We’ve all heard about “Florida Man” and shared jokes about how the Sunshine State is chock full o’nuts. That really isn’t the whole story, though. While Florida does seem to have a higher ratio of bull-goose loonies running around loose, it also has something called “Government In The Sunshine Laws.”
What this means, essentially, is anytime two or more members of the same political entity get together to discuss something that might come before said entity as official business – basically anything, really – it has to be recorded and made available to the public. This makes it so that pretty much any official documentation of any type with a few exceptions – juvenile, medical and financial information, etc. – is out there so anyone can look it up.
It’s pretty spectacular as such laws go. Most states have similar laws but none are so far-reaching and encompassing. I majored in journalism at the University of Florida and we had plenty of opportunities to use this law and believe you me, it’s amazing what can be found with the least amount of leg work. How this translates into “Florida Man” is that every single thing the cops or other official groups have to deal with is noted and recorded and someone in some newspaper office puts it on the AP Wire, it disseminates through the internet, and boom, Florida Man walks.
Sometimes, though, it’s just a case of Florida being a lovely state full of lovely people but run by a bunch of out-right dingbats with delusions of fascism. Taking a break from running for the 2024 Republican Nomination for President, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed House Bill 233 into law announcing it at a Ft. Myers press conference Tuesday. Called the Florida Civics and Debate Initiative, because conservatives love them some Orwell, what this will do is the Florida Board of Education will require public universities and colleges to survey students, facility, and staff about their viewpoints and beliefs to maintain – are you ready for this – “intellectual freedom” and “viewpoint diversity.”
The thinking is that since kids go into universities loving America, Jesus, and Capitalism but always come out America-hating radicals who love communism and hate white people, this obviously means the little darlings are being indoctrinated by Marxist-Leninist professors who, themselves, have America, Jesus, and Capitalism. That’s the only explanation and not that their kids are being exposed to different people and different ideas among their own classmates, probably for the first time, outside the suburb or small town they’ve previously never left.
Every school year, by September, the various universities and colleges will have to collect all these surveys and submit them to the BOE, which will decide whether or not the schools are sufficiently diverse and open to all ideas. However, just what those schools would face should they be deemed insufficiently diverse intellectually is as of yet undefined. When pressed if this could mean budget cuts, DeSantis hedged but said it made little sense to waste tax dollars on what he called “socialism factories,” and I swear he used those words.
In fact, DeSantis was just full of vague at the announcement. He couldn’t point where these “socialism factories” were or what they were doing to indoctrinate the little angels, but he swore up and down it was totally happening, you guys. The bill would also allow students to record lectures in case accusations of wrongthink come up, with them and teachers both having legal options if their speech is unfairly censored. It will also protect delicate minds from ideas and philosophies that might make them “uncomfortable,” which I’m sure makes sense to someone.
Of course, this is all a part of DeSantis’ nomination bid as he tries to position himself as a champion of intellectual freedom. Add this to his threats to open social media organizations that “censor” conservative thought up to threats of a lawsuit as well as the ban on teaching Critical Race Theory in public schools even though it’s not being taught in public schools. And like those legislative beauties – and the restrictions on the wrong people voting that several conservative states are passing since Trump’s loss – this bill is written so broadly and badly that pretty much any actions against schools and teachers could be a possibility. Such vagueness opens the state up to all sorts of lawsuits if we’re really concerned about wasting taxpayer money.
As the new conservative bête noir, Critical Race Theory has gone curiously undefined by those that consider it the greatest threat to American liberty. Either that or they’re just pretending like any old thing falls under the rubric, even as the guy who’s made this his claim to fame admits he neither knows what it actually is nor does he actually care what it is. It’s also giving conservatives a chance to pretend they’re actually concerned with racism while at the same time working like hell to keep America’s racist past as hidden as possible. Obviously, this is gearing up for the 2022 and 2024 elections, since the GOP has nothing else to run on.
But here’s what bugs me the most. I read about this whole affair this morning and decided to let it marinate as long as possible. I wanted to see how conservatives would defend this and how the “free speech warriors” that write for Substack would react. And they haven’t, not one bit. Total silence, all day. Nobody seems to think it’s that big a deal, far as I can tell.
Amazing.
Dear Y'all 