The Taliban shot Malala Yousafzai because she was an outspoken advocate for girls’ education in Pakistan, which the Taliban had banned in the Swat Valley. They viewed her activism as a threat to their ideology and control. Specifically, the Taliban stated that she was “anti-Taliban and secular,” “pro-West,” and “speaking against the Taliban.”

Yesterday, Kristi Noem, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (who shot her dog) took another shot at Harvard University to revoke the Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification so Harvard can no longer enroll foreign students. Existing foreign students must transfer to another university or lose their legal status. China has offered these students a free ride at Chinese universities.

The playbook to dismantle education in America is the Mandate for Leadership, the Conservative Promise also known as Project 2025 (pages 319-361) orchestrated by the Heritage Foundation with so-called Christian Nationalist advocates, the emerging American Taliban.

Authoritarian politics seeks to undermine public discourse by attacking and devaluing education, expertise, and language. Intelligent debate is impossible without an education with access to different perspectives, a respect for expertise when one’s own knowledge is limited, and a rich enough language to precisely describe reality. When education, expertise, and linguistic distinctions are undermined, there remains only power and tribal (MAGA-like) identity. In fascist ideology, there is only one legitimate viewpoint, that of the dominant politics.

A Project 2025 tactic is to stop all Federal involvement in education, a shift to states’ rights and privatization. Governor Little and lawmakers agree and are attacking Idaho’s public schools and higher education. Legislation pushes vouchers, book bans, censorship, and chronic underfunding. It is expected that the legislature will repeal Idaho Launch which funds career and technical education. And they’re ignoring public opinion and Idaho’s constitution to do it.

Throughout history, tyrants and oligarchs have understood that their major enemy is an educated citizenry. Slaveholders prohibited the enslaved from learning to read. Nazis burned books. Putin and Xi censor the media. Big tech and well-funded political action spread mis- and disinformation. Ignorance is the handmaiden of tyranny.

Authoritarian or tyrannical politics claims to discover its origins in a pure and mythic past that is religiously pure, racially pure and culturally pure. In all fascist mythic paths, an extreme version of the patriarchal family and glory of the nation reigns supreme. Think of how American history is being re-written as the victors celebrate their spoils to remove reference to women, black, Native American and immigrant military heroes of the past century or more. So-called white Christian nationalism, the new Taliban, sets aside the New Testament of Jesus Christ to serve the poor, weak, and (gasp) all neighbors so that the Old Testament of judgment, punishment, and economic dominance prevails. Motherly empathy and compassion are out; masculine retribution and warriors are in. Resource sharing and clean energy are out; selfish hoarding and coal mining are in; brown immigrants are out, white immigrants are in.

Thomas Jefferson assured Americans that if they could “enlighten the people generally… tyranny and the oppressions of mind and body will vanish, like evil spirits at the dawn of day.” So, America became the cradle of free, universal, public education and world-renowned higher education. A growing mass of citizens for democracy are organizing protest rallies and public conversations that counter the ignorance and apathy of those who don’t know and don’t care. Educated citizens recognize false and mythic liberal conspiracies against whites, the rich, and Christians. Educated citizens recognize that the current self-proclaimed leaders won’t make America great again for all but great for only the select few. Educated citizens are joining the fight against the attack on the American mind. Join the fight. Stop the new American Taliban.