In an increasingly disturbing trend, the Left and its critical race theory adherents have adopted a no-holds-barred approach to publicly shame and silence their opponents. In the northern Virginia suburbs of Loudoun County, left-wing activists have targeted concerned parents who raise legitimate concerns about critical race theory (known as CRT) in the county’s public schools.
Critical race theory is the theory that the United States has always been a racist country and that it was built on a racist past. One of its chief promotion vehicles, The New York Times’ “1619 Project,” famously claimed that America’s true founding was in 1619 when the first slave ship came to the United States from Africa and asserted that America’s founding was racist in origin.
These left-wing activists, ranging from the county school board members to school district bureaucrats, elected officials, and teachers, have turned to the national media to quell dissent and opposition.
NBC News took up the mantle for the Left and called the ongoing ideological battle a “battle over equity in schools.” Its article defended the activists’ worrying tactics, such as compiling a list of enemies and opponents and suggesting that they hack websites of their opponents.
This past March, the private Facebook group for these activists, the “Anti-Racist Parents of Loudoun County,” were “concerned about growing opposition to diversity and equity programs in the local public schools” and believed “other parents were spreading false claims about these initiatives.” Several members compiled a running list of their opponents “as a way of tracking the claims and countering them,” while another suggested “infiltrating or hacking the websites of groups opposed” to their efforts.
But the information was “leaked almost immediately” and several parents whose names were on the “hit list” (as they called it) contacted the sheriff’s office to complain about the list. One of the parents named on the list, Elizabeth Perrin, said, “I don’t understand why we can’t have a difference of opinion without an intense fight.” She added, “We can find some middle ground.”
How did the Facebook group respond?
They claimed that they “never intended to harass anyone” and said that it was basic opposition research. Opposition research is used by political candidates, their supporters, or third-party groups to collect as much information as possible on their opponents or potential candidates in a given election.
Instead, these left-wing activists blamed former President Donald Trump and Republicans for instigating the clash over critical race theory and falsely claiming that the parents’ complaints about left-wing indoctrination were unfounded.
Yet the activists’ constant line of defense is that they are fighting against racism in education and in society. However, none of them properly addressed conservatives’ concerns about critical race theory and the multiple historical and factual errors and inconsistencies that are embedded within the theory. For example, activists did not acknowledge the many factual errors that the “1619 Project” had, which project is the public face of the critical race theory movement.
Critical race theory defenders resorted to opposition research, empty platitudes and campaign slogans to shame and silence their opponents, in place of arguing in favor of their position with facts.
