American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten released an excerpt of her new book in which she calls conservatives “fascists” and compares Republicans to Nazis, just days after the assassination of conservative leader Charlie Kirk.
Weingarten previewed her book, “Why Fascists Fear Teachers: Public Education and the Future of Democracy,” in Rolling Stone on Tuesday.
“Democracy is people power. But fascists want one leader or a small group of elites to have all the power. And that is what’s happening in the United States right now — with billionaire [President Donald] Trump having enabled his shadow governing partner Elon Musk, the wealthiest person in the world, to act as his co-president,” reads a section of her book.
Musk no longer serves as a special government employee in the Trump administration.
Another section reads, “Authoritarians actively attack truth, knowledge, and critical thinking because an uninformed public is easier to control. Degrading public education and critical thinking skills may only prime more Americans to not recognize disinformation and misinformation and take authoritarian leaders like Trump at their word.
“And what do fascists do when they’re worried that students might learn about the truth on their own? They ban books,” she wrote. “Nazis removed all of the books from the [Institute for Sexual Science] — 20,000 books in total — for the first book burning in the Nazi regime. Book burning is part of a broader fascist pattern of attacking knowledge, freedom of information, and critical thinking.”
Her excerpt comes amid dozens of reports of people being fired across the country — including teachers — for celebrating Kirk’s murder, calling him a fascist, a Nazi, and a white supremacist, among other things.
Authorities have charged 22-year-old Tyler Robinson in Kirk’s killing; investigators say he allegedly wrote “Hey fascist, Catch!” on one of the shell casings.
In the aftermath of Kirk’s murder, Weingarten reposted on X a graphic that said Robinson was right-wing, which she subsequently deleted.
Last month, the national nonprofit group Defending Education reported that the AFT and the National Education Association have given $220 million to far-left causes and organizations since 2015. Weingarten has led AFT since 2008.
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