Overview

As a parent of school children in the HWDSB, I received an e-mail notification of an upcoming “Learn Disrupt Rebuild” curriculum roll-out which seeks to address systemic racism and other forms of discrimination.  The e-mail went so far as to compare racism in Canadian society to the pandemic.  I was concerned that this characterization was extreme, and felt it lacked any healthy perspective on these complex issues.  I asked a question to myself; what exactly do they plan to teach my children on these issues?

Following that e-mail, I went to look at the new curriculum outline which is posted online. It is heavily based on Critical Social Justice theories (i.e. Wokeism), which profess that racism and other forms of discrimination are systemically embedded in Canadian society. As a parent, it concerns me that teaching this ideology to children is an attempt to permanently change the foundations of our liberal society. This includes issues related to; individual rights, freedom of speech and expression, and economic freedoms. The ideology in many respects is diametrically opposite to my values, and those I wish to instill on my children. The curriculum is a clear attempt at ideological indoctrination which I believe parents should understand and vehemently reject.

To understand the key issues, it is important to know the difference between Liberal Social Justice and Critical Social Justice.  The former seeks to make steady progress while upholding our fundamental liberal values and individual freedoms.  Critical Social Justice seeks to tear down (“disrupt”) our institutions, including the fundamental basis of our freedoms to rein in (“rebuild”) a form of collectivism based on intersectional group identity.  The ideology (falsely) believes that our societies are irredeemably discriminatory, and that the only solution is to establish a society with collectivist group-based rights.  These group-based rights are determined by taking a subjective inventory of individuals immutable characteristics based on an assessment of their “privilege” and “oppression”.  It is a dangerous ideology for free societies to adopt and should be rigorously opposed in our childhood educational system.  Our educational system should teach the history and merits of liberalism relative to other systems (i.e. communism, fascism, theocracy), and provide warnings of utopian visions.  George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World were required reading in my high-school education.  They were included in curriculum to provide a warning of utopian society visions, to ensure we recognized the signs of totalitarian practices, and were prepared to rise up and prevent the resultant dystopia which always results.  The Woke ideology will simply result in a dystopian society if its propagation is allowed to continue.  All of the signs are there.  This paper identifies a number of them.  Our time to act is now.

Racism and other forms of discrimination are undoubtably present in Canada.  No society is perfect, and Canada has its challenges despite being among the most progressive nations in the world.  However, these issues are best resolved using Liberal Social Justice values and an enlightenment approach to problem solving, including; an exploration of a wide range of evidence to properly define problems, rigorous debate of issues and proposed solutions, and policy prescriptions which preserve individual liberties.  Liberalism seeks to ensure all individuals are provided with equal protection under the law, while upholding freedom of speech and expression.  Critical Social Justice uses totalitarian tactics to silence or “cancel” dissenting views and opinions to impose a system of group-based rights.  The ideology deserves no place in our children’s classroom.

This short paper cannot possibly lay out all of the issues with the teachings of Critical Social Justice.  Rather, the main argument is teaching these concepts to K-12 children is inappropriate, and the methods of the “Learn Disrupt Rebuild” curriculum represent a clear attempt at ideological indoctrination by using the following methods:

• Targeting Children

• Controlling Minds by Changing Definitions

• Use of Politicized Language

• A Rigid Belief in Moral Superiority

• Emotional Entrapment

• Invisible Justifications

• Silencing of Dissent

• Social Proof

• Repetitive Messaging

Indoctrination Methods Explained

Targeting Children – Young children trust and rely on the guidance of adults to formulate their perceptions of the world.  They lack the ability to sense and challenge dogmatic ideas. Children simply do not have fully developed brains and the life experiences to identify concepts which are untethered to real world realities.  The world views and perceptions people develop as children often carry them through life.  Therefore, adherents of Critical Social Justice target young children to imprint their ideology by exploiting this vulnerability. 

 To successfully implement their ideas and to change our society from one of individualism to collectivism, Critical Social Justice advocates must have people viewing themselves as members of groups.  Groups are defined by the doctrine of intersectionality which places individuals on privilege and oppression hierarchies based on their immutable characteristics (i.e. race, gender, sexual orientation etc.).  A necessary condition of free societies is individual liberties.  Collectivist societies must become totalitarian to enforce their “group think” doctrines on populations.  To preserve the fundamental basis of our freedoms, children must be kept away from the teachings of Critical Social Justice, identity politics and the culture wars at large.  They should simply learn to treat each other with common decency and respect.

Controlling Minds by Changing Definitions – Critical Social Justice is largely derived from postmodern philosophical principles.  A fundamental belief of postmodernists is that all information is socially constructed and biased in a game of power dynamics between groups.  There are essentially no empirical real-world realities.  It is a philosophy derived from Marxism which seeks to equalize outcomes among groups.  In order to accomplish their objectives, Critical Social Justice has an obsession with changing definitions and controlling language to encourage education and policy prescriptions which undermine individual liberties to achieve group-based outcomes (i.e. equity).  For example, claims of “systemic racism” are often simply based on the observation of economic disparities between groups (i.e. one factor of many).  They also often claim that racism is a one way street from the privileged onto the oppressed, and individuals can perpetuate racism by taking no action (i.e. silence is violence).  Parents should understand this language game and review the definitions contained in curriculum carefully.  The definitions related to racism and discrimination will be very different from what most people believe from a historical and traditional perspective.  Changing definitions is a deliberate act to control minds, public policy and to achieve group-based outcomes.

Use of Politicized Language – Intersectionality and equity involves dividing people into groups based on immutable characteristics (e.g. race, sex etc.) and providing preferential rights to “oppressed” groups in an attempt to achieve equal outcomes (across intersectional groups).  Western democracies have historically upheld the principle of individual rights and freedoms, and equality before the law.  It is therefore expected many people will find intersectionality and equity as divisive, discriminatory and racist.  Critical Social Justice in turn deliberately labels these practices as “inclusive”, “fighting discrimination” and “anti-racist”.  George Orwell was quoted saying “political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectful”.  The objective of the politicized terminology is to silence dissent and convince naïve minds that they are engaged in noble and respectful acts, when the truth is precisely the opposite.

A Rigid Belief in Moral Superiority – This tactic teaches the simplistic “good versus evil” dichotomy alongside the polarizing “you are with us or against us” perspective.   The “Learn Disrupt Rebuild” curriculum definitions state that anti-racists “actively oppose racism by advocating for changes in political, economic, and social life”, and that “the individual may act to perpetuate or support racism without knowing that is what he or she is doing.” (Module 2 – Identity and Intersectionality).  Basically, students can be complicit in the evil act of racism by doing nothing of ill intent, and if they want to be a good moral person they must become an advocate / activist for anti-racism, which includes supporting equity policies (i.e. affirmative action) which undermine individual freedoms.  Inequality issues are extremely complex, and cannot be reduced to such simple, rigid and one-sided unintelligible logic.  Viewpoint diversity is required and should be encouraged to achieve optimal social outcomes. 

Emotional Entrapment – The powerful emotions of guilt, resentment and fear are tools Critical Social Justice skillfully employs to emotionally entrap people into accepting indoctrination.   White heterosexual males will be taught they are “privileged”, and they need to “check their privilege”.  Calling out someone on their “privilege” is meant to elicit shame and, insofar as it is based on one’s immutable characteristics functions as a form of “original sin”.  Minorities and women will be taught that they are oppressed (i.e. victims) of the privileged.  The intention is to develop a form of resentment towards individuals with greater privilege.  The oppressed will in turn be driven by their resentments to demand preferential rights at the expense of the privileged who should voluntarily surrender their rights based on their guilt.  Fear is used as a powerful enforcement mechanism.  The privileged fear speaking out against the doctrine based on potential consequences, while the oppressed fear complacency, as it will perpetuate a continuation of victimization.  Critical Social Justice identity politics teachings are extremely divisive in how they use these powerful emotions to manipulate people.

Invisible Justifications – Critical Social Justice ideology typically focuses on one factor; oppression to explain all disparities and they develop “Theory” around this narrative.  The Theory uses invisible factors to explain the cause of disparities, including; sub-conscious bias (thoughts we don’t know we are having) and invisible power dynamics between groups.  Theory is not an evidence-based approach to problem definition.  Rather, it more accurately represents a sort of cult-like propaganda which is constructed to achieve its desired outcome.  There are many sound evidence-based reasons for disparities among groups which have nothing to do with discrimination, including; demographics (i.e. white boomers), family structure, educational effort / achievement, cultural differences, gender career preferences and work / life balance trade-offs etc.  Although the stated objective of Critical Social Justice is to address issues related to discrimination, it is really an effort of social engineering.  The use of invisible justifications is intended to convince people that there is sound evidence to back the policy prescriptions of the ideology.  In reality, the opposite is true.  Multi-variate economic analysis can explain the causation for the majority of societal disparities in the absence of discrimination.

 Silencing of Dissent – To have a doctrine accepted in society which puts group-based rights ahead of individual rights, it is necessary to enforce a totalitarian system of “group think”.  Opinions running contrary to Critical Social Justice doctrines are to be viewed as a form of blasphemy which must be silenced.  In the public sphere this can be seen through name calling of dissenters (i.e. racists, bigots, sexists etc.), and “cancelling” the careers of individuals for expressing dissenting and often reasonable views.  This is done to make it risky for individuals to speak out.  The “Learn Disrupt Rebuild” curriculum  is clearly not designed to teach any contrary views and opinions.  It also openly attacks the traditional view of colorblindness as an “ideology (which) posits itself on the premise of equality for all, rather than equity and thus, at its core is an insidious practice of racism in itself” (Lesson 12 – Identity and Race).  Again, you are “with us or against us”.  If you are against us, you are a racist.  Colorblindness is based on the teachings of Martin Luther King; to “Judge people by the content of their character, and not the colour of their skin”.  Its policies are a requirement to uphold individual liberties.  In an educational setting, fairness and freedom from discrimination can easily be ensured through colourblind policies like standardized testing.  With colourblind educational policies, all individuals can be ensured of fairness, as they are rewarded for hard work and effort regardless of their immutable characteristics.

There are many reasonable supporting views of colourblind and other non-discriminatory policies.  Historically, educators role was to be politically agnostic and to teach students “how to think”, not “what to think” by presenting the best sides of both arguments.  It would then be up to students to make up their own minds.  Free speech and viewpoint diversity on complex and polarizing issues are important aspects of a healthy free liberal democratic society.  Silencing of dissent is not.

Social Proof –  Individuals have a strong tendency to follow the actions of the pack.  The perception is if a large number of people believe something, then it must be true.  People in turn ignore their powers of greater reasoning and follow the pack.  Psychologists refer to this phenomena as “social proof”.  Skeptics often coin this as “drinking the Kool-Aid”, “group think” or “herd mentality”.  Critical Social Justice seeks to use the powerful persuasion method of social proof by teaching one sided views to large classes, silencing dissent, and creating “equity groups”, and “safe spaces” for intersectional groups which are “free of bias” (more accurately white straight males).  Intelligent people overcome social proof by seeking out evidence and contrary views, and making up their own mind on complex issues.  Parents should expect educators to teach the issue of group think, and the benefits of individual skepticism and inquiry.

Repetitive Messaging – This one is straight-forward.  It involves reinforcing the teachings of Critical Social Justice through repetitive messaging.  The fascists used this tactic to implement their far-right form of collectivism; “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it” (Joseph Goebels – Nazi Propaganda Minister).  The “Learn Disrupt Rebuild” curriculum is planned to be taught throughout elementary school and secondary school.  Repetitive messaging is intended to ensure students come to believe the ideology and identify as members of intersectional groups.

Conclusion

This short paper provided a brief overview of some of the methods Critical Social Justice uses to indoctrinate people into its ideologies.  It is by no means a completely exhaustive list.  The proposed HWDSB Learn Disrupt Rebuild curriculum is clearly employing these methods.   Parents should understand and oppose these planned indoctrinations.  They should ensure their children are taught the healthy traditional values of liberalism, with a foundation of decency and respect for all individuals regardless of immutable characteristics.  Raise your concerns to your child’s teacher and principle.  Sign petitions supporting liberal values.  Write your concerns to the education board members, your local MPP and Minister of Education.  If you oppose this ideology, do not remain silent.

Written by:

A Proud Canadian and Concerned Parent.     

“There are only two ways of telling the complete truth - anonymously and posthumously.” – Thomas Sowell.