Our steady decline of anti-intellectualism in this Godforsaken country has reached new and despicable lows. Seemingly every day in the fascist sinkhole that is Florida, its brainless dipshit governor, Ron DeSantis, robs children of information in schools. Schools! Banning books, cancelling curriculum… learning now is up to the fucking governor? One guy? Fantastic. The already bent bastion of meat-grinding mediocrity that is school, wherein we learn that Christopher Columbus discovered something he never discovered and that we pledge allegiance to some bizarre concept of freedom that our government is taking away, is in enough trouble. I have news for this moron and the “disgruntled” parents who rile idiots like DeSantis up so he can consolidate power and prove to his daddy that he’s worth a shit – our kids are fine. Trust them to learn. Protecting them from truth and information is dangerous. Aren’t we stupid enough? You want more slack-jawed dupes to believe elections are stolen, so they arm themselves and storm a federal building, then spend years in prison wondering what the fuck just happened? Then keep this up.
And that’s what they want: to keep you stupid, so they can sell you cheap beer and bad movies and no agenda to help you besides robbing you of your rights and lecturing you on patriotism.
Your kids, and by kids, I mean tweens and teenagers, but I would also argue even grammar school aged, are far more comfortable with their sexuality than you, and they’re willing to accept the differences – gender, race, religion – in their classmates. You don’t have to ban books that introduce “difficult” subjects or jail teachers who speak to gender identity. This is the same nonsense as the Scopes Trial and the banning of the teaching of science over religion. Religion is a failed intellectual concept and our kids need to know this. If they want to worship whatever idol they choose or an interpretation of that idol, then fine, but don’t fuck with my kid’s pursuit of truth and knowledge.
You want to talk morality? I believe it is immoral to deny children to right to learn. Ok, if some kids are intimidated and/or disturbed by information, sure, and if their parents insist, pull them out of class. Why should the majority of children suffer because people are afraid of their kids learning more than they did when they were 12 or becoming better, more evolved, and intellectually stimulated humans than them?
Let’s face it: This is a parent’s issue, not a school or kids or teachers’ issue. Why does every fucked up, half-assed insecure bigot get a voice in this country and those of us trying to be free thinkers are relegated to writing expletive-laced falderal like this. Lord, how long can this go on?
What about our Black students? Why should they be denied their history – however horrifying and insane it is? Do we wipe out the entire backstory of this country so middle-class parents and their sheltered children aren’t offended or upset? No one hates white people because we learn about the systemic pogrom heaped upon a people for decades. Get over yourself. Such self-important, privileged whiners. If you feel guilty, that’s on you. Go to therapy, read a book, and leave the rest of us alone to understand our failures to become better humans.
We are passing down this damage to every generation that does not face-up to the sins of their forefathers. Period. Not just the American experiment, which is five minutes old compared to the madness of civilization, but the whole of humanity. Education is not just numbers, dates, grammar, and whatever the fuck gym is – it is expanding horizons, not shutting down the view; it is titillating our neurons to think for ourselves, not placating the ramblings of an ancient superstition or whatever the latest Right Wing TV guy thinks. Pretty soon there will be no one left who remembers how close the world came to fascism, while fascism dominates one of the two political parties in this country right now. Kids need to know this and see the signs of evil to know what the person next to them might be capable of – for good or ill. They for sure do not need to be protected by the likes of you, and they sure as hell don’t need some uptight vote-sniffing grotesque politician making that call. Get off your high horse, lend hand, or get the fuck out of the way.
I cannot believe there are people who were born when I was, experienced the same enlightenment and savagery, and choose to go back to a time that never existed. There was no peace in the valley, bub, and there never will be. Sheltering our kids is not a way to prepare them for a real world. I have news for these parents: your kids are not staying in Florida. They grow up and get the fuck out of there to where the action is, the real, vibrant, open, and productive places, the places that keep this broke nation afloat (like NYC), and they will be swallowed up because mommy and daddy and the nanny state kept them in the dark.
This is why people panic when CNN puts Donald Trump on the air. “He’s going to destroy democracy! CNN is criminal for allowing people to listen to his bullshit!” Yeah, well, fuck you! Give me the bullshit. Give me the good, the bad, and the ugly. There is more ugly coming and we need to grow the fuck up and face it. More Trump? Let’s see the warts and pus and inhuman disgust he brings. We’re big boys and girls capable of fact-checking his lunacy if we care, and if we don’t care, that is our prerogative. Hell, people still think he’s president or that he won an election he lost by millions of votes! Good. Perhaps if they weren’t so coddled, they would be more aware of what is actually going on. Forfend! How dare we?
The history of this country is riddled with stories of five morally outraged dinks making a fuss and causing a shift in our construct. These are the same people damaging our kids today. The schools are already having a tough time keeping your pathetic offspring from mainlining smack, molesting their friends, or being shot by a Nazi. Let them teach.
The kids are alright, man.
Parents are fucked.
