Christopher Rufo, a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, is an implacable foe of public schools and corporations trying to indoctrinate our children in critical race theory and radical gender ideology. And he has come up with a formula on how to defeat these woke entities: uncover the truth, widely disseminate it via the media, and then have the right entities—parent groups or governments—act on it.
In regard to his successes in fighting the teaching of critical race (CRT) theory—which holds, among other things, that America is and always has been a racist country, that all white people are guilty of either overt or hidden racism, and that structural racism has infected every institution in America—in our public schools, Rufo told the Daily Caller on May 9, 2022:
“It really is a story of how information travels. What [happened] with CRT is really, I think, a beautiful example of … how investigative reporting can connect with mass media and then transform into grassroots activism.”
Investigate to uncover the truth, spread the truth via the mass media, and then have grassroot groups act on it.
Rufo then went into detail:
“I did a series of reports on CRT in the federal government, then in K-12 schools, and then in Fortune 100 companies. I was able to get this information … first … replicating at a rapid rate on Twitter, then on to delivering hundreds of millions of media impressions on Fox News to the broadcast audience.”
His work was then picked up by “this organic grassroots network of parents … who were fed up with this, who were able to use my information, use my research, and use, in many cases, my language and vocabulary, and then start taking it to their local school boards, their local school council meetings.”
Indeed, Rufo’s work played a large role in getting Republican Glenn Youngkin, who ran on a platform opposing CRT and had strong bi-partisan parent support as a result, elected governor of blue Virginia this past November. “It’s just a story of how valuable, relevant, new information can drive political and social change,” he stated.
Rufo uses the same strategy in regard to fighting woke corporations pushing radical ideologies on our children, except this time he focuses on getting the government to act. As he told the Daily Caller on May 3, 2022:
“What I try to do is take my investigative reporting and connect it with political power. You have to first generate stories and media and narrative to explain to people exactly what’s happening. And then you have to actually enforce it through the democratic process with legislative activity.”
Investigate to uncover the truth, widely disseminate it via the media, and then get the government to act.
Rufo successfully used this strategy in the State of Florida’s battle with the woke Disney Corporation, which was opposing a new law that prohibited public schools from indoctrinating young children in radical LGBT ideology. First, Rufo uncovered several videos of Disney executives bragging how they were trying to impose a “not-so-secret gay agenda” on children and how they were going to dramatically increase the number of LGBT characters in Disney productions. Second, he widely disseminated the videos via social and mass media. Third, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the Republican-dominated Florida Legislature responded to the public anger over the videos and Disney’s opposition to the anti-grooming law by revoking Disney’s special self-governing and taxing district in central Florida. The message from Florida was clear: go woke, go broke.
Rufo declared in regard to the victory over Disney:
“We’ve created now this model where, just recently, The Wall Street Journal reported that CEOs around the country are asking each other, ‘How do we prevent ourselves from becoming the next Disney?’…“We put a price on woke capital. We’re enforcing it. We’re going to keep pressing and keep fighting and keep delivering consequences for companies that transgress out values and this is how we’re going to win this fight.”
So there you have. Woke school districts and woke corporations are trying to indoctrinate our children in radical ideologies around race and sex/sexual orientation. And Christopher Rufo has come up with a strategy to defeat them: uncover the truth about what schools and corporations are doing, disseminate that truth widely via social and mass media, and get concerned parents and governments to make the woke entities pay. Such a strategy helped propel Republican Glenn Youngkin to the governorship in Virginia and helped to defeat Disney’s desire to groom children in Florida. Let’s hope that Rufo’s strategy racks up more wins in the future so we can better protect our children from the wiles of woke schools and corporations.