Erasing History, Erasing Democracy: Trump’s Authoritarian Assault on Education

Within the preliminary days of his second time period, President Donald Trump issued a number of government orders “seeking to control how schools teach about race and gender, direct more tax dollars to private schools, and deport pro-Palestinian protesters.” On January 29, 2025, he signed the “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling” government order, which mandates the elimination of curricula that the administration deems as selling “radical, anti-American ideologies.” This government order is not only an assault on vital race idea or teachings about systemic racism — it’s a cornerstone of an authoritarian ideology designed to eradicate vital thought, suppress historic fact and strip educators of their autonomy. Below the guise of combating “divisiveness,” it advances a broader conflict on schooling as a democratizing pressure, turning faculties into useless zones of the creativeness. By threatening to strip federal funding from establishments that refuse to adapt, this coverage capabilities as an instrument of ideological indoctrination, imposing a sanitized, nationalistic narrative that erases histories of oppression and resistance whereas deepening a tradition of ignorance and compliance.

Concurrently, President Trump issued the “Expanding Educational Freedom and Opportunity for Families” government order, aiming to boost faculty selection by redirecting federal funds to help constitution faculties and voucher applications. This coverage allows mother and father to make use of public funds for personal and non secular faculty tuition. Whereas proponents declare that this laws empowers mother and father and fosters competitors, in actuality, it’s a calculated effort to defund and privatize public schooling, undermining it as a democratizing public good. As a part of a broader far proper assault on schooling, this coverage redirects important assets away from public faculties, deepening instructional inequality and advancing an agenda that seeks to erode public funding in a simply and equitable society.

Within the title of eliminating radical indoctrination in faculties, a third executive order, which purportedly goals at ending antisemitism, threatens to deport pro-Palestinian pupil protesters by revoking their visas, warning that even those legally in the country could be targeted for his or her political beliefs. In a stark show of authoritarianism, Trump’s government order unapologetically said that free speech wouldn’t be tolerated. Reuters made this clear in reporting that one reality sheet ominously declared: “I’ll … shortly cancel the coed visas of all Hamas sympathizers on school campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like by no means earlier than. To all of the resident aliens who joined within the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on discover: come 2025, we are going to discover you, and we are going to deport you.”

Trump’s longstanding conflict on schooling has taken a extra harmful flip together with his incoming order to eradicate the Division of Schooling via government fiat. This isn’t simply an assault on paperwork; it’s a calculated and boldfaced assault on public schooling itself — an effort to dismantle one of many final remaining establishments or public items able to fostering vital thought, historic reminiscence and civic accountability.

By gutting federal oversight, he’s handing the destiny of schooling to reactionary state legislatures and company pursuits, making certain that information is formed by a state held captive by billionaires and much proper extremists. That is the logic of authoritarianism: to hole out democratic establishments and exchange schooling with white Christian propaganda and a pedagogy of repression. At problem right here is an try to render a whole era defenseless towards the very forces looking for to dominate them.

What we’re witnessing is not only an academic disaster however a full-scale conflict on establishments that not solely defend democracy however allow it. What’s below siege on this assault is just not solely the vital perform of schooling however the very notion that it needs to be outlined via its imaginative and prescient of making a central characteristic of democracy, educating knowledgeable and critically engaged residents.

These government actions signify an upgraded and broader model of McCarthyite and apartheid-era schooling that seeks to dictate how faculties train about race and gender, funnel extra taxpayer {dollars} into personal establishments, and deport Palestinian protesters. The irony is hanging: The White Home defends these regressive measures of sanitizing historical past, stripping away the rights of transgender college students and erasing vital race idea as efforts to “finish indoctrination in American schooling.” In fact, this isn’t in regards to the pursuit of freedom or open inquiry, neither is it about fostering an schooling that cultivates knowledgeable, critically engaged residents. At its core, this agenda is a deliberate assault on schooling as a public good — one which threatens to dismantle not solely public establishments, however the very essence of public and better schooling and its tradition of criticism and democracy. The urgency of this second can’t be overstated: The way forward for schooling itself is at stake.

Within the raging currents of latest political and cultural life, the place fascist ideologies are rising, some of the insidious and all-encompassing forces at play is the violence of forgetting — a plague of historic amnesia. This phenomenon, which I’ve known as “organized forgetting,” describes the systemic erasure of historical past and its violent penalties, notably within the public sphere. That is particularly evident within the present historic second, when books are banned in libraries, public faculties and better schooling throughout international locations, resembling america, Hungary, India, China and Russia. Ignoring previous atrocities, historic injustices and uncomfortable truths a couple of society’s basis is just not merely an oversight — it constitutes an energetic type of violence that shapes each our collective consciousness and political realities. What we’re witnessing right here is an assault by the far proper on reminiscence that’s inseparable from what Maximillian Alvarez describes as a battle over energy — over who’s remembered, who’s erased, who’s forged apart and who’s forcibly diminished to one thing lower than human. This battle is not only about historical past; it’s about whose tales are allowed to form the current and the long run. Alvarez captures this actuality with hanging readability and is value quoting at size:

Among the many prizes at stake within the infinite conflict of politics is historical past itself. The battle for energy is at all times a battle to find out who will get remembered, how they are going to be recalled, the place and in what varieties their reminiscences will likely be preserved. On this battle, there isn’t any room for impartial events: each historical past and counter-history should combat and scrap and claw and unfold and lodge itself on the earth, lest or not it’s forgotten or forcibly erased. All historical past, on this sense, is the historical past of empire — a bid for management of that biggest expanse of territory, the previous.

Organized forgetting additionally helped gasoline the resurgence of Donald Trump, as fact and purpose are being systematically changed by lies, corruption, denial and the weaponization of reminiscence itself. A tradition of questioning, critique and imaginative and prescient is just not merely disappearing in america — it’s actively maligned, disparaged and changed by a darkness that, as Ezra Klein observes, is “stupefyingly huge, stretching from self-destructive incompetence to muddling incoherence to authoritarian consolidation.”

This erosion impacts establishments of legislation, civil society and schooling — pillars that depend on reminiscence, knowledgeable judgment and proof to foster historic understanding and civic accountability. The assault on the widespread good goes past the distractions of an “attention economy” designed to distort actuality; it displays a deliberate effort to sever the ties between historical past and that means. Time is diminished to fragmented episodes, stripped of the shared narratives that join the previous, current and future.

This disaster embodies a profound collapse of reminiscence, historical past, schooling and democracy itself. A tradition of manufactured ignorance — rooted within the rejection of historical past, info and important thought — erases accountability for electing a pacesetter who incited rebel and branded his opponents as “enemies from inside.” Such authoritarian politics thrive on historic amnesia, lulling society into passivity, eroding collective reminiscence and subverting civic company. That is epitomized by Trump’s declaration on “Fox & Pals” that he would punish faculties that train college students correct U.S. historical past, together with about slavery and racism within the nation. The decision to silence harmful reminiscences is inseparable from the violence of state terrorism — a pressure that censors and dehumanizes dissent, escalating to the punishment, torture and imprisonment of truth-tellers and critics who dare to carry oppressive energy accountable.

At its core, the violence of forgetting operates via the denial and distortion of historic occasions, notably people who problem the dominant narratives of energy. From the colonial atrocities and the struggles for civil rights to the historical past of Palestine-Israel relations, lots of the most vital chapters of historical past are both glossed over or erased altogether. This strategic omission serves the pursuits of these in energy, enabling them to take care of management by silencing inconvenient truths. Because the historian Timothy Snyder reminds us, by refusing to acknowledge the violence of the previous, society makes it far simpler to perpetuate injustices within the current. The politics of organized forgetting, the censoring of historical past and the assault on historic consciousness are elementary to the rise of far proper voices within the U.S. and internationally.

With the rise of regressive reminiscence legal guidelines, designed to repress what authoritarian governments think about harmful and radical interpretations of a rustic’s previous, historic consciousness is reworked right into a type of historic amnesia. One vivid instance of a regressive reminiscence legislation was enacted by Trump throughout his first time period. The 1776 Report, which right-wingers defended as a “restoration of American schooling,” was the truth is an try to eradicate from the instructing of historical past any reference to a legacy of colonialism, slavery and actions which highlighted parts of American historical past that had been unconscionable, anti-democratic and morally repugnant. Snyder highlights the emergence of reminiscence legal guidelines in quite a few states. He writes in a 2021 New York Instances article:

As of this writing, 5 states (Idaho, Iowa, Tennessee, Texas and Oklahoma) have handed legal guidelines that direct and limit discussions of historical past in school rooms. The Division of Schooling of a sixth (Florida) has handed tips with the identical impact. One other 12 state legislatures are nonetheless contemplating reminiscence legal guidelines. The particulars of those legal guidelines range. The Idaho legislation is probably the most Kafkaesque in its censorship: It affirms freedom of speech after which bans divisive speech. The Iowa legislation executes the identical totalitarian pirouette. The Tennessee and Texas legal guidelines go furthest in specifying what academics might and will not say. In Tennessee academics should not train that the rule of legislation is “a sequence of energy relationships and struggles amongst racial or different teams.”… The Idaho legislation mentions Important Race Concept; the directive from the Florida faculty board bans it in school rooms. The Texas legislation forbids academics from requiring college students to know the 1619 Undertaking. It’s a perverse objective: Academics succeed if college students don’t perceive one thing.

A serious side of this forgetting and erasure of historic reminiscence is the role of ignorance, which has develop into not simply widespread however weaponized in fashionable occasions. Ignorance, notably in U.S. society, has shifted from being a passive lack of information to an energetic refusal to interact with vital points. That is amplified by the spectacle-driven nature of latest media and the growing normalization of a tradition of lies and the embrace of a language of violence, which not solely thrives on distraction moderately than reflection, however has develop into a strong pressure for spreading bigotry, racial hatred and right-wing lies. As well as, the mainstream media’s obsession with spectacle — be it political drama, movie star tradition or sensationalist tales — usually overshadows the extra vital, but much less glamorous, discussions about historic violence and systemic injustice.

This mental neglect permits for a harmful cycle to persist, the place the erasure of historical past allows the continuation of violence and oppression. Techniques of energy profit from this amnesia, because it permits them to take care of the established order with out having to reply for previous wrongs. When society refuses to recollect or handle previous injustices — whether or not it’s slavery, imperialism or financial exploitation — these in energy can proceed to use the current with out worry of historic accountability.

The cultural affect of this organized forgetting is profound. Not solely does it create a void in public reminiscence, however it additionally stunts collective progress. With out the teachings of the previous, it turns into practically unattainable to be taught from errors and handle the foundation causes of social inequalities. The failure to recollect makes it more durable to demand significant change, whereas reproducing and legitimating ongoing far proper assaults on democracy.

The violence of organized forgetting is just not a mere act of neglect; it’s a deliberate cultural and mental assault that undercuts the foundations of any significant democracy. By erasing the previous, society implicitly condones the continuing oppression of marginalized teams and perpetuates dangerous ideologies that thrive in ignorance. This erasure silences the voices of those that have suffered — denying them the house to talk their fact and demand justice. It’s not restricted to historic injustices alone; it extends to the current, silencing those that courageously criticize modern violence, resembling Israel’s U.S.-backed genocidal conflict on Gaza, and people courageous sufficient to carry energy accountable.

The act of forgetting is just not passive; it actively helps techniques of oppression and censorship, muffling dissent and debate, each of that are important for a wholesome democracy.

Equally harmful is the type of historic amnesia that has come to dominate our modern political and cultural panorama. This organized forgetting feeds right into a pedagogy of manufactured ignorance that prioritizes emotion over purpose and spectacle over fact. On this course of, historical past is fragmented and distorted, making it practically unattainable to assemble a coherent understanding of the previous. Because of this, public establishments — notably schooling — are undermined, as vital pondering and social accountability give technique to shallow, sensationalized narratives. Greater schooling, as soon as a bastion for the event of civic literacy and the ethical crucial of understanding our function as each people and social brokers, is now attacked by forces looking for to cleanse public reminiscence of previous social and political progress. Figures like Trump embody this risk, working to erase the reminiscence of strides made within the title of equality, justice and human decency. This organized assault on historic reminiscence and mental rigor strikes on the coronary heart of democracy itself. Once we enable the erasure of historical past and the undermining of vital thought, we danger suffocating the beliefs that democracy guarantees: justice, equality and accountability.

A democracy can not thrive within the absence of knowledgeable and engaged brokers which are able to questioning, difficult and reimagining a future totally different from the current. With out such residents, the very notion of democracy turns into a hole, disembodied preferrred — an phantasm of freedom with out the substance of fact or accountability. Schooling, on this context, is just not merely a software for transmitting information; it’s the basis and bedrock of political consciousness. To be educated, to be a citizen, is just not a impartial or passive state — it’s a important, energetic political and ethical engagement with the world, grounded in vital pondering and democratic chance. It’s a recognition that the act of studying and the act of being a citizen are inextricable from one another. To strip schooling of its vital energy is to rob democracy of its transformative potential.

Confronting the violence of forgetting requires a shift in how we have interaction with historical past. Intellectuals, educators and activists should take up the accountability of reintroducing the painful truths of the previous into public discourse. This isn’t about dwelling prior to now for its personal sake, however about understanding its relevance to the current and future. To interrupt the cycles of violence, society should decide to remembering, not only for the sake of reminiscence, however as a vital software for progress.

Furthermore, partaking with historical past actually requires recognizing that the violence of forgetting is just not a one-time occasion however a continuing course of. Techniques of energy don’t merely overlook; they actively work to erase, rewrite and sanitize historic narratives. Which means that the combat to recollect is ongoing and requires fixed vigilance. It’s not sufficient to easily uncover historic truths; society should work to make sure that these truths aren’t forgotten once more, buried below the load of media spectacles, ideological repression and political theater.

In the end, the violence of forgetting is an impediment to real social change. With out confronting the previous — acknowledging the violence and injustices which have formed our world — we can not hope to construct a extra simply and knowledgeable future. To maneuver ahead, any viable democratic social order should reckon with its previous, break away from the bonds of ignorance, and decide to making a future primarily based on information, justice and accountability.

The duty of confronting and dismantling the violent buildings formed by the facility of forgetting is immense, but the urgency has by no means been extra pronounced. In an period the place the scope and energy of recent pedagogical apparatuses resembling social media and AI dominate our cultural and mental landscapes, the problem turns into much more advanced. Whereas they maintain potential for schooling and connection, these applied sciences are managed by a reactionary ruling class of economic elite and billionaires, and they’re more and more wielded to perpetuate disinformation, fragment historical past and manipulate public discourse. The authoritarian algorithms that drive these platforms more and more prioritize sensationalism over substance, lies over fact, the appropriation of energy over social accountability, and in doing so, reinforce modes of civic illiteracy, whereas attacking these elementary establishments which allow vital views and a tradition of questioning.

The important want for collective motion and mental engagement to reclaim and restore historic fact, vital pondering and social accountability is pressing. The current historic second, each unprecedented and alarming, resonates with Antonio Gramsci’s reflection on an earlier period marked by the rise of fascism: “The outdated world is dying, and the brand new world struggles to be born; now’s the time of monsters.”

Within the face of a deepening disaster of historical past, reminiscence and company, any significant resistance should be collective, disruptive and unapologetically unsettling — difficult entrenched orthodoxies and dismantling the forces that perpetuate ignorance and injustice. This battle must be each radical in its essence and uncompromising in its calls for for social change, recognizing schooling as inseparable from politics and the tangible challenges individuals face of their on a regular basis lives. On this collective effort lies the facility to dismantle the obstacles to fact, rebuild the foundations of vital thought, and form a future rooted in information, justice and a profound dedication to make energy accountable. Central to this imaginative and prescient is the capability to be taught from historical past, to nurture a historic consciousness that informs our current and to reimagine company as a necessary pressure within the enduring battle for democracy. This name for a radical creativeness can’t be confined to school rooms however should emerge as a transformative pressure embedded in a united, multiracial, working-class motion. Solely then can we confront the pressing crises of our time.