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Latest DeSantis Attack on the Woke Agenda
When our kids and their education are at stake, Gov. Ron DeSantis is ruthless in going after the Woke agenda. And he’s upset a lot of people who are accustomed to having their way when it comes to the education curriculum and propaganda taught to children.
The latest kerfuffle has been that the Florida Department of Education has rejected 35% of the social studies textbooks submitted by publishers:
Officials offered several examples of passages they rejected, including one headlined ‘New Calls for Social Justice’ in a middle school textbook. The passage discussed the start of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2013 and the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in 2020. It was removed from the book, according to the department. Also stricken was a mention of people kneeling during the national anthem in an elementary school textbook.
Those who support publishing this information in textbooks also see no problem with promoting BLM, a Marxist organization with a violent agenda.
Critical Race Theory is also prohibited in the textbooks and clearly has a Leftist agenda, the way it’s been taught in the schools; we don’t need to teach our children the hateful information that they are being oppressed or are oppressors to their classmates. This type of teaching only confuses and upsets students who likely get along just fine, or quibble over whose turn it is to go to the front of the line.
Especially disturbing are the people who mischaracterize this review of textbooks:
‘There’s so many emotions, but I guess immediately it’s fear,’ Hillsborough School Board member Jessica Vaughn said. ‘I’m afraid of the pattern of erasing or trying to rewrite history, because to me this is right out of the playbook of fascism.’
These two sentences illustrate how the resistance to reasonable curricula is emotional and irrational. What is Ms. Vaughn afraid of? What legitimate history is being erased? And what makes these efforts fascistic? I doubt Ms. Vaughn could give a coherent explanation of her concerns.
Take a look at this description of socialism (which was also rejected, then replaced):
The original text said socialism ‘keeps things nice and even and without unnecessary waste.’ It also said socialist societies ‘may promote greater equality among people while still providing a fully functioning government-supervised economy.’
. . . The revised text cites China during the Maoist era and Cuba as examples of planned economies. It goes on to say that critics say planned economies “have slow development and fewer technological advances” with little human incentive.
A few dynamics are at play in the requirement for reviewing social studies textbooks. One is that the education establishment (administrators and teachers) have been taught and raised for years in the Leftist mindset, and they are determined to carry on the tradition. They also have enjoyed the level of power they’ve exerted and resent any efforts to curb their influence. The other issue is that the Left will characterize efforts to restrain their propaganda agenda with labels of racism, white supremacy, and fascism to denigrate their opposition. Finally, they know that our kids are the future, and to fully realize their Leftist agenda, they will need the kids carrying on their message.
If DeSantis runs for President, it will be fascinating to see if his anti-woke agenda continues.
I encourage you to go here to review additional changes required by the Florida Board of Education.
Published in Education
Who said I hate him? I voted for him twice. You AlwaysTrumpers can’t take criticism of Trump. When someone better than Trump comes along, I switch. I have never thought Trump was the ideal candidate.
I’m not always Trump, it just seems so when I stand next to ridiculous arguments.
Manny, you’re spreading the smear about assault, saying he’s not some “real deal” whatever that means. You’re saying he can’t argue credibly on the issue of child porn and sexualization of children. Ok you don’t hate him, you love him, and would vote for him a third time if you could.
Ridiculous.
If it does fail great. I agree it should in a just world. I have a tragic view of mankind and know that the world is not just. I am not willing to cede the field because someone with some admirable qualities on my side has been successfully taken down by a smear. It happens. It is unfortunate that it does but it is reality. In this particular case I think it would be impossible as a matter of law to defend oneself from the charge. I am more than willing to say so publicly and try to make the case this is unjust as were the smears of Bret Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas. I am just not so naive to believe my efforts can overcome the weight of the media repeating a man’s own words back on loop.
I am not interested in losing 2024. I am also not particularly interested in tilting at windmills. I will vote for whoever wins the Republican Nomination in the general and whoever makes the best pitch for my vote in the primary. I owe no loyalty to any politician. They need to earn my vote.
Criticism I can take all day and twice on Sundays. Faulty criticism, not so much.
Disagreement is fine by me too. If there’s no agreement to be had then I shoot for clarity.
Sometimes I’ll get neither. It happens.
Yes because the Media will cover for Joe. It isn’t right. It isn’t Just. It is just the way it is. One has to accept the contours of the battlefield they way they are, and work to shape them to one’s advantage. Complaining about how things ought to be isn’t going to win the engagement.
Maybe you all will achieve some clarity without me on the thread. Good luck and good day.
No I’m not. Those are facts. His affair with the porn star has not been disputed. The sexual harassment of that woman was upheld in court. Sure it wasn’t rape but but he did something to her. His numerous affairs are in the press going back to before he even considered politics. His affair with the porn star was one year after he married Malania. Marriage fidelity is a suggestion to him. He has never been faithful to any of his wives. I find his playing at being a Christian laughable. There isn’t a Christian bone in his body. I was appalled at Bill Clinton infidelities. Trump is on par.
I give Trump a lot of credit for taking a no-holds-barred approach with the press. Among the many fights in which he engaged, this was the most productive, and the one I most hoped other Republicans would emulate.
In terms of conservative social policy, personal conduct, crisis management, coherence and adroitness with the press, credibility, and simple political acumen, I think DeSantis is the superior man. When I vote for the nominated Republican presidential candidate next year — and I will — I hope it is DeSantis.
Do you have some evidence for this?
If a school board member tells you eliminating the critical theory bs is Marxist, just tell them you don’t care what they call it and they will not be teaching your child this stuff. If they do, they will get a taste of real Fascism.
That’s when Merrick Garland has the FBI take you away for being a “domestic terrorist.”
At the proper age I don’t mind if they teach it as literature. But I don’t want them doing it as religious instruction. No loyalty oaths, for example.
(You may recall that people used to say it’s OK to have the Bible in schools as literature, but not as religious instruction. Of course some of them were lying, as usual.)
It is time to make all those they go after into heroes including any of the J6 who were not treated fairly or who received excessive punishments. They are treated this way because Democrats are vindictive and they want to tell us what they will do to us if we dare question them. I have no sympathy for any who damaged the building itself but the same better apply to Antifa and BLM. Still, we must not damage our buildings and monuments. They belong to the people, even when occupied by the corrupt.
People who don’t read the Bible will never know our culture. As a literary tool, it is invaluable for understanding our sayings, our morality plays, our language, and our history. It a school textbook from the time schools were founded until the progressives started having their way. And yes, I don’t trust today’s teachers to teach religion. Along with the Bible, we need a little Greek and Latin and studies in those works written by those who bequeathed us the western culture that is our heritage. People only think of the Bible as it applies to Biblical times of the Jewish people. They don’t think of how the Biblical values combined with our Greek and Roman ancestry tamed our white-skin barbarian ancestors and enabled the European western culture we know today. Stopping with our British ancestry is not going back far enough. Our Constitution isn’t as novel as one thinks but represents the highest pinnacle of the western tradition and is thus “exceptional.”
They treat people that way to make examples of them and cow people into not going against the Democratic narrative. It works too.
Without reading the bible or at least understanding it half of western civilization will not make any sense.
It does work as intended, and planned.
Pretty much. It has certainly cut down on the amount of activism I am willing to do and the groups I am willing to give to, but to be honest it isn’t so much the efforts of Merrick Garland and the Democrats that have had that effect. It is the lack of push back from most of the Republican party that has lead to my ambivalence. I know they don’t have my back so I am increasingly less willing to stick my neck out for them.
I strongly believe in not doing leftists’ work for them. Let them think about it and make that distinction. Or let them fall into the trap of not making it.