Liz Truss resigns! » « Rebel’s Pratfall

When they tell you who they are, believe them

Matt Keefer is running for the school board in Zion, Indiana. He just admitted who he is on Facebook.

Keefer responded by saying, “All Nazis weren’t ‘bad’ as you specify. They did horrible things. They were in a group frenzy in both cases you site.” He goes on to write, “Who is to say if we were both there in the same place and time, that we wouldn’t have done the same thing.”

Do you know why they say “never forget”? It’s so you don’t do the same thing if you find yourself in similar circumstances.

Just to make it even more fun, he goes on to suggest that someday people will look back on the people who responded to the pandemic with sane health measures in the same way we see Nazis today. And he’s an MD?

You know, everyone should scrutinize their local school board candidates carefully. The wackaloons all know that school boards are a great entry point to inject all kinds of lunacy into a community.

Liz Truss resigns! » « Rebel’s Pratfall

Comments

  3. raven says

    The right wingnuts occasionally do succeed in taking over school boards.
    Then, they proceed to wreck the schools any way they can.
    It happened in Newberg Oregon a year ago.

    The christofascists took over the school board and banned BLM posters and rainbow flags. They were sued and lost in state court on a freedom of speech basis.

    I suppose the school board is now on to banning books in the school libraries and censoring textbooks.

    Newberg schools’ ban on certain symbols violates Oregon Constitution, Yamhill Circuit Court rules
    By Elizabeth Miller (OPB)
    Sept. 23, 2022 9:50 a.m.

    The Yamhill County Circuit Court has made a decision in a case filed last year by a Newberg teacher against the school district and four members of the school board. The judge ruled Thursday that a policy banning certain symbols displayed in schools is unconstitutional.

    The case, filed by the ACLU of Oregon on behalf of Newberg school employee Chelsea Shotts in December 2021, challenges a policy approved by the school board last year. The policy bans employees from displaying “controversial” or “political” signs or symbols. The initial board conversations about the policy centered around banning Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ+ Pride flags.

    A sign depicting a rainbow flag with a heart superimposed, along with the words “Be Known,” in Shotts’ classroom window at Dundee Elementary was the subject of the first complaint under the policy. At the time the complaint was filed, Shotts said both she, as a queer staff member, and students should be safe and supported.

    “I will do everything in my power to create an environment that makes all students feel safe and supported so they can learn and thrive,” Shotts said. “I wish the entire board would join us in these efforts.”

    Families, staff, and community members marched in support of the LGBTQ+ community and Black Lives Matter ahead of a Newberg school board meeting Aug. 10, 2021. The school board voted to ban Black Lives Matter and pride flags.

    The ACLU of Oregon and law firm Davis Wright Tremaine argued that the ban violates the Oregon Constitution. They filed a lawsuit against the school district and the four board members who voted for the policy — chair Dave Brown, vice chair Brian Shannon, Renee Powell and Trevor DeHart.

    On Thursday, Yamhill County Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Easterday ruled that the policy is unconstitutional under Article 1, Section 8 of the Oregon Constitution, which guarantees the freedom of speech and the press.

    Easterday also granted the school district’s and board member’s argument that the policy is not necessarily discriminatory under Article 1, Section 20 of the state constitution.

    No final order has been made. One is expected soon.

    The ACLU celebrated the ruling in a tweet Thursday, saying they await the court’s final order.

  4. raven says

    The right wingnuts aren’t trying to run the school districts.
    They are trying to wreck them.

    The Newberg Oregon christofascists have a mixed record.
    On their main issue, they lost in court.
    OTOH, they managed to get dozens of staff to quit and fired most of the administration of the school district.
    There is a teacher shortage to those teachers are going to be hard to replace.

    opb article from above

    Since the school board approved the policy in September 2021, tension and conflict has continued among school board members, district employees and those in the Newberg community. Four members of the school board voted to fire Supt. Joe Morelock last November, two board members faced recall elections in January,

    …and since last year, dozens of staff members have resigned from the district, including several district administrators and principals from six of the district’s 10 schools.

    The three board members who did not vote for the policy banning “controversial” or “political” symbols resigned over the course of the last year, alleging harassment. The remaining board members have been involved in multiple lawsuits.

    The school board’s symbols policy also drew sharp comments from the Oregon State Board of Education, Oregon House Democrats, and the Oregon School Boards Association.

  5. chrislawson says

    There’s a kernel of truth in what he says — nobody can be sure how they would behave if they were raised in different times, cultures, or circumstances. But that does absolutely nothing to minimise the horrors of Nazism and using this argument to insist that committing atrocities isn’t “bad” is just weak apologetics for unforgiveable acts.

    And “group frenzy”??? Give us a break. Nazism was an organized movement that planned and enacted many atrocities over many years. The idea that Eichmann and his bureaucrats spent years carefully co-ordinating asset seizures and railway timetables while in any kind of frenzy is absurd on its face.

  6. dbarkdog says

    Nazi functionaries were not caught up in a frenzy, but many common citizens used that excuse. There is an enormous postwar German literature grappling with the fact that millions of normal Germans, and even some residents of occupied territories, gave the regime a lot more that grudging acquiescence. It was this phenomenon that inspired Milgrim’s notorious obedience studies. I have little faith that modern Americans are any more capable of holding the line than an earlier generation of Europeans was.

  8. elfsternberg says

    I like how the second half of the comment goes into how “we, the plague bearers, the ones who were ready to sacrifice our bodies to the virus and give it to others, history will bear us out. We’ll be the victors.” His brainworms have brainworms.

  9. billseymour says

    I always check out the websites for all candidates in local, state and primary elections; and that most definitely includes school board for reasons already stated.  As soon as I spot any of certain buzzwords (these days, it’s mostly “woke”, “CRT”, “socialism” and “save girls’ sports”), that candidate gets written off.

  10. raven says

    Just to make it even more fun, he goes on to suggest that someday people will look back on the people who responded to the pandemic with sane health measures in the same way we see Nazis today. And he’s an MD?

    No, they won’t.

    We will look back at the antivaxxers as clueless idiots who made themselves sick and often killed themselves for no reason.

    “And he’s an MD?”
    Maybe, but not a good one.
    96% of US doctors were vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus.
    A few of the antivaxxer doctors have lost their medical licenses for putting patients at risk and malpractice.

    CHICAGO — The American Medical Association (AMA) today released a new survey (PDF) among practicing physicians that shows more than 96 percent of surveyed U.S. physicians have been fully vaccinated for COVID-19, with no significant difference in vaccination rates across regions.

  12. tacitus says

    Meanwhile, in the upcoming Maricopa County Community College Governing Board election:

    A Republican candidate for the Maricopa County Community College Governing Board in Arizona was arrested in early October after he was allegedly caught masturbating in his truck near a child care center.

    A report by the Maricopa County Community College Police stated that Randy Kaufman, who announced on Tuesday that he was suspending his campaign, was cited for public sexual indecency on Oct. 4.

    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/too-late-remove-gop-candidate-masturbate-ballot

  13. says

    A sign depicting a rainbow flag with a heart superimposed, along with the words “Be Known,” in Shotts’ classroom window at Dundee Elementary was the subject of the first complaint under the policy.

    I have literally taught at Dundee Elementary back when they had employees of the Oregon Museum of Science & Industry (OMSI) come teach visiting science classes. 9 days a year for a couple years I would be teaching at Dundee Elementary. For whatever reason most schools were just handed out to whomever was available, but in this particular case It was close enough to do day trips and the more senior employees often liked to get a chance to travel farther and stay in a hotel. They were crappy hotels, of course, but you did get to go to the mountains or the coast or the high desert, stay a night or two, and have the museum pick up your meals.

    And… I guess they liked me, so they just made me the OMSI regular at Dundee. Got to know some of the REAL teachers & kids a bit. Fun stuff. Glad to hear they still have good people employed there, to stand between the school board and the kids.

  15. says

    not to defend anyone but:
    “Who is to say if we were both there in the same place and time, that we wouldn’t have done the same thing.”
    is not the same as
    “It’s so you don’t do the same thing if you find yourself in similar circumstances.”
    You are not responding for his argument.
    whoever you wrote about wasn’t writing about finding yourself in similar circumstances today, knowing the history, it’s about being in exactly the same circumstances without having advantage of knowing the history

    In Poland we have quite extensive curriculum of war, occupation and holocaust stories in highschool, deep dive into personal stories of victims and also some perpetrators.
    The most terrifying part is when realization hits you: nazism was not brought by evil monsters who loved genocide and created their masterplan.
    Yes, there were evil monsters. But most of Nazis were average people, who never noticed and realized how they took part in this descent. How each step created a new normal and made next step seem like logical conclusion, being both subjected and subjecting others into peer pressure.

    It would be comforting to be able to believe that nazism was created by some exceptionally evil monsters. Instead it was nazism that transformed average people into evil monsters.
    That’s why “Never again” is so important and why we should be extra vigilant, understanding that this kind of evil can creep on us without us realizing it.