Thoughts Fired

Creating Lasting Change

How do authoritarian, anti-humanist governments maintain control over a people? There are multiple means of oppression and many examples through history, but one of the most often used and effective tools is propaganda: controlling the information and education made available to the populace.

In the United States, the modern control of information started in earnest with two related events: 24-hour news channels and, specifically, Fox News. A round-the-clock format meant that news was now competing for eyeballs. It had to be entertaining, and with that change, sensationalism moved out of the checkout aisle and into mainstream news media. Rupert Murdoch's empire lead that charge, and with two decades of "news" focused on emotional appeal over accuracy or accountability, it shouldn't be a surprise that we now find ourselves dealing with the bullshit notion of "alternative facts."

The assault on education began earlier, but it's been a much longer process overall. Some may argue that the origin of public education is indoctrination, and I wouldn't necessarily disagree with them. But if that was our starting point, things have only gone downhill.

But it can get worse, and Trump is seizing this opportunity to insure that we remain gullible and perfectly compliant, a critical task if you want to foster faith in the modern GOP. First, he's dismantling the Department of Education, thereby removing federal support (and standards) for an American public education system. But it's not enough to destroy public education if private schools are as left-leaning and biased as conservatives say they are. Trump also has to do something about private education. The effectiveness and longevity of your new authoritarian state depends on it.