6 Comments
Sep 25, 2023Liked by James

So feel kind of worried they could mainstream their ideas in a generation through control of red state and red county education systems.

Expand full comment

It's a valid concern, but I think it's worth pointing out: education systems might not necessarily transmit values all that much.

It's become an article of faith in the current political moment that public schools drive children's values in a big way, but I'm not sure that's as powerful an effect as people think. Look how quickly the post-Soviet world moved away from the ideologies that generations were raised in; how many gay, trans, etc kids continue to exist in red parts of the country, in spite of all judgement--hell, just look how many kids don't do their algebra homework. Schools largely exist downstream of culture; they interact with it and mediate it to some degree, but I don't think they really create much of it.

Expand full comment

Being gay or trans isn’t a value set though. The relationship between education and ideology is pretty well established

Expand full comment

Is it? Not that I don't believe you, I just haven't seen evidence for it, and in fact anecdotally I've seen largely the opposite. Maybe we're comparing slightly different things.

Expand full comment
Sep 25, 2023Liked by James

About time someone wrote some good fightin words about this reality

Expand full comment

I don’t think your conclusion follows from the argument here. I don’t see how ‘just keep winning elections’ is supposed to be a solution when these guys are on a self driven escalation ladder with no mechanism for backing down. There’s an end stage here and it’s not out in the wilderness to put it lightly!

Expand full comment