Republicans Taking Aim at Disney Is a Reminder That Both Parties Are Hostile to Free Speech
For most of the past decade-plus, those complaining the loudest about corporate participation in politics have been Democrats.
Republicans are taking aim at Disney over the media company's opposition to a new Florida law that critics call the "don't say gay" legislation.
"For Disney to come out and put a statement and say that the bill should have never passed and that they are going to actively work to repeal it, I think one was fundamentally dishonest, but two I think that crossed the line," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said. "This state is governed by the interests of the people of the state of Florida. It is not based on the demands of California corporate executives. They do not run this state. They do not control this state."
The governor told Fox News: "Disney has gotten over its skis on this.…When you are trying to impose a woke ideology on our state, we view that as a significant threat."
"We will not back down to woke corporations," Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez said.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R–Tenn.) complained to John Catsimatidis that "the woke left extremists are using corporations to push their agenda." Blackburn's comment to Catsimatidis, a politically active New York and Florida businessman who hosts an AM radio program, was reported by the New York Post.
It's ironic to hear the complaints from Republicans about politically active corporations, because for most of the past decade-plus, those complaining the loudest about corporate participation in politics have been Democrats, or Democrat-leaning independent socialists, complaining about gun manufacturers, oil companies, and health insurance companies.
In his 2010 State of the Union address, former President Obama attacked the Supreme Court justices sitting in the audience for their ruling in Citizens United. "Last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests—including foreign corporations—to spend without limit in our elections," Obama said. "I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities."
In July 2010, Obama expanded on the point. "Because of the Supreme Court's decision earlier this year in the Citizens United case, big corporations—even foreign-controlled ones—are now allowed to spend unlimited amounts of money on American elections," Obama said. "Imagine the power this will give special interests over politicians. Corporate lobbyists will be able to tell members of Congress if they don't vote the right way, they will face an onslaught of negative ads in their next campaign."
Sens. Chuck Schumer (D–N.Y.), Dick Durbin (D–Ill.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D–R.I.), and Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.) went so far as to introduce legislation to amend the First Amendment to give Congress the power to limit campaign speech.
All of a sudden now that the politician is Republican Gov. DeSantis and his allies in the Florida legislature, and the corporate lobbyists are from Disney and are defending teacher speech on sex and gender issues—well, maybe Democrats will look differently at the value of corporate speech, or the downside of restricting it.
Obama in 2010 said, "This should not be a Democratic issue or a Republican issue."
Actually, it wasn't. The unconstitutional law that Obama was defending—and that the Supreme Court correctly struck down in Citizens United—was the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. It was known as McCain-Feingold after the 2008 Republican presidential candidate, former Sen. John McCain (R–Ariz.), who was one of its prime champions. It was signed into law by former President George W. Bush, a Republican, even though Bush had sworn an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution that included the First Amendment.
Why are politicians so hostile to corporate political speech?
Because in an era of expanded government power, shareholders and employees and customers in the form of a corporation are one of the few remaining restraints on politicians. Even the rule of law is hardly an obstacle. As Citizens United shows, the politicians had no trouble enacting an unconstitutional statute. When the Supreme Court scrapped it, Obama denounced the Court with the justices sitting right there in the audience. Then the leading senators proposed to rewrite the Constitution to give themselves more power.
People may differ on the merits of the Florida law. It states, in part, that "classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards."
If that law reminds liberals that banning corporate speech doesn't advance liberty, it may yet serve some constructive purpose. Politicians only have to face voters every two or four years. But businesses have to earn the confidence of customers, employees, and shareholders—with widely varying opinions—on an ongoing basis. More dangerous even than "woke" corporations are unconstrained politicians.
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How’s this for a movie idea? A long dead and frozen company founder slowly thaws and reanimates to murder, one by one, the pervs that have taken over his corporation.
Sounds like a half assed take on the abominable Dr phibes. I would watch it… A dozen times
Heh. You said “assed”. Heh.
Woof! That’s gay speak, “I like that!”, hairy muscled ass. OTOH, as a married gay man, I am sooooo fed up with everyone talking about us homos without even consulting us.
1. We talk to no one about our butt sex. True, my husband and I are well hung, but why embarrass the breeders? Average length of that appendage is 5.5”, so unless the teacher had an anatomy lesson to provide for high school students, gay or straight sex is a no go
2. It is sick, disgusting and offensive that teachers and “activists” (eye roll) insist talking to young children about gay sex is needed. It is not. Go find an adult boyfriend if you have that need, but chances are if you dont have one, you are looking at kids for your sexual kicks.
3. Arrest the mofos who go near children with any sexual agenda.
Many of us gays were molested by dirty old men when we were kids, and these stories of teaching gay sex to kids borders on the same.
4. Stick to Reading, Writing and Math. Last time we checked, our youth suck at all of them. If teaching these subjects cramps your lifestyle, get lost.
5. If youre going to use the inane argument of first amendment for teachers, youre grasping at straws. You would likely call foul if a teacher taught Catholic education, Jewish Talmud or Muslim Laws, so grow a pair and stick up for kids. We gays do not want children to be as f****** up as we were because some dirty old men thought it cool to show us their cock.
I, too, believe in donning now, our gay apparel, to be gay and happy, so it’s all OK by me!
You might want to check with Dear Abby about it all, she knows more than I do… A blast from the past below…
Dear Abby? Am I in the right place?!?!?
Dear Abby, Dear Abby,
My life is a mess,
Bill Clinton stained my dress,
I can’t get it off my hairy chest,
‘Cause my boyfriend’s a pest,
I can’t talk of my sexual past,
‘Cause he gets all aghast!
And Abby, my boyfriend and I have been “seeing” each other for 41 years!
Now our home state will let us get gay-married, we’re a itchin’ to go get us a hitchin’!
But boyfriend INSISTS on us getting gay-married in churches that don’t want us, by preachers that hate us, and get photoed by people that can’t stand us, and on and on and on!
I think it’s ‘cause his pet Hamster Huey and his Gooey Kabloooey rejected him in the 5th grade, and he’s NEVER gotten over it!
Abbey, PLEASE don’t tell us to get therapy, we can’t afford it! We COULD afford it, but he gives all of our money to politicians who say they are a gonna fix all of this mess with more laws!
So Abby… Besides therapy, what can I do to help my boyfriend settle for getting gay-married by people who like gays?
Love and Smooches, Dude B. Gay
Your meter is still horrible SQRLSY. Isn’t there a community college nearby where you could take a poetry appreciation class? Think of the good you will do helping the young teacher with a PhD in literary studies from the 16th century and a $200K student loan make her/his/their/thems/uses/younesses/menesses/wenesses next payment at the end of the month.
It is for the greater good.
Mr. Prine is doing the grave roll as we speak.
Government Almighty bless John Prine! Amen, Dear Flabby!!!
Install-ill-mint #2…
Abby? Abby? ABBY!!! WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?!?!
Abby, I REALLY-REALLY need yer help NOW!
My pet binturong died, and I didn’t want to trouble my boyfriend about it, so I buried it in some rags in the attic, and let it mummify, hoping that my boyfriend would never notice (he never paid much of any attention at all, to my pet Benny the Binturong, so, the idea of him never noticing Benny being gone, isn’t so strange, really). But then my boyfriend… Call him “Ted Cruz” for annoying-mouse purposes here… Ted found the mummy of my beloved Benny. Now he thinks it is his old friend Hamster Huey, come back to him after all these years, and to make up to him! So now he is making love to my dear departed pet binturong all day, every day, and totally ignoring me!
HELP, Dear Abby, HELP!!!!
Install-ill-mint #3, cumming up soon, if’n I can find enough booze to fuel me through “fleshing it out” some more, if’n ye will…
Sequel includes Commander Coriander Salamander, the Megamander-Cummander, who fights off ALL slanders, from Colonel Slanders, and ALL other blander slanderers!
Well OK now, I’ve dosed myself on some Jack Daniels, which may be polluting my newest install-ill-mint here, butt… Butt Jack D. is NOT paying me for the below! (It’s not very gay any more, butt, drink some more Jack D., an’ ye might be able to follow me anyways).
It was a dark and stormy night many years ago; I was at the bar drinking Jack Daniels (or at least, that’s what they told me that it was). Bill and Hillary and Chelsea and “Iron Pants” Maggie Thatcher cum up to me; they ask if I would like to have a twenty-some with them-all, and their dwarf hippos.
They say “ya gotto try everything at least once”, and “that which does not kill you, makes you stronger”, and so I said OK. Chelsea grabbed me at one end and Maggie grabbed me at the other end, kissing me passionately, and they dragged me off to their UFO, where I passed out.
When I woke up I was in the middle of them AND all of their dwarf hippos! It was a night that I will never forget! I now know that I have a LOT more bodily openings than I had ever DREAMED of! I can’t tell you about the hamsters and the declawed gerbils and where we loved them and shoved them, because Bill Clinton has a patent AND a trademark on that!
Well OK now, I’ve dosed myself on some Jack Daniels
You bring shame to your Lesbian sisters.
True.
Get Sam Raimi to direct.
Or Ted Raimi.
Like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlxznyPzDrQ
John Hospers returns to drive a stake through the heart of every communist anarchist and girl-bullying christianofascist infiltrator in the LNC–the ones writing vigilante murder and pauper/terrorist importation planks into our platform to alienate voters. YES!
Sounds childishly stupid to me.
The only thing America is capable of producing is stupidity.
Americans are made from pure stupid.
“Disney is defending teacher free speech…”
Do agents of the State have an untrammeled right to free speech in carrying out their State duties? Does a teacher have the right to teach a subject not in the employer’s curriculum, and in fact, specifically excluded from the curriculum?
No. They don’t. The government of FL gets to tell teachers what they can, can not, and are expected to teach. We can have a convo as to if this is a good system… but it is the system and the law. And DeSantis is operating WELL within the rules here on this one. And the left has straight fucking lied about it at every turn.
” And the left has straight fucking lied about it at every turn.”
Ditto for Reason writers like Shackford and Stoll.
But noting that is rather redundant isn’t it?
Well, ideally, the schools would be private and the parents and charitable foundations supporting them would get to decide what the teachers teach.
The next step up from that is having the local school board determining what the local school teaches, based on the competing interests and beliefs of parents in that school district.
But schools seem to be increasingly run from the state level, which runs the risk of state level teaching rules being passed that some school districts do not necessarily support.
If the bums at my local library can watch pornography on the public computers, why can’t teachers show children videos of Lana Rhoades engaging in double penetration and cum gargling?
#LogCabinRepublicans
Link?
Tu quoque?
Yeah, pretty sure telling employees of the state they’re not allowed to talk to five year olds about butt sex on the job isn’t a first amendment issue.
They want everyone to have that right.
Teachers are paid for their speech, just as a stage performer is paid for reciting lines. If an actor was paid for Hamlet but insisted on singing The Pirates of Penzance, he would be fired. He can sing whatever he wants on his own time, but that was not what he was being paid for.
Teachers can go all over trans, bi, or gay off the job but not while they are being paid by parents to teach their kids… unless the parents want that.
It’s not just about not being a free speech vs employment issue. No teacher, district, or corporation can legitimately claim a moral authority that exceeds that of the parent [though lately they certainly try], and they certainly aren’t around to pick up the pieces after shoveling bullshit into the heads of children and sending them home for the parents to deal with.
However, passing some law that prohibits an adult from talking with a 5-year-old child about their sexual proclivities is as worthless as warning a klepto employee to not steal or passing another law to stop psychotic criminal behavior. It’s not a solution that solves the issue of having self-gratifying perverts in positions of authority over children. Short of removing these people and their immediate supervisors [because they allow it] means you’re still leaving those who want to do it in charge.
Passing the law creates the basis for firing their asses if they violate it, doesn’t it?
“Teachers are paid for their speech”
True, but not only that, a classroom is already a restricted environment not the public square.
Faux libertarians dressing wrapping themselves in the Bill of Rights is no different than others who wrap themselves in the flag.
It’s a lie.
I wonder how these people would react if ‘teacher free speech’ meant bringing Creationism back into school.
Free speech, right? Academic freedom, right?
Re: the continual whining about home-schooled kids ‘taught creationism’:
I don’t like it, but the chance of that harming me is thousands of times less than some kid getting a ticket stamped by a government school, worshiping FDR and his socialist bullshit.
This really is a braindead take. If this was about a teacher talking about his savior Jesus Christ, would Ira assert the teacher’s right to free speech in the classroom? If a teacher was talking about the need to kill infidels so they can live in paradise in 72 virgins, is that also free speech?
Sorry, you don’t have free speech when carrying out a specific duty as a public servant.
This is one of those Reason articles that is written pursuant to alogorithm. It detects that too many Dems bad articles have been written, so have to generate a Repubs bad article to make sure “both sides!” is properly balanced.
Just one bad Dems story is too many. Must bowf sidez harder…
The Looter Kleptocracy is one-sided, like the flat Earth it rules. Do not mistake factions squabbling at the trough for voluntary choice.
This.
Reason’s crap take is that because Florida won’t allow students (who are compelled by law to attend public) to be indoctrinated with a politically tinged and often biologically counterfactual ideology, they are trampling on teacher free speech rights. We’ve long acknowledged government offices/institutions that exist by the coercion of the US taxpayer have less rights to make political speech. At one point, this was a rather libertarian concept. A libertarian should oppose gov-mandated programs, and barring that, limit them as much as possible (in this case confining the schools to a factually-grounded curriculum of objectively valid educational topics, rather than letting them teach children about their sexual preferences). This Reason article is up their for the publication’s track record of unreasonable behavior.
Teachers do more than teach. They have conversations with their students. Is that what you intend to criminalize?
Ira you have to help me out here. What actual law is DeSantis pushing to punish Disney? you didn’t mention a single one, you only mentioned the DeSantis complained about Disney.
Now on citizens united you mention that there was a law that got challenged.
You are not comparing apples to apples here.
DeSantis has banned teachers in Florida from discussing sexuality / gender issues with children younger than 9 years old. This is completely inappropriate. If you rubes who vote Republican read some Freud, you’d understand that children have a well developed sexual identity and they should have the legal right to express themselves as they desire. Jeffrey Epstein, Roman Polanski, and Woody Allen have all helped children to express their sexual identity and there is nothing wrong with that.
Pretty Babies all around. – Roman P
If it’s moving, I’m doing it. Or you are Billy C. – the late Jeff Epps
Let’s adopt a girl this time, Mia. – They don’t call me Woody for nothing, Allen
Very good grasshoppa!
OBL, is that you?
ha ha ha….
I honestly can’t tell if this is satire or not.
The ages of 4 through 8 are when most people ease into their sexual identity.
You may not like that reality but no one cares what fools think.
I see no reason why the state has to get involved. But I see no reason why the state can not recognize the fact that there are people who exist outside of the normal gender rolls.
By law Disney is a de facto and de jure local government unto itself and DeSantis is pushing to change that law so Disney would be subject to county and state laws along the lines of growth, environmental laws, construction rules, taxes, and a lot more laws I probably missed.
Truth be told if this happened it would be a real kick in the dick for Disney.
I think they are already subject to state laws. They are revisiting whether to allow them to be independent of Orange County.
Disney gets special consideration by FDEP for environmental and growth issues and the same for some state taxes. One failed Disney project is still an environmental mess that needs to be cleaned up and doing that would cost Disney a pretty penny.
So DeSantis is proposing ending a crony capitalist handout that should never have happened in the first place. To a libertarian, that should be a good thing.
Just wait for it, the “Reedy Creek Development Unit IS Like Libertopia” article is coming.
Agreed. Regardless of culture war motives, anything that limits or ends a “public-private partnership” is the right thing to do. There is no justification for forcing people to support a company through government subsidies and special privileges when the goal is to ruin the relationship between parents and children.
To be frank, this sounds not only completely fair, but long overdue. Disney is big, but not so big as to effectively be their own county for compliance purposes. That is purely to save money for the mouse.
So Duce DeSantis wants to denounce the Lateran Treaty?
Republicans seek to destroy that which they can not corrupt and destroy.
DeSantis is bordering on mean tweets. Which is not allowed.
Ira is completely correct in his assessment. Both Democrats and Republicans are equally hostile to free speech. Until the Republicans clean up their act, I will continue to vote for the lesser of two evils, the Democrat Party.
#GoJoe2024
OBL, is that you?
The good rabbi has been around a long time. He just took a bit of a break, I think, but I remember him from a year or more ago, speaking his power to truth.
Like the Tony Sock, this puppet also lives in a universe where there are only two parties, communist and fascist. Then alluva sudden a Libertarian candidate on an uncrippled platform gets 4 million individualist votes. Winners lose and losers win. Then what? Doublethink–the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. “How many parties am I holding up, Winston?”
Hank, it’s time to turn up the morphine drip. Just let go.
“#GoJoe2024”
I’m down with that; right to the assisted care facility *after* he pays taxes on the ‘big guy’ income.
Are you still molesting children Rabbi?
Do what law did DeSantis pass that controlled corporate speech? Did he threaten Disney with the force of the government? Did he even imply government action against Disney?
No? Then wtf???
Biden called on Big Tech explicitly to control citizens speech. DeSantis told teachers to stop talking about sex with little kids, stop telling kids to hide things from their parents, and to stop hiding things from parents themselves (Ooooooohhhhh the horror!!!!!!). Disney lied about it and he said that doing so was across the line. He is right… lying to people is socially across the line. And Disney should be called out for it.
This has nothing to do with Citizens United. What a reach. What a intellectually flaccid magazine Reason has become.
>Biden called on Big Tech explicitly to protect American citizens from Russian / GOP disinformation regarding COVID vaccinations that threatened American citizen’s lives.
There was too many topics for me to spell put so I just went with the general catch-all phrasing. That doing it that way is even an option should terrify the shit out of any sane person.
There must have been a shit tonne of Russian / GOP disinformation regarding COVID vaccinations on Hunters laptop. Thank you mass media for protecting me from it.
Local story.
“What a intellectually flaccid magazine Reason has become.”
That’s an appropriate way to put it.
I think it’s a little hard on Reason.
“Reason” exists for only one purpose. To spread pro-corporate
propaganda to promote the American corporate Kleptocracy.
There isn’t much logic or reason coming from Reason, but there is a lot of Treason.
Do what law did DeSantis pass that controlled corporate speech? Did he threaten Disney with the force of the government? Did he even imply government action against Disney?
This is how you, supposedly, appear libertarian while defending Disney and overtly ignoring that Disney has special protections granted to it by previous administrations and is now seeking to mobilize its outsized influence outside its special jurisdiction.
” Did he even imply government action against Disney?”
Well, yes. He threatened to remove the special privilege extended to Walt Disney World where they control zoning an permitting within the boundaries of their property.
He threatened to make them have to play by the same rules as everyone else.
3:o <– Ira's shocked face with his hair on fire!
because for most of the past decade-plus, those complaining the loudest about corporate participation in politics have been Democrats, or Democrat-leaning independent socialists, complaining about gun manufacturers, oil companies, and health insurance companies.
While staying deathly silent on entertainment, finance, mass media, and tech companies.
Reason has played the same Rope-A-Dope game time and time again.
Muh Private Companies!
Fuck this shit, they are beyond rank dishonesty .
^
You are right. The Democrats are on the proper side of History.
The Republican Party is a private company.
The German National Socialist party was a subsidiary of IG Farben, Thyssen, Krupp and Positive Christianity. But I suspect the Communist party is a government agency, like the DEA or FDA.
Ira… are County cleeks allowed to withhold marriage licenses from gay people based on the 1a?
Reason is getting dumber.
Dumber than the children they all but advocate fucking. Disney has a right to dishonestly lie about a bill and claim it shouldn’t pass, fine but Desantis has the right to complain about their undue influence as well. Now when Disney starts acting on their pro-pedo advocacy I see no reason for them to have their special privileges removed.
Now when Disney starts acting on their pro-pedo advocacy I see no reason for them to have their special privileges removed.
*Not* to have their privileges removed? They shouldn’t have gotten the privileges in the first place. Now that they’re trying to thwart the will of the people, it kinda seems like a soft coup.
“They shouldn’t have gotten the privileges in the first place.”
As a matter of libertarian principle, yes that is correct.
Speaking more broadly in real political terms, it was a deal that previously worked to the advantage of the interests of the company and the State of Florida. At least insofar as the electorate of Florida did not stand against.
That is the political reality that has changed. Disney is now so toxic that fewer and fewer legislators can stand in defense of this special arrangement.
The price Disney is paying for their “speech.”
Maybe Disney should have just baked the fucking cake instead.
Don’t think Disney cares about losing their special privileges. What percentage of their profits even come from the theme parks? They don’t even really have to care about their movie businesses as they make more outside of the US then in.
Without those special privileges they won’t be able to get away with molesting children on the property, evidently.
Uh, no. Depends on how you divide it up. If you take streaming and studio entertainment separately, streaming is the No. 1 source of income, parks is No. 2 and, studio production is No. 3. Moreover, if you’re of the mind that this is just another symptom of ‘get woke go broke’, they’ve been hemorrhaging across all platforms.
They absolutely care about their special privileges or they’d give them up. Running your own government isn’t easy or cheap but the pros outweigh the cons or they would quickly push that cost onto taxpayers.
Second, US Disney theme parks see a population that equals 20% of the US population every year. Aside from the massive direct revenue from that, the theme parks are integral to their marketing of everything else. Nowhere else are you going to spend $200/day/person to be immersed in someone’s self-promotion, and gleefully pay $30 for mouse ears costing them 25 cents and $4 for a 20 oz bottle of Coke.
At the end of the day, your only product takeaway is the self-delusion that you had “fun” because that’s what you paid so much to spend 90% of your time standing in line. However, while your presence may have delayed other people having “fun”, it didn’t cost Disney one damn dime more than if you’d stayed home.
When you put it that way, I feel like I’ve been taken for a ride!
Their pedophile advocacy isn’t helped by recent events…..
https://www.cruiselawnews.com/2019/12/articles/sexual-assault-of-minors/disney-cruise-employee-arrested-on-charges-of-raping-13-year-old-girl/
Or this one……
https://www.ktvu.com/news/disney-cruise-line-faces-20m-lawsuit-over-alleged-sexual-assault-of-3-year-old-girl
Reason should be renamed Treason.
Both parties, and the majority of the fucking electorate,. FFS.
DeSantis ought to tell them the Disney Corp. is no longer welcome in Florida, and they have 90 days to divest themselves of their Florida assets, pack up their pervy executives, woke ideology and foreign contract workers and get the hell out of Dodge. And if they aren’t gone in 90 days, send in the National Guard.
Hear, hear.
any “special privilege” should be ended for any corporation so i’m not sure what to be upset about here.
Is there anybody at Reason who isn’t a pedophile and/or groomer?
Remember, the groomers are only doing it “for the children”.
Well, it is part of the Libertarian platform that children can at any time declare themselves as adults.
This would make it quite easy for candy carrying pedo’s to entice children into the adult world.
Reason = Treason.
When free speech = telling kids how to properly touch a penis, you might look good feet first down a chipper.
What is up with normalizing paedophiles?
This.
Also, I believe teachers do NOT have free speech inside of the classroom. They’re agents of the state and exercising free speech in their role as public educators goes beyond the bounds of their role. It’s exploiting their position and proximity to children to push their agenda. Their free speech exists when they are speaking outside of the classroom as private individuals.
absolutely this
Can a teacher indoctrinate my kids into nazi white nationalism? no.
They also can’t proselytize and tell students the significance of accepting Jesus Christ as their savior. You can’t do that despite it being both an exercise of free speech and religion. Why? Because you’re not acting as a private individual but as a public servant.
The government absolutely has the right to tell people what they can’t do in their official capacity as public servants.
Or compel them to perform duties that go against their personal convictions, unless clerks can refuse to process gay marriages again.
unless clerks can refuse to process gay marriages again.
Only Democrat* clerks can do this.
A Republican clerk would have gotten hung.
*a LOT of people are unaware that the clerk that did this was an elected Democrat.
I was a public employee for years. At work my freedom of speech was restricted just like it can be in the private sector. I was paid to do my job. I was not given a platform to spout my views. Teachers have a syllabus to follow. Ultimately the state can decide what that syllabus consists of. I was fine practicing free speech after hours as long as I did not let people think I was speaking for my employer.
A lot of people fail to understand that you do not have freedom of speech “on the clock” without regard of whether you are working for the government or for a private company.
“On the clock”, you are legally an AGENT of the company or governmental body. When you speak “on the clock” you are speaking for whoever is paying you. It is not YOUR free speech, it is THEIR free speech.
“I believe teachers do NOT have free speech inside of the classroom.”
And by extension employees do NOT have free speech inside the workplace.
Hence Free Speech is limited to the confines of your home.
Free Speech is dead.
Thanks Libertarians.
Reason = Treason.
Stupid vs stupid. See who wins. I’m betting on stupid.
Sarc in the lead, followed closely by White Mike while Tony inspects their rears. Folks, this is a tough race to the bottom.
I dunno if stupid can sustain that level of stupidity. I think that the other stupid might be able muster the energy for a come from behind victory.
Desantis should offer Disney employees free helicopter rides.
Not employees, execs. Free flights from CA to FL to talk over the negotiating table.
“Why are politicians so hostile to corporate political speech?”
Ira, you disingenuous fuck. Don’t pretend you don’t know what’s going on here.
This is the Democratic Party and the WEF speaking through a corporate partner. And no, it’s not a conspiracy theory when they even brag about how their testing tracking together. https://reports.weforum.org/digital-transformation/disneys-magic-bands/
When elected officials use corporations like this to exercise power and political influence it is called corporatism. Corporatism like this is in no way, shape or form libertarian. In fact it’s the very cornerstone of historical fascist economics.
There is nothing in teaching sexuality to five year old’s that benefits Disney as a company. It repulses its employees, shareholders, customers and other stakeholders and hurts the company’s public image.
The only people who it helps are the DNC partners of the CEO and the Board, as well as a handful of pedophilia advocates.
They’re not Disney, the company is more than a dozen creeps and their Washington pals.
So quit gaslighting us with the bullshit that this is just some private company exercising its own speech.
It’s not and you know it’s not.
What part of pot Mexicans and ass sex was unclear?
It’s not even hostility to hearing them speak, it’s refusing to bow their ideology. “We disagree and think you’re crossing the line with this issue,” isn’t the same as trying to get them deplatformed.
Lusts-after-your-web-sites Marxist “Christian Theological Expert” MammaryBahnFuhrer thinks that one of the Ten Commandments reads as follows:
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s. Unless thy neighbor art a corporatist in Thine Righteous Eyes, in which case, Thou shalt steal ALL of their stuff & shit, howsoever Thy Power-Hungry Right-Wing Wrong-Nut Marxist Heart may desire.
To the question of, “Can MarxistMammaryBahnFuhrer understand ANYTHING that is critical of MarxistMammaryBahnFuhrer and-or Her hypocrisy?”, the answer is, VERY clearly, “No”! It is ALSO quite clear that it is NOT due to the poor writing skills of those who criticize Her… And furthermore I think it is reasonably clear that it’s not due to Her lack of reading skills either; She IS apparently reasonably literate… It is CLEARLY due to Her arrogant “Perfection in Her Own Mind”! Whatever appears, at a casual glance, to be good for MarxistMammaryBahnFuhrer and Her Tribe, is the BEST thing all around! And all who question this (or Her) are evil!
Better an “Christian Theological Expert” than a goat sacrificing pedophile Moloch worshipper like you, Sqrlsy.
Citation please, liar!
The post immediately above mine you freak. Also, this:
SQRLSY One
November.9.2020 at 4:26 pm
Bimsday, 39 Bemberbember 2020 at 6:66 PM
I love to LIE my ass off, and suck Satan’s dick! Because I hate humanity! The Evil One is the Father of Lies, just as Der TrumpfenFuhrer is the Stable Genius! So, as the apple falls not far from the tree, I INSIST on telling obvious lies, all day, every day! Butt… Surprise, surprise! Other Evil Ones Junior will fall for my lies… Because they want to!
Better an “Christian Theological Expert” than a goat sacrificing pedophile Moloch worshipper like you, Sqrlsy.
Speaking in my official capacity as a blind, idiot god who lives at the Center of All Things, I have to let you know that Moloch worshippers don’t sacrifice goats. They burn children.
The goats are –relatively– safe.
Hey Marxist MammaryBitchFuhrer… Ya wanna boss Disney around? BUY 51% OF THEIR STOCK, and have at it, Marxist whining-Bitch!!! Put Your Perfect Money where Your Perfect Disney-Mousy-Mouth is!!!
Till then… STFU!!!
Shut the fuck up Sqrlsy, you fascist twat. The only reason you love corporatism is because the Nazis were doing it in the Thirties.
Point out the shareholder vote where they said “yes” to opposing Florida’s child protection regulation, and I’ll say you have a point. But you can’t, can you.
You collected 51% of the stocks and voting-rights yet, Marxist property-rights grabber? Power pig much?
This is YOU, MammaryBahnFuhrer!
“Many status-obsessed, yet marginalized individuals experience a ‘Need for Chaos’ and want to ‘watch the world burn.’”
From…
https://www.salon.com/2021/08/08/a-terrifying-new-theory-fake-news-and-conspiracy-theories-as-an-evolutionary-strategy/
A terrifying new theory: Fake news and conspiracy theories as an evolutionary strategy
Social scientist Michael Bang Petersen on why people believe outrageous lies — as a tool in violent group conflict
Many, many, MANY people in the Dark Ages KNEW that there were witches! They SAW the witches! They Spiritually KNEW that the witches cause still-births, crop failures, and illnesses, and they KNEW that the witches sacrificed babies to Satan! So they burned the witches and stole their properties, just like Mammary-Fuhrer endlessly repeats lies, to justify HER evils!
So I KNOW about EVIL ASSHOLES like You, Queen of the Internet Cesspools!
What does it gain a Chthonic Cunt, to lose Her soul, just to gain an Internet Cesspool? What are You going to DO with Your Reign over the Internet Cesspool?
So MarxistMammaryBahnFuhrer the tribalist witch-burner…
So how long till you feel that you’ve built up your tribalistic lies enough, sufficient for you to be justified when you come over here and kill me, and steal my property? Why do you want to steal my property? I DO own MANY books, but they are CLEARLY too long and complex for you to read and comprehend!
So in other words you were lying. The stockholders never voted, and the Board and CEO are working for the Democratic party without the permission of the companies actual owners.
And here you are, posting lies shilling for the theft of the shareholders rights by the Democratic Party, like the little Nazi swine that you are.
“The stockholders never voted…”
Liar! Stockholders vote ALL THE FRIGGIN’ TIME and can vote the board-members out of power if they own enough stocks!!! Duh, Marxist right-wing wrong-nut! Learn ye the BARE BASICS of “capitalism”, AKA “economic freedom”! Being utterly ignorant doesn’t mean you SHOULD spread your ignorance!
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/v/votingright.asp
“…shareholders may vote on major corporate issues, such as changes to the charter or to vote in or out members of the board of directors.”
Now STFU, lying ignorance-spreader!
Plucky Squirrell should know that the sockpuppet’s own mother only carried the teratos to term because she was forced to by pre-Roe Lebensborn laws. Her lament, of which she evidently made no secret, was not having aborted the creep. Dislike, but pity.
Ira is doing another version of the “if you stop me from stopping your free speech, you’re violating my free speech and a therefore a hypocrite” – both sides] thing. Only this time it’s “you’re evil if you stop me from corrupting your child and that makes you a nazi and you have no right to criticize”.
You can’t use logic against this bullshit. It deserves a punch in the neck and nothing less.
Now we see the violence inherent in the system! We should respond to words with violence, say the witch-burners and the book-burners!
Punching this bullshit in the neck would be metaphorical violence. Since “this bullshit” obviously refers to the retarded attempts at both sideism and not Ira.
Don’t take your brat(s) to Disney… Problem solved!
Or are you a collectivist “it takes a village to raise a child, so the village = Government Almighty, and so I am entitled to use my vote to boss you and your children around”?
Fuck off pedo-fascist.
Disney has the right to free speech and can say what they like, and so does DeSantis.
.
Disney has been given special rights and privileges by the State of Florida that give them a competitive advantage over others in the same business.
.
The State of Florida has the right to decide that it is no longer in the best interests of the state to provide those special rights and privileges to Disney.
.
In short, you get special privileges by sucking up to government and lose special privileges by pissing off government. In general libertarians should be pleased any time special privileges are eliminated.
SQRLSY isn’t a libertarian.
” . . . When elected officials use corporations like this to exercise power and political influence it is called corporatism . . . ”
No; it is fascism.
How odd it is that Libertarian propaganda groups like Reason have universally been promoting corporatism. AKA fascism.
So how many groomer apologists are we up to at Reason?
All of them?
Certainly have not seen a word against it.
Nor have we seen a single word against witch-burning from the witch-burners among the commenters here! BURN the witches and the vote-stealing Demon-Craps, they say!!!
(And then the oral sex… And THEN we can steal ALL of the properties of the burnt, dead, smoldering witches!!!!)
Aren’t you a witch though, Sqrlsy? I know the pedo cause is near and dear to your heart.
Come-on folks, SQRLSY One does not have any principles at all, just look at his comment history. His entire purpose here is to stir the pot. He will abusively argue any side of any argument just to feed the fire.
.
If you are enjoying the fight, carry on! Otherwise realize it is just noise.
Except witches aren’t real but pedophiles are.
So why are you running cover for pedophiles by lumping them in with nonexistent witches?
SOME ignorant and evil assholes believe in witches! And SOME ignorant and evil assholes believe in massive vote-theft by evil Demon-Craps! Evil assholes like YOU, R Mac!
Sqrlsy is a very special idiot.
haha no.
There is literally no one trying to stop gays and transos from posting and saying whatever they want.
there is an effort, in Florida ONLY, (which frankly it’s amazing to me it’s not everywhere) to stop the GOVERNMENT from indoctrinating young children into the transo gay queer theory life at age 6 to 9.
There’s a huge difference and anyone arguing otherwise is being disingenous
He’s also fighting in court to keep the mask requirement on toddlers
https://twitter.com/newsmax/status/1511115277169135617?t=pzpgFJiFP2y44FrBBHhh0A&s=19
NYC Mayor Eric Adams announced the launch of digital billboards across Florida denouncing that state’s law that bans most classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity and urging the LGBTQ community to move to New York City.
[Link]
as a new yorker I’d be seriously questioning why I have to pay for propaganda messaging in florida
Thankfully they don’t ask questions, so hopefully the perverts go freeze their nuts off and get mugged for a smoke.
I figured they were moronic enough to figure this was the way to recoup the losses they drove to Florida under COVID.
Between the driving them away with obnoxious oppression (and locking them in nursing homes and killing them) and luring them back with woke nonsense, it’s like a retard/dysfunction enrichment process.
Didn’t he fire a city employee due to asking him a question on masking at that exact press conference?
Grooming kids isn’t free speech
the corporate lobbyists are from Disney and are defending teacher speech on sex and gender issues
“Teacher speech”. Kay.
You don’t have free speech in the workplace beyond what your employer allows. And when your employer is the state, you’re serving at the request of the people to discharge a public duty, and you can’t exercise free speech in the course of that duty.
You can write and publish all the essays you want, you can give lectures, you can vigorously debate in the public square, but you can’t tell children every political impulse in your head.
Curriculum isn’t “speech.”
I also like how employers have a right to determine appropriate behavior standards in the workplace…UNLESS it’s the public, then they have no right to require that.
“.UNLESS it’s the public, then they have no right to require that.”
Oh, I imagine Reason writers would feel different if court bailiffs started dishing to the jurors about what is being said over at the county lockup.
They certainly did not like clerks in KY not abiding by a court decision, so they do expect SOME public officials to ignore their free speech rights.
DeSantis should tell Disney they have one month to pack up and leave Florida.
The idea that some woke corporation should be able to inflict their degenerate perversions on young children and expect no one to protest is beyond the limits of arrogance.
Disney can go to hell for all I care. It’s time for a nation wide boycott against disney and as an extra bonus parents should gather up everything Disney and have a neighborhood bonfire of disney crap. Videos, books,dolls, everything Disney goes into a big bonfire.
All Hail the book-burners! Sieg Heil!
(What could POSSIBLY go wrong here?)
Degeneracy has always been a part of the democratic party for over a 100 years since the “edgy” cultural marxists immigrated to America and started all this crap as they entered the media, academia, and big tech/wall street
Parents: Hey, whoa, they’re teaching Mein Kampf in the school system!
Teachers/Schools/Helpful Media: No, we’re not teaching Mein Kampf in the classroom, that’s a ridiculous assertion. You can’t find a single lesson plan with a passage from Mein Kampf.
Parents: What’s this then?
Teachers/Schools/Helpful Media: See, this is where you prove your ignorance, we’re only teaching children about toxic and systemic Jewishness. That’s not from Mein Kampf.
1. Worse that happens to Disney is they now have to play by the same rules as everyone else.
2. The GOP ain’t anywhere near as hostile to free speech as the Progressive wing of the Democrats.
3. They learned it from the Democrats. Sauce for the goose and all that.
4. I might have some sympathy for Disney if they weren’t, themselves, trying to suppress free speech.
5. Oh, yeah, and Disney wants to say gay – but don’t you fucking talk smack about the Chinese or how they make films IN THE VERY REGIONS GENOCIDE IS OCCURRING.
And we’ll just not discuss Disney and other Hollywood companies censoring all the gay out of their films for China because we’re all friends here. Yeah, yeah, I know, a private corporation has a god-given natural right to produce propaganda for Hitler if it wants.
How’s that gonna work with the 50% gay content target they have now?
They will be labeled as unrepentant bigots because their casting does not reflect the current population percentages?
So what laws have the progressive left advocated that limit free speech?
Mendacious fuck.
Well, you can’t say mean things to a politician in Vermont.
Also, “muh private companies” for the past few years, you mendacious fuck.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/04/in_vermont_a_raw_attack_on_free_speech.html
i dont think you remember the Fairness Doctrine do you?
Yes, and I also remember it going away and right-wing talk radio poisoning the minds of millions of fat goobers till we almost lost the country to their brainwashed idiocy.
So maybe Sinclair profits were less valuable to society than the FD, in the end.
How dare we allow…a view different to mine to be heard by anybody?
I know… Let’s FORCE them to buy Reason magazines!!!
Hey Damiksec, damiskec, and damikesc, and ALL of your other socks…
How is your totalitarian scheme to FORCE people to buy Reason magazines coming along?
Free speech (freedom from “Cancel Culture”) comes from Facebook, Twitter, Tik-Tok, and Google, right? THAT is why we need to pass laws to prohibit these DANGEROUS companies (which, ugh!, the BASTARDS, put profits above people!)!!! We must pass new laws to retract “Section 230” and FORCE the evil corporations to provide us all (EXCEPT for my political enemies, of course!) with a “UBIFS”, a Universal Basic Income of Free Speech!
So leftist “false flag” commenters will inundate Reason-dot-com with shitloads of PROTECTED racist comments, and then pissed-off readers and advertisers and buyers (of Reason magazine) will all BOYCOTT Reason! And right-wing idiots like Damikesc will then FORCE people to support Reason, so as to nullify the attempts at boycotts! THAT is your ultimate authoritarian “fix” here!!!
“Now, to “protect” Reason from this meddling here, are we going to REQUIRE readers and advertisers to support Reason, to protect Reason from boycotts?”
Yup. Basically. Sounds rough. (Quote damikesc)
(Etc.)
See https://reason.com/2020/06/24/the-new-censors/
Have you ever heard of Citizen’s United? what limits on free speech did it overturn?
So just the bribery = free speech thing. As I thought.
Nice of you to ignore contrary links. Here’s another!
Gee, it sure looks like Democrats are completely convinced they are right, and everyone else should just shut up and be ruled.
I see why you like them.
https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/energy-environment/282336-the-unprecedented-campaign-against-free-speech/
Corporations putting treasonous psychopaths in power against the will of the people will not be good for the first amendment.
You vote for looters, you get bribery and extortion. What’s not to understand?
Have you ever heard of Cody Wilson?
Hillary Clinton, if I remember correctly, actually said she would make opposition to Citizen’s United a litmus test for any SCOTUS nominations she would make.
Who?
So what laws have the progressive left advocated that limit free speech?
Every single one they advocate limits free speech. Limiting free speech and freedom of thought is a base tenet of progressivism AND leftism, so when you combine them, it’s geometric.
You people have nothing but vague feelz. The fact is you people have amply demonstrated that you have nothing by failing to come up with a single example of legislation from progressives that is anti-free speech.
Meanwhile, Republicans are banning books and forcing teachers to live under threat of jail if they slip up and say gay people exist.
Also threatening to turn Twitter into a public utility because they don’t like how it deletes their treasonous lies.
The only thing on the Republican docket lately is assaults on free speech.
I am unaware of anyone threatening to turn Twitter in to a public utility. I am aware of many wanting to eliminate Section 230 which has treated ALL tech giants as if they were neutral providers of posting space.
.
The assumption was that they would be unable to moderate their sites and thus could not function as editors or curators of the content. In essence they were given immunity to being treated as publishers because the were unable to impose limits on the speech they host.
.
This is clearly no longer true and they all moderate, curate, and censor the speech they host such that it is all their speech. As such, they should loose Section 230 protection, since the basic reason for that protection is no longer valid.
You can’t make this up, folks;
Tony: “So what laws have the progressive left advocated that limit free speech?”
Several Respondents: Well, just to start with, there’s the Fairness Doctrine, and the McCain-Feingold Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2001 (the subject of Citizens United.
Tony: Those limitations of right-wing free speech were awesome. [Short pause.] So I see you guys can’t “come up with a single example of legislation from progressives that is anti-free speech.”
Citizens United.
““It’s a 500-page book, and at the end it says, so vote for X. The government could ban that?” Roberts asked.
Yes, Stewart said again. The Constitution would allow a law that forbids the use of corporate funds to pay for such a book, he said.”
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-mar-25-na-supreme-court-hillary25-story.html
Democrats want to ban books with political messages during elections.
“Clinton pledges constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United ruling
Hillary Clinton committed Saturday to introducing a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United decision within her first 30 days in office, if she’s elected president.”
https://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/hillary-clinton-citizens-united-225658
We were just one electoral college away from political censorship in this country. Never forget.
It doesn’t count in my book. It’s an absurdity. And if that’s the only example you have while Republicans are banning books and trying to erase LGBT people, you’re an asshole and a hypocrite.
Your book really don’t matter.
In other words, if McCain-Feingold had been law in 1964, it would have outlawed the publication by Pere Marquette Press, Inc. (an Illinois corporation) of “A Choice Not an Echo,” the pro-Goldwater book by Phyllis Schlafly.
(Waiting now for Tony to show up and tell us what a good thing that would have been.)
Whatever you do, don’t post the text of the law so we can decide. Just tell us how Queer Nation characterizes it.
Challenge accepted:
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2022/1557/BillText/er/PDF
Ira Stoll is a devil worshiper that eats aborted fetuses, say some critics.
Nothing he has done here is inconsistent with that characterization.
All you have to do is define unlimited monetary influence over politicians as “free speech,” then, sure, both parties do it. But that would be nuts.
Are you saying that Disney shouldn’t be able to spend any money to say they oppose this bill?
They are a media giant. They can say whatever they want with more freedom than you or I could possibly dream of.
It’s the campaign contributions.
And the state can defend children from pedophile friendly corporations.
So let the state ban churches.
Close down public schools? I like the way you think here, Tony.
See? In a Freudian slip Tony accidentally reveals there are exactly two parties in his universe of discourse: one communist, one christianofascist, and none libertarian.
I am the only libertarian. Only I care about libertary.
The ROOT of the problem is quite simple…….
TOO MUCH Gov-GUns in everything!!!!!!!
Commie-Education.. “Commie” being the cursid word.
State Commie is better than Nazism; but still causes problems.
My suggestion for Florida — Get out of the Commie Business.
People need to remember; It’s not Disney teaching butt-sex that’s the real issue… It’s Disney trying to wield the power of those Gov-Guns of “Commie” (the masses) dictation. What are Gov-Guns doing in childrens education??????
Remember once upon a time when the USA was about Individual Liberty and Justice?? Or in the scope of school at least kept within very tiny pockets of communities??
As a life long Florida resident I have to point out that Disney has a long history of attracting the ire of some Florida pols and a significant part of the population/voters.
As a condition of moving into Florida Disney was able to extract concessions from both Florida state and local governments. Disney is basically a quasi government unto itself by state law and DeSantis has proposed that that be changed because of Disney’s position about the new law he signed.
But this is hardly the first time Disney has attracted the ire of Florida voters and the pols that represent them. Probably the most vocal of Disney critics are the environmentalists who object to what Disney has done to the wetlands and rivers. There are also folks who think Disney should have a bigger tax burden. Not to mention the old timers who simply don’t like the unrestricted growth that resulted in part due to Disney.
Goofy article on a Mickey Mouse kerfuffle. (Not that I Minnie-mize the broader issue.) Figures that Disney would side with the educational Plutocrats!
Yeah yeah yeah, I know….Something Something What about Donald Someone-Or-Other….Sorry, I’m Ducking such questions!
LOL
You quack me up!
Taking away Disney’s ability to be a “quasi government unto itself” by state law is in no way stopping it from free speech. Free speech comes with consequences. Truly any business that involves itself in politics makes itself vulnerable to this, and losing half it’s customer base. Disney can still talk away, no one is stopping that, but expect consequences.
I mean if the R’s in Washington really wanted to piss off Disney, they could adjust copyright laws so that anything made before 1930 goes into the public domain.
What is up with Reason and the repeated bad takes? “Defending teacher free speech”? Are you kidding me?
First teachers had to be “free” to teach young children that white people are inherently racist and are guilty of crimes based on their group ancestry. Now teachers have to be free to teach young children that they can be pansexual or transgender lesbians if they want to? All simultaneous to a concerted push to do “gender affirming treatments” before puberty… and this is a good thing for the state to be doing, why?
Now suddenly state run kindergarten is the domain of the tenured teacher, exploring issues of sexuality and racial guilt based on her own personal academic research?
Are you idiots kidding me?
So.. the left pushes forth some moronic and sometimes hateful propaganda to be drilled into children’s minds at state run schools… and the rest of the country has to silently assent, lest that somehow violate free speech???
Nobody is this stupid. It just isn’t possible. What is going on at Reason? Who is calling these shots? Where does something this stupid come from? This has been a consistent pattern at reason for at least 6 or 7 years. Just the most ridiculous ideas about what is free speech and what is censorship.
Banning conservative speakers from the public square? Free speech!! How dare anyone oppose it, or even speak out against it?
Denying disfavored groups access to banks, internet service providers. Payment processing…. free speech! Only a fascist would speak out against such freedom!
Teaching 5 year old kids that boy and girl don’t really mean anything and you can be either both or neither and you can have sex with all or none of the above, but you can’t notice that anything is unusual Bout any of that, and doing it on the taxpayer dime?? Freedom!!
Saying you don’t think any of that is appropriate in a kindergarten class? Dangerous oppression!
Good lord! This is the most ludicrous stance. It is embarrassing. And dishonest. Nobody applies the NAP to come up with “whichever way you go, it always works out that the statist democrats are right to be pushing for more oppression and the conservatives who are pushing against this are to be scorned”. The only way to get to Reason’s tangled web of positions on free speech is by applying a partisan political filter. Which is a weird thing for a libertarian publication to be doing.
On the culture side… Disney is up to some weird stuff.
I was marching for gay rights before many of you were born. Women’s rights too. And I have been in a position do do something about it on a small scale. I have hired and promoted women and lgbtqai+ individuals and placed them in positions of authority. My fealty to the idea that we should all live our lives as we see fit is unassailable.
But Disney has announced a new initiative that should be controversial (to say rhe least) even among hard-core advocates for freedom to live as you see fit. They say they are going to put gay and trans characters into all of their children’s programming… indeed all of their programming. One executive said she want half of all characters in her shows to be of this ilk.
For those of you who don’t have kids, the Disney chanel is a staple. It has been a safe brand for kids entertainment for generations. And they program to pre-k. Elementary, and pre-teen audiences.
Even most progressive parents don’t want their kids programming to be pushing transgender issues. Who wants their 3 year old to be confronted with messaging about non-binary gender identity and fluid sexuality?
This is clearly not a “market driven” decision… no consumers are clamoring for their kids to start asking them if they are genderfluid before they know how to add.
Of course, if they pursue this course, they will create opportunities for competitors. But what of the interim? It will take time for parents to notice what is happening and for a competing market to develop.
It is weird that so many in the popular press are running cover for this stuff. None of them would let me start telling their kids about my sexuality and how they could enjoy themselves if they adopt the same practices. It just makes no sense that they want everyone else to get these mess as get pushed to their kids.
So if the marketplace will not tolerate a bunch of trans stuff in Disney, Disney will diminish as a product.
Do we really need the Florida legislature punishing a private company for selling a product that offends its religious-freak sensibilities?
Not in the America I was taught about in suburban white country club public school!
Quit trying to touch kids or I will neuter you with high velocity rocksalt you sick fuck.
Everybody just assumes all this kid-fucking talk from you freaks is projection. Everybody. Religious freaks are not known to keep their hands to themselves.
Schools have molested scores more kids than churches ever dreamed of.
And why is it so necessary to discuss trannyism with 7 year olds, out of curiosity?
It’s partly a desire to create good little Marxists.
Partly lust.
The burden of proof is on you for supporting legislation to punish teachers for it. Or do right-wing asshole politicians know better how to teach children than teachers?
If the stereotypical teacher weren’t female, you assholes wouldn’t bo so quick to sic the state on them. My god, you’re fucking terrible people. Fucking fascists.
“The burden of proof is on you for supporting legislation to punish teachers for it.”
Proof of what? Molestation problems within public school?
Here’s a story quoting a researcher who had to research this in 2002:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/has-media-ignored-sex-abuse-in-school/
From that article: “As the National Catholic Register’s reporter Wayne Laugesen points out, the federal report said 422,000 California public-school students would be victims before graduation — a number that dwarfs the state’s entire Catholic-school enrollment of 143,000.”
“Or do right-wing asshole politicians know better how to teach children than teachers?”
Clearly. There are few people who know less about how to teach children than the people who are hired to teach.
You do not find it weird that so many of them seem no needy to have seven year olds to discuss their love life with?
“If the stereotypical teacher weren’t female, you assholes wouldn’t bo so quick to sic the state on them. My god, you’re fucking terrible people. Fucking fascists.”
Oh no, a pedo thinks I’m a bad person. Truly, that mark of shame will wound.
Or do right-wing asshole politicians know better how to teach children than teachers?
From what I’ve seen of public-school teachers, I’d say that almost anybody would know better how to do almost anything than public-school teachers.
There ought to be more grant money aimed at studying whether stupid people naturally gravitate toward education schools, or whether education schools actually lower the intelligence of those who get degrees from them.
how to do almost anything *better* than public-school teachers
Touché. As the priest in a Simpson’s exorcist remake commented: “After all, if you can’t trust a Catholic priest alone with your kids, who can you trust with them?”
I know YOU live in a safe bubble Tony, but consider, if “Everybody just assumes all this kid-fucking talk from you freaks is projection” then 70% of DEMOCRAT voters polled in Florida would not support this bill.
.
70% of Florida Democrat voters are probably not “Religious freaks”.
Good. We’ll see how the people of Florida like losing its most prominent cultural artifact to a bout of slimy bigoted midterm politics.
Yeah, Disney is going to pull out of Florida.
Getting land like that elsewhere is cost prohibitive. Try and comprehend how much land Disney World is on. Try and buy similar land anywhere else in America.
Nobody will give them the insane deal FL gave them years ago (good luck dealing with environmental regulations, Disney). Nobody will allow them to be basically autonomous with virtually no state oversight.
I thought you felt that corporations were given too much welfare. You seem to arguing now that Disney is not being given enough. Weird.
Keep on hoping, son.
Nevertheless, you are here on a libertarian website arguing that politicians should pass laws to punish corporations that don’t exercise their freedom of expression in a state-approved way.
You’re on a libertarian site saying governments should lavish benefits on certain preferred corporations while providing no similar benefits to others. And that removing special benefits is actually a bad thing on not, you know, a simply levelling of the playing field for all the companies in the state.
Which seems, you know, like the epitome of crony capitalism.
BTW, for somebody so obsessed with environmentalism, you seem to have few qualms with Disney in FL being bound by basically no environmental laws whatsoever. Why?
I think we should get freedom even if we get government subsidies too, because I’m not a cunt like you.
True, you’re just a pedo.
And good to see you supporting corporations being given rights above their competitors. That is what capitalism is to you, isn’t it?
Is it punishing Disney to treat them just like everyone else?
Look at commie tony coming to the defense of private companies this time! amazing
Unlike all of you psychos, I’m a capitalist.
How is capitalism comparable with a company receiving benefits literally no other company receives? The other major attractions in FL certainly did not get Disney’s deal. No entity did.
I don’t have a strong opinion on the matter. States will always pick winners and losers. Hopefully it’s deliberate and geared toward making a better society rather than just corruption, but that requires an informed citizenry not terminally distracted from the corruption by lame culture wars.
“I don’t have a strong opinion on the matter. ”
No, you do. It’s just an ignorant opinion.
“States will always pick winners and losers.”
Tony coming out (hey, yet again in your life) in favor of state capitalism.
“Hopefully it’s deliberate and geared toward making a better society rather than just corruption, but that requires an informed citizenry not terminally distracted from the corruption by lame culture wars.”
Tell me more about oil companies are going to destroy the world…
It’s possible there’s another sex cult out there, similar to NXIVM, but perhaps a bit better hidden. Some of this does bear a resemblance to cult behavior.
No, the answer is much more prosaic. Jornolisming is a dying business and paying gigs are getting harder and harder to find.
They are simply prostituting themselves.
My fealty to the idea that we should all live our lives as we see fit is unassailable.
Even if living my life as I see fit involves much more spilled blood and drinking from human skulls?
Do you even NAP?
I thought we were talking about living my life how I saw fit. Not how libertarians see fit.
He left out driving his enemies before them and hearing the lamentations of their women because he’s not a biologist and wouldn’t know how to identify the latter.
Not sure how “We’re going to take away the incredibly unfair advantage you have over literally every other company in the state…or anywhere else” is an attack on free speech.
Seems like a termination of corporate welfare and the government picking winners and losers in the market.
No one group has been more hostile to free speech than those on the left. It is very apparent in every college and university, where those with opposing viewpoints are regularly banned and in many cases threatened with harm if they show up.
Now add into the mix, the social media outlets that have their own brand of cultural Marxism and “fact checking”.
Truth and facts are now deemed hostile. Anyone with an opposing opinion to that of the accepted narrative is deemed to be no less than George Lincoln Rockwell or Strom Thurmond.
No matter how ridiculous and unsound the narrative proves to be, as long as it reflects the current ideology, which may change at any time by the way, never fails to meet with the approval of the social justice warriors.
Disney is not just defending the trans movement, they are attempting to push it along, just as certain teachers are attempting. We can’t do much about Disney except boycott all their products but parents can pressure school administrations to change or face the political consequences. The same should be held for the teachers.
The Nixon Anti-Libertarian Law subsidizes looter parties of both the snake-juggling girl-bullier and parasitical deplatforming varieties bent on the initiation of force. Much initiation of force is directed abroad to order latinos at gunpoint to smoke Marlboros, not weed, and shoot local catarrh-cure producers. Drones and helicopter morons kill and enrage mohammedans on the other side of the planet. So worse things can happen than for the folks Washington bullies and murders to back Libertarian candidates.
The author doesn’t understand the issue, and it’s not that difficult.
Yes, Citizen’s United was a fucked up decision which has opened our elections to anonymous money in large bills, but there is nothing in the DeSantis/Disney flap that has anything to do with financing elections. It does have to do with a corporation with a huge presence – and economic impact – rebelling against a state edict which will impact employees and families. Of course the Florida governor is well know for bullying school kids, but we’ll see how it goes when he takes on the single most important business entity in central Florida, which without it, would probably still be a sleepy backwater, save for retirement communities.
“meandering bullshit”
There. Summarized for you.
As a heads up, Disney can easily become Florida’s bitch.
And lets be clear here, aside from the property dispute in FL even by exceedingly pro-1A standards, Disney isn’t beyond reproach here. They’ve spent more than 50 yrs. overtly snatching property out of the public domain and distorting IP law to protect their theft… getting rich publishing a narrative and then getting even richer denouncing the narrative that they published… capturing and killing competitive enterprises… pushing overt political messages through their platforms and/or silencing pro-liberty messages on the same on behalf of fiscal taskmasters… and nobody, politician, public servant, or other, would be in any way wrong to call them out on it.
Free speech is not a “both sides are just as bad issue”. Free speech is a “Republicans aren’t perfect but Democrats are absolutely horrible” issue.
Limiting sex ed for Kindergartners and some nutty school district in Tennessee banning a comic book about the holocaust are tiny infractions on free speech compared to the left banning conservative speakers on universities, labelling non-left-wing approved scientific/medical opinions as “misinformation” to be banned and wanting to ban much conservative opinion on social media platforms.
Left wing Democrats are the ones who want to ban free speech.
But only Republicans are using government to do it. And banning speech is practically all they’re doing right now.
I find it humorous that Republicans in Florida are but making ‘guidelines’ for their Commie-Education and leftards scream “free speech” as-if outlining a Curriculum that isn’t leftard indoctrination is all the sudden a violation of free speech.
Yet as stated in the article… Democrats actually tried to cancel the First Amendment specifically…
The left is so dishonest…. I’m surprised you people aren’t all in jail.
No speech is banned. Try harder, groomer.
I don’t get why you aren’t embarrassed for yourself every time you repeat FOX News talking points like a retarded puppet.
Feel free to list the banned speech.
Saying “You cannot do this on the clock” seems like simple management dealing with bad employees doing their jobs poorly.
No no, you’re straight out accusing of all your ideological opponents of pedophilia.
Do you think we’re just going to forgive and forget once you decide to come down from your Hannity binge? Fuck you, psycho.
“No no, you’re straight out accusing of all your ideological opponents of pedophilia.”
No. Demanding adults being given carte blanche to discuss sex with 6 year olds makes you a pedo, pedo.
“Do you think we’re just going to forgive and forget once you decide to come down from your Hannity binge? Fuck you, psycho.”
I’m an adult, so I’m clearly not your type, pedo.
And I could care less what pedos do in the future. Swallow a bullet would be beneficial to society, if you need advice.
When school districts do not allow the Bible to be part of the designated curriculum is that ‘banning’ the Bible?
Deciding that an exceedingly graphic graphic novel is too much for assigned reading by school children is not nutty. At least not to people with some sense of decency.
They seem to forget that Maus is still very much in the school libraries.
If you mean they “forget” then yeah.
Because I think they didn’t actually forget, they are simply serially dishonest because without resorting to the lies there is no counter argument they are willing to make in public.
I’m not sure where you get that the GOP is against free speech in this instance. It was Disney who fired the first salvo. In response, When it was brought to his attention that Disney enjoyed a special self-governing status, the Governor decided to move to repeal the enabling law. Removing that special status was not prohibiting the company from continuing it’s assault on the law in question. You can’t conflate the two. There was no quid pro quo involved, as in stop fighting the law or lose your special legal status.
This is quite similar to the flood of ‘DID YOU HEAR WHAT TRUMP JUST SAID???!!!’ articles we got for five years and counting.
On examination, he didn’t say that; it was an interpretation by some TDS-addled pile of shit sitting in front of a keyboard.
Ira Stoll qualifies as a TDS-addled pile of shit doing the same regarding the GOP.
Stoll? Stuff it up your ass; your head’s asking for company.
Deciding who has the right to free speech and when is like dancing on the head of a pin.
Speech that causes harm shouldn’t be okay anytime by anyone. Lying, threats and coercion harm people.
People who have a contract to deliver a message must be held responsible for failing to do so as long as the contract doesn’t include lying, threats, coercion – crimes.
People interfering with a business or an event are disturbing the peace.
Otherwise speech should be free. Any threat or coercion applied toward people exercising free speech should be prohibited.
No more canceling, period.
Is this another thread that democracy is dangling by? That politicians in a state might pass laws the people in that state are asking for, and that some big companies may disagree with?
Reason
“The solution to bad speech is more speech”
Also Reason
“If you use your speech to oppose speech, you are hostile to first amendment”
This is bizarre and convoluted take even by today’s Reason standard. Desantis and his allies are speaking against a company’s position on a policy, not their rights to express them. Is Desantis arguing that Disney should not be allowed to use their money their advance their point of view? Where is the parallel to Citizen’s United? If Disney was an active Russian partner, are we violating 1A for criticizing them?
Reason damn well knows speech is highly regulated in school environment. Otherwise teachers could show adult content to a bunch of 3 year olds and kids could come to school wearing Nazi emblems. If you want to change that, you could make the argument. That’s another issue.
I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again:
Communication is how society thinks. A democracy that votes without free speech is a society that makes decisions without free thinking.
The only way for democracy to have any possibility of functioning according to its ideals is to have completely permissive thinking, so that all thoughts can be on the table before making decisions. That translates into completely free speech, and anyone who disagrees is a fascist.
That translates into completely free speech, and anyone who disagrees is a fascist.
Now, that was funny. Oh, wait, are you serious?
Remember when democrats went crazy over this?
Trump Vows to ‘Destroy’ Law Banning Political Endorsements by Churches
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/02/us/politics/trump-johnson-amendment-political-activity-churches.html
Apparently, telling a preacher how to preach isn’t a violation of the first amendment, but telling a government teacher how to teach in a government school is.
They’re just liars, not to be taken seriously.
How about we leave people to their own expertise?
Sounds good to me: get rid of the department of education.
Because you’ve really thought through that policy I’m sure.
This wouldn’t be an issue without taxes. I’m for maximum freedom: teachers should be able to say whatever they can negotiate with their employers, and people should be free to hire teachers of their choice. Freedom is the answer.
Apparently, telling a preacher how to preach isn’t a violation of the first amendment, but telling a government teacher how to teach in a government school is.
Words have meanings. In your view, is it preaching the faith when a religious leader tells their followers that they should vote a particular way in an election? And besides, the ‘punishment’ for a church when its leaders violate this is to lose their favorable tax exempt status, just like any charitable non-profit should if they engage in the exact same behavior. If an animal rescue outfit would lose the ability to accept tax deductible money if it explicitly endorsed or opposed candidates, then why should churches not be subject to the same rule?
Clearly, they should get rid of that rule to respect the free speech rights of all involved.
Either that, or stop using tax funding to pay teachers to have the right to say whatever they feel like to the children regardless of what the taxpayers think.
The Constitution says only a few specific things about the rights of individuals and nothing in relation to groups when it comes to the taxing powers of government. Having different tax laws apply to different categories of groups is a function of lawmaking and public policy. Everyone has a right to Equal Protection of the law, so tax laws that treat people equality are very likely to pass muster. If you think that all non-profits, whether they engage in charity or not, should be allowed to get directly involved in elections and political campaigns, then make that case for legislators to change the law. I don’t know that it would get very far, as everyone can think of non-profit groups that would have political opinions that they’d disagree with enough to rather want all such groups have to stay out of elections.
As it stands now and for many decades, any non-profit that can solicit and accept donations that the donors can deduct from their federal taxes (501(c)(3) non-profits), have to stay in the lane of being a charity. (My understanding is that organizations dedicated to advancing religious beliefs, like churches, can get that status even if they don’t do anything ‘charitable’.)
Non-profits that are more explicitly political can organize under other categories, like 501(c)(4), where they still wouldn’t be taxed for revenue that exceeded expenditures, but donations wouldn’t themselves be tax-deductible. Although, I think that there may still be rules on how much of their revenue can be spent on election-related activities.
Either that, or stop using tax funding to pay teachers to have the right to say whatever they feel like to the children regardless of what the taxpayers think.
You shouldn’t bother trying to make this seem like some neutral, general principle. You don’t want ‘liberal’ teachers telling public school students that it isn’t sinful to be gay, that they should recycle, that American history includes slavery and racism, etc.
So your interpretation is, if teachers want to talk about sex with three year olds, they should make that case to the public and let our system of democracy decide?
That doesn’t sound like “genocide”.
Disney has a right to say whatever they want, just as the State of Florida has a right to roll back the special Disney-only benefits that previous politicians dolled out that gave Disney a huge advantage over its competitors. I would think that Reason, ostensibly a libertarian site, would welcome a level playing field and the repeal of unfair corporate privileges. I guess I was wrong.
I would think that Reason, ostensibly a libertarian site, would welcome a level playing field and the repeal of unfair corporate privileges.
As critical as this author is of the Florida GOP’s newfound concern over Disney’s influence in state politics, Ira Stoll misses a LOT of the details of how all of these same politicians whining about Disney opposing their culture war tactics took tons of Disney money over the years and even worked to specifically exempt them and other preferred companies from some of those fights.
Teachers really should be allowed to lead prayer in public schools. “separation of church and state” is really just “violation of teachers’ right to free speech.” Democrats told me so.
In fact, not allowing teachers to share their faith with students is a holocaust against the spiritual.
That’s how this works now, right? “Genocide!!!”
Which do you think upset Florida Republicans more? That Disney started opposing H.B. 1557, after many of its employees and customers called it out for its silence? Or that they announced that they would stop donating to the campaigns of politicians that had supported it?
They say now that Disney doesn’t deserve special treatment. Gov. DeSantis said, in a recent press conference, “I don’t support special privileges in law just because a company is powerful and they’ve been able to wield a lot of power.” Except that just last year, Gov. DeSantis signed a bill into law that exempted companies that own theme parks from the crackdown on social media companies supposedly picking on Conservatives. And what prompted the last minute amendment to that bill before it passes? Well, Disney (having donated $5 million to various campaigns in 2020, and had cut DeSantis a $50,000 check just 4 weeks earlier) was worried that the law would affect it. (According to FOI requested documents, it was even DeSantis’ staff that was instrumental in getting that request to lawmakers.) Disney+ would probably fall under the law’s definition of a social media platform. In the state House, one rep asked one of the bill’s sponsors if Facebook bought or opened a theme park called Zuckerland in Florida, would that make it exempt from this law. He said it probably would.
The GOP legislators that wanted that Big Tech crackdown bill had their own legal staff telling them that it was unconstitutional on its face, but carving out exemptions for companies that gave them campaign money just showed how little that either the federal or state constitutions matter to these people.
This all shows exactly why, contrary to the author’s claims, that Citizens United was not correctly decided. Money from special interests in politics is not about buying free speech. It is about buying influence. There damn well is not a constitutionally protected right to use private money to influence government policy.
Of course, the biggest sin of all that Disney committed is to violate what Milton Friedman had said was the only social responsibility of a business, to earn profit. Republicans just want companies to get involved in politics when it is in service of their bottom line. Donating to candidates, lobbying, even outright writing bills for the bought-and-paid-for legislators to get passed, is all part of their idea of the glorious free market. But say something about larger societal problems, especially culture war issues, and that is just not their place.
The Constitution doesn’t instruct government to PROVIDE Individual Rights (as-if it even had the power to do that); It is a People’s law over their government…
Anyone who spends even 20-minutes actually reading it knows this as 90% of it goes the government “shall not….”; So my conclusion to your Constitutionality Claims is maybe you should actually read it before spouting off what is or is-not Constitutional…
There damn well is not a constitutionally protected right to use private money to influence government policy. Oh well. I guess I won’t be able to use my private money to put up Three Bill Boards outside Ebbing, MO, or funding a letter writing campaign, trying to influence government policy. I guess it’s off to the Gulag for me.
lol…. “There is NO-Constitutional right to avoid the Gulag!!!”, signed JasonT20.
That’s not what I meant by “influence”, and I think you knew that. None of what you described is what I talked about in my post. I was talking about businesses funding politicians’ campaigns. Politicians that then put the interests of those businesses ahead of the interests of voters. I was talking about how legislators will actually take ‘model’ legislation written by the companies that fund them and get that passed despite it being unpopular with the majority of voters. (See the solar bill passed this session in Florida, written by Florida Light and Power to make rooftop solar less likely to pay off for homeowners.) And, at issue in the article and with this whole bash Disney thing, how theme park companies in Florida have gotten all kinds of perks and carve outs from politicians across the state of both parties.
Your ability to speak freely and petition the government for a redress of your grievances is under no threat from me. That is, unless you plan on spending tens of thousands of dollars for a meal at a political fundraiser so that a legislator or aide to the governor will take your call and make sure that a proposed law suits what you want, and to hell with what the rest of the voters want.
The state of Florida gave Disney the privilege of self-governance. Privileges can be revoked for cause. Free speech is another matter it is a right that cannot be revoked by the government, but can also come with consequences.
Good grief, what a nonsensical word salad.
So Democrats have been complaining about corporations spending money on elections. What exactly does that have to do with this situation. It is not the same about complaining about corporations spending money on lobbying or taking political stances.
The law (I actually read it) is not “defending teacher speech on sex and gender issues”, it prevents teachers from discussing certain topics, else a parent can sue. How is preventing teachers from discussing things defending speech?
Want to talk about free speech, ok lets talk first amendment protections. Disney has fist amendment protected speech. It can lobby the government, make political statements, and take stances. Gov Desantis has repeatedly said that they are removing Disney’s special incentives in retaliation for their political stance. That is the government punishing an entity for protected speech.
Regardless what you think about Disney, Desantis, or the “don’t say gay” law, this is a pretty clear case of a first amendment violation.