Oh, Project Veritas is involved? Not that I had much of a belief in this accounting of events beforehand, but now I have absolutely none. How does anyone think that after years of O'Keefe's...
Oh, Project Veritas is involved? Not that I had much of a belief in this accounting of events beforehand, but now I have absolutely none. How does anyone think that after years of O'Keefe's shenanigans that anything they put out has the slightest bit of credibility without corroboration by someone else?
But of course, if it was far right indoctrination, he most likely wouldn't be getting fired, nor would we be hearing about it. What a sham mess.
Also shame on these parents, being antifascist does not equal being a communist. FFS I wish people had to learn what all these different ideologies actually are before spouting off about "communist indoctrination". My dead Oma, who raised me and my family to be staunchly antifascist (having grown up in Nazi Germany herself) while being 110% not a communist (or even on the left farther than being a milquetoast centrist Democrat, at least after getting her US citizenship) herself, must be spinning in her grave right now.
I didn't watch the "heavily edited" video. (I don't watch political videos in general.) However, you might want to read the statement by the school superintendent before deciding that there's...
I didn't watch the "heavily edited" video. (I don't watch political videos in general.) However, you might want to read the statement by the school superintendent before deciding that there's nothing to it.
Honestly, the only corroborated things (the stamps and maybe some of his wall materials, since the letter says that "Not all of the material was inappropriate", but also does not explicitly say...
Honestly, the only corroborated things (the stamps and maybe some of his wall materials, since the letter says that "Not all of the material was inappropriate", but also does not explicitly say that any of it was, which makes me think that none of it was, otherwise they would have specified, a la the stamps) do not rise to the level of a fireable offense, in my eyes. By that standard, a teacher who says they want to "win students to God" while at church or the like and runs a Fellowship of Christian Athletes club (something my HS had, and something I bet this school, or at lest one in this district, has as well) should be getting terminated for a desire to indoctrinate students, according to this standard, even if they do not explicitly say so in class.
This is still a Project Veritas-driven witch hunt and the superintendent's statement does nothing to prove otherwise. What's the overlap between the students claiming that he stated his belief that students will move to the left as a result of his class, and the families that brought in the PV grifters instead of, you know, lodging a complaint with the principal or district first?
With statements like "Through the district's investigation, there are no specific events right now to prove that" (in reference to alleged telling students about community events that may have become "unsafe") and that the first notification to the district was from Project Veritas, it still looks like a witch hunt done to appease some loud right wing parents.
The stamps would be worthy of an official reprimand in my eyes (I wonder what the "insensitive statement" mentioned is as well), but everything else is such hearsay and couched in such vague terms that I hope the teacher's union fights hard against his full termination.
Again, had this been someone being openly right wing, I highly doubt we'd hear anything about it, nor would the teacher be getting terminated. It's a hypocritical double standard.
It's important to distinguish between reasons for suspicion and evidence. The fact that Project Veritas is involved is a good reason to be suspicious. However, it's not evidence. The other things...
It's important to distinguish between reasons for suspicion and evidence. The fact that Project Veritas is involved is a good reason to be suspicious. However, it's not evidence. The other things that might happen to other teachers in other situations are also not evidence.
What evidence do we have? This is a school district none of us ever heard of and a teacher we don't know. We don't know any of the students who went there. We have a biased video and a statement from the superintendent. They're both political statements, though I think the superintendent is at least trying to be fair, because that's their job.
So my position is that we shouldn't take sides. As outsiders, we don't have to decide whether there is any problem with this teacher or not. The school district will do an investigation and hopefully come to a just decision. (I don't know how good a job they will do, but it's better than we can do from a distance.)
This is a bad habit, coming up with lots of reasons to be suspicious and then being convinced by suspicion that you already know the answers and therefore you should take sides. It's anti-curious, because if you think you know what's going on you won't ask questions or look any further. It's common in many online forums, but I dislike seeing that sort of thing on Tildes. I think we could do a better job of acknowledging what we don't know.
I'm not all that curious either, so I'm not going to investigate. But if someone else is motivated enough to do the work that a good journalist would do, they could look into it further.
People believe what they want to believe. I have come to the conclusion that expecting people to examine their beliefs is an unrealistic expectation in the modern age. Edit: I forgot to mention...
How does anyone think that after years of O'Keefe's shenanigans that anything they put out has the slightest bit of credibility without corroboration by someone else?
People believe what they want to believe. I have come to the conclusion that expecting people to examine their beliefs is an unrealistic expectation in the modern age.
Edit: I forgot to mention that there are huge crowds who still adamantly believe every single story he has released without a single doubt. They’re not going to change any time soon.
Also history and social studies books at a high school level always portray capitalism as having saved us from the evils of "socialism". Totally not biased.
But of course, if it was far right indoctrination, he most likely wouldn't be getting fired, nor would we be hearing about it. What a sham mess.
Also history and social studies books at a high school level always portray capitalism as having saved us from the evils of "socialism". Totally not biased.
Oh, Project Veritas is involved? Not that I had much of a belief in this accounting of events beforehand, but now I have absolutely none. How does anyone think that after years of O'Keefe's shenanigans that anything they put out has the slightest bit of credibility without corroboration by someone else?
But of course, if it was far right indoctrination, he most likely wouldn't be getting fired, nor would we be hearing about it. What a sham mess.
Also shame on these parents, being antifascist does not equal being a communist. FFS I wish people had to learn what all these different ideologies actually are before spouting off about "communist indoctrination". My dead Oma, who raised me and my family to be staunchly antifascist (having grown up in Nazi Germany herself) while being 110% not a communist (or even on the left farther than being a milquetoast centrist Democrat, at least after getting her US citizenship) herself, must be spinning in her grave right now.
I didn't watch the "heavily edited" video. (I don't watch political videos in general.) However, you might want to read the statement by the school superintendent before deciding that there's nothing to it.
Honestly, the only corroborated things (the stamps and maybe some of his wall materials, since the letter says that "Not all of the material was inappropriate", but also does not explicitly say that any of it was, which makes me think that none of it was, otherwise they would have specified, a la the stamps) do not rise to the level of a fireable offense, in my eyes. By that standard, a teacher who says they want to "win students to God" while at church or the like and runs a Fellowship of Christian Athletes club (something my HS had, and something I bet this school, or at lest one in this district, has as well) should be getting terminated for a desire to indoctrinate students, according to this standard, even if they do not explicitly say so in class.
This is still a Project Veritas-driven witch hunt and the superintendent's statement does nothing to prove otherwise. What's the overlap between the students claiming that he stated his belief that students will move to the left as a result of his class, and the families that brought in the PV grifters instead of, you know, lodging a complaint with the principal or district first?
With statements like "Through the district's investigation, there are no specific events right now to prove that" (in reference to alleged telling students about community events that may have become "unsafe") and that the first notification to the district was from Project Veritas, it still looks like a witch hunt done to appease some loud right wing parents.
The stamps would be worthy of an official reprimand in my eyes (I wonder what the "insensitive statement" mentioned is as well), but everything else is such hearsay and couched in such vague terms that I hope the teacher's union fights hard against his full termination.
Again, had this been someone being openly right wing, I highly doubt we'd hear anything about it, nor would the teacher be getting terminated. It's a hypocritical double standard.
It's important to distinguish between reasons for suspicion and evidence. The fact that Project Veritas is involved is a good reason to be suspicious. However, it's not evidence. The other things that might happen to other teachers in other situations are also not evidence.
What evidence do we have? This is a school district none of us ever heard of and a teacher we don't know. We don't know any of the students who went there. We have a biased video and a statement from the superintendent. They're both political statements, though I think the superintendent is at least trying to be fair, because that's their job.
So my position is that we shouldn't take sides. As outsiders, we don't have to decide whether there is any problem with this teacher or not. The school district will do an investigation and hopefully come to a just decision. (I don't know how good a job they will do, but it's better than we can do from a distance.)
This is a bad habit, coming up with lots of reasons to be suspicious and then being convinced by suspicion that you already know the answers and therefore you should take sides. It's anti-curious, because if you think you know what's going on you won't ask questions or look any further. It's common in many online forums, but I dislike seeing that sort of thing on Tildes. I think we could do a better job of acknowledging what we don't know.
I'm not all that curious either, so I'm not going to investigate. But if someone else is motivated enough to do the work that a good journalist would do, they could look into it further.
People believe what they want to believe. I have come to the conclusion that expecting people to examine their beliefs is an unrealistic expectation in the modern age.
Edit: I forgot to mention that there are huge crowds who still adamantly believe every single story he has released without a single doubt. They’re not going to change any time soon.
Also history and social studies books at a high school level always portray capitalism as having saved us from the evils of "socialism". Totally not biased.
According to Fox News, this may as well be describing Stalin