Most organizations maintain social media accounts, and the U.S. government no exception. For its part, the federal Department of Education has a robust Facebook presence, with regular posts to the page’s 324,000 followers.

But the real action of late has been in the comments. 

We ❤️ our librarians! #NationalLibrarianDay — read the DOE’s April 16 Facebook post, accompanied by a cheerful graphic (pictured).

“And as a token of our appreciation, we've terminated your library funding so we can buy more A1 [steak] sauce to season the books we want to burn,” commented Lisa Miller Lasch, referencing Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, who earlier this month confused AI with A1, the steak sauce brand, while speaking on a panel at the ASU+GSV Summit.

"It wasn't all that long ago that it was, 'We're going to have internet in our schools!,'" said McMahon, reported by USA Today. “Now let's see A1, and how can that be helpful.”

Others responded to the National Librarian Day post, expanding on the apparent disconnect between a seemingly innocuous post thanking librarians to the reality of the Trump administration’s dismantling of public education and library services.

“As a librarian and advocate for our public schools, I’d appreciate you being honest and admitting what you really are doing. I mean it’s clear you want the demise of public schools, literacy, and thought-provoking literature. An uneducated people are easier to control,” commented Linda Kauchak Smithson.

Meanwhile, Karen Foster Wallace offered: “This page is nothing but gaslighting and propaganda! In an executive order last week, the Trump administration mandated the reduction of seven agencies, including one that funds libraries around the country: the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).”

Other comments—among more than 700 logged to date on the "we love librarians" post—were short and to the point, reflecting the overall tenor of the responses.
They include:

• Librarians understand that just because it's posted on Facebook doesn't mean it's true.
  —Connie McCormick Compton
   
• We don't love you back.
  —Kris Jayme Grawert Matas
   
• This is like when they had the ceremony to “honor” the handmaids.
  —Tiffanie StClair

#AutismAwarenessMonth

The mission of the DOE’s social media is “to facilitate an ongoing dialogue on education issues,” according to the DOE website. “We encourage your comments—your ideas and concerns are important to help ensure that a broad range of Americans are active and informed participants in the discussion conducted on our social media pages.”

The dialogue continued on April 16, when the DOE followed up the librarians post with one addressing autism.

“Early intervention can make a huge difference for kids with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)," reads the post. “Parents: If you're concerned about your child's development, don't wait —you know your child best!" The message was accompanied by the hashtag #AutismAwarenessMonth—or should that be Autism Acceptance Month?—a cheerily hued graphic with “Autism” rendered in rainbow colors, and a link to the CDC page on autism spectrum disorder. 

“This link is asking people to get their children tested. Is this action so RFK can add them to his registry?” Melissa Lavery posted in the comments, referencing a National Institutes of Health (NIH) plan to collect the private health records of Americans toward finding the cause of autism, a primary goal of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. 

The collection of records will encompass data collected from pharmacies, lab testing, insurance claims, and information from smartwatches and fitness trackers, NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya said in an April 22 press conference, reports CBC News, and all will be linked.

Commenters on the DOE post made their own connections, referencing Kennedy’s comments about autistic children, the administration’s efforts to obliterate DEI, and cuts to programming vital to children in underserved communities nationwide.

A sampling:

• You handed 504s & IEPs to a man that said this today: “These are kids who will never pay taxes,” Kennedy declared. “They’ll never hold a job. They’ll never play baseball. They’ll never write a poem. They’ll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted. We have to recognize we are doing this to our children.” And “The epidemic,” Kennedy said at another point, “is real.” Autism, he added, “destroys families and more importantly it destroys our greatest resource, our children.” Many children, he claimed, were “fully functional” and “regressed."
  He has no business determining educational supports for people he doesn’t respect or see as valuable to society.
  —Sasha Sweder
   
• Autism awareness and acceptance is a form of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
  —Nicole Giacchi-Merman
   
• My students are not destroying their families, they are not a broken thing that needs to be fixed. My students are joyful and funny and intensely creative, they share raw emotion. The way this administration speaks about individuals with autism is absolutely deplorable.
  —Morgan Kelley
   
• Early interventions like... Head Start??
  —Melissa McClintock
   
• This is A1, high steaks gaslighting right here.
  —Krystal Ann

At the time of this writing, the DOE autism post had garnered 1,100 comments.