Campus 'Red Scare' takes Florida back to the '50s

[Nevilledog]

https://www.inquirer.com/columnists/attytood/campus-red-scare-takes-florida-back-50s-will-bunch-newsletter-20210629.html

Just two years ago, Florida state Rep. Evan Jenne introduced a resolution calling for what he called “a formal and heartfelt apology” to victims of one of the most shameful episodes in the modern history of the Sunshine State — a lengthy witch hunt by a legislative committee at the height of post-World-War-II McCarthyism that ruined the lives of university professors and members of the LGBTQ community, and targeted Black activists.

No apology was forthcoming, as the latest iteration of Jenne’s bill died in committee this spring. The Republicans who currently run America’s fourth-largest state — led by Gov. Ron DeSantis, a 2024 White House front-runner — had a different idea about the notorious “Red Scare” of the 1950s. They want to bring it back.

Last week, DeSantis signed the latest in a series of measures aimed at chilling political conversation on college campuses and crimping what teachers in Florida’s classrooms can say about racism or other troubling aspects of America’s past. The new law mandates that Florida’s public universities conduct an annual survey of students’ views on “viewpoint diversity” — with the governor suggesting that campuses not open to right-wing ideas (like his own) could lose government funding. DeSantis said colleges that appear to be what he called “hotbeds of stale ideology” are “not worth tax dollars and not something we’re going to be supporting moving forward.”

The new law came just days after the Florida Board of Education — at the urging of DeSantis, who appointed most of its members and appeared before the panel to urge teachers to stop “trying to indoctrinate [students] with ideology” — moved to ban the teaching of what it called “critical race theory.” Educators say the ban will make them fearful of suffering consequences for any teaching around America’s historic racism.

*snip*

[patphil]

1. This will end up in the courts, and eventually the law will be nullified.

DeSantis is using this to support his presidential bid. It's a play to the Trump Humpers, that's all. I doubt he actually thinks this POS law can actually be applied to any college.
Expect a court challenge very quickly.

[asiliveandbreathe]

2. Interview with Free Speech Professor in FL..

whether it’s public universities being perceived as being or left leaning, whether it’s going after protesters in the streets who are in the mind of the legislature causing violence and disrupting things, whether it’s in grade schools with critical race theory and the idea of indoctrination. I’ve never seen anything like it, and it’s happening very quickly. Lawsuits have already been filed against the Big Tech [bill], and I think they’ve been filed against the protest bill, so some of these will shake out because we do have the First Amendment. But it is a rather scary time right now.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/florida-free-speech-professor-discusses-154040996.html


Desatan is pushing - my hope - the First Amendment will prevail..

[yellowcanine]

3. This will backfire on DeSantis. Even wing nuts don't like thought police.

Also, I can already predict what those clever students are going to do with those "surveys," particularly if there is an opportunity to write in stuff.