Boy, Fox News (I always gag a little when I write that) sure can pack a lot of informational sewage into a two-minute clip, can't they?

Behold hygeine-averse Pete Hegseth pontificating on the state of American Education, when he has spent a grand total of zero minutes as an educator of children, let alone in a classroom under the most distressing and trying of pandemic circumstances.

"[T]he priorities of the pipeline from the teacher's colleges to the unions, to the curriculum and to the pedagogy, which is not what the curriculum is but how the kids are being taught is completely captured by progressives, and that pipeline started 100 years ago," he lied, as if the whole of educational curriculum isn't coming from a for-profit textbook corporation out of the deepest, reddest parts of Texas.

"So when it comes to COVID relief funds, they look at their priorities, and they don't say 'American history,' because that's been changed already. They don't say 'political science,' because that's become (air quotes) social studies, that's a creation of the progressives and the Marxists. They say, 'diversity, equity, and inclusion,' because their goal is not education. It is social change."

Is Hegseth saying that American history, political science, and social studies aren't being taught anymore in schools? If so, it's news to all three of my own children, who studied all of those things well into high school, the last of whom graduates this year. Also, to the half-million kids who take the AP U.S. History exam each year, but whatevs.

Is Hegseth suggesting American history is being replaced by "diversity, equity, and inclusion?" Because that's news to Black students who were asked to list the "pros and cons" of slavery, as if there were any positive things about it. Sounds like plenty of teachers could use some DEI training, actually.

Hegseth continued his argle bargle, "And that's why you see pronouns and gender identity and implicit bias coming into the classroom, and not the basics. They want to mold your kids because they believe your kids are theirs." Pete has never heard the term "in loco parentis," apparently, but if you want a teacher to take a bullet for your child or catch COVID from them because you refuse to get your ass vaccinated, it's not unreasonable to respect that teacher enough to trust them with curriculum, and allow them to help your child learn how to not be a racist a$$hole.

Steve Doocy nodded and agreed with everything Hegseth spewed, and piped in with the legal disclaimer, "Well, the U.S. Department of Education gave a statement to foxnews.com, and essentially said, 'This is not happening.' But they looked at the money, this outfit, One Nation did, and..."

WHOAH, slow down, there, Tiger! Which outfit is this? THIS One Nation? The outfit whose website looks like it was thrown together last week so foxnews.com could quote it, then the site could list the foxnation.com article under its "Press" section in the ultimate circle game? The group with a total of 480 followers on Twitter? Here's the U.S. Department of Education report One Nation is citing, which I actually read.

Here's the Table of Contents.

Anything in here look like a Trojan Horse for CRT? DEI? Maybe on Page 6, "Reengaging students by meeting their social, emotional, mental health, and academic needs."

Here's Page 6.

Here's something from Page 9.

Maybe Page 10? "Addressing student social, emotional, and mental health needs?"

Nothing about CRT. Only addressing the fact that kids and families have been through the ringer, and schools can use Pandemic funds to help address whatever educational gaps need to be filled from over a year of no in-person school, having lost loved ones to COVID, and yeah, maybe not bullying kids for being Asian, what with a president who spent a year blaming China for the monster virus that swept across the world. Because one of the problems with returning to school was that students who weren't white were returning at significantly lower rates than their counterparts - particularly Asian students.

I can guaran-damn-tee you that neither Hegseth nor Doocy, or anyone at One America actually read the U.S. Department of Education report, because I challenge any of them to find one word about CRT, or even DEI in this report. But this is what counts as worthy of airtime in post-journalism America. A political shell organization like One America making up lies about a Department of Education report that no one at Fox has read, that fits their narrative of demonizing not only teachers and education, but heaven forfend, helping the nation grow less racist.

Editor's Note: One Nation was originally the surviving organization originally known as the Alliance for America's Future. It's run by Karl Rove and associates in tandem with Mitch McConnell's Senate Leadership Fund. As Republicans did in Virginia, they're hoping to kill two birds with one stone: Light up their racist base and do harm to public schools. There is much more on SourceWatch from their activities in 2016. Republicans are in the habit of repurposing approved organizations for whatever their current goals are, and there's no reason to believe this is any different. Maybe different donors, but the same goals. - Karoli