One of the most dominant features of the modern Republican Party is its love for creating moral panic over things that either (1) aren’t actually happening or (2) are positive developments but ones that conservatives insist will lead to the downfall of society. Whether it’s immigrants supposedly taking Americans’ jobs or paid parental leave turning fathers into “doting dad[s],” the GOP has a long history of shamelessly trying to convince people that something very sinister is transpiring, and only Republicans can save them.

At the moment, the cause célèbre is the idea that liberals have stripped parents of a say in their children’s education, leading to terrible outcomes like kids being required to wear masks in the middle of a pandemic, curricula that includes accurate facts about America’s racist past and present, and—and you may want to sit down for this because it’s extremely alarming—the leaders of tomorrow being taught that the Holocaust did actually occur.