"The #authoritarianism of #Florida Gov. #DeSantis means trampling on humans - lied-to #migrants, misled #Black voters and now 700 brilliant college students - on his White House path
Why the battle over New College is a fight for America's soul."
If @willbunch wrote it, you should read it.© And I thread it.
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/ron-desantis-new-college-of-florida-20230112.html
2/ "Sarasota's New College of Florida is a publicly funded oasis of free thought, #LGBTQ culture. So DeSantis and the right want to crush it...
DeSantis & his allies are installing a new board of right-wing trustees with plans to immediately turn New College upside down, transforming it into a bastion of conservative learning...
The White House-ambitious DeSantis is deadly serious about blowing up New College to boost his new political mantra that “Florida is where ‘woke’ goes to die.”
4/ "In pulling out the rug on these more than 700 young people who’ve spent — or borrowed — thousands of dollars so far to get their dream liberal-arts education, Team DeSantis is reaching for a new low for cable-news talking points over human empathy...
It’s important to step back and understand why this is happening..."
6/ "The school= inviting target for culture-war bomb throwers like Rufo & DeSantis. Diversity issues —& yes, academic idea of “critical race theory”--are threaded in many classes. Programs like right-wing bogeyman, gender studies, are strong. LGBTQ student life is flourishing...
Hard to imagine what New College would look like a yr from now w ultra-conserv regime & academic blueprint, or whether scheme can be pulled off, as opposition from current students & mostly tenured faculty intensifies"
7/7 "The outcome may not matter as much to DeSantis as the fight to get there, and the headlines that his war on “wokeism” will generate as the 2024 campaign heats up. However this plays out, the governor has already reached a new depth of hypocrisy by unveiling his program under a banner reading “Freedom From Indoctrination” — a most Orwellian description of his vision to crimp some of the best minds of a new generation."
Please read the whole column.
Laffy
Rob Miracle
Dr. Sam Wein
Mary Ann Horn
David Fowler