So this one deserves a little back story because the target of the Wokestapo this time is a familiar one: Mr. John Beatty. Beatty came under fire over a year ago when he made the dreaded mistake of attempting to add perspective to a discussion regarding race and marginalized students in Loudoun County. Beatty’s comments were taken out of context, and the county’s activists were of course too daft to recognize that he was actually taking a “step to the left”, so to speak, by arguing in favor of the school board providing more help for underserved communities, but by then it was far too late. Social media lit up, the Chardonnay Antifa went ape shit, and it wasn’t long before Beatty was removed from the Equity Committee entirely.

This incident was interesting to me because it was one of the first ‘flame wars’ I witnessed on social media that was moderated and hosted on the public social media pages of local, elected officials. When I moved to Loudoun a few years ago, I was certainly aware of its left-leaning politics and people, but it was only after this incident that I saw just how much the progressive ideology had seeped into every layer of the county’s social fabric, even into its school board. Since, I’ve learned that I probably shouldn’t have been surprised that happened at all.

See, my professional background is in linguistics. I’m not some expert translator or anything, and I was no expert during my time in the military either even though the army hoped I would be. Nonetheless, I was an above-average, competent linguist that learned to read people well, that grew to understand how body language worked and what it indicated, and I also became acutely aware of how and why people choose particular words and phrases as a means of leading a listener to an opinion, to inject bias, or as an attempt at persuasion. When I applied those same skills to political language, I started to focus more on understanding progressive ideology and what I have come to believe is its ultimate goal: compelling people who disagree with the socio-political status quo to shut up, and cease participating entirely.

As I’ve aged and settled into life as a northern Virginian, I’ve reached a point where I feel it is time to start speaking more openly on these topics and to stop doing what it is folks like me normally do, which is keep our heads down and ignore the noise.

Unfortunately (perhaps fortunately), it seems that noise can’t be ignored any longer.

So I started this blog and spent a few nights staring at a blank screen. There are so many examples to pick through, and a successful post would require days of preparation, so I thought. That was until today when I became aware of a ridiculous, petulant work of progressitopian, neo-Marxist art.

Three Catoctin residents, each with a historic connection to Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS), penned a letter to the school board demanding Beatty’s censure for opinions he recently expressed regarding Critical Race Theory (CRT). Beatty’s concerns, which echo the concerns of plenty, revolve around whether or not Loudoun County schools intend to include CRT material in what they super duper promise isn’t critical race theory at all, but rather a “strength-based” alternative known as Culturally Responsive Instruction (CRI).

Let’s take a look at some of the highlights from the letter these Catoctin residents sent as my “kick off” post- an introduction to the wonderful world of progressive mind games, and how language is used as a weapon in fighting free expression and thought.

“Mr. Beatty is an elected official, and as such is held to a high level of review and standard which includes a responsibility to share the truthful facts.”

Let’s ignore for a moment the comedy of claiming that our county’s elected officials are held to a “high level of review and standard” and focus on the last part– the one about “truthful facts”. To wit, all facts are truthful. The writers here are indicating that they either have unilateral agency over facts that are somehow better, or more truthful than someone else’s facts.

Remember when mainstream media lit up after Kellyanne Conway claimed that she was citing “alternative facts”? She wasn’t attempting to redefine the nature of what makes something factual or not, rather she was calling out journalists for willfully ignoring facts that failed to support their narrative. Progressive Twitter (i.e. all of Twitter), primetime news, and online media outlets were having none of that, however, and for the remaining years of the Trump presidency we were met with “alternative facts!” as the left-wing counter to just about everything.

But in the context of Beatty’s presumed opinion about critical race theory (that it is inherently negative, and bad), and his concern for it flowing into public school classrooms, the “fact” in play here is that his constituents have concerns about “culturally responsive instruction” being a spin-off of CRT, or simply…a false front for the same.

The writers aren’t truly concerned about a school board member expressing an opinion; reps do that all the time. I would hope that most elected officials had the time, and space, to publicly espouse opinions– preferably, the opinions of their constituents. It goes without saying that in a diverse community elected officials are going to represent folks of varying political opinion, so Beatty echoing concerns at a school board meeting that at least some of his constituents share is an example of him literally doing his job.

The true concern for the writers isn’t that Beatty is taking a position, but that the position of his constituents– that is, the concern that Critical Race Theory, “anti-racism” instruction (whatever) will find its way into “Culturally Responsive Instruction”– exists at all. Their problem is with you, more than it is with Beatty, they just won’t go so far as to admit it.

“On February 23, 2021 LCPS School board attempted to reaffirm their [note: I’m pasting this verbatim, so keep in mind I am including the grammatical errors, of which there are many] commitment to equity in education for all students with the presentation of the ‘Equity in Education Proclamation’. This proclamation, which was supported by every School Board member except Mr. Beatty, states that, among other things, ‘A diverse, inclusive, equitable, socially-just, and anti-racist teaching and learning community is a priority in Loudoun County Public Schools.'”

Here we have an example of a political trick I call “Affirmation by Existence”, and in the example above it applies to multiple points, all with the goal of projecting the belief that dissent of any kind is not only wrong, but a tacit endorsement of the inverse.

So, the ‘Equity in Education Proclamation’ is good, and not to be questioned because it was, simply, proclaimed. Disagreeing with it equates to believing that equity should not exist.

Further, because the vast majority of the school board supported the proclamation as written, it was invariably good (which is in some respects related to what we call “consensus bias”); its goodness, or worth, was not to be questioned, regardless of the context in which the proclamation was made, the discussion that preceded it, or came after, and so on.

Beatty, as the lone dissenting vote, was inherently wrong, regardless of the reasoning. We also cannot ignore the fact that “anti-racist teaching” is cited explicitly. Critical race theory commands we be “anti-racist” and that this differs from being not racist, and that– get this– being not racist while not being an anti-racist probably makes you a racist, a something-ist, a crypt keeper of the patriarchy, or something else that explains why we need critical race theory. Phew.

If Critical Race Theory had no place in Culturally Responsive Instruction, supporters of CRI wouldn’t speak positively to CRT tenets. And let’s get real– if we handed folks who are on the “but it’s CRI, not CRT!” bandwagon a reading list inspired by CRT activists, they’d chew it up and spit it out in lessons at school while patting themselves on the back for doing it.

Nonetheless, the letter does attempt to link his assumed wrongness to the reasoning Beatty provided:

“…Mr. Beatty took the opportunity to misinform, mislead and incite the community by stating facts that were patently false. Mr. Beatty’s shocking response to the motion to adopt the proclamation was, ‘The critical race theory that underpins this proclamation only serves to continue to inflame the divisions in this county. These recommended tools are not the solution and therefore I will not support this proclamation.'”

In his statement, Beatty was speaking to the very real concern many parents have about critical race theory and its tenets. We will delve into those tenets in more detail in future posts, but common themes of critical race theory include a disdain for capitalism, a borderline obsessive respect for cultural Marxism, and the objectively false notion that racism is engrained in our youth at such an early age that it may as well be a signature in their DNA. The merits of critical race theory can be debated, of course, but the fact that people might take offense to it, even here in the leftish utopia of Loudoun County, should come as no surprise to anyone.

It is also this portion of the letter that introduces some common buzzwords liberals enjoy throwing around when they have no argument outside of emotion, generally focused on the false assertion that a simple disagreement, or dissent is indicative of an escalation of hostilities, the introduction of violence, or the perceived threat of it. We see this shit all the time, and this letter is no different. At this point in the letter, though, the tone has yet to escalate to threat level midnight, but it definitely gets there.

Here, Beatty’s words are said to be inciting (to stir up) the community, and that the mere introduction of an opinion that differed from the status quo of the School Board’s near-unanimous vote was shocking. They’re not just telling you that getting worked up over possible CRT-based instruction isn’t called for, but that even if CRT was to be included in instruction, explicitly, that your disagreement with it is irrational.

Progressives are convinced that they are the sole arbiters of reason, and that disagreement with progressive thought is akin to irrationality.

“Mr. Beatty’s suggestion that Critical Race Theory has been adopted within LCPS is a lie.”

At this point in the letter, it would have been nice to see the authors cite why this is a lie. We know why they think it’s a lie (because they’re adopting “Culturally Responsive Instruction” as opposed to “Critical Race Theory”), but we know how this has gone so far: “Culturally Responsive Instruction”, and the documents attempting to explain it, are more or less bullshit. They describe, for the most part, wishy-washy details, heavy on administrivia and light on actual material that you’ll expect to see in the curriculum.

At a later time, we’ll examine documents from LCPS that literally say “critical race theory” on them, but for now let’s continue…

Do School Board reps, teachers, activists, and their supporters think we haven’t been paying attention? Have we not witnessed examples of elected officials promoting the ideals of critical race theory, going so far as to explicitly state that race can and should be used as a measure of the validity of ones opinion? Have we not witnessed teachers attending politically-charged rallies in Leesburg that espoused the belief that “ACAB” (All Cops are Bastards) or that “silence is complicity” (which is an idiotic position to hold, on its face) on signage? And recently, have we not seen the extent to which the perpetually aggrieved will react when they detect that fellow Americans might (gasp!)…hold a dissenting opinion?

The reason why there are questions about CRT’s influence on CRI is because we have seen no evidence of our elected officials speaking to these issues from a “strength-based” position, or one that truly indicates an intent for this instruction to differ from CRT at all. Everything from our leaders is negative, people are tired of being passive-aggressively accused of birthing children scathed by the original sin of racism, and they are consistently insulted by the notion that frauds like Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DeAngelo are the answer to perceived injustice and inequality.

Moving on…

“Mr. Beatty’s words were so off base and so offensive that he caused parents in the community and on social media to mobilize a retaliatory effort. According to news stories, parents were so offended by what they perceived as Mr. Beatty’s lies and outright racism that they started a recall petition for his seat. They also created lists of people who are known to resist equity in education, like Mr. Beatty.”

Now we’re getting into the good stuff; a true, next-level frenzy of Woke Mob blah blah.

Mr. Beatty’s words were so offensive. Here we have an example of the paramount fear of the modern day woke mob. Not COVID, not nuclear war, but the subjective notion of being offended. For certain, inclusion in a society that values free expression, speech, and open discourse requires one to risk being offended regularly, but then we must assume that the authors of this letter- and anyone who finds themselves in agreement- believes in upholding any of the aforementioned American values. I posit they do not.

Not only did Beatty commit the thought crime of bringing offense to someone, but his words caused parents to do something in retaliation. The letter does a great job of glossing over the fact that numerous individuals within the community may have conspired to commit actual crimes, but that’s besides the point. The scorcher for me, here, is the realization that those in disagreement with Beatty believe that they have a right to not be offended. To that point, they would likely support teaching kids in our schools that they have a right to not be offended, which is a lie. Moreover, they take offense that someone might have the audacity to “resist equity in education”. Again– affirmation by existence; the fact that people are saying something (anything) about equity in Loudoun County’s public schools confirms that disagreement with any of it is tantamount to resisting equity entirely. Pardon the language here, but that’s fucking nuts.

That paragraph continued, with…

“This online chatter, and the media coverage that followed, was so intense- and so unsettling to the Loudoun community- that interim Superintendent Ziegler had to issue a defensive statement on March 19 to the entire LCPS parent community denying that what Mr. Beatty had said on the dais was true.”

I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. The authors of the letter are indicating that the big problem here is that Mr. Beatty’s position compelled the acting Superintendent to make a statement that critical race theory was not somehow linked to “culturally responsive instruction”.

Are they joking? Seriously. The problem is that Dr. Ziegler did not address the fact that numerous teachers, local activists, and multiple members of the school board were in fact members of a group that may have, allegedly, conspired to commit crimes.

In their complaint, the authors have successfully introduced a virtual reality world where alleged wrongdoers are the victims, compelled to do something because of words, and that a representative (and his constituents) that merely holds an opinion is the oppressor.

“Harm has been done and the LCPS culture has been marred by Mr. Beatty’s statements. You, as the highest officials in the school division, have an obligation to separate yourself from this rhetoric by publicly condemning it.”

I’m sorry, but have we not sat and listened to activists, religious leaders, teachers, and elected officials talk negatively about the culture of LCPS ad nauseam? Is that not the spirit behind all of these “improvements”, changes to standards, changes to policy, and changes to mascots, even before the era of COVID became a thing?

If the LCPS culture “has been marred” by Beatty, the authors are indicating that they’re OK with where things already stood, so if that’s the case what the hell are we even talking about? That’s hypothetical, of course, because we know this to be anything but the position of progressive Loudouners. Progressivism requires that problems not only persist, but that they can also never be solved. As such, have the proponents of critical race theory considered that some of us disagree with perceived popular opinion because we don’t trust they can actually get anything done that’s positive, or that we fear more harm will come of this than good? No, this can never be a consideration because the bar for “success” in an initiative, to the woke progressive, is simply acknowledging the existence of the initiative (and of course, funding it).

Simply, we need not question the efficacy of the equity initiatives LCPS seeks to undertake because their existence defines their validity. And when those initiatives ultimately fail, since they’re typically outcome-based nonsense that seek to address problems at the end rather than at the beginning, the reaction is to attempt more of the same rather than to consider that maybe they were wrong about it the first time.

A serious question for the folks from Catoctin who wrote the complaint: all of you have a history of work in the public education system here in Loudoun. If it is bad now, we can assume it was bad then. If so, when you were serving in your roles in Catoctin, were you doing a bad job? To me, it sounds like that’s exactly what you’re saying.

***

Of course, my critique here is entirely my own opinion- that should go without saying. I won’t pretend to have all the answers, or even most of them, but I will continue to have an opinion as a tax paying resident of the county, and as a parent that is deciding, along with my wife, whether or not we will allow our children to be introduced to what we believe is an open door for indoctrination when it’s time for them to go to school.

I cannot speak for everyone, I see things as follows: I speak on these issues because I very much believe that inequality exists and that the country’s troubled history has had lasting effects throughout generations. I will not, however, sit around and be told that I need to get in line and accept that mine and my wife’s success, the values I impart on my children, and their futures are pre-determined by an inherently unjust, racist, horrific system that is based on little else but melanin and shitty revisionist history.

My kids will be taught to be kind, caring, and empathetic to their fellow man. They will be taught to be charitable, to give to those in need whenever they can, and to never look down on those with less. They will also, however, be taught that progressive ideology is the antithesis of charity, and that at its core it rests in the very bowels of human nature; in a place that not only ignores self-determination and individualism, but scorns both as sins of a society that deserves to be less free.

When this country actually was, actively, destroying human beings and robbing them of their souls, my grandfather was more than a half century from his birth. My grandfather, and my mother, didn’t even make it to the shores of the United States until 1950 or so– after my grandfather, thankfully, survived imprisonment in not one, but two concentration camps while serving as an officer in the Polish army.

To pretend that the burden of the world is on the shoulders of all who happen to share a skin color is ignorant of the many struggles we have endured, and overcome as human beings throughout history.

I, like many who agree with me on the subject matter discussed today, cannot and will not pretend like we can empathize with the lived experience of black Americans and that is not in any way, shape, or form what our protests against things like critical race theory are about. There is more nuance to it; much more than the Catoctin letter writers, most of the school board, or Loudoun’s activist teachers care to recognize.

We see CRT, and what we are force fed via progressive activists and local officials, as an affront to the very things that make us free: our liberty, our rights to express opinion openly and debate them often, and our autonomy. The teachings of critical race theory, and its most high-profile theorists, are one of defeat– that we do not live in the midst of mankind’s greatest achievement; its greatest human experiment. That we are to be forever scarred by the sins of our forefathers, even when our own ancestors had nothing to do with it. That we are to ignore our desire to judge people by the content of their character above all else.

More so, we recognize that problems don’t exist because of ‘power structures’, like law enforcement, or on the extreme end of the woke hype train, ‘whiteness’. They exist because of power; what we, today, call ‘politics’. Thus, we cannot separate issues like critical race theory from inclusion in classrooms from the practice of politics. If public perception of things is to change with the passing of time and, ergo, public policy, and that we are not allowed to- for lack of a better term- resist some of those things in good faith, you’re telling a sizeable portion of the population that they are not welcome to participate politically.

Race has not dictated inequality in America as much as politics has, and will continue to. And we’re sorry, progressives, but you guys have a damn near universal monopoly on destroying the lives of historically marginalized people in America. We think you’re still doing it; like in public schools, with stuff like this. Teaching to the tenets of Critical Race Theory, to us, is just a small part of the game you play while hiding that. If that were untrue, you wouldn’t be screaming about how bad of a job you’ve been doing this whole time.

Thanks for taking the time to read my first scribble, I promise future editions will be more concise; I felt the occasion of my ‘first post’ merited a little more, just this once. 😉

Categories: Critical Race Theory, Culture, Education, Loudoun, Parenting, Politics, Uncategorized