This week. the House of Representatives of New Hampshire, one of the states that pioneered public education, passed on a party-line vote yet another bill limiting what teachers can teach. Many such bills have passed in dozens of states, but this is the first to be debated after a year of Trump 2.0. It bears close examination as a bellwether of what a movement rapidly embracing open authoritarianism plans to do with public education.

Named the CHARLIE Act, an acronym for “Countering Hate and Revolutionary Leftist Indoctrination in Education Act,” the bill’s contradictions are glaring. But as George Orwell observed, a state gathers power from inconsistency by demonstrating that no one is willing to point out the nakedness of the king.

Clause 2:2 declares, “Education should cultivate a neutral or patriotic disposition,” as if these approaches were synonymous. Later it nervously repeats itself: “This act prohibits such indoctrination while preserving academic freedom for neutral, factual discussions” — but then mentions what it calls “prohibited world-views.” Immediately after reiterating for a third time that teaching “factual, neutral instruction on historical events or figures” was not prohibited, it adds a caveat: “Instruction on critical race theory or intersectionality is permitted only if presented factually and objectively as Marxian theories contrary to American tradition, law, and ethics.”