Ron DeSantis' Misguided War on Woke

Plus: a lightning-round look at Super Bowl myths

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Ron DeSantis' Misguided War on Woke

In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and special guest Elizabeth Nolan Brown examine Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' latest proposals intended to combat various cultural grievances and a listener question concerning private power grids.

0:22: Gov. Ron DeSantis and the power of the state

27:02: President Joe Biden's upcoming State of the Union address

36:09: Weekly Listener Question

47:21: Super Bowl myths

52:44: This week's cultural recommendations

Mentioned in this podcast:

"Ron DeSantis Wants $12 Million To Transport Migrants 'From Any Point' in the U.S.," by Fiona Harrigan

"Did Ron DeSantis Really Just Change the AP African American Studies Curriculum?" by Bonnie Kristian

"For Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Political Stunts Are More Important Than Substance," by Peter Suderman

"The Latest DeSantis Higher Ed Reform Proposals," by Keith E. Whittington

"University of Florida Suppresses Speech Ron DeSantis Might Not Like, Report Alleges," by Joe Lancaster

"The Problem With DeSantis' 'Stop WOKE' Act," by Zach Weissmueller and Danielle Thompson

"If Ron DeSantis Is So Bad, Why Is Living in Florida So Good?" by Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller

"Biden's Spending Spree Is Unprecedented," by Jonathan Bydlak

"New York Times Blames 'Deregulation' for Regulated Electric Costs," by Josiah Neeley

"The 2021 Texas Power Crisis: What Happened and What Can Be Done to Avoid Another One?" by Michael Giberson

"Super Bowl Sex Trafficking Myth Gives Good Cover for Federal Security Theater," by Elizabeth Nolan Brown

Send your questions to [e-mail]. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.

Today's sponsor:

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Audio production by Ian Keyser

Assistant production by Hunt Beaty

Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve

What are we consuming this week?

Elizabeth Nolan Brown

• Poker Face

Katherine Mangu-Ward

• Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle

Nick Gillespie

• Carefully Taught: American History through Broadway Musicals

Matt Welch

• National Baseball Hall of Fame

---

Comments

[Chumby]

Today’s DSDS trifecta!

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Trifecta? The podcast links to like an Octfecta.

[Chumby]

Reminds me of the new woke James Bond movie:

Cocktopussy

[JesseAz]

Cultural marxism is oddly defended by libertines.

[rev-arthur-l-kuckland]

Citation needed, you need to prove the people in the podcast are libritarian.

[Liberty Lover]

Reason finally comes clean and out in the open. They support "Woke Liberalism" and don't think anyone should do anything to prevent "wokeness" taking over our society.

REASON repressed minds and government run markets.

[Social Justice is neither]

I see the woketarians of Reason have been fully triggered today. Maybe stop trying to groom children and you won't feel so personally attacked by this.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Spiked-Online is the anti-Reason on this topic.

Today on Spiked:

Sensitivity readers are a menace to literature
Publishers are killing the novel by screening out anything that could be considered offensive.

It’s time to stop saying ‘her penis’
The press is distorting the truth to appease trans ideologues.

The sexist self-delusion of Dylan Mulvaney
Note to trans activists: no amount of cosmetic surgery turns a man into a woman.

Dr John Money and the sinister origins of gender ideology
How a cruel, amoral experiment helped birth today's trans movement.

Sam Smith has exposed the nonsense of nonbinary

Google, defender of the BLM narrative
Why has Google slapped a content warning on searches for ‘Tom Slater Tyre Nichols’?

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Send your questions to [e-mail]. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.

Is this where we send our James Lindsay-style hoax questions?

[Mother's Lament]

It's where White Mike sends his Jacob Sullum-style hoax questions, so yeah, why not.

[Don't look at me!]

What about my pronouns?

[Chumby]

“Don’t look at ze!”

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

In other culture war news.

Pro surfing legend who competed despite losing her arm in a shark attack will BOYCOTT World Surf League if they allow transgender riders to compete against women

[Sandra (formerly OBL)]

Drawing on his own extensive athletic experience, Scott Shackford will undoubtedly mansplain that this woman is suffering from TRANSGENDER ATHLETIC PANIC.

[rev-arthur-l-kuckland]

As every right thinking parent will explain to their daughters
"It doesn't matter that your a girl, because at some point a man claiming to be a girl is going to be netter than you, because men are just better at everything"

[Chumby]

She’d give her right arm (left?) to prevent biological men that take some estrogen to compete as females. Wonder if she’s been getting a wave of support?

[The Margrave of Azilia]

Progressive foolishness is taking us on the road to surfdom.

[Don't look at me!]

I’m starting to get board.

[The Margrave of Azilia]

I remember when she was a heroic survivor. Now she's just another transphobe. Sad.

/sarc

[mad.casual]

Serf and Terf.

[Beezard]

Apparently Reason hasn’t had enough of pathetically walking shit back 3 years later, once they can’t ignore reality anymore.

[Mother's Lament]

To be fair they haven't been actually walking shit back. They've mostly engaged in victim blaming and ignoring everything else as hard as they can.

Contrition and regret isn't a Reasonista trait.

[Chumby]

They will now report on things as if they were not actively engaging in the same.

[Beezard]

Yeah, that “getting trump was more important for some journalists” take was kind of a new benchmark.

[Muzzled Woodchipper]

The entire series on the Twitter Files too. They finally admitted what we all speculated all along, that .fedgov was running the show, shutting down voices the deep state disfavored, but never atoned for their own part in it.

The schtick is old.

[Sandra (formerly OBL)]

Eeeeeeeek! 🙁

Ron DeSantis might (depending on the second half 2024 economy) have a somewhat realistic shot at defeating Joe Biden, the guy Reason staffers want in the White House! Must destroy him!

#MaybeOBLWasObsoleteFromDay1

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Probably doesn't matter who the D nominee is. I mean seriously, if they're willing to carry water for Biden they really have no principles left. Upcoming Reason articles:
The libertarian case for John Fetterman.
The libertarian case for Gretchen Whitmer.
The libertarian case for Bill Kristol. (hey it could happen).
The libertarian case for Lori Lightfoot.
The libertarian case for that dude that dresses like a chick and steals luggage from actual women.
The libertarian case for Gavin Newsome.
The libertarian case for Idi Amin Dada. (Ok he's not native born and also dead so it's a longshot. But still better than DeathSantis).
There really are no limits to the pathetic groveling We can expect from Reason for the next 2 years.

[Bill Falcon]

that was legendary! and most likely going to occur. You know Stephanie or Scott or Jake will be saying MAP's are just nice misunderstood "people" and should be empathized with.

[Sandra (formerly OBL)]

"The libertarian case for Bill Kristol. (hey it could happen)."

K. Mangu Ward could write that one. She used to work with Mr. Israel First at The Weekly Standard.

[Ersatz]

i thought michele obama was the guy they wanted in the whitehouse

[Ed Grinberg]

Yeah, I can just see tons of Reason posts telling how libertarian she is. Something to look forward to...

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Hey Reason -- what about woke's war on people?

Why do you only complain about the backlash, not the original evil?

Next you'll be complaining about firefighters throwing water at fires.

[Mother's Lament]

"Why do you only complain about the backlash, not the original evil?"

Yeah, that's a real stumper. They only ever complain about the complaints and not the outrages that caused them.
If one lacked the necessary credulity you'd suspect that there's some sort of vested interest there or something.

[Longtobefree]

Yep.
When the war starts, nothing from "the media".
When anyone actually starts pointing out the Emperor has no clothes, "IT'S A WAR!!!"

To quote Colonel Nathan R. Jessup, "You can't handle the truth!"

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Don't you get the new Libertarianism? The kind that puts superficial ethnic and gender group rights before the rights of individuals, has no support for private property and free enterprise, and believes that equity and social justice require reparations for blacks and penalties for whites.

[JesseAz]

It is putting group identity over individual identity.

[DesigNate]

Nuh uh you Trump cultist just can’t handle the truth. - chemjeff normal collectivist

[Elmer Fudd the CHUD]

I thought it was ‘Chemjeff, NAMBLA Owner and CEO’

[Mickey Rat]

Don't forget believing that politicians and the public having some ability to regulate what government employees can do and say in pursuit of their official duties is anti-free speech.

In particular, being against the democratically elected officials and representatives working to prevent publicly funded schools teaching an openly racist ideology.

[IceTrey]

A war against woke is never misguided. You may disagree with the tactics but the reason ain't wrong.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Yup. But Reason is wrong.

[Marshal]

It’s so bizarre Reason's top priority is stopping opposition to Wokeism.

They didn’t oppose weaponization of Title IX into Sex Police nearly this hard. Bureaucrats are designing curricula enforcing racist principles and Reasoners only concern is how to protect them.

Bizarre.

[Longtobefree]

Not at all bizarre; follow the money.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

"Ron DeSantis' Misguided War on Woke"

I guess Reason is OK with both economic and cultural Marxism to declare that efforts to push back on these are "misguided". Or they are complete, partisan idiots.

[Stuck in California]

Por que no los dos?

[Ben_]

Reason offers mild criticism of Marxism in action and somewhat stronger and more consistent criticism of Marxism's opponents.

[DesigNate]

Maybe they’re being myopic?

As in: Resistance is futile. You will be one with the Borg.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Neo-Nazi Couple Arrested For Alleged Plot To 'Completely Destroy' Baltimore
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/neo-nazi-couple-arrested-alleged-plot-completely-destroy-baltimore

Only two questions remain. Would anyone have noticed? And when will the entrapment evidence surface?

[Beezard]

Saw this on the local news and the “neo-nazi” part wasn’t really evidenced. It was just like, “this could have been motivated by hate”. Baltimore’s not exactly swarming with “neo-Nazis”, either. It was a big deal when a few hammer skins were rumored to be hitting punk shows in Bmore in the early 00s. It was like, NAZI INVASION!!

So Why fuck around? I’m just going to go straight to: the media and the feds are fishing for patsies for the actual attacks on power plants. Which are more than likely predominately being caused by “antifa adjacent” activists or the feds themselves.

I figure there’s 60% chance we’ll find out in the next year or so that’s exactly what it is.

[Beezard]

I missed the Florida connection, previously. Of course, it’s a Florida man.

[A Thinking Mind]

I can't believe they actually found two Neo Nazis in the same city.

[Longtobefree]

You don't need to believe it; it is probably a lie.
They are neo-nazi like an AR-15 is an assault rifle, just because the government say it is so.

[Derp-o-Matic 6000]

It'd be nice if Reason dedicated even a quarter of the space decrying the overt authoritarianism of Newsom and Hochul as they do DeSantis.

[Chumby]

They occasionally drop a Biden story…that often becomes a foil for making it a Trump story. Boaf sidez with one side worse is a template here.

[DesigNate]

Pointing that out makes you a Trumpaloo. - White Mike

[Ben_]

Woke started it. When someone makes war on you, eventually you have no choice but to respond in kind.

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[NOYB2]

We need a war on faux libertarianism.

[Ersatz]

i think thats whats been going on in the comments for a few years now... thats why the writers think the commentariat here are jerks

[sarcasmic]

True libertarians are Republican culture warriors.

[JesseAz]

"Ron DeSantis Wants $12 Million To Transport Migrants 'From Any Point' in the U.S.," by Fiona Harrigan

Do they ever discuss the actual costs of illegal immigration that has bankrupted multiple hospitals and services in border states? Even homeless services in Maine?

"Did Ron DeSantis Really Just Change the AP African American Studies Curriculum?" by Bonnie Kristian

No. He is stopping it from being changed to race marxism.

"For Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Political Stunts Are More Important Than Substance," by Peter Suderman

Millions less on race marxism under the guise of DEI? Terrible.

[Bill Falcon]

The three wokes..

[Utkonos]

BREAKING: DeSantis has widened his lead to 3:1 with Trump and Abbott tied for second place.

[Bill Falcon]

But the gay gov in Colorado likes left libertarians like us..so says Nick. That is all that counts...forget the Fed or Bill or Rights, and god forbid don't mention the sections of the CRA of 64 that are clearly bullcrap and antiliberty. Covid lockdowns..just fine. Open borders..and equity forever right Matt?

Morality? OMG so uncosmo. I mean MAP's are misunderstood and not a threat to anyone right Scott?

JC..the Reason crowd make excuses for attacks on liberty but somehow have this blind spot for immorality and cultural Marxism. We all know why but can't say it out loud can we?

[middlefinger]

What’s really going on here: deflection and division
There’s no way billionaires want to pay some sort of wealth tax for slavery reparations or have bankrupt cities stop paying muni bond passive income , so keep the division going, turn up the heat; blacks -against republicans, blacks and illegals against whites, Jews and Asians. Make lots of money from writing outrageous books and college courses. Mandate and ban everything- call it a crisis.

Be Al Gore at the WEF
They. Are. Lunatics

[Peregrinus]

Meh. Elite journalists at Reason defending higher education and progressive college/ universities while shouting “school choice” out the side of their mouth?Hmmm. Also, “science is dead”. WTH does that mean? No gravity??

[plaidshirt]

“Should we maybe write an article to complain about one of the other 49 governors?”

“Nope, this one is literally Hitler.”

[Mickey Rat]

"DeSantis Is Right to Reform Higher Education"

"In much the same way as political activists have attempted to short-circuit a whole host of live debates by preempting and confining the English language, so the architects of DEI have tried to use HR departments, student-support bureaucracies, and legal compliance rules to silence dissent and circumvent open inquiry. If, as he has promised, he intends to ensure that this endeavor is left to “wither on the vine,” Governor DeSantis will have struck a great blow for intellectual liberty — and, if the pushback spreads to other states and other contexts, he will have struck a great blow for America, too."

[Robert1952]

The greatest problem in the U.S. today is the growing popularity of Socialism. This is the result of the Marxist "march through the institutions." Education is always indoctrination. Public education has been indoctrination by government. Even with school choice, government controls the curriculum and has controlled it since the 1800s protestant anti-catholic curriculum. Reason should support anti-woke curriculum at all levels. CRT is critical theory. As such it is shut-up-and-listen-I'm-not-through-criticizing theory. It's too late to use libertarian principles to address the woke agenda.

[gpaspot18]

Ron DeSantis, the Republican Governor of Florida, has been a vocal critic of what he calls "woke culture" and has taken steps to combat it in his state. However, many critics argue that his efforts are misguided and could do more harm than good.

DeSantis has proposed legislation that would prohibit schools from teaching critical race theory, which is a framework for understanding how racism has been embedded in legal and social systems in the United States. He has also banned transgender girls and women from participating in girls' and women's sports teams in public schools and universities.

Critics argue that DeSantis' proposals are based on a misunderstanding of what critical race theory actually is and that banning it could prevent students from learning about important historical and social issues. They also argue that the ban on transgender girls and women participating in sports is discriminatory and could harm their physical and mental well-being.

[Childhood reader of SCOTUS opinions, really]

I think he is right on the laser beam with that.

I might have this put in gold letter and mounted over my bed. Do you remember those unfunded mandates to poor rural areas to install unisex bathrooms 🙂 Has nothing to do with pro or con trans. Nothing.

A limited government is much more likely to be a competent government.
Ron DeSantis

[Chumby]

Have never made a donation or purchase here and signs point to that continuing.

[Chumby]

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[Chumby]

Yup. Haven’t seen Sandra call sarc out his stupidity.

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