Florida’s autocratic governor has put Disney World under the control of his thought police, turning it into “DeSantis World.”
Until recently, kids were thrilled when their parents said: “We’re going to Disney World!” But that was in the before times, before Florida’s autocratic governor put Disney World under the control of his state’s thought police, turning it into “DeSantis World.”
Having made kid-friendly Disney kowtow to his own magic kingdom of right-wing ideological conformity, Governor Ron is now demanding that the entire Sunshine State convert to the darkness of DeSantis World. A major tactic in his push is to rewrite the state’s school books to “protect” young ones from having to learn that such historical unpleasantness as racism and sexism have shaped their society… and are still doing so.
To advance RonThink, he has rammed his “Stop WOKE Act” into law, requiring teachers to — shhh — soften or just eliminate references to America’s racial problems. Pretend it never happened, is Professor DeSantis’ instruction.
Indeed, one educational publisher obediently followed his dictate rewriting the uplifting 1955 story of Rosa Parks confronting the flagrant, institutional racism of Montgomery, Alabama’s public bus service. Before DeSantis, the publisher told the story straight. “In her city, the law said African Americans had to give up their seats… if a White person wanted to sit down. (Parks) would not give up her seat. The police came and took her to jail.”
Now, after DeSantification, here’s the publisher’s re-write: “One day, (Parks) rode the bus. She was told to move to a different seat. She did not. She did what she believed was right.” Hmmm. No reference to her even being African-American or to the law requiring her to bow to any White person’s demand for her seat. And no mention of police hauling her to jail because of the color of her skin.
DeSantis World is where people’s dream of social justice goes to die.
Shhhh! Anti-woke right-wingers want to put you to sleep
It’s always useful in a moment of national urgency to have level-headed experts explain what’s happening. Experts like extremist right-wing politicos.
For example, when two high-flying banks crashed this month, these screechers flocked to blame it all on their latest ideological bugaboo: “Wokeness.” Their loopy contention is that everything bad in our country is happening because such institutions as schools, libraries, corporations and even banks are responding to America’s long history of systemic inequality by pursuing “politically correct” policies promoting liberal values like fairness, equality and diversity.
Hello — oppression of the many by the few is in fact a reality in America. Two, pursuit of those liberal values is what makes America historically important. And… banks? You’re actually asserting that high-finance is now motivated by a liberal, share-the-wealth mentality?
Yes, indeed, squawk these self-proclaimed knowledgeable ones, singling out the recently failed Silicon Valley Bank. “They were one of the most woke banks,” moaned a GOP lawmaker who specializes in conspiracy theories. Gov. Ron DeSantis piled on, barking that “this bank, they’re so concerned with (diversity)… and all kinds of stuff.” Then former President Donald Trump offered his usual deep assessment, lecturing that the collapse “is what happens when you push leftist/woke ideology.”
Bovine excrement! As has now been documented, these bankers were not woke, but greedy, incompetent and reckless. Worse, our bank regulators had been intentionally (SET ITAL) put to sleep (END ITAL) by a 2018 law that specifically let such banks escape careful public supervision. Guess what? Trump was the one who initiated this disastrous regulatory exemption, Ron DeSantis cheered and voted for it, and the CEO of Silicon Valley Bank led a lobbying campaign to ram it into law.
Stay alert, folks — these politicos and profiteers are the ones who crashed the bank — and now they’re trying to put us to sleep with their hokey “anti-woke” PR stunt.
Twice elected Texas Agriculture Commissioner, Hightower is a modern-day Johnny Appleseed, spreading the message of progressive populism all across the American grassroots.
He broadcasts daily radio commentaries that are carried in more than 150 commercial and public stations and on the web.
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