Mastodawn

https://www.propublica.org/series/chaos-at-the-school-board

ProPublica Jul 19, 2023

This is the latest in our "Chaos at the School Board" series. Catch up here:

Chaos at the School Board

Once considered tame, even boring, school board meetings have become culture-war battlegrounds in recent years. On dozens of occasions, tensions have escalated into not just shouting matches and threats but also arrests and criminal charges.

ProPublica

#stoptheinsanity #lgbtqia

bobchauvin Jul 19, 2023

@ProPublica

So much of this happening ... still. Here in #Michigan a local school board will close health services program for kids because a mural draw by a kid has rainbows.

https://www.woodtv.com/news/newaygo-county/grant-parents-upset-about-mural-call-for-closure-of-health-center/

https://newsie.social/@ProPublica/110740247872898608

Michael Kranz Jul 19, 2023

@ProPublica really thorough work, as usual. Why did y’all choose to use so much passive voice (“school board meetings became flashpoints”) and politically vague language (“parents and protesters”) in these articles, given that this is entirely the product of a targeted, strategic, and well-funded effort by right wing ideologues and school privatization profiteers. Is this an attempt at broadening the appeal or projecting“objectivity”?

Solarbird

Jul 19, 2023

@ProPublica institutional memory would help here. every few decades the fundamentalist movement starts taking over school boards. look up the history of “stealth candidates” for example - which started at the school board level.

MyOpinion Jul 19, 2023

@ProPublica Working as intended. Whites oppressing learning.

https://www.npr.org/2021/10/22/1048450156/school-boards-a-new-front-line-in-the-culture-wars

Blake Jul 19, 2023

@ProPublica

it seems like a lot of this disruptive behavior is encouraged by *funding*, with significant harmful propaganda supporting it

something that I think is important context while reading this article that focused on individual 'protestors' (which groups did these people belong to? where are they uploading their livestreams? are they being financially incentivized, and if so, how? I think those would be interesting follow-up questions)

This is a very impressive and fancy article, that does not include the phrase "Proud Boys" even once. 🤷🏿‍♂️

At some point your reporters and investigators had to have noticed that:
* The Proud Boys announced that they planned to target school board meetings to disrupt them
* That Proud Boys were then present at school board meetings in different states, at different times, on different topics, from Covid masks and vaccines, to CRT, then trans rights.

It's literally the same 50 dudes.

That's why they don't let me be editor of publications.🤷🏿‍♂️

Because if I were your editor, I would tell you to go back and try again because you missed the story.

Who is paying to fly these Proud Boys around the country? How many of these angry speakers are not even authentic members of the community? What is the ultimate goal of disrupting school boards? Why did federal law enforcement not take action against this clearly concerted and coordinated effort to disrupt school boards?

Roseville. San Juan. Glendale. Nashua. Hillsborough. San Diego. Wilmington.

All of these are school board meetings / officials' houses / places of work, where they showed up. And that's mostly off the top of my head. Many more.

"How did the meetings become flashpoints for anger and chaos?" is not a serious question to ask, if you're going to ignore the group that exists mainly to cause anger and chaos, promising to cause anger and chaos when they show up, who then showed up. 🤷🏿‍♂️

John Shirley Jul 20, 2023

@mekkaokereke @ProPublica in the tradition of German "brown shirts"

The Animal and the Machine Jul 20, 2023

Honestly, @mekkaokereke for President.

To be fair, I can’t vote 🇬🇧.

PJ "Vote Green" Coffey Jul 20, 2023

@taatm

I mean... Okereke vs Starmer...

@mekkaokereke

Aurora Penguin Jul 20, 2023

@mekkaokereke @ProPublica what? The proud boys travel a lot but is here any evidence all of these instigators are somehow proud boys or part of those other groups? The article has several that were older women and just seem to be typical Fox news watching moms

mekka okereke

@aurorapenguin @ProPublica

Please go back and read what I wrote carefully. Very carefully.

Please quote the part where I said that all of the instigators were proud boys. (You can't, because I didn't say that anywhere).

What I did say was *very* clear, and spicy enough without you inventing things I didn't say.

Aurora Penguin Jul 20, 2023

@mekkaokereke @ProPublica my mistake

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fkT1_qjBhb8

@mekkaokereke @aurorapenguin @[email protected] i have to admit I reached the same conclusion, and I guess I misinterpreted ... well, everything?

To me this read as, in short: it's not local people, it's the same 50 dudes flying around the country stirring up shit at school boards everywhere.

If the locals weren't welcoming, this wouldn't work nearly as well, and there's no way those 50 dudes would try and cover the dozens of school districts in idaho alone. It's the locals.

Let me explain what I mean by "Same 50 dudes."

Yes there are 1000s of local people that disrupted school board meetings. But the PB leadership travelled and was present at many of these, instigated much of the violence, and was at the center of it.

There were thousands of people at Jan 6. The violence was precipitated and agitated by members of 3 or 4 very specific groups.

Trying to tell the story without mentioning them is not good journalism.

Proud Boys Target School Board Meetings | Zerlina.

As the DC Attorney General files a civil suit against extremist groups for their role in the Jan. 6 insurrection, one group, the Proud Boys, has refocused th...

YouTube

@mekkaokereke @aurorapenguin Ok, totally agreed. The story definitely feels more like a "this terrible thing is happening" story and much less of the kind of investigative story that one would generally expect from ProPublica

John Shirley Jul 20, 2023

@mekkaokereke @ProPublica when a guy associated with proud boys, Joe Kent, was running against Democrat Marie Perez in our district, it was learned that he had no particular income or job, and that he was getting paid to run for office by some company. Which was a shell company.

@JohnShirley2023 @mekkaokereke @ProPublica

birdpoof Jul 20, 2023

How are shell companies even legal...!

John Shirley Jul 20, 2023

@birdpoof @mekkaokereke @ProPublica well they're important for our corporations and super rich, to whom we owe our existence (if you ask them) to use for shell games hiding their income.

VulcanTourist [MOVED]Jul 20, 2023

@birdpoof @JohnShirley2023 @mekkaokereke @ProPublica

Corporate law doesn't favor ethics. Rather, it completely ignores it.

Coach Pāṇini ®Jul 20, 2023

@JohnShirley2023 @mekkaokereke @ProPublica
The story of school boards as “soft targets” for reactionaries is even older, going back to the Reagan administration.

In the 1980’s, activists identified them as an unattended institution, while liberals and institutionally-minded Democrats shifted their attention to the federal level.

Philip Mallegol-Hansen Jul 20, 2023

@JohnShirley2023 We live in the same district! Hi neighbor.

@JohnShirley2023 @mekkaokereke @ProPublica

EarthOne Jul 20, 2023

GOP Billionaire SuperPACs and Koch-backed "non-profits" full of dark money even hire people to run as Democrats in Dem. districts. They win sometimes...and then flip to GOP. Or split the Dem. vote enough to give GOP the win.

If we don't get some federal laws on vetting candidates soon, GOP will cheat their way to ending democracy. Their Machiavellian political machine is humming along.

The Animal and the Machine Jul 20, 2023

@JohnShirley2023 @mekkaokereke @ProPublica
This is in the Soviet playbook (actual playbook written by Soviets and still used by Russia) for turning an enemy against itself. Look for Russian money.

jubjum Jul 20, 2023

@mekkaokereke hello friend. pardon my ignorance but do you have any theories regarding the answers to the questions you posed? perhaps recommended reading for me? i am interested in learning more.

@jubjum @mekkaokereke https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/110744242573185113

aardvark Jul 20, 2023

mekka okereke :verified: (@[email protected])

@[email protected] @[email protected] Let me explain what I mean by "Same 50 dudes." Yes there are 1000s of local people that disrupted school board meetings. But the PB leadership travelled and was present at many of these, instigated much of the violence, and was at the center of it. There were thousands of people at Jan 6. The violence was precipitated and agitated by members of 3 or 4 very specific groups. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fkT1_qjBhb8 Trying to tell the story without mentioning them is not good journalism.

Hachyderm.io

@ProPublica @mekkaokereke There’s this dude named Lt. General (ret) Michael Flynn who just may be involved.

Did they not even do the simplest of searches, let alone true due diligence?

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/michael-flynn-local-action/

@ProPublica @mekkaokereke If you’re looking for some reporting about Flynn, the Proud Boys and school boards, the first link in the screenshot has some reporting on it.

How Michael Flynn Goes Local to Spread Christian Nationalism | FRONTLINE

Retired three-star general Michael Flynn urges supporters of a far-right movement to change the U.S. through "local action." AP and FRONTLINE found Sarasota County, Florida, has become a laboratory for his approach.

FRONTLINE

@ProPublica @mekkaokereke And this.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/qanons-new-plan-run-school-board-rcna1352

@ProPublica @mekkaokereke From the second link:

QAnon's new 'plan'? Run for school board

In the wake of Donald Trump's 2020 election defeat, many QAnon followers have hatched a plan: run for school board or local office, spread the gospel of Q, but don’t call it QAnon.

NBC News

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moms_for_Liberty

@ProPublica @mekkaokereke While I’d hesitate to use a Wikipedia article itself as a source, this one has a large number of citations in its discussion of the involvement of Moms for Liberty in the school board sphere:

Moms for Liberty - Wikipedia

@ProPublica @mekkaokereke Finally, here’s an article that lists a number of organizations that are funding protesters of school boards: https://www.npr.org/2021/10/26/1049078199/a-look-at-the-groups-supporting-school-board-protesters-nationwide

your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦Jul 20, 2023

🗣️ 📣 THIS
🗣️ 📣 RIGHT
🗣️ 📣 HERE

" Who is paying to fly these Proud Boys around the country? How many of these angry speakers are not even authentic members of the community? What is the ultimate goal of disrupting school boards? Why did federal law enforcement not take action against this clearly concerted and coordinated effort to disrupt school boards?

@mekkaokereke @ProPublica

@mekkaokereke @[email protected]

> It's literally the same 50 dudes.

maybe proud boys proper, but you can't toss a rock around here without bouncing it off three pickup trucks with threeper stickers on 'em

@mekkaokereke just sayin', I had a long post written here but there's no need to preach to the choir, idaho has been a racist cesspool for a long time, it's just been much, much worse in the last decade, and I just saw my very first official Yellow Shirt Proud Boy Douchebag two months ago. It's them, sure, but it's also a LOT of locals. It's mostly locals.

Darrel Plant Jul 20, 2023

@mav @mekkaokereke

And three-quarters of Oregon (geographically, not by population) wants right in there with them.

https://www.opb.org/article/2023/05/19/wallowa-county-oregon-greater-idaho-vote/

Political opposition to Greater Idaho grows, as the effort holds narrow election lead

Oregons Wallowa County was one of the first to vote against the idea, but a second referendum put to voters this week showed a 21-vote lead for proponents of the bid to join Idaho.

OPB

Dieu Jul 20, 2023

@mav @mekkaokereke wow, that sounds like an awfully huge 3%.

Is that 3% notion derived from Starship Troopers, btw?

ProtectiveHen Jul 20, 2023

@mekkaokereke @ProPublica Totally agree. We know the RW extremist networks always plan and execute these astroturf campaigns - someone like Rufo or Bannon dreams them up or comes up with the talking points, and certain mystery billionaires agree to fund the whole thing. It's a question of who, when, for what purpose. It's never authentic anymore with American fascism.

kira :3 Jul 20, 2023

@mekkaokereke @[email protected] the patterns of the modern fascist movement are so consistent that any reporting on right-flavored happenstance which didn't look for common denominators was simply not committed to the practice of journalism

morgan Jul 20, 2023

@mekkaokereke @ProPublica could you point people to a source for what you're saying?

Please read the whole thread, and others' replies. It's in there.

morgan Jul 20, 2023

@mekkaokereke @ProPublica OK, thanks

King Kaufman Jul 20, 2023

@mekkaokereke @ProPublica

As Trump gained momentum in 2015, I began a practice that saved me a lot of time. Before I read any article that attempted to analyze his popularity, I did a simple command F:

racis

If the results were on 0 at that point, I didn't bother reading it. It was almost always on 0 at that point.

Ben Rosengart Jul 20, 2023

@kingkaufman @mekkaokereke @ProPublica Yep. I’d like to recognize Jamelle Bouie for succeeding here where so many of his peers failed. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2015/11/donald-trump-is-a-fascist-it-is-the-political-label-that-best-describes-the-gop-front-runner.html

Why Fascist Is the Term That Best Describes Donald Trump

In trying to explain Donald Trump, I looked to George Wallace, who played a similar role in American politics through the 1960s. But there were other...

Slate

Bill Seitz Jul 20, 2023

@mekkaokereke @ProPublica (for others) Dec'2021 article https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/14/us/proud-boys-local-issues.html

Proud Boys Regroup, Focusing on School Boards and Town Councils

The far-right nationalist group has become increasingly active at school board meetings and town council gatherings across the country.

The New York Times

Bill Seitz Jul 20, 2023

@mekkaokereke @ProPublica see also moms4liberty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moms_for_Liberty

Moms for Liberty - Wikipedia

Kris Samsel Jul 20, 2023

@mekkaokereke @ProPublica riding in the back of the rental truck. Acting like Russian soldiers.

aardvark Jul 20, 2023

@ProPublica Flynn? Proud Boys? Instigation?

Sean McCabe Jul 20, 2023

@ProPublica
If only there was a way to identify the common thread between the disruptors...the seem like such #proudboys with their paramilitary fashion...I wonder what it could be.

Lee 🌏Jul 22, 2023

@ProPublica
@tzimmer_history has done a great Podcast more broadly on this.
Anyone interested should absolutely listen.
#Education #USpol
https://pca.st/episode/13803b91-a3c9-48ba-9d00-1ad9c9da23fc

18. The War on Public Education Is Escalating – with Jennifer Berkshire - Is This Democracy

We are in the midst of an escalating rightwing assault on public education in America. It comes in the form of an attempted authoritarian takeover of schools and universities, in hundreds of bills establishing state censorship, banning books, purging anything that dares to dissent from a white nationalist understanding of the nation’s past or present from the classroom, the libraries, the curriculum – but also as a radical push for school privatization, a dimension that has received far less attention. None of this is new – all of it is in line with the decades-long conservative fight against public education that has been central to the modern conservative political project since the beginning. And it also doesn’t happen in a vacuum, but is very much an integral part of the broader attempt to roll back the post-1960s civil rights order. In many ways, the struggle over public education is at the center of the overall political conflict right now. I can think of no one better equipped to help us unpack all

Pocket Casts

@ProPublica might be an interesting look at the intersection of Covid Policy/DeSantis/Flynn, inc. This nexus is the cauldron from which so much division was spawned.

It began with masking, and morphed into Woke tilting.

When school boards began to vote to retain masking, despite Ron, he retaliated by pulling funding via Randy Fine, who backed Tina descovich, and astroturfed meetings. 1/

@ProPublica Simultaneously the Flynn operation in Sarasota (replete with an extensive MAGA, digital warrior and QAnon network) was making money through ivermectin sales, and fake religious exemptions, fake vax cards...and the two shall become one.

What was born in Brevard county from a sour grapes loss of a board seat, had somehow been grafted into the Flynn slime mold, and quickly was franchised across the country. 2/

@ProPublica the confluence was monumental in many ways, and became a closed loop. Randy Fine was DeSantis's enforcer/henchman, withholding funding from school boards. Moms for Liberty moved it's epicenter to Sarasota County (MAGAstan), and swiftly overtook the school board, the hospital board, the country government. (They have para military training camps there). The influence of this ideology has spread via the Mom vector. 3/

@ProPublica alongside, and benefiting like some evil troll, was DeSantis, who found his swagger w/ Covid. He couldn't tolerate pushback, and in a state that names the Cruise industry as a top cash cow, you would think that he would be deferential to a business on it's knees after being deemed 'floating mortuaries'. No, he punished them for trying to reassure customers by manadating vaccination.

This was his first dick swing against a major corporation. It was intoxicating. 4/

@ProPublica the intoxication was so addictive that he has kept iterating and iterating until found his rainbow voice in 'Wokeness'. Disney, Bud-light, BlackRock...He made anti-ESG a cause in 2022, taking on a hands-on roll with the pension fund, and allowing political donors to manage it. It lost $14B during the strong market of 2022. No matter.

His Covid policies killed so many more Floridians than even the numbers show, as he recalibrated how deaths were attributed. 5/

@ProPublica He so bristled at being 'directed' that he turned to Ladapo and Atlas et al. Of course that pleased the Flynn ivermectin cohort, who after taking over the Sarasota Hospital Board began a witch hunt for physicians that didn't prescribed ivermectin. No matter.

Flynn/Covid/DeSantis/Moms4Liberty rose like toxic fungi, all together and all along the same channels. Each turning the other more and more extreme. See abortion, see book banning, see ugh, the rest. 6/