Literally on Day 1 of his administration, Glenn Youngkin issued Executive Order #1, “ENDING THE USE OF INHERENTLY DIVISIVE CONCEPTS, INCLUDING CRITICAL RACE THEORY, AND RESTORING EXCELLENCE IN K-12 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN THE COMMONWEALTH.” Of course, that was complete bullsh**, as “CRT” had never even been taught in Virginia schools, but was an obscure, upper-academic, legal concept about “relationships between social conceptions of race and ethnicity, social and political laws, and mass media.” Of course, in the 2021 gubernatorial campaign, Youngkin pushed the lie that “CRT” was a horrible thing being taught in Virginia’s K-12 public schools as part of his at-best-dog-whistle-racist campaign of fear mongering and demagoguery. And, of course, the media never really called this out for what it was, and in part because of that media failing, Youngkin’s attacks on “CRT” (and “DEI,” etc.) very well may have helped boost him to a narrow victory over Terry McAuliffe.
Anyway, the bottom line is that Youngkin at least CLAIMED to have ended “CRT” in Virginia schools (again, even though it wasn’t taught there). But now, as you can see in the following screen shot, 2025 VA GOP gubernatorial candidate Dave LaRock is ranting that “CRT/DEI/SEI Are Still Thriving in Virginia – And It Must End.” Again, despite the fact that Youngkin brags about he *ended all of that*. So, what LaRock is saying not only is wrong on the merits – what’s wrong with social emotional learning or diversity and inclusion exactly, anyway??? – but it also suffers from some problematic logic. Not that the fact that their arguments are nonsensical, internally inconsistent, mutually contradictory, etc. ever bothered MAGA/Trump cultists like LaRock (or Amanda Chase, Winsome Earle-Sears, etc.)…
P.S. As Sherilyn Ifill points out, MAGA uses terms like DEI as a “slur,” when in fact what they’re doing is attempting to “taint the accomplishments of Black, Native American, Asian American, Latinos, women & LGBT people.” Also, try to get a MAGA person to explain to you, using facts and logic, what exactly is wrong with “CRT,” “DEI” and/or “SEL.” Most likely, you will get a bunch of blather, anger, attacks (ad hominem and otherwise), etc. – because they have no real argument, of course.
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