In private, however, he's admitted the truth.

On a hidden camera video caught by an activist pretending to be a right-winger, Eastman is seen agreeing that his memo was the bee’s knees and blaming former vice president Mike Pence for not stealing the election for Trump. Not that you, dear reader, ever bought into the authenticity of Eastman’s phony change of heart about the wisdom of fascist insurrections.

GOP's fascist threat to education 

I recently found myself rereading philosopher Umberto Eco’s famous 1995 14-point analysis of what makes fascism fascist — like one does in these troubled times — and I was struck by how his theories predict the current movement of performative tantrum-throwing right-wingers are engaged in at school board meetings. As Eco explains, fascism is rooted both in the cult of tradition and the rejection of modernism, a belief that “there can be no advancement of learning,” and in “the rejection of the Spirit of 1789 (and of 1776, of course)” as well as the “Enlightenment, the Age of Reason.”

High-falutin’ stuff, but it definitely shows why, as fascism is on the rise in America, fascists are taking their anger out on the institution of education. Education, of course, is built on the premise that rational discourse, critical thinking, and a grounding in empirical facts create better citizens. But conservatives reject all that, correctly realizing, I believe, that reason and fact invariably point to conclusions such as “traditional racial hierarchies are unjust” and “sexism is nonsensical.”

This is all to say that, despite the preening about “free speech” authoritarians have got up to in recent years, they are showing their true selves these days by attacking education and empiricism. The panic over “critical race theory” has always been cover for that old-fashioned book-burning urge, and we’re seeing that now as Republicans in Texas circulate lists of books to ban, most of which are about racism and LGBTQ issues. You know, the same kinds of topics that drove Nazi book burnings. 

In Portland, a crowd of Proud Boy sorts shut down a school board meeting on Tuesday, even throwing Nazi salutes (which Sen. Ted Cruz naturally defended). The ostensible reason is outrage over vaccines and masks to stop the spread of COVID-19. But the larger issue here, and why anti-vaxx mania has taken over the right as it grows more fascist, is that rejection of rationality that Eco described in 1995. Science locates truth in the empirical gathering of facts and evidence. The fascist, however, wants “truth” to be whatever their chosen authority figure — such as Donald “Drink Bleach” Trump — says it is.

So yeah, you can read a lot of hot takes out there about why the school board nonsense is taking off on the right. But it really may be this simple: They’re getting more fascist, and fascists really hate education.

What we're reading this week

• “The BBC’s Ignorance About Trans Women and Sex Is Disgusting and Dangerous,” Dawn Ennis, Daily Beast
• “A Short History of Conservative Trolling,” Rick Perlstein, New York
• “Democrats’ biggest problem isn’t in Congress. It’s in your state capitol,” Paul Waldman, Washington Post
• “The Second Amendment Has Become a Threat to the First,” Diana Palmer and Timothy Zick, Atlantic

Greg Sargent of the Washington Post and I are in fierce agreement about whether or not Republican voters believe the Big Lie, which is that they absolutely do not and are simply arguing in bad faith because they think that’s what it takes to win.

“Black Hole” by Charly Bliss