Right-wing grifters go after UK with pitiful DEI trap | Opinion
You know what’s not gutter journalism?
Following a tip on whether Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton’s street was plowed when much of the rest of the city was mired in ice.
You know what is gutter journalism? Pretending to be a student so you can catch some poor University of Kentucky staffer saying something true and legal, then sandbag him like you’re ICE and he’s a naturalized U.S. citizen taking his kid to school.
But the more I think about it, gutter journalism is too complimentary a term for what a bunch of right-wing grifters pulled off at UK last fall; it’s just cheap theatrics that we have to endure for living in absolutely the dumbest time with the worst people imaginable.
Sure it was impolitic of that poor staffer in the UK sociology department to tell the fake student from the right-wing watchdog group Accuracy in Media (what a joke) that there was still DEI in the curriculum. Which of course there is because House Bill 4, the anti-DEI legislation, is not supposed to affect curriculum.
But most people don’t actually assume the person they’re talking to is a James O’Keefe wanna-be. Guess what? Sociology is the academic study of our human society, social behavior, and social interactions, which are full of diversity, homogeneity, inclusion, exclusion, and systemic racism. That’s why concepts of DEI are in the curriculum, and that’s why HB 4 excluded curriculum and research.
That’s true for a lot of other majors as well, like history, as much as the right-wing mob would like to pretend that slavery never existed in our exceptional country.
That’s what President Eli Capilouto should have said when he got sandbagged by the Liberty caucus brain trust, Rep. Shane Baker and T.J. Roberts, at a legislative hearing on Thursday.
It’s curious, in fact, that the viral video is timestamped on Sept. 5, 2025, but it didn’t get released until the day before Capilouto was scheduled to appear in front of legislators. Total coincidence, I’m sure.
And as he pointed out, the University of Kentucky has worked tirelessly to meet the conditions of HB 4, cutting funding to all kinds of groups that help marginalized students on campus. A little too tirelessly, in my opinion.
Nonetheless, they did nothing wrong in this case. Baker, Roberts and the clown car of Accuracy in Media should study the laws they’ve helped push so they know what they actually say. But that would get in the way of their grift. It’s so much easier to scare the pants off some young guy, or fundraise off of browbeating a university president.
It’s not just the dumbest time, it’s the saddest, most pathetic time as well.
This story was originally published February 6, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
