What's most concerning in the article is that people fear for their livelihoods, family, friendship and education if they even /question/ the curriculum and whether it's helping or not.
Parents and pupils are AFRAID to be labeled CAPITALISTS? That's nuts. What are they supposed to ID with, Cuba, Venezuela?
I cannot find any other comparison more apt than the cultural revolution. The received doctrine was right and any question was counterrevolutionary and deserving of punishment in the harshest terms.
I agree with you that it is wrong for people to fear retribution for their political beliefs. However a couple of things to consider:
How is fearing to be labeled a capitalist different than fearing to be labeled a socialist or communist?
I don't think it's fair to imply that the only alternative to being a capitalist is identifying with Cuba or Venezuela.
McCarthyism or, until recently, being labeled LGBTQ seem like apt comparisons. My point being that the right engages in the same sort of behavior when given the chance.
The irony is that is a capitalist institution attended by relatively wealthy people.
It’s like Communists going to indoctrination camp not wanting to be labeled communists themselves. Or lgbt being ashamed of being lgbt. Hence my Cuba reference. If they are ashamed of our economic system does that mean they want a socialist economy like VZ? Note Denmark is capitalist and not socialist.
Also although what mr McCarthy did was akin to today’s cancel culture (mere accusation can lead to job loss) he wasn’t completely wrong in that quite a few of his subjects were communists who wanted sovietism in the USA.
I don't think that you can necessarily say that someone who operates in a capitalist system is a capitalist. In many cases people do not have a choice what system they live in and they may be actively advocating for a change to a different system.
Quibbling about what economic system Venezuela and Denmark have is playing semantics. The fact is, what mainstream leftists are advocating for is something more like Denmark than Venezuela. Saying that they want America to become the next Venezuela is a straw man.
Denmark has no minimum wage law. The welfare system has been reformed and is not as generous as in the 80s. It’s a very homogenous country.
On the other hand they are big on labor unions, so there is that.
Most importantly it’s a capitalist country. It’s not socialist. Or as the locals call it it’s the Nordic model.
If mainstream leftists want the Nordic model which is capitalist, they would not be ashamed of capitalism and need to hide it and be hush hush about the whole thing. Why the induced stigma?
> Denmark has seen a steady increase in immigration over the past 30 years, with the majority of new immigrants originating from non-Western countries. As of 2014, more than 8 percent of the population of Denmark consists of immigrants. The population of immigrants is approximately 476,059, excluding Danish born descendants of immigrants to Denmark. This recent shift in demographics has posed challenges to the nation as it attempts to address religious and cultural difference, employment gaps, education of both immigrants and their descendants, spatial segregation, crime rates and language abilities.
If the capitalist rightists only admitted that it likes to import cheap non-unionized labor to get factory rich. Instead it flirts with xenophobia (imported labour problems unequally damages low-middle class blue-collar jobs so these vote right), and the left becomes pro-immigration by opposition and because it is progressive, unwilling to even name the problems. Why is that? Too many levels above my understanding.
Parents and pupils are AFRAID to be labeled CAPITALISTS? That's nuts. What are they supposed to ID with, Cuba, Venezuela?
I cannot find any other comparison more apt than the cultural revolution. The received doctrine was right and any question was counterrevolutionary and deserving of punishment in the harshest terms.