The chilling effect that De Santis is having on free speech and thought. [View all]

[Baitball Blogger]

On Facebook I've noticed an odd change of behavior. People are going silent with opinions. I've removed almost all of the hardcore MAGAs from my friendlist, so I can't speak about the MAGA side, but when it comes to obvious signs of authoritarianism from the right, only the handful of progressive friends that I have, ever respond. Handful.

And I know that my other friends are still out there, because I'll post an innocuous photo of a flower that bloomed in my garden and they all rush to respond.

I think I found the answer to this behavior from one friend who takes classes for self-improvement from UF in Gainesville. They are afraid of leaving a political trail. Before it might have been to avoid upsetting their MAGA friends in the military, but now it's coming down to fear of reprisals from a vindictive governor who is actively targeting professors with removal of tenure and, let's face it, he won't make the mistake that Democrats always make. If he isn't doing it now, he will eventually require political loyalty to fill government jobs. And he'll know who those people are, because he's already laying the groundwork to force people to declare their political affiliations.

So, when I'm reading posts about why we can't get the good Americans to show more outrage over the things that alarm us every day, I think the answer is apparent. It's not laziness. It's fear. Fear of showing too much support for a good cause because they don't know if democracy will prevail. And for those of us who live in Florida, it is never more obvious where the source of the fear is coming from when it's still an uncertainty if we can beat De Santis in court over his attempt to expose political affiliations,. If we lose this fight, the next step will cut back on vocal support for democracy, and what will take its place is the raging voices of authoritarianism that doesn't wait for proof before storming our country's institutions.