Rightwing propaganda outlet PragerU’s materials approved for schools in Ron DeSantis’ Florida

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/07/rightwing-propaganda-outlet-pragerus-materials-approved-for-schools-in-ron-desantis-florida/

But Governor DeathSantis claims that he has ended indoctrination in Florida schools.   If you don’t already know, Prager U is a YouTube channel funded to the tune of at least $36 million a year (last I read) by the billionaire Mercer family to spread bigotry and racism.  The Channel has videos against every civil rights gain since the 1950s, while pushing the wholesome goodness of white men.   The channel pushes that white people had a right to do what they have done in history to other groups and that god has established the traditional way life should be.    The fact is what the republicans working with or are religious fundamentalist bigots are fiercely pushing indoctrination of right wing religious views while trying to erase all social and scientific advancements since 1950.   Hugs

PragerU (initialism for Prager University, and short for Prager University Foundation[4]) is an American advocacy group and media organization that creates content promoting conservative viewpoints on various political, economic, and sociological topics. It was co-founded in 2009 by Allen Estrin and talk show host Dennis Prager.

Despite the group’s name being an initialism for Prager University, it is not an academic institution and does not confer degrees. PragerU’s videos contain content widely considered to be misleading or false in promoting climate change denial. Historians and political scientists have also criticized PragerU’s videos for containing misleading or inaccurate claims about topics such as slavery and racism in the United States, immigration, and the history of fascism. PragerU has also been accused of promoting anti-LGBTQ politics.


PragerU purports to liberate children from the “dominant left-wing ideology.”

By Molly Sprayregen Tuesday, July 25, 2023

Gov. Ron DeSantis

Gov. Ron DeSantisPhoto: Shutterstock

A right-wing nonprofit that “offers a free alternative to the dominant left-wing ideology” has announced that Florida has become the first state to approve the organization as an educational vendor.

“This fall in schools across America, students will be watching PragerU videos in their classrooms as states officially make PragerU an approved educational resource,” the group said in a press release, according to the Miami New Times.

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Faculty flee Florida college amid DeSantis’s quest to make it a conservative institution

The school is currently dependent on visiting faculty to fill the gaps.

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PragerU, which is not an accredited academic institution, offers propaganda-filled materials for students in kindergarten through 12th grade through its PragerU Kids program. It describes itself as being in “the mind-changing business.”

“In the past, teachers have been disciplined — even fired — for showing PragerU videos in their classrooms,” the press release states. “Now, PragerU videos are not only being allowed in classrooms but superintendents and education commissioners are actively encouraging teachers to use PragerU’s content to educate their students… PragerU supplemental curriculum offers an easy, cutting-edge way to teach core knowledge in subjects ranging from civics and history to entrepreneurship and financial literacy.”

In addition to a slew of videos for kids, the organization offers resources like a sample anti-critical race theory policy. Its videos claim the gender wage gap does not exist and that white people are unfairly villainized for stealing the land of Native Americans.

A petition on its website claims that “PragerU is trying to help America’s students—but the left (which has hijacked and controlled the education system, including teachers unions) is doing everything in its power to label us as ‘far right,’ deplatform us, and keep PragerU out of schools.”

“The left wants you to think that the reason students are failing is because bureaucrats need more money,” it states. “The left wants you to believe that teachers unions are protecting kids and doing right by teachers. The left claims kids don’t need patriotic education. Instead, they are teaching Critical Race Theory, gender fluidity, and that math is racist.”

The Florida Department of Education told the Miami New Times that it “reviewed PragerU Kids and determined the material aligns to Florida’s revised civics and government standards.”

“PragerU Kids is no different than many other resources, which can be used as supplemental materials in Florida schools at district discretion,” said deputy director of communications Cassie Palelis.

Gov. Ron DeSantis‘s (R) office did not respond to a request for comment, but the group’s way of thinking is in line with the governor’s right-wing ideology.

During his time in office, DeSantis has waged war on public education, most notably through his “Don’t Say Gay” law and his vendetta against the teaching of racial and LGBTQ+ issues in schools.

In May, he signed a law forbidding colleges and universities from spending state or federal funding on programs that promote political or social activism or “diversity, equity, and inclusivity” (DEI). DeSantis said such DEI programs often actually stand for “discrimination, exclusion, and indoctrination.”

In 2022, DeSantis signed the so-called “Stop WOKE Act,” which forbids schools and businesses from offering educational programs on racism and gender-based discrimination. The law is currently on hold as a court considers its impact on constitutionally protected rights to free speech.

Italy begins stripping lesbian mothers of their parental rights

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/07/italy-begins-stripping-lesbian-mothers-of-their-parental-rights/

Right wing governments working with Christian churches to deny rights to LGBTQ+ people.  To stop equality, to stop same sex marriage.  To deny family status at the same time as right governments and churches claim family units are best for children.  We already know that children raised in same sex households do as well as or better than children in traditional opposite sex households.  This is an attempt to make anything but the traditional male / female relationship status meaningless.  Sure you can have civil partnerships but you get no rights with it, same with same sex marriage in the US if the republican fundamentalist religious right has its way.  Because it is not good enough for those people to be able to do their things, do their beliefs, follow their own doctrines, their goal is to force everyone else to live by their church rules also.   Hugs

 
Two lesbian mother and baby on bed having fun
Photo: Shutterstock

In conjunction with its crackdown on the rights of same-sex parents, the Italian government has begun retroactively stripping same-sex parents of their legal connection to their children.

Michela Leidi told the Daily Mail that she “cried for ten days” after receiving a letter informing her she would be removed from her daughter’s birth certificate. “It was as if I did not exist.”


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The couple doesn’t know why they were targeted as one of the first to have their legal status changed retroactively, as in most cities the policy has been focused on new babies born. They said their community, friends, and family have always supported them.

“I suspect the government is afraid that a family that looks different, like ours, can be as happy – maybe even happier sometimes – as a traditional family,” Liedi said. “On paper, they say Giulia has one mother but we know she has two. We will do everything possible to prove we are a good family.”

Her wife added, “No one from the government or the prosecutors came to see that we are a happy family with a happy baby.”

While same-sex civil unions have been legal in the country since 2016, same-sex couples do not have the right to adopt, thanks in part to opposition from the Catholic Church. Surrogacy remains illegal in Italy and there are restrictions that prevent the adoption of “stepchildren” by one parent. Medically assisted reproduction, like in vitro fertilization (IVF), is only available to heterosexual couples.

Viola became pregnant through artificial insemination, and the couple had to travel to Spain to receive the treatment.

Until March, there were several Italian cities where same-sex couples could be listed as “parents”—as opposed to “mother” and “father”—on birth registrations. But the Interior Ministry began sending letters ordering an end to the practice. 

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, made anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric a cornerstone of her campaign for office. She opposes allowing same-sex couples to adopt as well as marriage quality, calling civil union “good enough” for LGBTQ+ couples.

“Yes to the natural family, no to LGBT lobbies,” she declared last summer.

Under current Italian law, the member of a same-sex couple who is not legally recognized as a child’s parent could lose custody if the legally recognized parent dies or the relationship ends.

This is particularly horrific for another couple, Vanessa Finesso and Cristina Zambon. Finesso is the one who gave birth to their daughter after undergoing IVF in Spain. Even though she used Zambon’s egg, Zambon has been threatened with the loss of parental rights by the government. Finesso has cancer and is worried that if she dies, her wife will lose custody of their daughter.

The order also leaves the children of same-sex couples in jeopardy in other ways. “Children end up having limited access to key services and benefits, such as healthcare, inheritance, and child support,” Angelo Schillaci, a law professor at Sapienza University in Rome, told BBC when the policy was first announced. “At present, only one parent is recognized by law, the other one is a ghost. In real life, parents and children play together, cook together, play sports, and go on holiday together. But on paper, they are apart, the state does not see them. It’s a paradoxical situation.”

In the city of Padua, where Finesso and Zambon live, 27 families (33 children) have gotten warning letters that one parent may lose parental rights and be stripped of their place on their kids’ birth certificates. Some plan to leave the country for good.

But the mayor of Padua, Sergio Giordani, is defying the government’s orders and continuing to issue birth certificates recognizing two-mom families.

“My phone is full of pictures of happy families with shining eyes,” he said. “I’m really proud of what I’ve done.”

Florida History Curriculum To Note “Benefits” Of Slavery

Remember these racist bigots are a minority.  They have been so since they lost the war to keep black people as property.  Think about what the reporting says the majority turned out against this, yet the Board of education did it anyway.  Der DeathSantis handpicked board.  Think of what he would do if president.   They are driven white supremacists who want real history erased and a fake nice version of slavery taught instead.  Ask why?  What is the gain, to not feel guilty?  That is stupid, no current white person should feel guilty of racism unless they are promoting / practicing racism.   And that is the point.  These white people want to keep practicing racism, and a lot of them want to make it worse by returning to a time before the civil rights act that gave people of color a voice and a right to some equality in the country that the constitution says they are equal citizens.  Seriously scary how deeply racism is in the red states and especially Florida and Texas.   

As a side note when we first got to Florida we had a black friend visit us.  I mention the skin color only because when we all went out to eat, the waitress at the restaurant refused to take his order, instead asking both Ron and then myself what the other (pointing to our friend) wanted to eat.  This was in 1994.  We complained but our friend who was experienced in the south did not want us to make a scene, so we agreed when management only offered to change the waitress.   It was the first time I had experienced / seen that, and it really stuck in my mind.  Totally horrible any person had to go through that dehumanizing experience that our friend did.  I can not image how it makes one feel to be treated that way in front of friends.  Hugs

The Tallahassee Democrat reports:

The Florida Board of Education approved a new curriculum for African American history on Wednesday, but not without pushback.

After more than an hour of public comment, with a majority of speakers opposed, the board voted unanimously to approve the social studies standards for African American history for kindergarten through 12th grades. Opponents say the curriculum leaves out Florida’s role in slavery and the oppression of African Americans, victim blames Black communities and uses outdated language.

In a letter to board member Ben Gibson, a group of 11 organizations, including the NAACP and the Florida Education Association, criticized the state for omitting or rewriting “key historical facts about the Black experience.”

The Washington Post reports:

More than a dozen speakers at Wednesday’s board meeting opposed the changes, including state Sen. Geraldine Thompson (D), who helped pass a law in 2020 that requires schools to teach lessons about the Ocoee Massacre. The incident in 1920 began when several Black residents attempted to vote, and ended with as many as 60 people dead, making it the deadliest instance of Election Day violence in U.S. history.

Thompson said the new curriculum “suggests that the massacre was sparked by violence from African Americans. That’s blaming the victims. ” State Rep. Anna Eskamani (D) said she was concerned about inaccuracies in the new standards, including instructing that enslaved people “developed skills” that could be helpful. “That is inaccurate and a scary standard for us to establish,” she said.

 

Um, no, if you’re STILL A SLAVE, then you really can’t do ANYTHING for your “personal benefit.”

^ That captures it in a nutshell. The education of slaves was to benefit the people holding them in bondage as property.

Floriduh’s “history” books are being written by people who don’t even want to know about their history.

Board of Miseducation.

Is “Diseducation” a word? (My spellcheck doesn’t think it is.)

Yes, there were benefits of slavery…for the slaveholders who got free labor and people they could beat and rape and even kill without any penalties. Nothing about that was good. Nothing.

Fascist regimes always rewrite curriculum to indoctrinate children into fascism. Leave our kids alone!

♪♫ “We don’t need indoctrination
We don’t need no thought control
No dark agendas in the classroom
Teacher, leave them kids alone
Hey! Teacher! Leave those kids alone!
All in all, fascism just needs to fall
All in all, fascism just needs to fall” ♪♫

Where have we heard this before?
“We took them out of the darkness of idolatry and brought them to Jesus! They are so child-like, they’re incapable of governing themselves. They need a firm hand. We’ve given them the benefit of living in a civilized country.”
Yeah, we’ve heard it all before, and it is STILL stomach turning.
I fucking HATE conservatives!!!!

Intentionally making the electorate dumber.

Mission accomplished.

Politicians should stay out of curriculum decisions, period!

And women’s health too.

Any clinical decisions, and anything that has to do with what consenting adults do behind closed doors!

(And showing those pics in congress is not behind closed doors!)

Politicians, Republican ones, seem to think they’re experts in everything from gynecology to curriculum development.
Get back in your box , fucking politicians.

The definition of consciousness is awareness with choice.

In our previous slaveholding society slaves had awareness without choice. Said lack of choice was enforced by violence and brutality.

The GQP doesn’t want anyone to know that.

LOL yeah just change everything that makes you uncomfortable.
Like native Americans were happy to give land away to get out of paying taxes.

A short round up as I start a new post to catch the Friday to Sunday bunch.

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the Republican infrastructure plan !!

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WTF. These people are not coming to hurt anyone, they are not coming to destroy the US, but to share the dream of a wonderful country. Abbott is proving to be the destroyer and despicable person, as is anyone who would follow these orders. Hey think how we look at the guards at concentration camps, Texas will be thought of in the same way. Scottie
Drag performances in Ohio could be banned from public parks, parades and other places children might be if a bill introduced by House Republicans becomes law.
House Bill 245 expands the definition of adult cabaret performers from strippers and topless dancers to include “entertainers who exhibit a gender identity that is different from the performer’s or entertainer’s gender assigned at birth.”
Diversity or diversity and inclusion programs are just words for let others than white males have a seat at the table. Seriously, this is what the republicans and MG are fighting. Why would they want to block others than whites / at one time only white males, from having a chance to be included? Racism and misogyny.

Biden got a Target Letter, too!

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The pro-life party! Right! Tell me another one.

Book Bans Are Fascist

A recent wave of book bans and curbs to educational free speech, led in part by Florida governor Ron DeSantis is hurting our children and allowing a vocal radical minority of parents and lawmakers control the narrative.

How Junk Science is Being Used Against Trans Kids

From a medical journal
This researcher has been studying the history of Trans kids for years. Here’s what you need to know.

‘There were no benefits to being a slave’: Florida St. Sen. slams Florida’s new slavery curriculum

Florida’s new slavery curriculum sparks outrage as the state’s war on accurate Black history ramps up with a plan to teach that there were benefits to slavery for enslaved descendants of Africans in America. Florida St. Sen. Shevrin Jones joins Joy Reid to discuss saying, “I want to make it clear to everyone… there were no benefits to being a slave… All of this is disingenuous.”

‘Poisoning the well’: Florida middle schoolers to be dragged into DeSantis’ war on history

The latest educational repercussions of Ron DeSantis’s campaign against “woke” is a set of new guidelines that will have Florida middle school students learning false, racist tropes about the benefits of slavery to slaves and casting racist violence against Black people in a more “both sides” context. Jelani Cobb, dean of the Columbia Journalism School discusses with Alex Wagner.  

Jen Psaki reveals what ‘Moms for Liberty’ is all about

Soome Sam Seder clips I thought were important.

https://www.youtube.com/@TheMajorityReport/videos

The MR crew looks at horrifying reports coming out of Texas that show Republican governor Greg Abbott ordered border agents to begin drowning and dehydrating migrant children.
A woman who is undergoing hormone treatments calls in to dispel the myths that transgendered individuals are dominating women’s sports and then gives a powerful story of her own transition.
Jeff Sharlet, professor of English at Dartmouth College, joins to discuss his recent book The Undertow: Scenes From a Slow Civil War.
Ben Shapiro reacts to a piece in the New York Times about a recent fashion trend that is seeing men wearing crop tops. Shapiro says: “Just as a fashion matter, no one wants to see the midriff of another man. Just as a general-i’m not going to speak for gay men. women, i don’t think, are interested. Neither are straight men.”
Charlie Kirk responds to reporting from MSNBC that far Right-Wing extremists have used at-home workout trends to expand their reach into mixed martial arts spaces. Kirk says that reporting like this shows that liberals only want men to be weak, depressed, and have low testosterone.
CNN’S Kaitlan Collins asks Senator Tommy Tuberville about the comments he made regarding White Nationalists serving in the military. Collins asks if he’d want to clarify that he wouldn’t want racists to be serving in the military. Tuberville reiterates his belief that he doesn’t see White Nationalists as necessarily racist, and that it’s people’s opinions that they’re racist. He says, however, that if there are White Nationalists who are racist, he wouldn’t support them serving in the military.

Later Tuberville was asked by reporters on Capitol Hill About why he continued to double down on his stance on White Nationalists. Tuberville attempted to amend his response: “I’m totally against racism. If the Democrats want to say that White Nationalists are racists, i’m totally against that, too.”