Until now ive had no love for Desantis. But just heard he made co stitutional conceal carry legal in florida... first time i heard of sometbi g he did that i really like, i migbt need to look into hin some more and see if maybe he is t so bad as i thought... maybe...

@freemo Nah, he's still very bad, and I doubt he's doing anything out of principles, but populism.

@olives that could be... ill let ya know once i do some research if my opinions have changed

@freemo To give you an idea of how populist he is:

He went on about how he'd shoot drug smugglers on the border.

He went on about how he'd blockade Mexico with the navy to "stop the flow of drugs".

He went on about abolishing unanimous juries to administer the death penalty.

He wants to expand use of the death penalty outside of murder.

Censorship of books in libraries.

Censorship of views in higher education.

He talks big about all that tough on crime stuff.

Lots of talk about the border and "finishing the wall".

@olives I dont mind a strong border, though its not a priority for me... a lot of that is very concerning i agree.

@freemo @olives

When he gets up in the morning he thinks who will I screw over today to amuse and distract my base , while throwing them a few ideological bones.

Who will I target with rhetoric to incite a visceral/emotional response to quell logic & distract .

Never does he think how can i help all those that elected me to serve. What can I do to benefit them . What needs fixing not f*king .

@PBruce

From the comments Im hearing it sounds like you may be right. Once i have a chance to do a deep dive on his past ill post whatever opinion I form, I'd be happy to discuss it if you choose to jump in.

@olives

@freemo @olives

Fair.Some exs

Banning Abortion

After the US Supreme Court to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion,DeSantis
banned the procedure after six weeks - before most women know they are pregnant.

Banning "Gay "

Don't say gay bill

Legislative & rhetoric assault on Disney for 1 comment

Banning history

Limiting history in school,

Banning books

on his religious /moral basis

sending asylum seekers from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard

bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-6

@PBruce @freemo @olives Make sure you understand what Pat means by those phrases, though, Dr. Freemo. 'Banning "Gay"' *of course* doesn't actually mean "banning gay". And so on.

@PBruce @freemo @olives Similarly, "Banning history" means a certain thing that isn't banning history.

@ech @freemo @olives

This speaks to the " banning history" laws in the US

"At least 37 states have adopted new measures that limit how America’s undeniable history of racism – from chattel slavery to Jim Crow – can be discussed in public school classrooms.

Educators in certain states face laws that restrict classroom discussions about racism. Florida’s Stop Woke Act for example, limits what educators can say about racism in K-12 schools. "

theconversation.com/how-new-st

@PBruce @freemo @olives But *how* exactly are they limited?

Is there a school that is literally not teaching about Jim Crow? (Honest question – sifting through the rhetoric has proven quite a challenge for me on this kind of issue.)

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@PBruce @freemo @olives I've read some of the laws from some states, and IANAL but it seems the things that are being banned specifically are e.g. teaching that white people are inherently racist by virtue of being white, or that some races have inherent moral superiority over others. etc.

There were rumors of struggle sessions where, for example, white 6yos were being humiliated in class for being evil white people. I am assuming such events are super rare or never happened (i.e. they are lies), but there's this hysterical reaction to the rumors, and I think the laws we're seeing are directed at that sort of thing.

Then, lefter-leaning media describes those laws as banning teaching Jim Crow, which is, as far as I have seen, also a lie.

I'm wondering what these regulations are doing *in practice*, if anything.

@ech @freemo @olives

It seems your bias is obvious as you seek to diminish and discredit truth and erase history with fabricated, unsubstantiated allegations of your own creation . Truth social calls to you .Blocked

@PBruce @ech @olives

Based on what he said that seems to be a leap. I mean, maybe he was wrong and certainly deserves to be corrected if so... but if his stance is simplely "not all white people are evil and that notion shouldnt be taught" especially when he thinks jim crowe laws should be taught and other black rights issues.... well i thi k its a leap to say on those groubds he seeks to rewrite history. Perhaps he is bias though, but then again, who isnt.

@freemo @PBruce @olives did somebody block me for objecting to humiliating 6-year-olds?

@ech

They blocked you yes... you can see their explanation as to why here: mastodon.social/@PBruce/110702

As I said, while you do have some bias (a preformed opinion) I felt their response was unnecessarily harsh if we take what you said at face value, even if i do disagree.

@PBruce @olives

@freemo @PBruce @olives this is a Shiri's Scissor kind of a thing? I have no idea what in that post triggered that. Interesting🤔

@ech

I suspect your clear right-wing lean had more to do with it (and thus the claim to bias) than anything else. You did seem to favor generally right-wing interpritations.

@PBruce @olives

@freemo @olives Well I'll be the first to admit the right wing can go too far at times. Which is why I'm wondering if DeSantis has going too far in this respect.

Book bans, for example, is an adjacent issue. On one hand, for all I know pearl-clutching conservatives are in fact banning all books that give any kind of insight into what life is like as a person of color in America today. But moving a book that depicts child rape from the children's section to the adult section isn't a "ban", and it seems like every time I look into a specific ban, it's more like the latter, not the former.

For what it's worth, I checked my local library in conservative suburban Texas and it still carries Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye.

@ech

I saw a study that suggests all book bans were largely perpetrated by a very small number of people (double digits). While I suspect those people are right-wing it doesnt appear to be as much the norm as people might suggest.

@olives

@freemo @olives yeah, you're going to have some wacko parents objecting to every book: and I think there are some real questions here about processes that need to be in place so that fringy objections don't carry the day.

@olives

Not sure.. seemed like it was like 5 pissed off old ladies who were sad no one talked to them anymore.

@ech

@ech @freemo Well, that's a bit misleading, I think it was someone's memoir with scenes where they did some sexual acts with peers.

@olives @freemo Was something I said misleading? What is "it" in your sentence "...it was someone's...." – are you talking about "The Bluest Eye"?

If so, please pardon me I did not mean to imply anything specific about that book, I can see how my post implies that.

I only mentioned it because it seems to be *the* canonical example of a book "banned" for mature content, so I thought it was interesting that the public library in ConservativeUtoptia-area Texas still carried it despite all the noise about alleged book bannings. I've never read it.

@ech @freemo Oh, I see. It was another one. But, be careful.

It's not unusual for someone to use dramatic language. In a number of cases, someone might make claims about content which isn't even in a book.

@olives @freemo indeed we do see that kind of thing a lot; it's good to be careful about that. I'm not sure why you are admonishing me here though? That book does actually have that kind of material in it.

@olives @freemo when you're admonishing someone be careful not to do the exact thing the you're admonishing them not to do.

@freemo @PBruce @olives in my defense I did say I'm not buying the struggle session story. As we discussed a while back also I'm not buying the rumors about male strippers for children either.

@freemo @PBruce @olives I would love to be "corrected": are any school districts banning teaching Jim Crow anywhere in the US? (Or how else is this playing out in problematic ways? I don't know.)

Thinking back to my education decades ago, I think overall it could have been a lot better: I didn't learn about the Tulsa massacre until just a few years ago, for example. The Mexican–American War I think should be presented critically – US actions/motives were far from pure, and I don't I think our curricula back then was great in that regard. (Is it today? I don't know.) Those are just some examples.

@ech

It seems a dialogue here would be enriching because you seemed to be discussing in good faith. But if they want to block you I wont give them any crap for that, they can do what they want I guess. It is a shame people cant have productive conversations as often anymore though.

@PBruce @olives

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