The inanity of RONALD DION DeSANTIS and the wealthy Dull Republicans' Philistinism in Flori-DUH, skewered as part of their Idiocracy-like ideology.
From Vanity Fair:
Ron DeSantis Believes in Free Speech as Long as You Only Speak About the Awesomeness of Straight White People
The Florida governor’s decision to block an AP African studies course is just the latest example of his war on the expression of beliefs—and the teaching of facts!—that he doesn’t agree with.
One of Florida governor Ron DeSantis‘s favorite little mottos is “Florida is where woke goes to die.” In fact, a better, more accurate motto would be “Ron DeSantis’s Florida is where free speech goes to die, unless you’ve agreed to the governor’s list of preapproved talking points, like that LGBTQ+ people don’t exist, white people are and have always been awesome, and nonwhite people have nothing to complain about.” Defenders of the governor will not like this tweak, as conservatives absolutely love to claim free speech is under attack from the left but, as the evidence shows, it’s true.
The most recent example of DeSantis’s war on free speech, which, of course, is inexplicably linked to his bigoted viewpoints, involves an AP African American studies course. Earlier this month, DeSantis sent a letter to the College Board, which is in charge of Advanced Placement classes, informing it that the the class is “contrary to Florida law” and “significantly lacks educational value.” He added: “Should College Board be willing to come back to the table with lawful, historically accurate content” Florida’s Education Department would “be willing to reopen the discussion.” On Friday, Florida Education commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. wrote on Twitter: “Florida rejected an AP course filled with Critical Race Theory and other obvious violations of Florida law.” (Not unsurprisingly NPR reports that this is false, and CRT is not included in the curriculum.)
On Monday, DeSantis got into more specifics, saying at a press conference: “We want education, not indoctrination. If you fall on the side of indoctrination, we’re going to decline, if it’s education, then we will do…this course on Black history, what’s one of the lessons about? Queer theory. Now who would say that an important part of Black history is queer theory? That is somebody pushing an agenda on our kids. And so when you look to see they have stuff on intersectionality, abolishing prisons, that’s a political agenda and…that’s the wrong side of the line for Florida standards. We believe in teaching kids facts and how to think, but we don’t believe they should have an agenda imposed on them. When you try to use Black history to shoehorn in queer theory, you are clearly trying to use that for political purposes.”
Setting aside the fact that intersectionality is absolutely a part of Black history, DeSantis’s claim that he totally believes in “teaching kids facts” rings extremely hollow, and that’s because during a campaign debate last fall, he argued that students should not be told the US was “built on stolen land” because it’s “not true.”
Obviously, it is true, but DeSantis does not want Florida students to know because it paints white people in a less-than-positive light.
Which brings us to another example of DeSantis’s bigoted attempts to restrict free speech, i.e. his “Stop WOKE Act.” Signed into law by the governor last year, the law restricts conversations about race in schools and businesses and, per NBC News, “bars the notion that a person’s status as privileged or oppressed is necessarily determined by their race or gender.” The whole thing is a ridiculously obvious attempt to prevent real discussions about the role white people have played in the long history of systemic racism in America, and while DeSantis would like to pretend otherwise, a federal judge called him on his bullshit in November. In a 138-page order, chief US district judge Mark Walker blocked state officials from enforcing a key piece of the Stop WOKE Act, which he declared violates the First Amendment. Citing George Orwell’s 1984, Walker wrote that DeSantis and company seem to believe that “the State has unfettered authority to muzzle its professors in the name of ‘freedom’,” and zeroed in on the fact that the law specifically targets freedom of expression that DeSantis and his fellow Republicans simply don’t like. “The law officially bans professors from expressing disfavored viewpoints in university classrooms while permitting unfettered expression of the opposite viewpoints,” he wrote.
And, then, of course, there’s “Don’t Say Gay,” the positively dystopian law that the American Bar Association says “raises serious legal questions” (in addition to just being anti-LGBTQ+). It went into effect last year and prevents teachers in grades kindergarten through third from discussing gender identity and sexual orientation in any way whatsoever, and bars instructors from doing so in a way that is not “age appropriate” in the grades above. (Naturally, the law does not specify what the state considers age appropriate, a vagueness that was surely intentional.) Earlier this month, a school district reportedly banned a sweet, uncontroversial—unless you are afraid your kid can catch being gay from a story—children’s book about two boy penguins who lovingly raised a baby penguin at the Central Park Zoo, determining that it violated Florida law.
In related news re: DeSantis’s war on free speech, last week a judge determined that he’d violated the First Amendment when he removed duly elected prosecutor Andrew Warren from office after Warren said he would not prosecute providers of abortion or gender-transition treatments, or those who undergo them, which obviously does not jive with the governor’s war on anyone who lives differently than him. (Unfortunately for Warren, he’s not getting his job back.)
While DeSantis inexplicably won his reelection bid by a huge margin, the rest of the country might want to familiarize themselves with his viewpoints within the next two years.
William Calioy
January 7, 2023 at 11:05 pm
It is amazing how successful the Hutson family can be by buying up all the local government officials, making back room deals, getting state and county taxpayers to pay for their infrastructure using dirty politics. The Huston syndicate even managed to get an endorsement form “”the best governor in the country” who also appointed two toadies, Sarah Arnold and Roy Alaimo to the St John’s County Commission who will pass everything that Huston’s want.
Just so, everyone knows the St John’s County commission gave the Hutson’s a dollar for dollar impact fee credits for their so-called “pledges” for infrastructure, parks, and sidewalks. The problem is that all those commitments primarily benefit the Silverleaf development. The County taxpayers are left dealing with all the future impact. It is all a dishonest shell game. We taxpayers get the traffic, and taxes and Travis Hutson and his family rake in millions. Good ol’ boy shady politics is alive and well in North East Florida
Exploited SJC resident
January 8, 2023 at 8:07 am
Truth.
Gerry James
January 8, 2023 at 9:34 am
Tried to explain this to the good people in our county and district. He outspent me 10-15 to one. Hard to overcome that but through hard work we almost did. We must change this conflict of interest in our county and district in 24. Establishment politicians are destroying our way and the quality of life throughout our entire country. We need truthful conservative patriots in office.
Exploited SJC resident
January 8, 2023 at 8:29 am
Amazing. Whitehurst and Arnold don’t even feign neutrality. They’re lauding The Hutson Companies in the media after being bought off with tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations and political favors. Arnold was appointed with zero related job experience, and she was sworn in two hours before she made the motion to expand SilverLeaf. Her father-in-law is an attorney to David Hutson! And she’s a long time friend of Travis Hutson – total COI. She refused to meet with the opposition prior to the Dec. 21 SilverLeaf vote, and only met with two Hutsons and their attorney. In her first five months in office, she voted to put more undeveloped land under the bulldozer than any other commissioner according to BOCC minutes.
The commission approved the SilverLeaf expansion despite OVERWHELMING opposition from their constituents, as reported in the media. And now we have a new commissioner appointed who doesn’t even live in the district he represents and is also far less qualified than others who applied. He’s another Hutson puppet who will continue destroying our county. No wonder we’re the fastest growing in the state. We’re the most corrupt. This is just the tip of the iceberg of the corruption and COIs in our county. Please report on it.
BeachGirlPV
January 8, 2023 at 11:05 am
Everything you stated is FACTS!!!
Silverleaf sucks. Its overcrowded 210 cannot handle that traffic neither can the other roads. Should we discuss brand new schools with the kids having to be in pods outside the schools? And it was not thought out and they’re still building the building a ton of apartments over there.Good luck with that! Smh
BeachGilrPV
January 8, 2023 at 11:01 am
The Hutson Mafia (and it is) is so corrupt. I have watched this first hand this year. Gerry James was the better candidate but Hutson bought the win. Along with his cronies – Sarah Arnold, Casey Woosley a judge , Beverly Slough school board and more.
Funny how Krista Keeting won her seat (GOOD! ) against Blocker and Blocker never contested the close margin. Why is that? Because they would’ve found inconsistencies and then all of the election would have been challenged. Hutson is corrupt all day long.
SJCPatriot lady
January 8, 2023 at 4:39 pm
Every comment here is absolute truth! Talk about a conflict of interest..the largest developer in Northern FL is the State Senator! He has sold his constituents out for his own personal gain..and our wonderful Governor continues to do the Hutson bidding by appointing Hutson people to County Commissioner seats who continue to do whatever the Hutson family wants! We are left with little infrastructure , traffic jams, crowded schools, etc etc.
Bruce Kading
January 8, 2023 at 4:57 pm
Unfortunately, this is what happens when you have one-party rule. With nobody holding them accountable on the other side, and many in the Republican Party ignoring what is happening in terms of corrupt growth in the county, Hutson and his enablers, like Arnold, Whitehurst, advance a pro-growth agenda that directly lines Hutson’s pockets. The conflicts of interest here are obvious and unacceptable to anybody interested in honest government. DeSantis makes things worse by appointing a former gopher in his congressional office, Ray Alaimo, to the county commission, despite Alaimo’s complete lack of any experience that prepares him for the job. But how much experience do you need to ask Travis Hutson how you should vote?
For those who missed it because of the lack of any significant coverage by the media, Hutson and DeSantis recently teamed up to pass a law that removed Nicole Crosby from her position as the Chairman of the St. John’s Soil and Water Conservation District after she was elected by the voters of St. Johns County. The reason? She annoyed Hutson by beating his hand-picked candidate for the position, so he created a law that said anybody serving in such positions had to have a background in agriculture, a ludicrous requirement that now prevents soil scientists from serving in those positions. DeSantis happily signed off on the law, thereby disenfranchising thousands of St, Johns County voters. As I stated at the beginning, one-party rule leads to arrogance and corruption.
Exploited SJC resident
January 8, 2023 at 10:31 pm
Commissioner Joseph (Republican) campaigned with a slow-the-growth message that resonated so strongly with voters, she won despite being outspent ten to one. But that’s just one commissioner out of five. Hutson still runs St. Johns County, and DeSantis will keep it that way, as long as the massive Hutson donations keep rolling in.
DeSantis’ appointments serve the needs of developers and not St. Johns County residents who are begging and screaming to slow the rate of growth – the fastest in Florida. https://news.wjct.org/first-coast/2022-03-25/new-census-data-st-johns-county-is-growing-fastest-in-florida