Right-wing activists using local school board races to push for greater control of public education didn’t make a dent in Tuesday’s election results.

One year away from the 2024 presidential election, voters largely rejected candidates backed by groups like Moms for Liberty that have aligned with GOP campaigns to undermine public education and restrict access to books, classroom materials and honest discussions of race, racism, LGBT+ people and gender and sexuality.

  • grue@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    the ‘parental rights’ agenda

    We have really got to stop letting these dishonest fuckwads claim the nominative high-ground.

    • Dojan@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It doesn’t hold up the moment you scrutinise the name.

      Parents rights to what? The answer is basically “ownership” of their children. Fully control their children.

      Children aren’t possessions, they’re people.

      • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yeah I support youth liberation. They obviously need guidance and all that, but guidance is not what these people are doing. They want their children to have no say in their lives and no information about the world

      • Serinus@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        From the state’s perspective, ownership of children makes some sense. It benefits the state to have a wide range in how children are raised, and they certainly don’t want to be in the middle of it. Child Protective Services barely functions for the most extreme cases.

        But this extreme withholding of information is a bit different.

        I don’t disagree with you; I just don’t like the argument.

        • hansl@lemmy.world
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          It’s not ownership. From the state perspective you don’t own your children. You can’t sell them, you can’t throw them in the garbage if they’re defective. It’s just insane. At best they’re dependents.

          Shit from many “state perspectives” you don’t even own your fetus; you have less rights than it when it comes to health. Some states would rather see you die than the fetus. So much for state rights.

          Also, and that’s an argument on your philosophy; even if it’s convenient on some aspect for a state to have a parent own their child, it’s not a winning strategy. States would spend more money and time that way than presuming children are people under the care of someone.

      • Telorand@reddthat.com
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        1 year ago

        Not that I put much stock in the latest poll that shows Biden trailing Trump in key states a whole year out, but it’s an indicator that people are so fucking dumb, they can’t remember how awful things were four years ago without being constantly reminded.

      • ElleChaise@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        What? You didn’t vote yes on the Free Patriots Saving Children from Terror and Kicking Out Gay Commies act? What are ya? I mean, yeah, the fine print lets priests finger kids at school and gives rocket launchers to police departments, but so what? You don’t wanna look like a lib; do ya?

    • MTLion3@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Amen. They make their platform sound so moral until you look at their doctrine for more than a minute

    • PigsInClover@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      This is why anything with “for liberty” or “right to” in the name immediately makes me suspicious.

      I wish more people realized this. “Right to Farm” was just passed in Texas by voters by a wide margin - long term it just removes accountability from agricultural giants and even emboldens them to push out small farmers.

      It was advertised as being for small farmers 🤦

    • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Like so many conservative groups, their stated goals are really the opposite of what their actions show their real goals to be. MoL claims to support parental rights. But if they really support parental rights then they should be supporting my right to let my child have access to any book I choose in the library. I want them to have access to books about different races, and cultures, and lifestyles. This group wants to remove all books from school libraries that they feel are inappropriate. In other words, they are trying to take away my parental rights to decide for my child and instead only allow my child to access books that support a conservative agenda.