Leaders in Anti-DEI/CRT movements opposed academic freedom and anti-discrimination laws

This should surprise nobody, but some of the people at the center of the anti-DEI and anti-CRT movements had zero interest in academic freedom or helping people of color. Their goals were purging liberal/leftist academics, dismantling anti-discrimination laws, and pushing bigoted perspectives. NYT reporting on it:
‘America Is Under Attack’: Inside the Anti-D.E.I. Crusade
Yet even as they or their allies publicly advocated more academic freedom, some of those involved privately expressed their hope of purging liberal ideas, professors and programming wherever they could. They debated how carefully or quickly to reveal some of their true views — the belief that “a healthy society requires patriarchy,” for example, and their broader opposition to anti-discrimination laws — in essays and articles written for public consumption.

In candid private conversations, some wrote favorably of laws criminalizing homosexuality, mocked the appearance of a female college student as overly masculine and criticized Peter Thiel, the prominent gay conservative donor, over his sex life. In email exchanges with the Claremont organizers, the writer Heather Mac Donald derided working mothers who employed people from “the low IQ 3rd world” to care for their children and lamented that some Republicans still celebrated the idea of racially diverse political appointments.
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“In support of ridding schools of C.R.T., the Right argues that we want nonpolitical education,” Mr. Klingenstein wrote in August 2021. “No we don’t. We want our politics. All education is political.” Dr. Yenor appeared to agree, responding with some ideas for reshaping K-12 education. “An alternative vision of education must replace the current vision of education,” he wrote back.
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Now, Dr. Yenor advised his friend Dr. Azerrad to aim his statement at a liberal audience — to defend Dr. Wax on the grounds that if she were fired, it would only embolden red-state lawmakers to fire controversial left-wing professors. “But don’t we want this to happen?” Dr. Azerrad asked. “Yes,” replied Dr. Yenor. “But your audience doesn’t want it to happen.”
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I'm at the four paragraph limit, so I can't include some other really awful portions, like advocating for people to embrace calling gay people the f-slur, forcing gay people back into the closet (including calling imprisoning gay people "wholesome policy"), the desire to maintain a patriarchal society, and calling Black Republican political appointees (like Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell) talentless "quota appointments."

Going back to my criticism yesterday, when Ben Sasse rants about "DEI," he's relying on the talking points from these people. I'm not saying that Sasse necessarily believes what they do, but rather that the right-wing ecosystem is poisoned by bigots like these folks who use right-wing media to launder their repugnant ideas for them. (And unfortunately, the centrist and left-wing media sources sometimes eat up the same garbage.)

 

They try to thinly veil the bigotry, but it often ends coming out when their private thoughts get leaked. I'm not one to blind (or deafen) myself to the dog whistles.

 

They are effective enough at it that legacy media is willing to overlook it. Hell, some "centrists" are happy to overlook it too.

 

I'm not so sure the electorate is there. The anti-woke crusade is doing quite poorly now. It seems to me that they embrace it because it gets clicks. And it allows older folks (the reactionary centrists lol) to rail against the "woke" youth.

 

Exactly what I said.