(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The conservative 'parental rights' campaign is just bigots being bigots, and even the press knows it [1] ['Daily Kos Staff', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-06 We also get extremely close to the bare truth of the "parental rights" would-be movement, though the usual press conventions won't allow naming it outright. "Parental rights" began as a pandemic demand by conservative parents that their little darlings not have to wear masks or get vaccinated, because parents have the "right" to risk their kids' lives without the government butting in to tell them otherwise. But that's not what still means. Now it means, oh you know ... stuff. But Republicans have also since turned parents’ rights into an umbrella term for a host of cultural issues. Declaring that parents deserve a say in what their children are taught, some GOP power players have pushed to end diversity and equity programs in public schools. Others have sought to restrict lessons about sexual orientation or gender identity. And some have looked to prevent schools from using a child’s preferred pronouns without parental permission. Bigotry. The "parents' rights" campaign is a hard-right movement focused on blocking children from viewing or hearing anything that might conflict with the views of the most bigoted adult in their school district, in their city, in their county, or in their state. All of the subsequent analysis and examples revolve around the twin examples of conservative politicos (1) barring books and programs that so much as mention racism, and (2) blocking children from any acknowledgement of LGBT+ people, including any right to self-identify as such. That's it. The whole of the "parents' rights" debate is focused squarely on protecting the rights of the bigoted by making sure no children in the community show them up by knowing more about sex or racism than they do. It is a wholly generic term that, like the invented conservative redefinition of "critical race theory," has no definition other than "speech or knowledge that the most conservative member of the local pack does not like." And it's not new! It's not even close to new! Those of you who have been around these parts a long time can probably recall my own part-time hobby pointing out that all packaged conservative rallying cries are just repackaged versions of decades-old demands dating back to the civil rights era. School Choice? Vouchers? The whole education-privatization scheme? It's been the answer to public school desegregation from the moment desegregation began to be enforced, a means of separating out children from "conservative" families and giving them an education that did not involve exposure to the other. What is critical race theory, according to the pundits of the moment? Any book or program that exposes children to the same other, no matter how fractionally or obliquely. The Satanic Panic? "Creeping Sharia”? Fox News barfing up stories of "no-go zones" in American cities where non-Christians are in control? Republican state lawmakers going into meltdowns when they see a janitor's mop sink and conclude, because why the eff wouldn't they, that it had been installed as a "Muslim foot bath”? Every last "George Soros" mention? All new iterations of a central conservative panic about the very existence of Americans who are not arch-conservative Christians of several very particular sects, all of them lumped together into a conspiracy belief that supposes the mere existence of those other Americans is, by definition, a coordinated effort to weaken the hold of "traditional" conservative Christianity. Panic over gay children knowing they are gay, or learning from books that others like them exist? About LGBT children existing? Over teens asking to be called a different pronoun or by a different nickname than their parents will allow at home? Over seeing any diagram of what a human body looks like? Buddy, that's just good old-fashioned sex scolds right there. Conservatives have been yanking their children out of sex education classes rather than allowing them to be taught about pregnancy, sexual disease, contraception, or (and this may be the most important one) what constitutes sexual abuse for a long, long time now, under the now Extremely Disproven theory that hiding information will keep their darlings from trying any of it until mommy and daddy approve. The demand that LGBT+ children not be so much as acknowledged is hatched from the identical belief that no child will figure out their own identity so long as we hide from them the existence of all other people like them. This will not work. This has never worked. It is a very effective way, however, to drive those children to suicide, and every conservative making these demands knows it. It is still seen as the preferable option, just as the occasional mass murder inside schools is seen as preferable to nation in which you aren't allowed to collect the instruments of mass murder just in case you might want to use them. I have some small belief that "parents' rights" is not going to turn out to be nearly the rallying cry cretins like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis believe it will be, one year from now. Republicans have certainly succeeded in making school board meetings around the country absolutely toxic, as frothing conservative parents and childless local busybodies threaten to bring the wrath of God down on anyone who lets a Maya Angelou poem loose inside a classroom. The rest of America, though, is getting increasingly sick of these people and increasingly angry about their performances; the CNN piece itself notes that "nearly 8 in 10" Americans believe the book-banning efforts are "purely political," rather than sincere. It's just as likely that the hoax manufacturers of the party will have invented some other national crisis that will put "parents' rights" back on the back burner. Republicans are very invested in the Something Something Biden Family Scandal, and may at one point another even figure out what they believe the Something Something part actually consists of; remember, back in the Clinton days there were conservative pundits who made their name stoking theories that the presidential family was killing off enemies by the scores in order to Something Something Cocaine. Now that the majority of the party is committing themselves to full-time hoax promotion, we can only guess what the next alleged blockbuster might be. "Parents' rights," though, is already suffering from having its plausible not-racist, not-bigoted deniability punctured through at the supposed movement's very beginning. Both the public and the press are already able to identify, plainly, that the phrase refers to an attempt by bigots to enforce bigotry. The game's already over before it began. RELATED STORIES: Florida student-athletes ask why they should be forced to inform schools about menstrual cycles Conservatives have forms ready for parents to sign for youth to have an LGBTQ-free public education Republicans won’t stop at ending legal abortions or erasing Black history. Now it’s sex ed—again Donald Trump goes full unhinged TERF in four-minute video posted to Truth Social [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/6/2151440/-The-conservative-parental-rights-campaign-is-just-bigots-being-bigots-and-even-the-press-knows-it Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/