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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   31040 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 16, 2023

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Just saw the headlines about DeSantis banning an AP African-American Studies course. According to AP news, "Florida education officials did not specify exactly what content the state found objectionable."

I have two questions about this.

  1. What reason would there be to not say what about the content was objectionable? Would it violate copyright, or some kind of NDA?

If the DeSantis administration's objections to the content are reasonable, then sharing the content would make it impossible for intellectually honest people to say that DeSantis doesn't want the history of American slavery to be taught. Because the objections are left ambiguous, a person can fill in the blanks with whatever best fits their priors, and if someone who doesn't have exposure to current year progressive narratives on race, then their priors probably are "those backwards hicks just don't want their kids to learn things that challenge them." If I hadn't updated my priors since the debates on evolution and intelligent design, that's what I'd assume is happening. But because I've been paying some attention to cultural changes this past decade, my prior is now that some version of disparate impact/critical race theory/systemic racism/Ibram X Kendi's personal philosophy is in the course. But like my hypothetical leftist, I'm using my priors to fill in blanks that ideally the government would be filling in for me.

  1. Is there any information anywhere online about what material was in this course?

The government may not be able to tell us, for whatever reason, but that doesn't mean the information isn't out there.

What reason would there be to not say what about the content was objectionable? Would it violate copyright, or some kind of NDA?

Perhaps it makes it more difficult for whatever kind of lawfare challenges Blue Tribers will inevitably try to throw at it. If you don't tell them why you're doing it, then when someone tries to file an injunction on you, you can retrodict your motivation to function as the hard counter to whichever statute they're lawfaring you under.

Idk, IANAL, but shenannegains amongst Boomers In Black Robes are often the reasons for obfuscation.

Black Robes, you say? ;)

I so desperately wanted that show to be good and it simply refused.

I think the time they made fun of Alex Jones over Sandy Hook was what did it fit me. In a world where all the conspiracies are true, where secret societies and reptilians control the world, where JR is already portrayed as a violent sociopath, why can't you have a joke about it? Why not a throwaway line like, "that really wasn't our best work," or, "I was working overtime for weeks trying to cover it up." It's a betrayal of the premise, one of many, that eventually made me drop the show.

I think part of the lore is that people fixate on the fake conspiracies instead of the real ones. Flat earth is, in-universe, a psy-op created to prevent people from learning about the secret world under the Earth's surface.

"The Earth's not flat, it's hollow," is fine in-universe, but "Alex Jones is a wackadoodle for thinking Sandy Hook is a hoax," isn't. It would be the same as saying, "the Earth's not flat, it's exactly what everyone says it has always been, nothing to see here."

In-universe, it makes no sense for Sandy Hook to be just a school shooting. It needs to be some group doing something for some purpose. I don't care who it is, or why, but it's disappointing that they have no problem saying Kennedy was assassinated by the deep state, but can't say that the deep state murdered children for gun control (or child sacrifice! or they kidnapped them to feed to reptilians!).

A betrayal of the premise, and one that I couldn't move past.

You know what? That's completely reasonable. I appreciate your take.

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