Yesterday I opened my Twitter account to discover that Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education claimed that I likened school choice to the Nazi invasion of Poland.
This was absurd, so I wrote a post about it.
I find that the best way to respond to outrageous attacks is to put them into the sunlight, the mighty disinfectant.
Happily, Jersey Jazzman figured out who wrote the post for Jeb Bush’s Foundation and explained the long and interesting back story.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I liked Jersey Jazzman’s analysis of the use of the passive voice. When I teach the passive voice to my Latin students, they also get a lesson in rhetoric. I warn them that a common rhetorical use of the passive voice is deliberate obfuscation, and to be attentive when they hear it.
LikeLike
I found the passive voice analysis to be pointless. The original post on Bush’s site accused Diane herself of writing the passage in question. Then Diane put up a post clarifying that the passage was written by a commenter, not by her. Then the Bush site revised its post to account for what Diane was saying — thus “Diane Ravitch likens school choice to Nazi invasion” was revised to say “Post on Diane Ravitch blog likens school choice to Nazi invasion,” and “Diane wrote this about charter schools” was revised to the passive voice. In other words, the blogger decided that he was going to acknowledge that Diane didn’t write the passage, but that he was also going to stick by his original outraged reaction, although the outrage would now be directed toward her permitting the material on her blog as opposed to actually writing it. It may have been lame, but it wasn’t obfuscation. The guy openly acknowledged in his revised post that Diane wasn’t the one who made the Nazi analogy.
The far better analysis is this one:
http://bobsidlethoughtsandmusings.wordpress.com/2013/02/20/bush-foundation-ignores-its-own-nazi-baiter-in-zeal-to-criticize-diane-ravitch/
LikeLike
The whole thing was ridiculous. There are real issues in education. Like corporations making big bucks from taxpayer dollars intended for the classroom. Like the creeping, nay galloping privatization of public education. Like the misuse of testing.
LikeLike
Bob’s post is, as usual, excellent. But the passive voice/Nazi stuff was just the beginning of my post.
The real story, to me, is how Mike Thomas – who spent years praising Jeb Bush and his corporate-style education “reforms” in the Orlando Sentinel – picked up a job with Jeb’s foundation after a short stint in Central FL politics. Does anyone believe that is just a happy coincidence?
Why have wide swaths of the commentariat engaged in so little informed criticism of these pluotcrats’ “reforms”? Yes, some are genuinely misinformed, and perhaps that’s the case with Mike Thomas. But, to paraphrase Upton Sinclair, it is difficult for a man to understand the objections to corporate reforminess when his future salary depends on his not understanding it.
LikeLike
“But, to paraphrase Upton Sinclair, it is difficult for a man to understand the objections to corporate reforminess when his future salary depends on his not understanding it.”
Well said, Jersey Jazzman.
LikeLike
In situations like this I find the wisdom of Forrest Gump to be most apt —
Nazi is as Nazi does …
LikeLike
Absolutely, Jon, exactly!
LikeLike
Jeb using a falsified, Nazi, black flag attack of invading Poland as a fallacious analogy?? How interesting! We have been the victim of black flag ops to convince the public of : The Gulf of Tonkin lie that helped LBJ send more Americans to that military/industrial war based on McNamara and the military’s fabrications (by the way, if you think I overstate that premise, McNamara wrote an apologetic book, apologizing for all his lies that caused the massive loss of life in that needless war) . Then there’s his daffy little brother’s, black flag op of outrageous
twisting of facts about WMD. Since granddaddy, Prescott Bush, had nefarious connections with the Nazi’s, I think Jeb would be wise to not use skeletons from the family closet to try to smear those who oppose his sophistry! Looking for honest discussions with a Bush, is like a rabbit trying to have a “Can we talk” discussion with a wolf in sheep’s clothing. If anyone still thinks that the books weren’t cooked in the selling of the Iraq war, tune into Rachel Maddow’s superb documentary, “The selling of the Iraq war” that aired this week and due to popular demand, will soon be re-aired.
After watching that shredding of the lies “W” and the cabal of neocons used to lie us
into a needless war, talking about “Nazis” and lying reasons like Hitler’s Polish black flag op can only be a classic example of the psychological term “projection.” Sure shows the morale fiber of the opposition, headed up by the Bush clan! Bravo, Diane, they wouldn’t attack you IF you weren’t making a difference!
LikeLike
Mary Pishney: your last sentence explains succinctly why charterites/privatizers are so desperate to undermine Diane and this blog that they will even risk discrediting themselves.
And why should they pay any attention to “Diane Ravitch’s Blog A site to discussion better education for all”? Hmm, let’s let the bean counters “figure” this out. Aha! This blog—less than a year out of the gates—has had almost three million views.
So by VAManiac standards this tiny little spot in the seemingly infinite reaches of cyberspace “counts” for something. Yet imagine how irritating this oasis of democratic discussion is for the charterites/privatizers. Their usual advantages are often decisive and can be literally counted: amounts of $$$ to elect politicians and school boards favorable to their business plans, number of major media forums that heavily favor their side of the current education debates and disfavor their opponents, the number and weight of the prestigious and resource-rich eduphilanthropies that blare a steady din of pro-”reform” talking points.
Yet here, where logic, facts and persuasion count for everything, none of those advantages of the charterites/privatizers can be brought to bear. How unbearable for them!
And how lucky for us that they can’t control and own everything!
Thanks, Diane!
🙂
LikeLike