When does in loco parentis cross over into just plain loco? When schools cower in fear of the Gadsden Flag rather than teach its anti-authoritarian history, that’s when. The “most popular symbol of the American revolution” has become a symbol now of an uprising against a new form of tyranny, Adam Baldwin and I argue in today’s episode — the tyranny of educrats. We also discuss the reaction to the exposé from Libs of TikTok to a segregated “play date” event in Oakland, and how all of these feed into the growing parental-rights movement, and provide even more evidence that the “experts” are anything but. (We’ll have more on that topic in our next episode, too!)
Editor’s Note: Join HotAir VIP today and use promo code SKEPTICS to receive 40% off your membership!
Welcome back to our VIP video series “The Amiable Skeptics,” featuring my friend Adam Baldwin! Adam is well-known for his long and storied Hollywood career, starting with My Bodyguard, and especially for his roles in Full Metal Jacket, Firefly, its film sequel Serenity, Chuck, and The Last Ship.
Highlights from today’s show include:
- “You know where I learned about the Gatson Flag? Public school,” I tell Adam. “This had nothing to do with slavery,” I continue. How could teachers and administrators in a public school not know that? “What it shows,” I add, “is that the people who are educating our kids are too ignorant to have that job in the first place.”
- That’s not all they’re ignorant about, Adam points out. An apology and a reversal on the backpack for Jaiden is not sufficient. “What’s in education code in pretty much every state, if not all states,” Adam explains, “is that when you have controversial political issues being discussed in school, there’s a requirement for equal time for the opposing viewpoint. Now this school should be required to bring in a speaker, not me, but someone who’s more qualified in constitutional law — say, yourself — and go in there and say this is why this was a mistake on the assistant principal’s part.”
- I demur, however. “I nominate Jonathan Turley for that, not me,” I reply.
- How much credit should Democrat governor Jared Polis get for resolving this? We debate that a bit, because Polis didn’t do much publicly except to note that the school was entirely wrong about the Gadsden flag and promise to look into the situation. Both Adam and I suspect Polis did more than just “look into it” behind the scenes, though, and congratulate him for not falling into the progressive history-rewriting trap.
- The irony of this situation was unveiled by Jaiden himself, who took pictures of political bumper stickers in the faculty parking lot at the time. Academic freedom and freedom of expression do not get checked at the student door.
- We then turn to the Oakland segregated public-school playdate issue exposed by Libs of TikTok — and the media reaction to it. Rather than deal with the explicitly unconstitutional action of the school district, the media tried to paint LoTT as the malefactor for exposing it. “The event itself was a ‘mid-level violence provocation’, which we’ve talked about before,” Adam says, which “seeks a certain reaction from the community and the parents. And,” he continues, “they’re using a an alleged bomb threat as a way for them to complain and and claim victim status.”
- And the media is providing them cover for it, especially the Daily Beast, which attempted to put the responsibility for the bomb threat on Chaya Raikin. How exactly does that work, I wonder? “Is Taylor Lorenz responsible for the threats Chaya Raikin got after Lorenz doxxed her? … And if the Daily Beast story results in death threats to Chaya Raikin again, is the Daily Beast responsible for those death threats? Because,” I add, “that’s the rules they want.”
Be sure to watch it all, and extend the conversation in the comments!
