In search of "all that false instruction!"

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2022

Some of it aimed at Us: Long ago and far away, the artist still known as Bob Dylan switched sides in the ongoing, painful culture war known as "the generation gap."

Back in 1963, Dylan had issued this warning to the nation's mothers and fathers: "Your sons and your daughters are beyond your commend." 

But now it was 1968, and Dylan—now married with children himself—wrote the iconic Tears of Rage, giving voice to a new attitude.

In the iconic song, a heartbroken father speaks to a "dear daughter" from a parent's point of view. At one point, that father offers this:

It was all very painless
When you went out to receive
All that false instruction
We never could believe.
 
And now the heart is filled with gold
As if it was a purse
But oh, what kind of love is this
Which goes from bad to worse?

In Dylan's song, a father says he has seen his "dear daughter" receiving "all that false instruction."  Dylan thereby switched sides in the painful culture war which defined that particular era.

Today, our nation's discourse is ruled by torrents of false instruction. Mountains of false instruction emerge from the major tribunes of the red tribe. But is some of the current day's "false instruction" also aimed right straight at Us?

We posed that question to the analysts after watching Alex Wagner close her MSNBC "cable news" program this past Thursday night. In a brief closing segment, Wagner was back on the "so-called Stop WOKE Act" beat. At one point, she offered this:

WAGNER (10/20/22): There's a so-called Stop WOKE Act, which bans the teaching of any lesson, specifically about race and racism, that makes any student feel discomfort...

Would learning about the work of Martin Luther King violate the Stop WOKE Act if a single child felt uncomfortable during that lesson? All of that has been unclear from the start.

To some extent, it isn't exactly the "so-called" Stop WOKE Act. That's the actual, childish and churlish name given to the Florida legislation by Governor Ron DeSantis. In the governor's childish rendering, its full name goes like this:

The Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act 

AKA, The Stop W.O.K.E. Act! That's how dumb our discourse now gets.

The snarky (semi-official) name of this bill helps define the politics of Florida's churlish governor. But what about the ministry to which our blue tribe gets exposed each night on "cable news?"

More specifically, is it true that the childishly-named Stop WOKE Act "bans the teaching of any lesson, specifically about race and racism, that makes any student feel discomfort?" Or is that more of the "false instruction" we ourselves are routinely told to believe?

What does the Florida law really say? In our experience, it's amazingly hard to find out!

In innumerable Google searches, we've never been able to find a definitive, finished version of the legislative text. For today, we'll offer you this link as the best we can do.

It's astonishing, but rather typical, that the text of this widely-discussed legislation remains a bit of a mystery. That said, our national discourse runs on partisan Storyline now, with tribal tribunes  scripting our battling tribes with simplified tribal cartoons. 

Our question: Is it possible that Wagner was performing some such function with her capsule account of the Florida law? Is it possible that she was offering "false instruction" tp us rubes, perhaps of the type which is "easy to believe?"

Was Wagner offering false instruction? We'll suggest the possibility that the answer may be yes:

Is it true? Is it true that the Stop WOKE Act "bans the teaching of any lesson, specifically about race and racism, that makes any student feel discomfort?" 

Our tribal tribunes have told us that until the cows have come home. We find it pleasing to hear that account—but is that account the work of a faithful servant?

We've never seen a serious discussion of that question, but on balance we'd tilt toward no. Below, we highlight the part of the legislation which has apparently given rise to such pleasing claims:

The Legislature acknowledges the fundamental truth that all persons are equal before the law and have inalienable rights. Accordingly, instruction and supporting materials on the topics enumerated in this section must be consistent with the following principles of individual freedom:

(a) No person is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously, solely by virtue of his or her race or sex.

(b) No race is inherently superior to another race.

(c) No person should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely or partly on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, disability, or sex.

(d) Meritocracy or traits such as a hard work ethic are not racist but fundamental to the right to pursue happiness anD be rewarded for industry.

(e) A person, by virtue of his or her race or sex, does not bear responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex.

(f) A person should not be instructed that he or she must feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress for actions, in which he or she played no part, committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex.

The highlighted passage doesn't say that no student should ever be permitted to "feel discomfort." It says that no student should be instructed that he or she must feel discomfort ("psychological distress") for actions committed by other people in the past.

As best we can tell, our tribunes have taken that passage and run. Which side would Dylan be on?

(Full disclosure: Other parts of the Stop WOKE Act require the teaching of the Civil Rights movement and the evils of racism. The legislation goes into substantial detail about what has to be taught.) 

For the record, we'd love to see a full discussion of this important topic. We'd even like to see the definitive text of the Florida law in its final form! 

(We've wasted enormous amounts of time trying to find that text.)

That said, our discourse no longer runs on such types of rocket fuel. Our discourse runs on pleasing tribal narratives offered by corporate employees and the people they may have misled.

More broadly, our current (failing) political culture swims in "false instruction." 

Huge amounts of this false instruction come from people like DeSantis. How much of it comes from the highly connected corporate moguls who proselytize our own self-impressed blue tribe?


89 comments:


  1. Whoa. Sounds like a perfectly fine legislation.

    ...and incidentally: not belonging to any particular "tribe".

    ...rather, just stating some common sense concepts that your hate-mongering pervert liberal tribe is trying to distort.

    So, thanks again for documenting this minor portion of the recent liberal atrocities, dear Bob...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Every voter who is informed beyond Democrat demagoguery rejects them, which is why the cult elite tries so hard to conceal the truth.

      Delete
    2. Yeah. There's only so much they can do to actually suppress information, which is why they also flood communication channels with mountains of meaningless word-salads.

      ...as we're observing in these here comment threads...

      Delete
    3. Two quarter wits, who together for one half wit.

      Delete
  2. I'm not worried. The multi-millionaire investment bankers who represent us have our back.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Once an investment banker, always an investment banker, according to you. Like Ruhle, who was an investment banker before becoming a cable news host. Does she still represent that bank?

      Delete
    2. You're not super smart, are you?

      Delete
    3. You have no answer so you descend to name calling. You are the one who is not smart.

      Delete
    4. Democrats are abandoning Wagner for hate-watching (I suppose) Tucker.

      https://www.thewrap.com/tucker-carlson-liberal-viewership-fox-news/

      Delete
    5. Rachel is only on one night a week now. Of course Tucker, who is on nightly, will draw more Democratic viewers. Are you stupid enough to fall for such a comparison, Cecelia?

      Delete
    6. What do you mean by “Of course, Tucker who is on nightly, will draw more Democratic viewers”?

      “Of course” more Democrats are going to watch Tucker over MSNBC’s Alex Wagner and CNN’s Chris Hayes and Andersen Cooper and also head to The Five at 5pm?

      “Of course” conservative Fox is going to split the Dem viewership down the middle and garner most of the Independents?

      With that mentality, you could be the CEO of CNN.

      Delete
  3. I would be pleased as punch that my white grade school child was not told he must or even should feel guilt for deeds committed in the past. I know all about racism, in its past and current forms, learned in the normal course of history class, and I was never abused by a teacher telling me I was at fault. No one needs their employer lecturing them either.

    It's atrocious that there is a need for legislation to muzzle abusive teachers who would inflict cruelty on children this way but here we are on the verge of GOP shellacking because voters are sick of the hateful bullshit Democrats peddle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What about "cancel culture"?
      Have you ever been criticized before?

      Delete
    2. Schools need to be teaching kids that inflation is caused by lack of anti-trust and anti-monopoly regulation and enforcement (i.e, that inflation is due to lack of competitive markets).
      That shouldn't have to be legislated either, but here we are.

      Delete
    3. 12;19,
      That sounds like a made-up story by big-government Republicans, who want to dictate what your children should be learning.

      Delete
    4. Your big assumption is that there is a "need." You go on assuming from there.

      Delete
    5. A special interest group:

      Parentes Magni

      Delete
    6. The idea that a first grade student is to be forced to feel guilty about slavery is typical republican bs. They make up a scenario to angrily rail against. They are children. Marco Rubio has an ad out stating that leftists want to turn boys into girls. With "men" like Rubio in the republican party, what would be the point?

      Delete
    7. A first grade student can’t feel about slavery.

      They don’t feel guilty about vomiting up the sickening funeral home hot chocolate when looking into a casket at a corpse.

      Trust me.

      Delete
    8. Just because YOU don't feel guilty about anything doesn't mean that 1st graders don't feel guilt. Kids feel guilty about many things -- they just don't think about things the way adults do.

      It depends what kids are taught and how they are punished. For example, in the show Sinner (season 1), the 4 year old is made to feel guilty by her mother, who tells her that she sucked the life out of her when she was born, so that there was no energy left for her sister and that's why her sister is sickly. Her mother also tells her that her sister isn't getting better because she isn't praying hard enough to God. Yes, that is pretty evil, but the child's reaction is pretty realistic.

      Delete
    9. My first grader drank three cups of chocolate in the space of ten minutes and followed her not-so-attentive father into the dearly deceased viewing line.

      She wasn’t taught anything about treacly chocolate drinks and she wasn’t punished. As to her father… well..it’s all water under the bridge, as you can clearly see…

      We did nothing to address her culpability as to nausea.

      You utter dolt.

      Delete
    10. Why would you use an example that involved no chastisement and no punishment to illustrate that kids don't feel guilt? Why should there be guilt in a situation where the child did nothing wrong? I think you are the dolt.

      Guilt is the knowledge that one has violated rules or norms in the eyes of other people.

      Guilt definition: "the fact of having committed a specified or implied offense or crime"

      Why would there be any guilt for that child if no one pointed out that they had done anything wrong?

      Delete
    11. If an adult vomited on a casket they would feel embarrassment and guilt despite it being an accident.

      Of course children can feel guilt and shame, but odds are that this because an adult is working very hard to inspire those feelings.

      Delete
    12. They might not feel guilt but they can feel shame, and white parents aren't going to allow their white children to be shamed and bullied in school for being white by hateful ideologues.

      Delete
    13. No, they only want them to be bullied for their lunch money, so they can learn to be he-men by fighting back. The right wing routinely confuses bullying with strength.

      Shame occurs when someone is caught doing something involuntary in public view, such as when a child pees his pants at school. Guilt is about rule breaking and wrong doing.

      The fact that we didn't do the evil deeds of slavery is what makes us feel shame instead of guilt. We had no control over what happened but it is still wrong in public eyes. Whenever a child learns about slavery, he or she is going to feel shame. Why not have all kids learn about it at the same time, in an environment where teachers can help them deal with their feelings?

      Delete
    14. No, they only want their children to be bullied and shamed by other white children and of course the nuns. If you teach them not to feel shame about the normal stuff, then they will turn out like Trump or Cecelia. Trump feels shame when someone finds out his true net worth, or when he loses an election or his crowd sizes are smaller than Biden's. Not when he finds out how humanity treated slaves or finds out that the richest country on the planet allows children to starve because Capitalism.

      Delete
    15. I felt empathy learning about slavery but not shame. "Shame occurs when someone is caught doing something involuntary in public view." I never felt shame for being white in public view, never will, nor should anyone suggest anyone feel shame for their skin color because such a suggestion is deranged, and when suggested to children, abusive.

      If you're saying by virtue of the teaching, white children would feel shame, and you have any evidence, then if anything teachers should strenuously assure students that none of the children in the class should ever feel shame for what people who aren't them have done in the past.

      Delete
    16. We should feel shame over things like slavery and the Holocaust because we are fellow human beings, not because of being white. It horrified me when I found out what humans could do to other humans. If you cannot feel deep shame over mistreatment of others, someone has failed in your moral education.

      The value of shame and guilt is that it helps regulate social behavior. That is very important to functioning communities. When people do not feel such emotions over importantly held values, then there is a breakdown of behavior and societies need prisons and cops. Politicians used to feel shame over their improper behavior, whether graft or lawbreaking or offenses against women. Now, they don't on the right and voters let them get away with things they shouldn't be doing, from Matt Gaetz to MTG to Trump himself. None of them have any shame and those who have broken laws will go to jail without expressing remorse. On the left, when politicians are shamed by the exposure of their misbehavior, they still resign, because Democrats expect them to.

      Now Republicans don't want their children to be taught shame and guilt either, by receiving instruction in school about what is good and bad behavior. You can see why, when the adults see such feelings as liabilities and impediments to success in their careers. And they claim to care about family values!

      Delete
    17. Actually, Anonymouse 8:36pm, I only feel shame when I exercise my white privilege 97% of the day, rather 110%.

      Delete
  4. I would bet good money that this is yet another made-up culture-war scandal for GOP political purposes, just like the "CRT" "scandal." CRT isn't even being taught except in a few elective, post-graduate college courses, and yet the GOP won the governorship of Virginia apparently in part because brain-washed Republican voters were convinced they had to save their kids from the deadly CRT. Here is an example of one such rube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsruFdvUExk

    I would bet few or no teachers were or are actually teaching their students that "he or she must feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress for actions, in which he or she played no part, committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex."

    ReplyDelete
  5. "Tears of Rage" should be credited as a Bob Dylan/Richard Manuel Song, the later artist delivered the definitive vocal on the song. Yes, Dylan did write the words.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But that doesn’t mean Dylan switched sides in the culture wars.

      Delete
    2. Somerby has no more idea what Dylan meant by his lyrics than this Dylan archivist does -- they are opaque:

      https://bob-dylan.org.uk/archives/2112

      Delete
    3. Lord knows what Dylan, at age 80, is going to do with the 300 million dollars he got from Universal for the rights to his songs.

      Delete
    4. Somerby only grabbed those lyrics because they contain the words "false instruction." He doesn't care what the rest of the song is about.

      Delete
  6. Most would admit neither side is perfect, and that school
    curriculum has always been, understandably, argued over.
    Will future generations have kids who are allowed to be
    taught the Republican Party attempted, clearly, to
    destroy free elections so their gangster/bully of choice
    could permanently assume the office of President?
    It seems a basic truth Bob would gladly suppress
    even for adults now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There have been large periods in our history when people left curriculum up to the teachers and didn't meddle.

      Delete
    2. There have been large periods in history when people could trust teachers not to inflict cruelty and perversion onto children because it was rare in the culture. Now the entire Democrat party embraces sick conversion therapy for tomboys in the form of puberty blockers, double mastectomy and sterilization.

      Delete
    3. And they think black people should have equality, which, let's face it, screws with your mind far worse.

      Delete
    4. "...the entire Democrat party embraces sick conversion therapy for tomboys in the form of puberty blockers, double mastectomy and sterilization."

      This is Right-wing speak for "Wants non-whites to have have political representation".

      Delete
    5. What do you think tomboy means?

      Delete
    6. A tomboy is a gender nonconforming girl almost all of whom will go through puberty and become a gender conforming woman. In no case will they ever become a man.

      Delete
    7. Gender norms for girls are much looser than for men these days, which makes it more difficult to consider girls nonconforming. For examples, girls now code, engage in sports, wear jeans, have short hair, make choices about their lives, and speak in loud voices. And they are still girls. Boys arguably have more restrictions, since until recently they were not allowed to like art or music or theater without being suspect, could not wear certain colors of clothing, could not express feelings openly, and had to prove themselves via swagger and bullying. Thank God some of that has changed and boys now have more options.

      None of this has anything to do with being gay or transgender, because none of those behaviors are about identity.

      The right wing seems to be very confused about child behavior and sexuality, which is another way that being undereducated affects politics. Society's understandings will catch up to science eventually but in the meantime, people are persecuting each other out of ignorance and that is very sad.

      Delete
  7. Bob will love this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh8WwWG_lqs

    ReplyDelete
  8. You can forget about the Hispanic vote.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We'll just forget about you instead.

      Delete
    2. 9:52,
      Not until the Republican Party suppresses ALL their votes.

      Delete
  9. "bans the teaching of any lesson, specifically about race and racism, that makes any student feel discomfort?"

    It is impossible for a teacher to predict what is going to make a child feel discomfort. In 3rd grade, our teacher was reading the book Black Beauty aloud to the class. I felt horrible after the chapter where a rider fails to tend to the horse after riding for the doctor and the horse catches sick after being left wet and heaving in the barn without care. It was so incredibly sad and horrifying that someone would do that after a horse gave its all to ride quicky for help. I was very upset. But how would the teacher predict that? I never told anyone how I felt, not even parents but it shook the trust I felt in those who cared for me. A different moment in a different book might have been upsetting to another child. Teachers cannot shelter children entirely from life and its myriad shocks that are part of growing up.

    ReplyDelete
  10. "For the record, we'd love to see a full discussion of this important topic. We'd even like to see the definitive text of the Florida law in its final form! "

    I would rather see a full discussion of why anyone should feel they must instruct or require or otherwise interfere with the efforts of trained teachers in the classroom when they are teaching children. I do not understand why this cannot be left to the professionals who surely know their jobs better than parents and legislators, and yes, even Somerby, who last taught math to middle schoolers back in the 1970s.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Because we've seen enough tik toks of shaved-headed tattooed teachers boasting about how they indoctrinate children?

      Even if they didn't exist, your insistence that teachers know their jobs better than parents when it comes to social teaching demonstrates a mind turned to mush and submissive to the whims of the dumbest among us.

      Delete
    2. And those people couldn't possibly be put-up shills? You don't know who they are when you see a tik tok of someone online.

      You added the words "social teaching". I said teaching, period. Teachers are best able to teach whatever their subject matter happens to be because they are trained to do so (except Somerby, who was recruited by Teach for America and thus had no training). Calling me mush isn't actually an argument against my premise.

      Delete
    3. Use of the word "indoctrinate" is propagandistic. That really isn't the goal of any teaching. Teachers help children use their brains and acquire basic skills such as reading and math. Social studies is aimed at acquiring facts of our history and the world and at critical thinking. Indoctrination is what right wingers want to happen in schools, so that children won't raise troublesome questions at home, such as "Mommy, why was there slavery?"

      Delete
    4. If you're old enough to post here you likely weren't abused by woke teachers telling you white people are inherently stained and probably learned a straightforward account of history including slavery. Somehow you were able to figure out the residual implications without the hate indoctrination. What they don't want is for students to conclude that racism (against blacks) is nearly eradicated except in the most subtle and inconsequential forms, and that the most extreme examples are always hoaxes by actors and NASCAR drivers or open, overt racism against white people.

      Delete
    5. 10:28: “woke teachers telling you white people are inherently stained”…If you think that is what CRT is about, then you are wrong. Did you know that a core tenet of CRT is that race is a construct? Also, can you fathom a difference between being responsible for correcting inequalities that resulted from racism and being guilty of them? This seems to be a difficult point for many to grasp. Teachers, who in general are not teaching CRT, will run afoul of the Florida law for merely suggesting that there are still inequalities that resulted from racism, and asking students to think about this situation. That is the purpose of the fricking law!

      Delete
    6. It's only an opinion, and usually a wrong one, that residual inequalities are traceable to slavery. So teachers should not be indoctrinating students with that false narrative, which is not only false but debilitating to black students who learn their efforts are hopeless.

      Delete
    7. 1:40: “usually?” If there are cases where it’s a correct opinion, why would you oppose the teaching of it?

      Delete
    8. We would oppose teaching it because victim (and guilt) mentality is a disease.

      History belongs to history; let the dead bury their dead. Your fate is in your own hands, and no one owes you anything.

      Delete
    9. If one can refer to a specific example in which a chain of events beginning with slavery resulted in a current experience of discrimination for an individual black person, to say that slavery led to an inequality would be a correct opinion provided there were no intervening poor choices on the part of that individual's parents. The problem is that there are no known examples given that public education, affirmative action, and welfare programs have existed for generations.

      Delete
    10. This is untrue. You can control for a variety of influences on outcomes for children statistically, which is what social science researchers do.

      Delete
    11. "no one owes you anything."
      Not even the ability to post bigotry on social media, it turns out.

      Delete
    12. Social science has proven the problems in the black community are caused by fatherless homes. This is the difference between minority ethnic groups that have flourished within two generations and those that languish. There isn't a victim industry dedicated to agitating and making excuses for those groups, lucky for them.

      Delete
  11. Somehow, these facts are not on Somerby's radar. He keeps complaining about blue tribe members when it is the MAGA extremists who have ruined public discourse with violent rhetoric (from Political Wire):

    "New York Times: “Republican representatives have ratcheted up such rhetoric since former President Donald Trump took office, the analysis found. In the year and a half after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, Republicans on average used divisive words and phrases more than twice as often as Democrats in tweets, and six times as often in emails to constituents.”

    “At the forefront of this polarization are Republicans who voted to reject the Electoral College results that cemented Mr. Trump’s defeat last year. A recent Times investigation revealed how those lawmakers helped engrave the myth of a stolen election in party orthodoxy. Now, a Times analysis shows that the language of the 139 objecting members is markedly more hostile than that of other Republicans and Democrats. In their telling, those who oppose them not only are wrong about certain policies but also hate their country.”

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You’re forgetting about that one Kevin Drum commenter that one time.

      Delete
  12. “we'd love to see a full discussion of this important topic.”

    It’s ironic that the “Stop WOKE Act” is so …woke.

    Not only are teachers not allowed to actually discriminate on the basis of race or gender, they are also not allowed to “subject any student or employee to training or instruction that
    espouses, promotes, advances, inculcates, or compels such student or employee to believe” the topics listed in the bill, some of which Somerby mentions.

    The problem lies in what constitutes “espousing” or “promoting” those things.

    According to DeSantis’ “handout” about the law, it “codifies the Florida Department of education’s prohibition on teaching critical race theory in K-12 schools.”

    https://www.flgov.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Stop-Woke-Handout.pdf

    Thus, it is designed as a tool to prohibit “CRT”, and is based on a misunderstanding of what CRT is and what teachers are actually teaching.

    In reality, if a teacher wants to examine the legacy of racism and how that has produced racial inequalities, is that espousing or promoting a forbidden idea?

    It is less than clear from the bill.

    In actual practice, it is likely that parents will come to object to a lesson plan based upon various factors, including their and their child’s “feelings” that they are being subjected to forbidden ideas, which boils down to “feeling discomfort.”

    In fact, a federal judge found, in August:

    “the “Stop WOKE” act violates the First Amendment and is impermissibly vague.”

    There has been plenty of discussion of these anti-CRT bills, contrary to what Somerby says. He seems to mean “discussion that doesn’t criticize these bills.”

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If we're allowing teachers to discuss present-day consequences of slavery, are they also allowed to point out the consequence of disparities between racial groups involving persisting broken homes and crime resulting from choices made, and the fact that other ethnic minority groups suffered more recent atrocities and discrimination including being gassed or starved, yet occupy the top tiers of every institution, owing in large part to their choices involving family and crime? Or no?

      Delete
    2. You need to be accurate and point out the systematic suppression of literacy among black slaves too, the effects of Jim Crow laws etc.

      Delete
    3. 10:34: The Florida law, which is the topic of Somerby’s post, is designed only to stop discussion of CRT, or what passes for CRT. Perhaps, if it is allowed to take effect, some parent will take a school/teacher to court for saying what you suggested. In reality, the law has the effect of stifling teachers of all political persuasions. And here I thought conservatives believed in an open exchange of ideas.

      Delete
    4. The bill idealizes a non-racist egalitarian society, as well as ways to move toward it. It circumvents recognition of both the individual and the structural dimensions post Obama racism, and long-term strategies necessary to its domination of white Americans of non-color, Blacks and Asians. Central to this domination are the well- institutionalized practices of schools that have routinely denied white Americans the dignity, opportunities, positions, permissions, and privileges generally incontrovertible extensive learning structure of white culture and power that cut across all major institutions. Particular gas, oil, nougat and nougat related products, government and publishing.

      Delete
  13. There is a long history of conservative objection to what they consider “progressive” school curriculum, including the teaching of evolution. The American Legion and the John Birch Society have both objected to teaching about economic inequality in the 1930’s and 1950’s.

    This latest is nothing new.

    The respectful view is that conservatives sincerely consider these things harmful to children. The cynical view is that conservatives want to prohibit progressive ideas by legislating them out of existence.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Somerby seems to be arguing for a narrow interpretation of the Stop WOKE act, but it encompasses more than Somerby describes:

    "But the arguments Florida has advanced to defend the Stop Woke Act against multiple legal challenges go much further. In response to claims that the legislation “violates the First Amendment and is constitutionally vague and racially discriminatory,” lawyers for the state have asserted that state college curricula and in-class instruction are “government speech,” and “not the speech of the educators’ themselves.” Insisting there is “no purported right to academic freedom,” they maintain that the government of Florida “has simply chosen to regulate its own speech.”

    This has been taken to mean that Florida universities may interfere with tenure rights of faculty. Such rights have not yet been adjudicated by the Supreme Court, which recently ruled that an employee may not speak out in ways contrary to an employer's wishes during performance of their job. Whether this applies to tenure rights remains to be seen. But this law places academic rights to free speech in jeopardy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As if academic rights to free speech aren't already completely so crushed by woketard orthodoxy that all this would do is broaden them.

      Delete
    2. Except they're not. This is a right-wing invention.

      Delete
    3. "On June 2, Shapiro was reinstated as senior lecturer and executive director for the Georgetown Center for the Constitution after a 122-day investigation — which began before Shapiro started his first day on the job. Georgetown investigated Shapiro after he tweeted that Sri Srinivasan, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, would be President Biden’s “best pick” for the Supreme Court. He continued: “But alas [Srinivasan] doesn’t fit into latest intersectionality hierarchy so we’ll get lesser black woman.” Shapiro’s “lesser black woman” phrasing gained considerable attention on Twitter and within the Georgetown community, and led Georgetown Law Dean William Treanor to denounce the tweet as “appalling” and “at odds with everything we stand for at Georgetown Law.”

      One example of many. The choice is self-muzzling or be fired or driven out. Professors have lost credibility and prestige because no one believes they think independently and rationally. They don't dare.

      Delete
    4. How will a professor deal fairly with black students if he thinks there are no qualified black female judges?

      Delete
    5. "Academic freedom" has limits just like any other freedom. A teacher doesn't get to stand in front of a class and say, "God I hate n*****s!" So then the question is where does the line get drawn. What speech is protected by "academic freedom" and what speech isn't? I think what Shapiro said crosses the line, because of how it was worded. It seems to imply that any black female judge would automatically be "lesser" than Shapiro's preference, based on nothing more than their race and gender. If I were running a school, I wouldn't want my black female students feeling like they are inherently inferior and looked down upon by any professor just because of their race or gender.

      Delete
    6. No it doesn't imply that, it clearly means that his choice of judge would be overlooked for a black female candidate of lesser quality. You know this, I know this, Georgetown knows this, everyone who reported on this knows this, every activist who pretended not to know this knows this, and the black female students, if they scored well enough for admission, know this.

      We know you know it so the bullshit no longer flies.

      Delete
    7. I would love for a “conservative” to give “conservative” reasons why it is “conservative” for a state to mandate that teachers at state universities must parrot the current administration’s views. So, if a Democrat becomes governor, “conservatives” would be perfectly OK with the state then mandating that teachers espouse only liberal views?

      Academic freedom is a conservative notion. Today’s “conservatives” don’t seem to know that.

      Delete
    8. No, I don't know that. I think he made his statement before anyone even knew who the nominee would be. All that was known was that the nominee would be black and female. And based on that fact alone, he assumed the nominee would be "lesser." And regardless, if his point was that the nominee should be selected purely on "qualifications" (a somewhat subjective term), he should have said that. His unnecessarily incendiary choice of wording would raise a red flag for most employers.

      Delete
    9. Public school curriculum has nothing to do with academic freedom, dear mh.

      You're perfectly entitled to organize whatever liberal indoctrination camp you like, as long as it's privately financed and attendance is voluntary.

      Delete
    10. If he named someone who would be a "best pick," obviously he thought someone who was a different race or sex would be "lesser." The fact that his preferred candidate was not going to be considered because he wasn't the "right" race or sex is repulsive but racism and sexism are perfectly acceptable to Democrats.

      Delete
    11. His wording was boneheaded. The fact that it has to be explained, clarified, debated, etc., shows it was problematic. All he had to say was that Biden should make his selection on the basis of merit alone, and that if Biden does so, X would be the best pick. At the very least, he could have just said "lesser qualified candidates." And I know your side likes the one-upmanship of reversing the racism/sexism accusation, but of course it's bogus. Trying to correct an underrepresentation of black women in positions of power that exists as a result of a centuries-long history of racism and sexism, is not itself racist or sexist. It's the exact opposite. And as long as the nominee is fully qualified, competent, experienced, etc., it's a just and admirable thing to do. Reagan did the same thing when he promised to nominate a woman to the Supreme Court.

      Delete
    12. Discrimination against entire groups based on race and sex, in an age in which there has been a black president and Oprah is one of the wealthiest people in the world, is not admirable, it's disgusting.

      Delete
    13. His comment did not have to be clarified. Everyone knew what he said and meant because it was clear. Cowardice and racism drove the "investigation." These institutions are a joke now.

      Delete
  15. I was against this bill, but then Mao told me Democrats are the REAL totalitarians.
    LOL.

    ReplyDelete
  16. https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2022/7/BillText/er/PDF

    ReplyDelete
  17. Notice how all this bs is coming out of the state of Florida lately, where DeSantis banned 11 math textbooks leaving only one publisher from Texas with financial ties to the Republican party. These are orchestrated fictions. Telling felons who had served time that they could vote then orchestrating their highly publicized arrests is another example which is now failing jurisdictional scrutiny. But he got to put on his little show, as likewise with the Venezuelans to Martha's Vineyard. Likewise he got on his soapbox and railed against the federal government for not supplying Florida with more anti Covid monoclonal antibody at a time when the pharmaceutical companies were simultaneously warning against their use for the prevailing strain (Omicron was 98% of new cases and unaffected by this very expensive treatment). For DeSantis this is nothing more than cynical performance art, like complaining about grooming and shaming third graders over slavery. Pure republican fiction.

    ReplyDelete