The Insidious Influence of Moms for Liberty

Culture Study Podcast

Anne Helen Petersen

Fashion & Beauty, Society & Culture, Arts

4.6 • 637 Ratings

🗓️ 10 April 2024

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Moms For Liberty sucks. I’m not going to even try to soften that statement, because it’s true: they’re an ideologically regressive organization that is wielding the idea of “parental rights” to censor books, teachers, and instructional materials. They make it much, much harder for educators to do their jobs — and many of the people most involved don’t even have kids in public schools.

But to defeat them, you have to understand what they’re doing — and how they’re doing it. Which is why I wanted to have journalist Laura Pappano come on the show to talk about her extensive reporting on “school moms” and the place of Moms for Liberty within the “battle” for public schools. We talk about where the money comes from, how other parents are effectively organizing against them, the history of parent-led school activism, and most importantly, what uniform you wear to a conservative mom conference.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	One of the first things that I did was go to sign up for the first Bombs for Liberty Summit in Tampa in June 2022.
0:10.4	And I signed up using my name.
0:13.7	And but I, you know, I did wear a red blazer with an American flag pinched into, pin pinched into the lapel.
0:23.1	And it was interesting when I checked into the hotel.
0:26.6	The woman at the desk immediately said, oh, I'm with you guys.
0:30.8	I'm upgrading you all to a high floor.
0:34.0	And so suddenly I'm up way up high with a water view just because I was perceived as
0:40.1	being with the Moms for Liberty team. And at the same time, it was right next to the Tampa Convention
0:47.9	Center where Metricon was being held. And Metricon like, billed as Florida's largest anime gathering.
0:57.0	So you're out on the streets right outside of the Moms for Liberty and even in the lobby.
1:02.6	And there are people with horns and spandex and glitter and colonial garb.
1:09.2	And I was thinking to myself, what a beautiful clash of cultures. You know,
1:14.9	I'm in the elevator wearing my lanyard and all my stuff. And I go up and three kind of metricon
1:22.8	goers step at the elevator. And I could just see them like looking at me like oh my god you're like I'm a
1:28.5	reporter I'm a reporter but it was really it was really interesting because you could just feel a
1:36.0	certain vibe this is the culture study podcast and I'm anne Helen Peterson and. And I'm Laura Papano. I am author of
1:46.3	School Mom's, Parent Activism, Partisan Politics in the Battle for Public Education, and I've been
1:51.8	an education journalist for over 30 years. Wow. Just pronouncing parent activism, partisan
1:57.9	politics in the Battle for Public Education. That's a real feat.
2:06.5	Well, I mean, with the title X school moms, we kind of have to explain what you're talking about because so many moms are involved in schools on both sides of the issue these days.
2:11.3	So your book came out January 30th, and I would love to hear, because especially given your
2:17.3	history and what you've been writing
	...

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