday, Todd in an ostensibly unrelated segment interviewed 1619 Project author and New York Times writer Nikole Hannah-Jones about Republican efforts in some states to ban teaching of her work. He detoured to ask about the Virginia governor’s race, which seemingly was decided on the question, “How influential should parents be about curriculum?” Given that Democrats lost Virginia after candidate Terry McAuliffe said, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what to teach,” Todd asked her, “How do we do this?”
Hannah-Jones’s first answer was to chide Todd for not remembering that Virginia was lost not because of whatever unimportant thing he’d just said, but because of a “right-wing propaganda campaign that told white parents to fight against their children being indoctrinated.” This was standard pundit fare that for the millionth time showed a national media figure ignoring, say, the objections of Asian immigrant parents to Virginia policies, but whatever: her next response was more notable. “I don’t really understand this idea that parents should decide what’s being taught,” Hannah-Jones said. “I’m not a professional educator. I don’t have a degree in social studies or science.”
Taibbi even embedded video of her appearance, but she found out about his piece and accused him of twisting her words.
Except that’s not what I said and we both know when you have to twist someone’s words it’s because you don’t actually have a sound argument.
— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) December 29, 2021
Your exact quote: “When the governor, or the candidate, said he didn’t think parents should be deciding what’s being taught in school, he was panned for that, but that’s just a fact.” https://t.co/7NhpZyYtCz
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 29, 2021
*incoming stealth edits*
— Tyler Coward 🇺🇸 (@tylercoward) December 29, 2021
If she stood by her words, she wouldn’t have done a massive tweet purge in the not-too-distant past.
— Ampzilla (@Terraphant) December 29, 2021
👆 The bizarre twisty path of engaging with @nhannahjones.
Every tweet an Odyssey.
— Ashley Rindsberg – TheGrayLadyWinked.com (@AshleyRindsberg) December 29, 2021
“I am saying THIS.”
“I can’t believe you said THIS.”
“I didn’t say THIS, I said THAT.”
“Here is the video of you saying THIS.”
“But THIS means THAT. How dare you question me. You just want an audience.”
— Negative Nelly (@TryingToSmile3) December 29, 2021
— Gamestop Dividend (@GamestopDividen) December 29, 2021
— Alex Hulbine (@hulbine) December 29, 2021
She’ll say she didn’t say what she said.
— Kevin Walsh (@ForgottenNY) December 29, 2021
No fair using her own words on her.
— Walter (@LongBeachBum) December 29, 2021
You're arguing with HER? Good luck.
— Ted Iacobuzio (@TedIacobuzio) December 29, 2021
I don’t understand the ‘I didn’t say that’ form of argumentation in 2021.
It’s all on tape. And you’re a journalist for crissakes.
— Coddled, affluent professional (@Feels_Desperate) December 29, 2021
Because it works. All her supporters will 100% believe her. Or at least pretend to believe her because they don't want to face the consequences of criticizing her.
— The Nightman Com.eth (@SacredDriver) December 29, 2021
Next she’ll claim that hackers went back and edited her quotes. It’s a formula!
— Thomas Attila Lewis (@tomdog) December 29, 2021
I’m sure @nhannahjones will be back to clarify. 😂
— devoncarson (@devoncarson) December 29, 2021
She did come back to clarify.
So, you, a writer, believes that having a say and deciding are the same thing? Says a lot.
— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) December 29, 2021
So Hannah-Jones, a writer, meant to say “having a say” but it came out “deciding.”
For what it’s worth, Taibbi says he’s against laws banning the teaching of the 1619 Project, but was joint pointing out as others did Sunday: “Still, it was pretty rich hearing the author of The 1619 Project say she lacked the expertise to teach, given that a) many historians agree with her there, yet b) she’s been advocating for schools to teach her dubious work to students all over the country.”
Related:
Nikole Hannah-Jones further undercuts her own 1619 Project scholarship, but not before sneering at parents who lack her brand of ‘subject-matter expertise’ https://t.co/6iCl5TSiyg
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) December 27, 2021
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