Deconstructing the Texas Board of Education

Note: unlike many guest pieces on Et tu, Mr. Destructo? today's article comes from a real, live person: the mysterious Mr. Awesome, a law student who is not a pundit and fears nothing. He previously paid us a visit to describe how Newsweek Sucks Really Bad. Thanks to instant messaging and on-the-fly editing, plus trading jokes, this piece wound up being something of a joint effort. Full credit for all the funny and insightful bits to Mr. Awesome. The filler goes to Mr. Sese Seko.


American History (R)
by MR. AWESOME with MOBUTU SESE SEKO

The Texas State Board of Education has been overrun by hard-right fundamentalist types. If you’re familiar with that sort of thing, you expect them to try to remove evolution from the school curriculum. You expect Scopes Monkey Trial-type stuff.

However, this paradigm has changed. They’ve broadened their scope from a single pet peeve to an attack on facts they don’t like. This extends conservative America’s long-standing push towards a hermetically sealed alternative history for right-wingers, like the Politically Incorrect Guide to... series of "history books." They want to bring the reactionary world-view into the classroom and teach it as fact.