Special to WorldTribune, September 23, 2021

Analysis by Joe Schaeffer

When the connected groups and their big-box media-anointed “experts” flash their ultra-authoritarian side, it needs to be highlighted. For it represents an important “tell” moment revealing the ugly higher aims of our ruling elites.

Case in point: A brave Texas mom made a splash last week by publicly denouncing the filth being force-fed children in America’s public schools today.

“I do not want my children to learn about anal sex in middle school,” Kara Bell told the Lake Travis Independent School Board on Sept. 15. Bell was referring to a particularly graphic book utilized by at least two middle schools in the district. Her microphone was cut off.

A mother spoke out in defense of her children. Cue the “expert.” And what an amazing quote he had to offer:

From a report by KXAN-TV, an NBC affiliate in Austin (bold added throughout this article):

Jonathan Friedman is with PEN America, a nonprofit organization that defends diversity, inclusion and free expression in literature. He says contending views about what students should learn in school are at a boiling point, with debates over the content of books becoming more heated….

Friedman says many books with sexually explicit content have holistic value, teaching a diversity of viewpoints and exposing young people to the realities of the world….

“You have a small contingent in many cases of parents who decide that they disagree, and that they must know better than those who are in the classroom.”

We can’t have that, now can we?

Friedman isn’t kidding. Here he is in August writing for PEN America on the issue and explicitly stating that parents should not be the ultimate decision-makers:

Parent and community engagement matters in education, but it must not be the only principle that guides schools through our culture war controversies. School leaders need to have a strong commitment to pedagogical principles, and to students’ rights to access literature and learn honest history. In states like Texas, where racial and ethnic diversity is accelerating, considerations of diversity and inclusion must also be part of the equation.

In an official PEN statement on the controversy, Friedman explains things further, openly declaring that schools have a duty to expose children to diversity as part of the core education process:

“The district has an obligation to open students’ minds to the difficult issues these books reckon with, not close them off to diverse lived experiences. After all, how can we expect young people to learn about diversity, if we do not expose them to diverse perspectives in literature?”

Yes, Jonathan Friedman is a budding tyrant. But he is not a harmless one. His expert bow for local Texas TV news is no accident. A look at the official PEN bio confirms it. Friedman is an anointed voice:

[Friedman] regularly provides commentary on campus free speech issues for national news media and has published op-eds for CNN, The Washington Post, and higher education outlets. Friedman has facilitated workshops and conducted advisory meetings with students, faculty, and administrators at dozens of colleges and universities across the United States.

So what is PEN America?

Like so many institutions co-opted and re-purposed by the moneyed cultural Left today, PEN is a formerly-respected group that was founded by prominent American writers back in 1922. It has been fully radicalized today.

Its CEO is Suzanne Nossel. She is a player. Nossel is connected to the hilt: Clintons, Obama, Wall Street Journal. From her PEN bio:

She has served as the Chief Operating Officer of Human Rights Watch and as Executive Director of Amnesty International USA. During the first term of the Obama Administration, Nossel served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations, where she led U.S. engagement in the United Nations and multilateral institutions, on human rights and humanitarian issues. During the Clinton Administration, Nossel was Deputy to the U.S. Ambassador for UN Management and Reform at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, where she was the lead negotiator in settling U.S. arrears to the world body. During her corporate career, Nossel served as Vice President of U.S. Business Development for Bertelsmann and as Vice President for Strategy and Operations for the Wall Street Journal. Nossel coined the term “Smart Power,” which was the title of a 2004 article she published in Foreign Affairs Magazine and later became the theme of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s tenure in office.

In March, Nossel moderated a panel discussion officially sponsored by PEN and the leftist Brennan Center For Justice. The entire event was devoted to celebrating and defending George Soros:

PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel moderates a panel discussion with President of the Brennan Center for Justice Michael Waldman, Open Society Foundations President Mark Malloch–Brown, Founder and CEO of A/B Partners and Win Black Andre Banks, Color Of Change Vice President and Chief of Campaigns Arisha Michelle Hatch, and filmmaker Jesse Dylan.

Last November, WorldTribune reported on Jesse Dylan’s propaganda film on “Soros” and how deeply tied in the son of Bob Dylan is to a dizzying array of powerful leftist and establishment forces.

You can watch the full panel discussion here if you have an hour to waste. Just surfing through it, it is amazing to observe the powerful Nossel slavishly carry water for Soros.

Take Back Reality and Redefine Credibility: Revive the American Free Press

PEN is currently preparing to celebrate Banned Book Week from Sept. 26-Oct. 2. As part of the effort, the group has “chosen to spotlight 10 of the 19 books slated for removal or suspension” in Texas. “We hope you’ll take the time to check out these groundbreaking books,” PEN exclaims.

Among the recommended reading is “Out of Darkness” by Ashley Hope Pérez, the novel aimed at children with graphic content on anal sex that mom Kara Bell spoke out against.

PEN has been at this for years. A similar 2011 list is revealing. Topping it was a children’s book titled “And Tango Makes Three,” a pro-homosexuality children’s book about two male penguins who raise a baby penguin together.

According to the radical pro-sexual education organization SIECUS, which WorldTribune has revealed has a disturbing hold over several leading 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, “And Tango Makes Three” is “directed at children ages four to eight.”

There are more powerful connections to be found within the PEN orbit seeking to divest parents of authority in their children’s education.

Markus Dohle, CEO of Penguin Random House, one of the largest book publishers in the world, serves as Executive Vice President of PEN’s Board of Trustees.

A transgender featured op-ed writer for The New York Times is a current Term Trustee.

As is a Board member of the Texas Tribune, another phony and thoroughly purchased “respected media source,” as WorldTribune documented in July.

There is a concerted push going on in this country right now to destroy the family and separate children from the moral authority of their parents. And just look at all the powerful names that can be connected to it.

INFORMATION WORLD WAR: How We Win . . . . Executive Intelligence Brief

  ‘Expert’: Sexual diversity wants your kids, and you should have no say in the matter