Christmas Morning Merry Meme Madness
NBC News: Judges Who Ruled Against Trump Say Harassment and Threats Have Upended...
Tim Walz Says ICE Raids Are What Happens ‘When They No Longer Hide...
Ho Ho No: Libertarian Compares Santa to Illegals, Gets Ratio'd Into the North...
Former EU Commissioner Butthurt About Being Banned From the US for Censorship
Derek Hunter Violated X's Rules Against Hateful Content With Post About Jennifer Welch
Peak Christmas Nerdery: Full Probability Analysis of Why the Home Alone Family Slept...
Margaret Sullivan Says Journalism's Goal Is to 'Afflict the Comfortable and Comfort the...
Conservative Clash: Bari Weiss Allegedly Turns on Megyn Kelly After She Snubs CBS...
A Warm AI Christmas Card From The Democrats, But Not Really
Cali's Insane Solution to Wildfires: Force 2M Homeowners to Rip Out Gardens Instead...
Katie Miller Hits Taylor Swift's Donation to Feeding America With a Reality Check
Merry Christmas from the Map-Challenged: Jesus the Palestinian, According to Clueless Left...
'You Know Who I Am': Former RI Mayoral Candidate 'Abused' by Cop Who...
Belated Festivus Grievances: X's Broken Algo, Scams Stealing Billions, and Anti-Semitism C...

Randi Weingarten Writes Book on Why Fascists Hate Critical Thinking

AP Photo/Seth Wenig,File

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, who makes half a million a year and funnels the rest of the union dues to Democratic campaigns, has been shutting down replies on all of her hot takes on X recently. Get this: she has a new book out called "Why Fascists Fear Teachers," and Rolling Stone thought it would give her a platform to sell her book.

Advertisement

Who does she mean by "fascists," exactly? Why, everyone who doesn't agree with her. Rolling Stone introduces her book excerpt with this hot take:

Under the current Trump administration, at both the state and federal level, far-right forces and wannabe dictators are smearing teachers, slashing public school funding, banning books, outlawing honest history, and expanding private school vouchers. 

Fake, fake, fake. Except for the part about expanding private school vouchers so that children can actually learn to read and write.

She writes:

Authoritarians actively attack truth, knowledge, and critical thinking because an uninformed public is easier to control. Degrading public education and critical thinking skills may only prime more Americans to not recognize disinformation and misinformation and take authoritarian leaders like Trump at their word. 

Psychologist Bob Altemeyer studied personality traits that make people more receptive to authoritarian leaders. In his 2006 book The Authoritarians, Altemeyer documented his “Right-Wing Authoritarianism” scale, writing: “The authoritarian follower makes himself vulnerable to malevolent manipulation by chucking out critical thinking and prudence as the price for maintaining his beliefs. He’s an ‘easy mark,’ custom-built to be snookered. And the very last thing an authoritarian leader wants is for his followers to start using their heads, to start thinking critically and independently about things.”

In other words, those inclined to support authoritarianism exhibit a general avoidance of or allergy to critical thinking. And authoritarians like it that way.

It makes me wonder whether far-right extremists are trying to deliberately inculcate an anti-critical thinking, pro-authoritarian disposition by undermining public education.

Advertisement

Oh, just shut up. If your union had the stats to back up that public school kids are better off, we'd give you the time of day.

And Weingarten probably considered Charlie Kirk, who went to colleges and engaged in good-faith debate with anyone, a fascist.

Advertisement

She's allegedly an educator. Maybe she could look at some historical fascist regimes and explain how she can call our current elected government "fascist." We challenge her to define the terrm. And then look in a mirror.

***

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Recommended

Trending on Twitchy Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement