The Silent Majority and Vocal Minority Defensive Technique
While speaking with Sabrina recently, we both recognized a common rhetorical technique increasingly employed by corporate deform education leaders and their political defenders. As increased pressure and critical examination is delivered to said leaders, they have used the “silent majority vs. vocal minority” technique. This approach attempts to pit an abstract “silent majority” of supportive parents, teachers, students, and community members against a “vocal minority” of antagonistic critics who corp deform leaders castigate as zealous, extremists filled with dogmatic negativity.
Meanwhile, the hypothetical “silent majority” never gets produced in mass so this body of largely fictional supporters and ardent allies remains conveniently undefined. It’s true that occasionally a lone rank-and-file teacher or parent comes forward and encourages the corporate reform package as a whole. Once, grassroots citizens in a school district have