Sociology textbooks made illegal by a board that has no educators on it. Schools will become propaganda machines.

https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/64975432

Sociology textbooks made illegal by a board that has no educators on it. Schools will become propaganda machines. - Divisions by zero

> > > > But this isn’t just about professors; it’s about all of us. This is the most flagrant attack on higher education in my lifetime. Why are politicians reducing public colleges and universities to vehicles of state propaganda? Why are self-proclaimed proponents of free speech turning around and using state repression to enforce speech codes on our campuses? Why can’t we speak openly about our social world in sociology classes? Why are unqualified appointees from the business world dictating to Ph.D.-holding academics how they should teach and which textbooks they must use? > > > > > > What we really need are people beyond the university itself — the general public — speaking out about how ludicrous this all is. We are now living through an era of state censorship, politically motivated firings, and state-produced propaganda materials. If this isn’t authoritarianism in higher education, I don’t know what is. > > > > > > > > Opinion piece by Zachary Levenson is associate professor of sociology at Florida International University.  > > EDITED TO ADD (in case some miss my comment) > > > > > Imagine the following scenario: You’re teaching Introduction to Sociology at a community college in Florida, and today, you’re trying to explain the well-documented pay gap between men and women in the United States. You check the guidance you just received from your dean, who received instructions via email from the executive vice chancellor of the Florida College System. The instructions state explicitly that explaining “unequal outcomes between men and women” in terms of “institutional sexism” would violate state law. > > > > > >

It wouldbe so easy to write this off as a “Florida” problem that the author knew we all might:

Lest readers assume this is some kind of Florida exceptionalism, it is far from it. State governments and university administrations in Texas, Indiana, North Carolina, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Mississippi, Arkansas, Kentucky, West Virginia, Wyoming, Tennessee, North Dakota, Georgia, and likely other states too are currently involved in similar efforts. In New Hampshire, the House just passed a bill named after Charlie Kirk that bans the teaching of “critical theories or related practices that promote division, dialectical world-views, critical consciousness or anti-constitutional indoctrination.”

“Dialectical world-views”

Capitalists are once again admitting that they’re fucking terrified of Marx.