Oklahoma high schools to teach 2020 election conspiracy theories as fact

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Guardian

Sat 17 May 2025 18.18 EDT


As part of the latest Republican push in red states to promote ideologies sympathetic to Donald Trump, Oklahoma’s new social studies curriculum will ask high school students to identify “discrepancies” in the 2020 election results.

The previous standard for studying the 2020 election merely said: “Examine issues related to the election of 2020 and its outcome.” The new version is more expansive: “Identify discrepancies in 2020 elections results by looking at graphs and other information, including the sudden halting of ballot-counting in select cities in key battleground states, the security risks of mail-in balloting, sudden batch dumps, an unforeseen record number of voters, and the unprecedented contradiction of ‘bellwether county’ trends.”

The revised curriculum standard comes at the behest of Ryan Walters, the state school superintendent, who has publicly voiced his support for Trump. In October, Walters lauded Trump in an interview, saying that “Trump’s won the argument on education”. Walters, who has also advocated for ending “wokeness” in public schools, went on to say: “We have education bureaucrats that are left-wing, elitist, that think they know best for families, and they have become so radicalized that our families are going: ‘What is going on here?’”

Oklahoma’s new social studies standards for K-12 public school students, already infused with references to the Bible and national pride, were revised at Walters’ direction. The Republican official has spent much of his first term in office not only lauding Trump but also feuding with teachers’ unions and local school superintendents.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/17/oklahoma-high-schools-election-conspiracy-theories

[OrlandoDem2]

1. Time to boycott everything Oklahoma. Shouldn't be too hard.

[KPN]

20. With you on that. I think every Democratic Party -- and D Party supporting organization, group and affiliate should

make this a visible, loud, non-stop and aggressive campaign: BOYCOTT OKLAHOMA!!!

NOW!

[BigDemVoter]

36. I agree 100%

I wouldn't even drive through the state to get somewhere, because I refuse spend even a penny on gas or on anything else in that state.

[TomJulie]

45. WTH???

Oklahoma high schools to teach 2020 election conspiracy theories as fact

This has got to be a joke.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." -- Orwell . . . nt

[joshdawg]

3. Surprised he is not advocating that the earth is flat,

the moon landing was staged, and trump is sane.
What an idiot!

[Botany]

4. There is stupid and then there is Oklahoma stupid which takes it to another level of unAmerican idiocy.

Are historical facts inconvenient to your Christo Fascist agenda? Then just rewrite history.*
Saudi Arabia funds this kind of education in Pakistan and Afghanistan with their madrassas
that are used “to teach” young men to grow up and be God Warriors for the Taliban. In America
they call this a Christian Education where science, facts, history, and critical thinking are not
part of the curriculum but are called “Being Woke” or “DEI” or just “CRT” or just not spoken about.

* America was built on racism, sexism, slavery, genocide, and Christian extremism which for
years were kept out of public education as separation of church and state but that America
that “Shining City on the Hill” is being burned to the ground by the GOP, Musk, Trump, Oligarchs,
Christo Fascists, right wing media and web sites and Vlad’s criminal network.

Teaching that slavery and the genocide of the native peoples was wrong and evil is now going
to banned and replaced with stories about the Africans from East Central Africa who were made
to be slaves just got a nice boat ride to America. Rewriting History in the name of Jesus by the
least Christian people you could find is the goal.

[gab13by13]

5. I call them blatant lies,

calling them conspiracy theories gives them a shred of truth. I believe the conspiracy theory that Oswald didn't kill JFK.

[surfered]

6. They'll also teach the earth is flat, the moon is made of green cheese, and man lived at the same time as the dinosaurs.

[GiqueCee]

8. There are already WAY too many...

... deluded souls that actually believe everything you mentioned, maybe with the exception of the moon thing, but that's only because they hadn't thought of it yet.
We have a thoroughly obnoxious neighbor who is convinced that the Earth is indeed flat, and no amount of logic or science can sway him. His arguments in support of this idiotic belief are incoherent gibberish. The moon is flat, too; why do you think you can only see one side of it? It all goes downhill from there, to almost speaking in tongues.
And he home-schools his kids. I pity them.

[surfered]

10. It will affect them

[Bengus81]

15. Hmm...Don't RW dumbshits call that kind of teaching "indoctrination"?? And taught by "guberment schools"?

Pot meet the KETTLE..............

[MoseShrute]

7. As a life-long okie...

It’s hard for me to believe this is the state that produced Will Rogers and Woody Guthrie. That’s what multiple generations of hard core rw blather from The Daily Oklahoman, the newspaper out of OKC, will do. It was Fux sNews before there was Fux sNews. Oklahoma has been either last or one of the worst 3-4 states in educational results for 40 years now. The lunatic ryan walters has his eyes set on Felon47’s massive rump to be the Groom of the Stool, but he must not be doing something correctly because he’s still here. Damnit. There is a great book, Waltzing With the Ghost of Tom Joad, that perfectly explains why Oklahoma was the 6th poorest state in the nation back in the 1930s and still is today. Main reasons: generational lack of education.

[BumRushDaShow]

9. And...

(I actually saw a "summer stock" production of that, I think in Portsmouth, NH, back in the '70s when visiting my cousins who lived up in the area back then )

And as a weather hobbyist, they have been threatening the gutting of the Storm Prediction Center that is located right there in Norman, OK.

[Bengus81]

16. Also the State that aviator Wiley Post was from. He had some skeletons in the closet

but did great things for aviation before he was killed in 1935. While flying the Lockheed Vega he discovered the jet stream seven or eight years before the claim that WWII pilots discovered it.

He had Goodyear rubber make him a pressurized flying suit in the 30's for high altitude flying.

There's a book called Forgotten Eagle about his life that is a fantastic read.

[Paladin]

11. Thanks for making Texas look enlightened by comparison, Oklahoma.

Normally it takes UT whipping OU in college football to accomplish that.

Of course, it's just a matter of time before Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick, Ted Cruz, and the rest of the Texas Republican leadership douchebags try to do the same thing to our public schools. Making Texas look stupid is what they live for.

[paleotn]

12. A fascist education!

What better way to say you're a state filled with illiterate, god bothering fucktards!!!!!

[bronxiteforever]

13. Trump is the Fuhrer of OK.

History does rhyme.

[samnsara]

17. Hopefully there are parents who will remove their kids during that indoctrination

..when i worked with child abuse and neglect prevention non profits we would make presentations in the schools about Good Touch/Bad Touch and we had to present the info to a parent group before we even were allowed into the classrooms.

[oldmanlynn]

18. As soon as they produce text, that is clearly wrong and they're teaching them the wrong things

They will be sued and they will lose

[KPN]

19. Oh boy, that's a doozy! The transformation is apparently complete. We are now officially and unquestionably

living on Bizzaro World. .... I'd say remind me never ever to travel to or through Oklahoma again, but I already made that commitment a long while ago.

[appleannie1]

21. When are they going to teach that wind turbines cause cancer?

Hitler employed the same tactics and actually got children to turn in their parents.

[mdbl]

22. Jesus what an asshole.

If I were a parent in that state I would try and start a class-action lawsuit against teaching falsehoods to public school children.

[Beartracks]

31. Right? It seems you'd have to have PROVEN the "fact" before you could teach it as fact.

How many courts ruled against the election denier lawsuits due to lack of any evidence? Wasn't it over 60?

===================

[cbabe]

23. I used to give extra credit points if a student found an error in their history book.

Surprising number of errors, poor grammar and punctuation, etc.

Would be fun asking these students to do the same. Do their own research like finding the hidden animals in the drawing.

[Martin68]

24. That is seriously dangerous to the future of democracy. I suspect this is one reason for dissolving the Education

Department. That and the desire to teach conservative Christianity in state-funded schools are the two main reasons.

[cbabe]

27. Also to break the powerful teachers union.

[bif]

25. This country is truly going insane

[cbabe]

26. Wondering how tribes are reacting? Echoes of boarding schools lies and

brainwashing. Time to assert their sovereignty. Again.

[azureblue]

28. Will this os so sanctimonius Chriistian

Allow the teachings of Jesus in school? (even though they are pretty much common to all religions)
The rich help the needy. Help those who are sick, elderly, a newcomer, poor, etc. (and if you do not, you are going to hell)
Plus the "Do not lie' part which Repubs recoil from..
Of course not..

So how about emailing this nut Matthew 25: 31 - 46, and demand that OK kids be taught that. And all OK officials follow that or be removed from office.

[Beartracks]

29. So that's Walters' plan for a state that ranks in the bottom 10 in education? "Let's teach bullshit!"

Just start teaching ideological fever dreams as fact. That common sense is suspect. That 2 + 2 = 5.

=======================

[Beartracks]

30. So that's Walters' plan for a state that ranks in the bottom 10 in education? "Let's teach bullshit!"

Just start teaching ideological fever dreams as fact. That common sense is suspect. That 2 + 2 = 5.

=======================

[chouchou]

32. WTF! Oklahoma is WAY toward the bottom of the barrel..and they want to make it worse??

Crime & Corrections
#38
Education
#48
Health Care
#48
Infrastructure
#32
Natural Environment
#37
Opportunity
#30

[twodogsbarking]

33. You know, Morons.

[dedl67]

34. Many Oklahomans who are smart and talented

will likely move to more enlightened states. As a result, Oklahoma will become an even less desirable place to live, and the process of selective emigration will continue. This is sad, as there are many good people in Oklahoma.

[FishBones51]

43. Relocating?

Come to New York. We love your accents.

[Bmoboy]

35. Some Southern schools teach about the War of Northern Aggression

So ... nothing new here.

[Jacson6]

37. To tell you the truth.

95% of the teenagers in my civics class just took it for credits to graduate. They really didn't care what was taught. I was a news and politics buff as a teenager, so I liked it. I took what they taught us as a grain of salt.


This was 45 years ago.

[Pas-de-Calais]

38. And WHERE does OK sit in HS education scores in the country?

[Karasu]

39. Some states are already too far gone, and I pity anyone who lives in them who isn't a Republican.

Last edited Sun May 18, 2025, 07:49 PM - Edit history (1)

[BidenRocks]

40. More lawsuits!

Knowingly spreading false information, propaganda, in taxpayer funded schools.
Start with this lie and the kids will never listen to you again.
Class Dismissed! Forever!

[DENVERPOPS]

41. Of course they do

Isn't the Oklahoma Public Schools the ones that ordered 65,000 of Trump's tacky, way over priced, cheaply made BIBLES????????

[mwb970]

42. And we wonder why Americans are so dumb and ignorant.

[LudwigPastorius]

44. OOOOOOOOK...Lahoma where the wind comes rushin' down the plain.

...and the bullshit's high as an elephant's eye

...as it's climbin' clear up to the skyyyyy

[IcyPeas]

46. Ryan Walters is pathetic. I'm surprised trump hasn't hired him.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma’s top education official said he’s teaming with country music singer Lee Greenwood in seeking donations to get $59.99 leather-bound “God Bless the USA” Bibles into classrooms throughout the state, after a legislative panel rejected his $3 million request to fund the effort.

State Superintendent Ryan Walters said this week that he’s partnering with Greenwood to help ensure the Bibles, which have been endorsed by President Donald Trump, get to Oklahoma schools.

https://apnews.com/article/bible-oklahoma-schools-walters-greenwood-0b3b92e2b273c3ac7fa40ab4c9646a70

Oklahoma superintendent faces blowback for putting Libs of TikTok creator on library panel

Raichik’s Libs of TikTok account on X frequently features anti-trans posts and clips of public school teachers aimed at generating right-wing outrage. One of her posts last year showing an edited video critical of a public school librarian in Tulsa led to several consecutive days of bomb threats to schools in the district.

In 2022, medical providers at Children’s National Hospital in Washington became the latest targets of social media campaigns harassing U.S. hospitals after a post to the Libs of TikTok account.

https://apnews.com/article/oklahoma-education-superintendent-walters-libs-tiktok-raichik-4db2bcb9d8e0582f67329f6879bdf6ba

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

47. I hope the ACLU

or the local Dem party or someone will take this to court. Didn't Trump lose about 60 times in court on this very subject?