Suffering through Project 2025 training videos so you don't have to (Part 1)

Courtney: Hello everyone and welcome back.  My name is Courtney. I am here, as always,   with my spouse, Royce, and together  we are The Ace Couple. And I hope,   dear listener, that you are prepared  for more misery, because we are once   again talking about American politics.  Always, always a fun topic. Specifically,   we have even more information and insight that  has come out about the infamous Project 2025. Courtney: So ProPublica got their hands on,  basically, the training videos. We mentioned   in our first episode, where we talked about  Project 2025, that they – specifically the   Heritage Foundation and many of their allies  and many former Trump officials – are making   a very coordinated effort to not only make their  demands for the country very clear, but to ensure   that they get their people in every branch of the  government for – what they keep saying over and   over – the Trump presidency, but truly, it’s the  next Republican president. If it wasn’t Trump,   they would be doing the same thing, but it just  so happens Trump is the guy this time around.   Somehow, somehow, somehow still the guy. And  as part of this, they are recruiting people,   they are training people, they are writing  manuals and guidelines so that everyone can   all be on the same page. And their hope is that  they can very effectively… ruin the country,   in my opinion. So I went ahead and I watched the  first video of these several videos that have been   released. And I’ll put in the show notes, if you  want to watch this video yourself or any of them,   there is an entire playlist available to  the public for free on YouTube right now. Courtney: And I think it’s– it’s  important to be aware about, I think,   even for non-Americans, because we aren’t  just talking about solely American policy.   They’re talking about who are the advisors  that we send to international summits,   who are people who work hand in hand with other  countries. So this does include positions that   affect some level of foreign policy as well.  Which, as we get into the two women who were   hosting the very first video, both worked  under the Trump presidency. One of them in   particular mentioned many things she did as  far as international relations are concerned. Courtney: And today we’re just going to talk  about that first video, because there was   enough to talk about. And this is not only the  sort of policy they’re hoping to steer, but this   is really how they’re trying to combat any left  wing ideology whatsoever and what they’re telling   their people. And there is– there is a fair bit of  propaganda in here, so it’s– it’s good to be aware   of what they think and what they’re telling  their people and how they’re treating words. Courtney: Words. A lot of this one comes down to  words. In fact, the title of the first episode is:   Left-wing codewords and language. And if you  haven’t watched it yet, maybe just hearing my   recap of it will be a little more palatable to  you, because these two women– not only were the   things they were saying often terrible, but  sometimes they get into these very cheesy,   like, poorly acted, poorly scripted bits. So it  was not entertaining. Or it was, if you– if you   like profoundly bad attempts at acting in, like,  think corporate training videos, kind of bad. Royce: That’s what I was trying to articulate just  now, because I didn’t watch these videos. I was   wondering if it was one of those situations  where someone turns on a projector or if you   go far enough back wheels in a little TV on a  stand and shows you like a 20 year old video. Courtney: Yeah. It’s– it’s two women sitting in  armchairs and when they talk to each other it’s   very corny. They’re very clearly canned bits, very  scripted. And then they just kind of take turns   monologuing angrily, facing the camera, so like  they sort of take turns on topics. But as they   switch topics they’re like, “You know?” It’s so–  Actually here– Here’s one of the examples. Right   at the beginning, before they really even get  into the meat of what they’re talking about, one   of them looks at the other and says: “Now, do your  children ever get scared of monsters under the bed   or in the attic?” And the other woman responds,  “They do, but we tell them that they don’t   exist.” And the first woman says, “Well, we’ve  got news for you, there are monsters in Uncle   Sam’s attic.” And those monsters in Uncle Sam’s  attic are, uh, left-wing code words. [chuckles] Courtney: But yeah, like, to introduce herself–  And like I said, these were both Trump officials.   So this is another thing that we’ve been pointing  out, especially in our more recent video about JD   Vance. Because Trump and his campaign keep saying,  “We don’t have anything to do with Project 2025.   That’s not us.” But it is jam packed with former  Trump officials. And even if he’s not having those   same people back, even if he doesn’t want them,  for whatever reason, they are handpicking and   hand-training people that they’re going to try  to get on there. And JD Vance is their guy. We   made that very clear in our JD Vance video. He has  very close ties with the Heritage Foundation. So   do you think that Donald Trump – God forbid he get  elected again – is going to personally know and   vet every single appointed position and person?  Absolutely not. That’s not how any of this works. Courtney: So to open the video, the very first  line of this video is a woman introducing herself   and she says, “I’m just a normal American woman,  but to the left, that makes me a cisgendered,   ethno-imperialist birthing person with pronouns  she/her. Tsk… words like that are quite a mouthful   and it’s one America needs to spit out before we  choke on it.” So there’s quite a lot to unpack   there. First of all, cisgendered. I love how  they always put the -ed on the end of it as if,   like, we have cisgendered them. But yeah,  we’ve been over it time and time again,   and they talk about it more in this video.  They think biological sex is, and should be,   synonymous with gender 100% of the time. People  this far to the right, we are not going to argue   them out of that ideology. So that’s where you get  the people who are like, “Cisgender is a slur.”   It’s not. But I love how her definition of normal  American woman also includes ethno-imperialist. Royce: So she’s just admitting right out  of the gate that she’s a white supremacist? Courtney: Kind of?! Royce: How– What other way is  there to take that statement? Courtney: She– She’s at the  very, very least saying,   like, white is normal, like that’s the normal. Royce: Imperialist implies nationalism, I  think. I don’t think you can get away from that. Courtney: It does imply nationalism, which  they think is good, actually. And I– I   caught them saying that in here also.  But yeah… like, normal american woman:   cisgendered ethno-imperialist. Also the birthing  person. Like no one is calling this particular   woman a birthing person. That’s not how  that works. With pronouns she/her and the   dramatic– She literally did a dramatic “Tsk”  as someone who is very much not an actor. Royce: Yeah, I mean, that was  obviously a heavily scripted segment,   that it probably took them a  lot of time and energy to write. Courtney: Yeah, yeah. Also like,  the– The interesting thing is,   a lot of us on the left don’t think that  you have to give birth just because you   have the parts for it. So that’s another  thing they very often disagree with,   but! So their whole thing is beware of these  scary words, because the left is manipulating   you to make it seem like one thing, but really  they mean another thing. And the exact quote was:   “The left twists words and phrases to support  subconscious acceptance of a philosophy that   was rejected or goes against the very grain  of human existence, like what is a woman.” Royce: [sighs] So the Venn diagram of  current American right wing politics and   conspiracy theorists is almost just a single  circle. [Courtney laughs] It’s very close. Courtney: If you go far  enough in the right direction… Royce: Well, the idea of  subliminal messaging, mind control. Courtney: And they even said the  word subliminal. Because after that,   they said that this is the left’s  most effective tool, being constant,   subliminal advertising. That was  the phrase that they used, yes. Royce: Yeah, that is just straight  up, like, 60s era conspiracy theory. Courtney: [reading] “Then they changed the  word socialism to democratic socialism. Then   they turned democratic socialism into  social justice and equity. Therefore,   social justice and equity is Marxism.” Royce: I’m pretty sure people started saying  democratic socialism just because there’s a   whole section of people that have this knee  jerk anger response to the word socialism,   so they don’t actually learn what  it means and engage in conversation.   So you have to throw the word  democratic in front of it to,   like, buy yourself time to get into the  conversation while they’re still listening. Courtney: Well, there also are,  just like politically, like,   there are differences between democratic socialism  and Marxism. Those are two different ideologies. Royce: Yes. These different words are different  words because they have different meanings. Courtney: But yeah, so now they’re– They’re  literally training not only their own   constituents but the people they seek to put in  positions of power in literally every branch of   the government that when someone on the left says  social justice, they mean Marxism. And obviously   this is the party where they’re like “Marxism:  always 100% bad, it is the number one enemy!” So   that’s– that’s a whole lot. And of course, in the  context of this conversation, they’re pulling out   all of these scary quotes from Hitler and Stalin  and Orwell. All references about controlling   language and how that’s how you control people.  And very dystopian sounding, very fear mongering,   which I found very fascinating because they were  like, here we’re going to basically break down the   five main categories that we want you to watch out  for, and we’ll train you what the left says versus   what they mean. So they start with the first  category, which is: women, children and family. Courtney: Which they teach us: [reading]  “Comprehensive sexuality education means   teaching and normalizing sex at very early ages,  even as young as preschool, and teaching girls   who become pregnant that abortion is a preferable  method of birth control.” Nobody says abortion is   birth control, because it’s not, and certainly  nobody is teaching that to preschoolers. But she   said in her time working in the Trump White House  that she was doing everything she can to make sure   that comprehensive sexuality education doesn’t  get implemented, it doesn’t get normalized,   it’s not allowed, it is a bad thing. And she was  explaining her role in a G7 summit. So this is   representatives from seven different countries  getting together, having a meeting, discussing,   writing on the topic, primarily in this case,  of women’s health, global women’s health. And   she was adamant that comprehensive sexuality  education cannot be a part of women’s health. Courtney: And so, apparently in very vague detail,  she recounts a story that someone proposed edits   to try to make sure that we weren’t using the  words comprehensive sexuality education, but   even the edits he suggested she was like, “Oh no,  what you’re suggesting is still considered CSE.”   To which, allegedly, at this point, this unnamed  person from an unnamed country just lamented like,   “Oh gosh! They have literally co-opted the  English language.” Which, uh, I don’t know   if that happened or not, but it really sounds  like you’re reading subliminal messaging where   it isn’t, and rejecting everybody’s edits as  the delegate from the United States, because   you want to push your agenda that very much  does not include abortion or sex education,   or a lot of other very important components of  women’s health. And then she did outright brag   that she, and the US, was the reason that language  around reproductive rights at this international   summit got removed and softened and watered down.  This was something she was very, very proud of. Courtney: So this is another thing we need to  consider when we talk about American politics. We   do have an enormous platform on an international  stage, and there are going to be people appointed   by the next President who are going to be  representing our country in so many different   areas. Most of which you’ve probably never even  heard of, because I don’t know all of them. I   don’t know what all of our foreign delegates are  or what they do, or all the different rooms they   get to sit in, the different conversations they  get to have, the different policies they get   to influence, because it is vast. And so, after–  after sharing this story and bragging about how,   “Yes, we’re the reason why this language  around sexuality education got removed,”   they go on to make a list of words that the left  says but it means something else. And it was so   funny to watch this because everything they were  accusing the left of doing, they were also doing. Royce: Oh yeah, that’s been abundantly clear,   just in you recapping the  first little bit of this video. Courtney: Yeah, because the thing is like  she said abortion is murder. But then she   went on to say all of these seven things mean  abortion. Therefore, all of these seven things,   when the left says them, this is code for murder.  And these are the seven things– And she literally   said like, “They all use these words to make  it– to make abortion sound not like murder,   to make– to make murder more palatable to  people.” Sexual and reproductive health is   one. Number two is reproductive rights. Three,  sexual and reproductive health services. Four,   reproductive health services. Five, health  services. And six and seven are basically   the same: sexual and reproductive health  and reproductive rights, or sexual and   reproductive health and rights. These are the  seven things that mean [emphatically] murder! Courtney: [reading] “Therefore, none of these  phrases should be allowed to exist anywhere   in any official government documentation. So once  you get appointed to the next Trump presidency, it   is going to be your job to make sure, in whatever  branch of government you’re working in, that none   of these phrases exist.” Number five is health  services! [whispering] Because that means murder.   And they even further reinforce that by continuing  to say, like, “It’s incredible how the left makes   killing children and babies a pro-movement,  how they can be so positive about it.” Courtney: But then it was at this point that they  started doing a weird thing that became a theme   throughout the rest of the video. They have a  deep resentment for career staffers within the   White House. So the folks who have a job within  the White House, sort of regardless of who the   president is, regardless of which political party  has the majority. They weren’t even really trying   to hide their resentment. Like, the first time  they said career staffers, but then they just   call them The Careers and they’d say it, like,  with acid on their tongue, as if like, “Oh,   those Careers are going to try to make your job  harder.” And they’re gonna– And they made it sound   like every career staffer in the White House is  on the left too, which I just– That can’t be true. Royce: There’s no way. Courtney: There’s no way. Royce: But being people that work through multiple  presidencies, they’re probably going to be more   resistant to sudden changes. And, I would imagine,  more often than not, are probably going to be   moderate as a result, because they’ve had to work  with different people. Because the whole point of   Project 2025 is to try to swing the entire country  as far right as possible, as quickly as possible. Courtney: Oh yeah, and they kept saying that too,  from day one is what they say. Here’s what you do:   day one, hit the ground running. In the first  instance of sharing a story and expressing   disdain for the Careers was that she had  to be adamant and tell all the Careers no,   this is how we refer to this. It’s  the protecting life and global health   assistant policy. You can’t call it anything  else. Because once it got passed, allegedly,   some Careers started calling  it the global gag order. And– Royce: Which I imagine is a  more accurate description of   what the content was, going back to code words. Courtney: Code words! Well, the thing is– So  super, super duper brief summary because I’m not   going to get deep into it, it’s not actually that  important for the scope of this conversation, but   Trump basically issued a presidential memorandum  that was sort of meant to expand upon the – quote   – “Mexico City policy”, which was passed by  Reagan of course. And like, one of the main   things of this memorandum required foreign NGOs  to agree that they would not perform or actively   promote abortion as a method of family planning.  So, very, very pro-life stance that is affecting   international countries. And here she is saying,  “We have to call this the protecting life and   global health assistance policy.” Which is really  just baffling to me, because we can’t say health   services, because we mean murder, but you can say  global health and protecting life when really you   are making it more difficult for people to access  abortion, which can be a life-saving procedure. Courtney: And she also goes– Like, they started  this all with, like, you can’t let the left   control language, because if you control language  you control people. And Orwell, and Stalin,   and Marx, and all these scary things and all  these people– Hitler controlled language and   look what happened with him! That was a bad dude.  They were invoking all of these things, and yet   here she is saying like, “No, you will not call  it anything but this, when you work in my office.” Royce: I mean, she also called  herself an ethno-imperialist,   and about that– about that Hitler. Courtney: Hitler was just a normal American woman. Royce: But no, it’s very plain, it’s very visible.  It’s very frustrating to me personally to see that   propaganda and attempts at manipulation  are so transparent. Like it’s not clever. Courtney: No. Royce: Could you be more clever? Courtney: [laughs] Could you at least  be more clever in your evil scheming? Royce: [sighs] So often, if I try to think  how to refute something, it’s like, “Oh,   this argument is just projecting.” You  just– You’ve just taken what you’re doing   and you turned it around, and that’s not  complicated at all. I have– I’m already   done thinking about this topic. Now I have to  go on to find something else to think about. Courtney: So the next category they go on to talk  about is the environment. And they do their little   bit, going back and forth, and they really– they  just yuck it up the whole time and they’re like,   “We were taught in school that we’d be frozen  in an ice age and that was so scary. But then,   no, we aren’t going to get frozen  in an ice age, we’re going to get   burned by acid rain. And then, after acid  rain, it became global warming. And then,   when science disproved global warming, the  left changed the word to climate change.” Royce: Sounds like this person did not have  a very comprehensive education and is trying   to pass laws to prevent other people  from having a comprehensive education. Courtney: Well, because then they go on  to say climate change is actually about   population control. They don’t want you to have  children because of the impact on the environment. Royce: [sighs] The changing climate is putting  pressure on families. It is slowing population   growth due to pollution and water and food  scarcity, and all of the money that goes   into natural disasters. If they wanted more  children they should help fix the climate. Courtney: Well, and admittedly, yes, there are  individual people who will cite climate change   as a reason why they personally have chosen not  to have children. But the way they talked about   this was the left doesn’t want anybody to have  children, or they don’t want anybody to have too   many children. And it’s like, nobody in America is  policing, nobody is giving you a limit of ‘this is   the number of children you can have’. Which was  fascinating, because I also– I just– I just don’t   believe this. But again, she was like, “Oh, when  I worked in the White House, a career staffer–”   which of course they say with disdain, apparently  asked her one day how many children she has. And   she’s like, “I already thought this was a weird  question.” And it’s like, what was the context   of the conversation? Did you say, like, “Oh, my  kids,” and someone’s just being, you know, trying   to get to know you as, like, new employee in the  office? Like, “Oh, how many kids do you have?”   Like, people don’t normally, in dead silence,  in an office just be like, “How many kids do   you have?” Like– like, I don’t know. Kids probably  already came up at some point. But she said, “When   I told him I had three, he said ‘Oh wow, that’s  one and a half too many for the environment.’” Royce: That probably didn’t happen. Courtney: [chuckling] That probably didn’t happen.  But yeah. And then they were yucking it up too,   and they were like, “When I think climate  change, I just think the changing of the seasons,   because that happens every year, as it’s supposed  to. Because the seasons are supposed to change,   climate is supposed to change. We have summer  and we have winter. That’s climate change!” Oh,   my goodness... But the reason  why we invented climate change   is because of the trillions of dollars in new  investments, supported with taxpayer subsidies,   to address made up problems that the  government and special interests created.   So they’re also making that a grand  conspiracy about money and corruption. Royce: Meanwhile, the fossil fuel industries are   massive donors of Republican parties  and have been for many, many decades. Courtney: Funny, they didn’t  mention that in this video. Royce: But see, that’s what I mean. It’s  frustrating that it’s always so simple.   Like I want a TV thriller conspiracy. [Courtney  laughs] I want something that just goes and goes   in tunnels and webs. I want red string on a wall.  But it’s always just like you gave yourself away   in three sentences. You’re just doing the  thing you’re saying someone else is doing. Courtney: If you’re gonna be so  terrible, at least make it interesting. Royce: Yes, I’m not interested in  amateur hour. We need a supervillain. Courtney: [laughs] Too bad, you  get Donald Trump and JD Vance. Courtney: So the next category they go on to talk  about is human rights and border security. And   they started this one with, like: “Human rights…  Rights, rights, rights. The left is always making   up new rights.” But then she goes on to talk about  how, like, [reading] “So many of these rights are   not in our Founding Fathers’ documentations,” but  then! Then she goes on to say that, basically, if   it wasn’t in our Founding Fathers’ documentations,  then it shouldn’t be a right. Like now we’re   talking about, like, Bill of Rights stuff here,  right? But she literally said, “Unfortunately, our   founding documents were not sufficient.” And then  goes on to explain how in 2019 and 2020, they made   a commission on unalienable rights. Which– this  commission’s job was to declare which rights are   truly unalienable under the founding principles of  our nation, after literally in the same sentence   saying our founding documents weren’t actually  sufficient for this. So you’re making shit up! Courtney: So then they do the little, like,  these are the dangerous terms that people on   the left use. [reading] “These terms – they say  – are carefully designed to ignore the horrors   of the most devastating challenges America faces,  which include illicit drug and human trafficking.”   These two words that you should never use,  you should never let any of your staffers use,   should not be in any documents whatsoever in the  government, are: 1. undocumented immigrants, such   a dangerous phrase; and 2. migrants. Dangerous,  dangerous words. Can’t have these horrible,   dangerous phrases in our government. Where they  then go on to explain their logic why. And they’re   like, “Well, the word you should use instead of  undocumented immigrants is illegal alien.” And   they’re like, “I don’t know why the left hates  this so much! Alien is not a pejorative, alien   is simply a legal term.” Oh, woof… Yeah. As if  there isn’t a vast history of dehumanizing the   groups of people who are deemed to be other,  and as if dehumanizing other people isn’t like   literally the most important step in justifying  genocides in, like, the history of the world.   Like, but they’re like, “It’s just a legal term.  It just means somebody who’s not from here.” Royce: So does undocumented immigrant. Courtney: Well, but they said, um,   “Calling someone an undocumented immigrant  is the same thing as calling someone who   breaks into your house in the middle of  the night and undocumented homeowner.” Royce: No. Courtney: No, it’s not the same. It’s not the  same. But they said, the reason why we’ve made   up the terms undocumented immigrants and migrants  is because we, the left, want to wash away the   value that is citizenship. And citizenship is  nationality and sovereignty. So we just– we   just want to wash away these concepts. These  concepts, you see, they believe have inherent   value and we want to destroy that inherent value.  It’s very– If any other musical theater nerds out   there like Hadestown… [chuckle] It’s very much–  Well, “Build the wall,” is what Hades says,   but that song was written way before Trump ever  said it. Believe it or not. It’s very much:   they want what we have, therefore, they’re  dangerous to us, so we need to keep them out. But   they did the whole, like, “The left thinks we’re  anti immigration. We’re not anti immigration,   we just want legal immigration. There’s  a legal way to come into this country.” Royce: That’s never been true.  [Courtney laughs] That’s–   That has never been true. It’s always been  people who fundamentally know that their   beliefs or their opinions will not have  public support if they say them at face   value have to keep walking their language  back to find something that is palatable. Courtney: But you’re really going  to kick out of what they said. Royce: I’m really going to kick out of…? Courtney: You’re really going to– Nope, my brain  just stopped there. You are going to get a kick   out of what they said the word migrant  should actually mean and how it should be   used. [reading] “Migrant should only ever be  a word that’s used for migratory people who,   like birds, only come to the country for a  season and then go back home. That’s what   a real migrant is, because that’s  what migration means. Like birds!” Royce: I was trying to anticipate  how that was going to come up,   and I was waiting for birds to come up. Courtney: It did. It did come up. Royce: Although I didn’t know if  we were going to have to take,   like, an ecological fact break in the  middle of this. That wasn’t what I was   expecting when we started recording. But  yeah, of course migration means a lot of   different things. It’s often cyclical  in nature because of the seasons. Courtney: Which is climate change. [chuckles] Royce: There is also one-way migration. Courtney: Yeah, the word migrant and migratory   are not even the same words. They have the same  root. There’s a reason why they sound the same,   but they are used differently. And I don’t know  if they know this, but humans aren’t birds. Royce: I’m not sure if they do, given  their fear of actual bodily education. Courtney: Oh no. [laughs] I didn’t know where you  were going with that when you started. But I see,   well played. We can’t have health services in  this country, so we can only have veterinary   services. But then I am glad that so early you  caught the conspiratorial nature of all this,   because one minute they’ll be just sort of  joking and yucking it up, and they’re like,   “Alien is just a legal term, it’s not rude,  it’s not a pejorative.” And they’ll be like,   “Well, migrant, that should only apply to  workers who just come in to work for a season   and then leave, because birds migrate  and that word is basically the same.” Courtney: But then they will just  drop the most untrue, vicious, vile,   full government conspiracy in a single  sentence, looking into the camera, like,   with rage, and then move on. Like, this– it’s  enough to give you whiplash. Because this one   at the end of this, before moving on  to the next topic, they just said,   “There is an orchestrated invasion being led by  the Biden administration in conjunction with the   Mexican cartels.” And that’s why the left had  to invent the word undocumented immigrant. So   the next category is the gender cult, which I  love. I love how they always call it the cult. Royce: It’s probably the only cult  I’m ever going to be a part of. Courtney: I thought you were  specifically not a part of gender. Royce: Yeah, but I think from their perspective  I’m a part of the non-existent gender cult. Courtney: Yeah, that’s probably correct. So they  state here that the word gender is now completely   toxic and people on the right just shouldn’t even  use it. That word is tainted, we’re not going to   use it anymore. And they do another one of their  silly little bits. One looks to the other and   says, “Did you know that there are now between  72 and a thousand different kinds of gender?” Courtney: But then this was the one that  got really weird for me all of a sudden,   because the previous ones, especially that very  first topic, they were, like, “These are the   words the left uses. We want you to identify  these words and we want you to associate this   word or this phrase with this.” At this point,  now, they completely swapped that. Because now,   all of a sudden, swapped that, because now, all  of a sudden, this list is not dangerous words   the left has changed the meaning of, now this list  for this section was: here are the words we should   always be saying. Here are the words you need to  say instead of gender. Here’s the approved list of   words. And they even said, in this category,  “Words matter. Change the words, change the   culture.” Which is fascinating, because that was  what they critiqued the left for doing before they   got into these, and they were like, “This is bad  and this is why we need to fight it.” So there– Royce: It’s so… simple! Courtney: It’s so simple! But anyway, so now  we’re pretending to be on the right, because   here are the words we should always use instead  of gender, because that word? Toxic, co-opted   by the left. [reading] “We should only say: sex,  biological sex, male or female. Except you cannot   use the word sex if you use it in the phrase ‘sex  assigned at birth’.” And then I had to scratch   my head at a couple of these, because a couple  things they said most of it I was following along   with. It’s like, yes, I read this in the original  Project 2025 document. I know where this is coming   from. I’ve heard people say this. I have followed  this logic long enough. But a couple things they   said, like, surprised me. And I was like, I have  to research this because I haven’t heard of this   one yet. But they allege apparently even some  conservatives have started to agree with this   dangerous gender ideology, and those conservatives  now use the phrase ‘gender as revealed at birth’. Royce: I haven’t heard that one. Courtney: I– I’ve certainly not even heard  conservatives say that. But then they go on   to– um, it’s also– It’s so inciting and  inflammatory. Because this entire time,   the disdain with which they’re talking  about the Careers, they’re also like   setting them up to be someone who’s going to  fight you from day one, at every step of the   way. And here’s how you need to watch out for  those– those careers. And they literally said,   “Careers will test you within the first couple  days on the job by asking your pronouns.” Royce: This is giving me stories of Christian  high school telling children that they’re   gonna go out into the world outside of  their Christian private high school,   and their faith in God is gonna be  tested by random strangers constantly. Courtney: Yes, very much that vibe. But it’s okay,   because: “Don’t fear when these Careers  test you by asking you your pronouns.   This is exactly verbatim what you should  say if someone asks you your pronouns.” Royce: Oh, so this is basically  an apologetics course. Courtney: Yes, but instead of religion,   it’s for– Well, we can’t say  gender anymore. It’s– it’s for sex. Royce: Sexual apologetics. [Courtney laughs]  Gives this a different meaning, I think. Courtney: Well, we’re on the left,   so everything we says– everything we  say doesn’t mean what it sounds like. Royce: It’s code. I just don’t  know what it’s code for yet. Courtney: I don’t want to know what sexual  apologetics is code for. If we’re being honest. I   will allow myself to remain ignorant of this one.  But, yes, so once these Careers test you, this is   your proper response: “We’re here to implement the  president’s priorities and agenda. We are not here   to discuss pronouns.” Which is wild that, like,  it doesn’t have to be a discussion. You could   just answer the question. And if you are indeed,  like, if you are indeed an overtly conservative   person – especially in this case – a woman, middle  aged woman, walking in in a dress and heels,   like probably nobody is actually going  to ask you your pronouns. And if they do,   I promise that person means it with sincerity.  They are not testing you. And it doesn’t have   to be a discussion. You could just answer the  question. But also now I love this idea in my   head of someone who just like, very sincerely,  is like, “But now I don’t know what to call you.” Courtney: But it’s also really funny because  when– when someone like you says that you prefer   no pronouns, you’re part of the gender  cult. But when someone like them says,   “I don’t have pronouns,” they’re,  they’re just a normal person. And   you both could use the same phrase  and they mean very different things. Courtney: But then they explain that what  we mean when we say gender affirming care,   we mean sterilizing puberty blockers,  which– [sighs] That’s– Sterilizing. That’s   something I’ve been saying for years. Not only  puberty blockers, which are not sterilizing,   but other medications that aren’t even  pertaining to gender affirming care,   are things that are going to be attacked with  increasing regularity over the years. We’ve   already started seeing groups come for, like,  antidepressants in teenagers. People will say,   like, “Oh, these antidepressants are, you  know, turning the kids asexual and that’s bad.” Courtney: And so there are genuinely  some people who are advocating for,   like, no puberty blockers, no antidepressants,  no… Even birth control. There are people who   will still cite totally made up bullshit,  as this can actually affect your fertility,   or– you know, all these horrible things. So it’s–  they are not ever going to just stop at what they   perceive to be gender affirming care, which is  already egregious enough. We should already be   furious about it. But they’re going to keep  coming. They’re going to keep coming for it. Courtney: But it wasn’t just that.  It was sterilizing puberty blockers,   cross-sex hormones, and genital mutilation.  Always with the genital mutilation with these   people. And then, seemingly an unrelated  thought, but they just had to, like,   dig it in there at the end. They just had to say  the idea that gender is fluid is evil. Which I   think they mean here fluid as in you can change  from one to the other. So they actually just mean,   you know, trans people. Which trans people  can be gender fluid, but are not always. But   they don’t want to have that conversation.  They aren’t here to talk about pronouns. Courtney: So then, the final  category of this video is equity,   and what equity means is prioritizing  unequal treatment for people who aren’t   from a marginalized class. And  they’re really doing the, like,   if we give marginalized people more rights, that  means I have less rights. They’re trying to take   rights away from me as a normal American  woman! They want to treat me unfairly. Royce: Because there is a finite  pool of rights. There are only   so many rights that all of humanity has access to. Courtney: And she was on the  committee that determined   what those rights were, because the  founding documents weren’t good enough. Royce: Why didn’t she allocate more? Courtney: Really, this sounds like a  her problem. She– she could have fixed   this and she didn’t. Shame on her. But, yeah,  this one I don’t have as much to talk about,   because a majority of this section was very  tutorial, like, once you have this job,   once you’re in the White House, we want you to do  X, Y and Z. And obviously the people listening to   this podcast are not going to be appointed  to the next conservative administration. Courtney: A lot of that is very irrelevant,  but the basic premise of that walkthrough,   and the things that she wants everyone to know  is basically a ‘how to’ on how to monitor and   eradicate guidance orders on anything pertaining  to equity positions that have been created. Courtney: And she mentioned like, oh, someone–  there was a gender advisor position or something   that was made. And so a lot of these guidance  orders are like best practices, and a lot of   them do come from or get signed by whoever is  the President. Like, this is my White House.   This is what I would like all of these branches  to keep in mind as you go forward, as you work. Courtney: And in her case, she was absolutely  furious that so many of her best practices,   while– She was right, she was working in a  sector that included a lot of grant writing,   so allocating money. And one of these best  practices that she was presented with by   those dreaded Careers was a policy of equity, and  policies of, like, if you provide a grant to this   organization, we would like this organization  to have a certain amount of diversity, to have   certain best practice– practices implemented and  everything. And so her whole thing was basically:   figure out if this is actually a law,  is this actually legally binding,   or is it just a – quote – “best practice”.  And basically she wants to say, like,   ignore best practices if it’s not actually  a law, if it isn’t an executive order,   if it hasn’t been signed into law. Figure out  if you actually have to abide by this or not. Courtney: So that was the whole premise of a  majority of that section. But then the one thing   that had me going on a bit of a research tangent,  because this was the one where I was like, “Whoa,   I haven’t heard that one yet.” Obviously  we have been hearing about the right’s war   on critical race theory for so long. And  how they say, “Oh, critical race theory   is happening in our elementary schools and our  high schools.” When truly, critical race theory   is– has far more depth as a theory and as a  school of thought, and is usually, you know,   college courses to get that deep.  But they have turned the concept   of critical race theory into learning  about anything that has to do with race. Royce: Yeah, many of the instances of   right-wing outrage are just teaching  accurate history in history classes. Courtney: Yes. Royce: Because there’s been such a long  history of propaganda in textbooks,   particularly when it comes to, like, the Lost  Cause of the South, or something like that. Courtney: Yes. I recently learned that one of  the songs that we learned in elementary school   music class, that quite literally, like, they put  the sheet music and the lyrics in front of us,   they taught it to us, we all sang it, we  were taught it was an American folk song…   I recently just learned it was literally a  minstrel song. And of course we were never   taught the racist history of that. I don’t  think we should have learned that song at   all. I don’t think that should be a hot  topic. But that is kind of what growing   up and getting educated in America is. You  learn a lot of things have holes or gaps,   or you learn something with a racist history  that was never properly explained to you. Royce: Sometimes you learn that what you learned   was intentionally covered up or made  to seem better than it actually was. Courtney: Yeah, and over the last couple of years,  as critical race theory has become a bigger target   for the right, a lot of their concern is just  like, “Well, we don’t want our white children   to feel guilty or to feel bad about crimes they  didn’t even commit.” Or sometimes it’s not even   as personal as we don’t want our kids to feel  bad. Sometimes it’s more nationalistic, like,   “We don’t want our kids to think America is a bad  country, or has ever done anything bad.” Spoiler   alert America has done a lot of bad things. And  we continue to do bad things every single day.   So I’ve known this fight of theirs  has been growing in prominence. But   they said the left has a new  word for critical race theory,   a new phrase that we need to be aware of, and  that new phrase is social emotional learning. Royce: Haven’t heard that one either. Courtney: It’s also not critical race theory,  but it is actually something that is a popular   choice for elementary school teachers. Because  it is quite literally like teaching children how   to identify and understand and respond to their  emotions. So I did find, and this was actually   from 2022, I found an article on NPR, which I’ll  also link in the show notes with everything else   we’ve talked about, called: “How social emotional  learning became a frontline in the battle against   CRT.” So this has actually been around for  a couple of years and this is just news to   me. But from this article it says essentially  [reading] “Social emotional learning teaches   students how to manage their emotions, how to  make good decisions, how to collaborate and   how to understand themselves and others better.  It’s more common in younger grades. All 50 states   have standards related to SEL in preschool  and more than half have standards in K-12.” Royce: So that’s why they’re against it.  They’re teaching cooperation and empathy,   which is education and awareness that helps people  not be pulled into, like, fascist cult ideologies. Courtney: Yeah. It’s also really  interesting because they’re saying, like,   it’s also– it has been around for decades.  They’re like it has sort of changed names,   but it’s all been the same concept. And they’re  like we’ve called them non cognitive skills,   we’ve called them character education. I got  character education as a kindergartner. Like   I remember that being the kindergarten  curriculum. And they’re like, “You know,   adults might call them soft skills.” So it’s  communication, it’s emotional regulation,   it’s something that is very important  for all humans to learn how to do. Royce: Particularly at that age  too, when you’re coming from,   like, early elementary school when this  might be the first time that you’re really   interacting with larger groups of people,  after mostly just being around your family. Courtney: Yeah, or even just experiencing  new types of frustration. You’re learning–   You’re starting to learn things like math and  maybe, if it doesn’t come very easily to you,   maybe that’s a deep source of frustration.  And learning, like, learning how to,   you know, regulate and channel that  frustration in a positive way. But,   like I literally remember in my– and it was  mostly kindergarten. Because there were,   like, songs that we’d learn and there were  different concepts of character that we learned,   and a lot of them were just like respecting  other people. Like that– That is what it means   to have good character is to have respect. And  we were learning things about, like, caring and   fairness. And those are just, like, I don’t know  man, normal things that you teach young children. Courtney: And there’s, in this article,  it even says that there is research   that shows that students deemed more  socially competent by kindergarten   age were more likely to graduate from high  school on time, complete a college degree,   get a stable job in young adulthood. And like  that kind of contributes to a ton of different   areas of society that can contribute to reducing  crime, positive things for the economy. Like– Royce: I mean, yeah, of course it does.  Because if you don’t learn it in school,   in a, like, a well-made curriculum that  is designed to do this, then you just   grow up not knowing how to communicate  effectively or regulate your emotions,   and you make a ton of mistakes until,  hopefully, you eventually figure it out. Courtney: Mm-hmm, but they don’t think crime comes  from their nice children. Crime comes from the   Mexican cartels illegally invading the country  because Biden gave them the okay to do that.   None of this is how any of it works. Royce: I mean, they also believe  in very old, strict gender roles   which have a tendency to not place blame or  accountability where it’s supposed to be. Courtney: Mm-hmm. Yeah. But this article  I found so fascinating because it actually   talks to some educators from  Virginia Beach, in this case,   where– the location where these folks  are from. And they said, all of a sudden   they had school teachers and principals who just,  one year, started getting a ton of questions from   parents that were like, “Can you talk to me  about how you use social emotional learning   in your school and are there connections to  critical race theory?” And they were like,   “What are you talking about? What? What is going  on? Where did all these questions come from?” And,   like I said– Like I have said when we were talking  about the book bans, so even before talking about   any of this project 2025, these organizations  are very coordinated and they have their talking   points, they have their propaganda, they have  very specific goals, and they train people in   very black and white terms. So they’re like  this means this, that bad, go get them. Royce: And this is a logical extension  of book banning. This is an attempt to   remove the areas of education  that would lead people to an   understanding that what these  groups are trying to do is bad. Courtney: Mm-hmm, which is also– So, you know,  fascinating too. Because we talk about critical   race theory. This article defines it as a decades  old legal framework. And it’s interesting to   frame it as a legal framework, because I have  always known it to be a concept of, you know,   racism is not one individual person who is bigoted  toward another race. Racism is the systemic   issues. It is how inequality gets embedded into  law. And– But when you think of it that way, like,   yeah, laws, policies, government, that is a legal  framework. So this is a legal lens for viewing the   tangible effects of racism in our society. And  of course, they’re not going to see it that way.   But they kept defending using illegal alien,  because they’re like it’s just a legal term.   It’s just a legal term. But what do you suppose  they would say if we say, “Well, critical race   theory is just a legal term”? They’re gonna  say, no, you’re indoctrinating our children. Royce: And they’re the only ones who are supposed  to be able to indoctrinate their children. Courtney: Nobody’s indoctrinating my children,  except for me! I mean literally. That’s why   there’s such a war against public schools in  general. And why so many of these organizations   are making a big push towards homeschooling too.  So yeah, that is very fascinating. But basically   what they’re saying is this is a Trojan Horse.  Social emotional learning. I said that backwards   a little bit, let me try that again. So what  conservative activists have been saying is that   social emotional learning is a Trojan Horse for  critical race theory and transgender advocacy.   So they are quite literally telling their camp if  your child is learning social emotional learning,   SEL, it’s really just critical race theory and  transgender advocacy. That’s what’s at the heart,   that’s what’s actually inside. And  this is how they’re pushing it on,   they are secretly pushing them  in. And it’s– They even called   it a new variant of the CRT virus.  Because we know they care so much   about new variants of dangerous viruses. I say  as we’re in another historic wave of COVID. Royce: I have to ask what would a super  spreader event of the CRT virus look like? Courtney: I don’t want to know. [laughs] Royce: I feel like it’s a free hormone party. Courtney: Free hormone party. Well, if they are   in fact saying that critical race theory  and transgender advocacy go hand in hand,   then sure. So that is what they said. They said  critical race theory and transgender advocacy. Royce: Oh, I flubbed my delivery.  I meant HRT party, not CRT party. Courtney: I mean a Chappell Roan concert maybe.  But yeah, I mean, to them, they’re saying it is   all one and the same. They’re saying this  is all dangerous, putting it all in the   same box. They’re all very different things,  but this is how they have chosen to respond   to anything the left says. It’s to tell their  camp, “Nothing they say is what they mean. It   always means something different and it’s always  something sinister and dangerous that’s going to   ruin the country.” But yeah, it’s also–  It’s very fascinating here. Because they   also linked to an indoctrination map. It is a map  of the United States where conservative groups,   parents defending education, tracked incidents  in schools related to gender ideology, ethnic   studies, and social emotional learning.  And just look at all those incidents! Royce: For those of you who can’t see  the map, it is where you would expect   basically all of the places where there  are lots of people, with a pretty narrow   blank column in the plains area and fewer  dots in the south than you would expect. Courtney: But I also find it fascinating  because on the main page, like, you can just   sort of scroll down and see the most recent  incidents that have been here. And, oh no,   in a middle school somewhere they reported that a  Palestinian flag was displayed in an eighth grade   social studies classroom. Oh, a social studies  classroom dare inform students that there is   such a thing as Palestine?! But then everything  else on the front page are all universities. And   I’m not going to go through right now to see  how many of these are actually middle and high   schools or elementary schools. But, like, why are  you complaining about the University of Honolulu,   the University of Illinois, Westchester  University, University of Colorado? Like, these   are all grown ass adults who are paying a lot of  money to learn the things that they’re learning. Courtney: And, heaven forbid,  Missouri State University has courses   that feature topics such as critical race theory,   white privilege and whiteness. They’re saying this  is a dangerous incident that they need to track. Courtney: Again, someone is paying a  lot of money to learn these things. Courtney: But yeah, the basic takeaway from  this concept and this article is that parents in   general, but especially highly conservative ones,  are always going to be paranoid that teachers are   indoctrinating their kids into something. And  the thing is, critical race theory being their   main target of focus for so long is not actually  a course in middle schools. It’s not. Actually,   you’re not going to see the words  critical race theory in an elementary   school curriculum. But you are genuinely going  to see social emotional learning in curriculums   across the country, especially for younger  children. So they’re trying to use that as a,   like, “A-ha! See that. There  it is. I found the thing that   makes me uncomfortable.” And it is  a very false equivalence. However,   the effect is still the same. It is still very  dangerous, it is something to be aware of. Courtney: And, yeah, they just conclude the  episode by saying like, all of these dangerous   phrases and words that we’ve talked about today  are in documents in every area of the government.   Therefore, when you get appointed to your position  and you get into the White House, it’s going   to be your job to make sure that they are all  eradicated. Because we can never use these words   again. They’re dangerous. RIP health services.  So I think that is our episode for today that   completely summarizes the entire first episode of  this training course. It was probably longer than   the course itself, but hopefully a little more  tolerable. I don’t know if I’m going to feel like   talking about the other videos or not, but if I  do, we just might make this a multi-part series. Courtney: But to round out today’s episode,  I am super ecstatic to share our featured   marketplace vendor of the week. We’ve got some  things relevant to this American election,   to politics, and also just some fun things that  I genuinely love. Our vendor today is the Geeky   Knot. It is a shop that is asexual,  neurodivergent and non-binary owned,   where you can find handmade fiber arts and  sticker designs. If you are the kind of person   who would like to express your voting choices  in the form of a sticker, we have Step Moms   for Momala 2024. A sticker that says Madam  President 2024. And Step Parents for Harris.   To name just a couple. From the item description,  you can also: “Join your fellow anti-Zionist   Jewish family in declaring Not In Our Name in  a bright, vibrant way. Show your faith and your   solidarity with Palestine all at once when wearing  this watermelon kipa.” And there are a couple   of different color options for those. We also  have just a bunch of other queer and political   stickers. One that says Masking Is Punk, and  we’ve got some trans, ace, and aro Pride things. Courtney: But I personally just really love  the fiber arts on this page. A couple years   ago I actually ordered a couple of things from  this page. So there are these really cute,   like, ice cream pint cozies, and there  was an asexual pride flag colored one,   which is very nice for eating my vegan Ben  and Jerry’s ice cream with, very lovely. I   also bought what was listed as a Krampus hat.  Just big, beautiful, like, twisted horns,   big goaty ears. I actually wore it when we were  playing a game of D&D and I was playing a satyr   and that was a very fun time. But do check this  shop out. There is a lot more than that. There   are scarves with various Pride flag colors, aro  scarves, ace scarves, bi scarves, and even some   really beautiful purses and tote bags. There’s  all kinds of stuff on this store. So, as always,   links to find the Geeky Knot are going to  be in the description and the show notes. Courtney: And I will also give everyone a  reminder that our Gaza action doc is still in   the description of every single episode. So please  crack that open now and then find some action   items, contact your representatives, donate money  if you have some to give, find ways to volunteer.   I know the particular politics of an election  year has everybody very focused on the country,   very anxious about our future, but we can’t  let that anxiety get in the way of our ongoing   work. And so that’s all for today. Tune in  next time for possibly more politics, or   perhaps something else entirely? We  will find out when we get there, ta-ta.

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