Moms for Liberty, the shadowy right-wing group whose members fashion themselves as fierce “Mama bear” types, is yet again facing controversy over extremist ideology in its ranks.
An Indiana chapter of the organization issued an apology on Thursday after a recent newsletter it sent to its members included a quote attributed to Adolf Hitler.
NBC News reported:
The Hamilton County chapter of Moms for Liberty quoted Hitler’s remarks at a 1935 rally on the front page of its new newsletter on Wednesday. The quote, placed directly below the masthead, read: “He alone, who OWNS the youth, GAINS the future.”
After The Indianapolis Star reported the quote on Wednesday, the Moms for Liberty chapter revised the newsletter, adding additional “context” that noted the quote from this “horrific leader should put parents on alert.”
“If the government has control over our children today, they control our country’s future,” the group wrote in its updated newsletter.
The attempted clean-up job apparently didn’t suffice, considering the chapter’s leader eventually issued an apology. By Thursday morning, a new version of the newsletter was posted that replaced the quote and additional “context” with the apology.
But the story won’t be swept under the rug that easily. It’s easy to see why some people might believe Moms for Liberty holds a favorable view of Hitler and his oppressive regime, despite this chapter’s apology. Its members have sought to have the government ban classroom discussions they don’t like — discussions focused on discrimination and historic oppression. It’s an agenda focused on indoctrinating children that does, in fact, echo some efforts imposed by Hitler and his allies.
And Moms for Liberty has built a reputation of its own as a far-right extremist group.
It has been identified as an extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. And Vice News published a report earlier this week detailing the group’s close ties to the extremist Proud Boys organization, members of which have been convicted of seditious conspiracy for their role in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. Those ties came into focus after a right-wing activist with ties to Moms for Liberty successfully petitioned a Florida school to restrict access to a book containing a poem written by Black author Amanda Gorman, which she read at President Joe Biden’s inauguration.
As I said at the time, these repeated acts of extremism show why America’s children deserve emancipation from Moms for Liberty. We’ve seen what happens when children are indoctrinated with horrifying, destructive worldviews. We don’t need a repeat in the United States.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.