They’re not just rewriting textbooks. They’re smashing mirrors.
In state houses and school boards, behind podiums and cable segments, a fevered movement is working overtime to erase reflection. Not disagreement—reflection. The quiet reckoning with what we’ve done, what we’ve allowed, and who we’ve excluded. The moment you look inward and ask: Was that right? Did we do harm? Could we be better?
Authoritarianism has no appetite for that. It requires performance, not perspective. Loyalty, not learning. And in Trump’s second act, we are watching a government—and a culture—scrub every surface clean of self-awareness.
It’s in the book bans, of course. The campaigns against “wokeness,” “critical race theory,” “gender ideology.” But it goes deeper than rhetoric. What they’re afraid of is not just discomfort—it’s disruption of the myth.
The myth that America was always right. That our sins were minor and our victories divine. That to question the system is to betray the nation. And that real patriotism means never looking too closely at the flag you’re waving.
So they attack mirrors:
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A journalist asking hard questions? Biased.
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A teacher explaining redlining? Indoctrinator.
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A trans kid existing in public? Threat.
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A protester kneeling with a sign? Terrorist.
Because each one—by simply showing up with the truth of who they are or what they know—shatters the illusion. And when a movement is built entirely on illusion, the truth is not inconvenient—it’s fatal.
They say they want “patriotic education.” But patriotism without honesty is propaganda. They demand “American values,” yet fear the history that shaped them. They wrap themselves in the Constitution while ignoring its authors’ warnings about unchecked power and cultivated ignorance.
Let’s be clear: this isn’t about protecting children, or saving tradition, or restoring decency. This is about survival of a narrative—one that cannot bear the weight of scrutiny.
And so, they smash the mirrors. One by one. Hoping we’ll forget what we look like.
But we remember.
And we will hold up new mirrors. Sharper ones. Ones that cannot be broken by decree or dogma. Because the truth is not theirs to destroy. It’s ours to defend.
And the America worth believing in—the one that struggles, stumbles, but still reaches—only survives if we keep looking.
