Tucker Carlson’s unfounded theories and reports about the Russian invasion of Ukraine are widely distributed in the United States through Fox News and in Russia through the state-owned “news” agencies RIA Novosti and TASS. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has praised Fox News pro-Russian fake news reports by Fox commentators.
As part of the Russian government’s efforts to keep the Russian people in the dark about its casualties, military ineptitude, destruction of cities, and murder of civilians, it is illegal in Russia to even describe the invasion of Ukraine as a war, an offense punishable by 15 years in prison. One anti-war protester was detained by police for holding up a copy of Russian author Leo Tolstoy's classic novel "War and Peace" and students are encouraged to video their teachers and report any anti-invasion comments. In a televised address, Vladimir Putin declared “I am convinced that this natural and necessary self-cleansing of society will only strengthen our country.” Putin’s regime has also forced Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to cease operations there.
Russian teachers received official teaching guides to use in their secondary school classes that justified the military action in Ukraine as a battle against neo-Nazis and western nations trying to undermine Russian sovereignty. One teacher, Andrei Shestakov, created a WhatsApp group chat for history teachers that challenged the official version of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In classes, Shestakov also told his students that the mandated teaching guide was historically inaccurate, including its claim that Ukraine was an artificial invention of the Soviet Union, and that he opposed the war. Shestakov was then questioned by the local police and the Federal Security Service and forced to pay a fine of 35,000 rubles, about $420, for discrediting the Russian armed forces. Shestakov then quit his teaching job before he could be fired.
At the same time that the Russian anti-truth campaign censors and intimidates teachers and hides information about the invasion of the Ukraine from the Russian people, anti-truth campaigns in the United States are trying to prevent students from learning about the history of slavery and racism in the United States, the continuing impact of racism on American society today, and even the existence of LGTQ+ people. Florida Education Department recently banned 54 math books, MATH BOOKS. Twenty-eight (21%) were “not included on the adopted list because they incorporate prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies, including CRT.” Florida officials did not provide any examples from the math they determined violated state standards. Governor DeSantis, a rightwing contender for the 2024 Republican Party Presidential nomination, defended the ban and the state’s education commissioner Richard Corcoran declared that his office would “police” teachers to ensure they were not indoctrinating students with a liberal agenda and bragged he had “censored or fired or terminated numerous teachers.”
Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas all have laws limiting the what teachers can address race and gender in the classroom and in Alabama, Florida, South Dakota, Utah, and Virginia the ability of teachers to teach about these topics is limited by executive actions and state boards of education. Just as in Russia, teachers and the truth are censured. School officials in Edmond, Oklahoma sent teachers a slide presentation instructing them not to use the terms “diversity” and “White privilege” during classroom discussions. The Edmond district also eliminated a requirement that American literature classes include at least one work authored by a woman or a person of color that examines race and identity.
During the 2021-2022 school year, at least least six teachers and school administrators in The United States resigned after death threats following school board battles over Critical Race Theory including the Eureka, Missouri school district diversity coordinator. The school superintendent in Redding, Connecticut, an African American man, resigned after a conservative accused him of trying to "indoctrinate" students with CRT. In another incident, four school administrators in Southlake, Texas responsible for creating plans to combat racial and cultural discrimination, also resigned.
In most cases, teachers are just intimidated into silence. In New Hampshire and Oklahoma, anyone can complain to a state agency about what and how a teacher teaches. After an investigation, if a teacher is discovered to be out-of-compliance with anti-CRT and other new restrictions, they can lose their license to teach in the state.
Unlike in Russia, at least for now, there is more room to fight back. The ACLU is defending an Oklahoma teacher challenging the state’s restrictions. Over 150 professional organizations, including the American Association of University Professors, the American Historical Association, the Association of American Colleges & Universities, and PEN America have signed a statement “opposing state legislation restricting the discussion of “divisive concepts” in public education institutions and the Zinn Education Project launched a campaign to support teachers who “Pledge to Teach the Truth.”
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