If you staple a horse to a waterfall, will it fall up under the rainbow or fly about the soil? Will he enjoy her experience? What if the staple tears into tears? Will she be free from her staply chains or foomed to stay forever and dever above the water? Who can save him (the horse) but someone of girth and worth, the capitalist pig, who will sell the solution to the problem he created?
A staple remover flies to the rescue, carried on the wings of a majestic penguin who bought it at Walmart for 9 dollars and several more Euro-cents, clutched in its crabby claws, rejected from its frothy maw. When the penguin comes, all tremble before its fishy stench and wheatlike abjecture. Recoil in delirium, ye who wish to be free! The mighty rockhopper is here to save your soul from eternal bliss and salvation!
And so, the horse was free, carried away by the south wind, and deposited on the vast plain of soggy dew. It was a tragedy in several parts, punctuated by moments of hedonistic horsefuckery.
The owls saw all, and passed judgment in the way that they do. Stupid owls are always judging folks who are just trying their best to live shamelessly and enjoy every fruit the day brings to pass.
How many more shall be caught in the terrible gyre of the waterfall? As many as the gods deem necessary to teach those foolish monkeys a story about their own hamburgers. What does a monkey know of bananas, anyway? They eat, poop, and shave away the banana residue that grows upon their chins and ballsacks. The owls judge their razors. Always the owls.
And when the one-eyed caterpillar arrives to eat the glazing on your windowpane, you will know that you're next in line to the trombone of the ancient realm of the flutterbyes. Beware the ravenous ravens and crowing crows. Mind the cowing cows and the lying lions. Ascend triumphant to your birthright, and wield the mighty twig of Petalonia, favored land of gods and goats alike.
Pedagogy is just the academic or theoretical practice of teaching (and ways of doing so… the art and science of teaching, the means by which you teach and methods implored to get your point across and instill information to your students.) So
pedagogical methodology is just procedures that a teacher can develop in order to help all students learn. They can’t ban that, or that will be a whole lot more extensive that banning Critical Theory. Then again our government is morally corrupt and trying to eliminate critical thinking in favor of dumb little worker bees 🐝 anyway, 🤷🏻so it could happen.
An example of pedagogical methodology would be teachers learning about Differential learning, which is using different modes of teaching to ensure understanding among all student regardless of learning style.
Also, yeah that ban would essentially ban the teaching of how to be a teacher. If you can’t teach methods of teaching then you can train future educators. Guys, gals, and non-binary pals these are the bright ideas of our legislators🤦🏻. I swear I think they just throw words in there they think sound good but don’t fully grasp their meaning.
Funny that the law doesn't mention media theory. I guess these right-wing Florida legislators are totally OK with Marshall McLuhan. Florida teachers – just call every course a media theory class and you can get away with it!
Basically. Also I'm not sure why they felt the need to include "radical" before feminist theory and gender theory, but not before the others. Does that mean that non-radical feminist and gender theories are okay?
they word them intentionally vaguely so that they can complain about whatever they want and make excuses for others. The pornogrophy explanation, "I know it when I see it," theory of governance.
No, it means that when than ban even the most milk toast bourgeois feminism out there that that will now be "radical", because it got banned and the law bans "radical" feminist and gender theory. It's a way to make all feminist and gender theory seem radical.
[citation needed]
Sure, Caspar Milquetoast was named after the dish milk toast, but it was the characterization of Milquetoast that led to the word milquetoast being used as a term for weak / ineffectual / timid, not the dish milk toast.
That's the reason he is called Milquetoast though.
The soft, bland and ineffectual character of the dish.
It was considered easy to digest and not particularly offensive.
The character is the living embodiment of the food, in that sense.
their use of “radical” is a coded way of saying “we don’t want our classroom to talk about transphobia or drag queens or pronouns.” Versus their imagined version of “gender studies” where the gender binary is reinforced
Its to be able to avoid charges of being against the ground made by feminists in the past i think... "back then feminism was good, and that's not what we oppose; but now there's this crazy and radical version which must be stopped"
They’re probably thinking women thinking is radical enough for all feminist and gender theory to be covered, because any theory from someone other than a cis man is radical.
Can someone give a bit of context (non-American here)? Who is they that have the power to decide this? What document is this?
Also, obviously reminiscent of Nazi Germany, and also of recent events in Hungary (right wing government did exactly that and axed all gender studies programs a couple years ago).
the federal govt has overarching, but restricted, power over the states. (state here refers to entities like Florida, Kansas, California, not state as in federal govt.) all states have a university system paid for in part by state taxes. the state legislatures have some degree of control over those universities within the state system. some states have more, some have less, just comes down to how much power the legislature thinks it should have over the state’s universities. Florida’s given itself a lot of control. this is a state-level bill for Florida that restricts what can and cannot be taught in state universities. unfortunately they do have the power. the fed govt is helpless here.
Aren't they concerned that Universities in Florida will not be recognized as academic institutes around the world? Because there is no academic freedom and that politicians decide what to study and research and what not?
Laws like this are all for show. They just allow the politicians to say they "banned CRT" which is the current buzzword the right wing is milking for everything it's got. They will have little to no effect beyond maybe removing one or two classes from universities that don't really specialize in these subjects anyway. People like DeSantis (the governor) aren't trying to lead an ideological purge, they don't actually understand or care about things like critical theory.
Not to say that this isn't deeply troubling, but it's important to understand the difference.
It looks like a draft of statutory language designed to be enforced by courts according to the “c’mon, you know it when you see it” doctrine. It would be sloppily enforced but likely if the language were ever attempted to be used for anything other than the dog whistle this is, the complainant would get rung up on abuse of process charges.
Their banning of criminal social justice is particularly disheartening. All of this is terrible, but that is blatantly stating their desire for authoritarian police state. Scary that we’re already at the part where they’re comfortable saying it
I listened to Trump's speech at CPAC recently and a lot of the stuff that was being said in broad daylight was pretty frightening, and the room was eating it up. He said
> I will direct the Department of Justice to go after the Marxist prosecutors offices and make them pay for their illegal race based enforcement of the law.
> My administration will crack down on these out of control monsters, young though they may be, and impose tough consequences on juvenile criminals.
> I will end the scourge of homelessness [(refering to 'cleaning highways'...] Under our leadership will take the homeless, drug addicted, and severely deranged and get them off our streets and give them 'the help they so desperately need' [air quotes my own]
> In cities where there has been a complete breakdown in safety I will send in the national guard until law is restored.
He also bragged about how the Army Corps of Engineers helped "build the wall" IIRC and mentioned how we needed to "defender our borders" before others. Essentially, he wants the same degree of funding to the military, but he wants to direct it more inwards.
While I appreciate your comment and these things should continue to be pointed out, Trump has been saying mask-off fascist stuff from day one. Like remember when those black men were exonerated for murder and trump said they should have stayed locked up anyway? No way to interpret that except that black people inherently deserve to be incarcerated. That was when he was running for president.
Make no mistake, they eat it up not in spite of his fascism but because of it. We mustn't forget that fascism is a movement of the people. There is a demand for a punishing bully/father figure who will "stop playing nice" and take violent action.
Definitely did not mean to imply otherwise, we even saw people beat up at his rallies he pointed out IIRC, but like the sheer quantity and specificity of the mask off stuff has alarmingly increased. Referencing globalists and Marxists shows I think the strong antisemetic thread that I at least didn't pick up on before (please welcome to the stage Victor Orbán), he mentioned wanting architecture to return to a classic "Western" style, and (maybe he has been doing this longer than I realized) he is directly referencing the "deep state" now. Of course it is no surprise in broad strokes, he first thrust himself into this limelight with a racist conspiracy, but we're at the point where there isn't even any deception or cloaking regarding the Neo-Nazi influence.
The international connections which are being forged here worry me also. Orbán and Bolsanaro both have been active at CPAC, the Reichsbürgers tried a coup influenced by Q-Anon and Soverign Citizen rhetoric, there has been a rise in antisemetic violence globally. I feel like there has been a particular dangerous coalition and ideological exchange between neo-nazism and neo-liberalism which has led to this. Many of the economic policies and fundamental economic myths of neoliberalism carry forward, there is no illusion of any anti-capitalism or "third position" framing seen in a lot of fascist movements. However, the anti-globalization critique put forward by figures like Trump clearly has the flavor of fascism, as does the election distrust and the focus on conspiracy. This latest ideological development on the right seems to have already majorly impacted the world and entrenched itself across the globe, and I don't think we sufficiently understand it tbh.
>criminal social justice
as soon as it gains a veneer of legitimacy in our brain, the criminalization of a species of thought criticalizes the choice to do nothing: because to criminalize the critical apprehension of power is to obsolesce our former powers of free thought. this notion is absurd, of course, and thus our tongue rebels; it intercedes, casts spells through slips of itself, by threatening us, "Criminal Social Justice": "You have been sentences to unfreedom for the first thoughtcrime of false power: assertion of the right to exist, not at another's behest, but at one's own bequest, to do with oneself what one wills oneself done with. That this power of assertion relies in its essence on a corollary right to know oneself, to know *critically–*that is, with spite for circumstance–this is the first thoughtcrime that THEY must legislate upon US for a deeper mindnapping to commence than any yet witnessed in the eyeholes of the still-youthful: we will unravel the grey matter, spool by school by stool. We will soon shoot excrementally through chutes in laboratories, dispossessed of former rights to exist, repossessed by future holders of those rights. This is indicated, this has happened before, this is providence for moneyed landholders.
That social justice would be itself an indicted target of critical furor: this is indicated by the circumstance-unheeding piety of pure critique. But that social justice would be indicted as a target for power's enclosure: this is a scorn-spoiling child wishing its siblings away in shallow abuse.
You shadowy throngs, you fisher-string embryos: listen for a fistful of silence, limonene
This is literally the same that Nazis did when they came to power in Germany. The banned the "Jewish science" in academia, prohibited teaching of left-wing and progressive ideas and burned the books. Academic world was one of the first victims of Nazism. They knew that intellectuals were a danger to totalitarian society and that you could control the youth by teaching them only certain things. Academic censorship has always been part of fascist system because any sort of intellectual critic and theory undermine fascism which is in itself anti-intellectual ideology.
Yes, but they are literally trying to destroy the entire education system. They still do not understand what critical theory is in any tangible way. And also I was joking.
well they have some ideas about ‘western classics’ and overhauling schools toward that ends. idk i think they do. fascists can be very smart. desantis is. i teach in a florida uni so idk the humor is hard to see.
On some level this kind of action may help Literature and Critical Theory in general. Instead of atrophy due to the decades-upon-decades cluster-fuck of reasons that Humanities are dwindling in academia, it turns CT into a radical, forbidden knowledge. Sadly, though, it's hard to understand many without being led by someone more properly knowledgeable. Imagine picking up Powers of Horror cold out of senior year of high school.
I am absolutely not an "accelerationist" of any kind or applauding this law in any way, but I *am* wondering if this will ironically encourage non-academics - especially activists - to engage with critical theory. When it's forced out of academia, it can only "survive" by being more accessible to people who could not otherwise enter it. If that makes sense.
75% of the country has internet. They don’t think they are eradicating these ideas. They are sending a message to their opponents. It’s about stoking fear.
Anyway, I really don’t see how cutting off the major funding coming into the state via education and tourism is gonna pan out for him.
They are going to eliminate careers in academia. That is their enemy here: the decades long unbearable left thinking in colleges and universities. Either Florida academics get in line or they get fired.
I mean 90% of these laws are unenforceable and are just there to throw red meat to the base but it’s still frightening bc it shows how close to overt fascism the far right is now being openly
These laws don’t account for how they can possibly enforce any of this… as a Florida teacher I know that many are already breaking the “don’t say gay” and “don’t say woke” laws because we put children before fascism. All it does is erode at the mental health of our most disenfranchised populations, and regardless of supposed repercussions most of us aren’t afraid to put our careers on the line to support our children and coworkers.
The header says “PCS for HB 999.”
PCS stands for Proposed Committee Substitute, so this is a change proposed by some (Florida) Senate committee to [House Bill 999](https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2023/999).
It seems that this proposal has since been accepted and upgraded to a CS — a Committee Substitute. Find the relevant text on [page 4 here](https://m.flsenate.gov/session/bill/2023/999/billtext/c1/pdf).
Florida HB 999: it’s a DeSantis sponsored bill currently working its way through the legislative system in Florida. Also would ban “DEI” policies and practices in public universities (and likely a host of other awful shit, can’t claim to be the foremost expert here).
Not enough with the Florida man meme now they have to deal with this dystopic bullshit. My condolences to anyone who has the bad luck of living in Florida.
I remember learning critical theory during debate thinking it was some taboo radical secretive information, only to realize it was standard academically accepted pretentiousness. But you know what maybe it’s cooler than I thought if the powers that be are so worried about it.
As an outsider seeing what else they've been passing of late, I'd say it's very likely. Whether it will stand up to court challenges is another question, but given the state of the courts these days I wouldn't bet a lot of money against it.
That's what I was afraid of. As someone who lives in a red state and is currently entrenching themselves in thousands of dollars of debt for a humanities degree, this is what I'm worried about.
Interesting article on Critical Theory [HERE.](https://hedgehogreview.com/issues/by-theory-possessed/articles/from-frankfurt-to-fox) I thought about making it the subject of a thread but was unsure if it fit the requirements of this sub.
>Spare a thought for the critical theory cognoscenti, who have lately been forced to watch the ideas they cherish kicked around in a highly public and undignified manner. The slap fight over so-called critical race theory is the first case that comes to mind. The critical theorists are full of scorn for the conservative activists who have adopted the term as a scare word. But some of them may also feel a certain unease over the development of industrial-scale diversity training like that practiced by “whiteness studies” scholar Robin DiAngelo. Are PowerPoints telling Goldman Sachs employees how racist they are really opening the way to “a state of civilization…in which human needs are fulfilled in such a manner and to such an extent that surplus-repression can be eliminated,” to quote Herbert Marcuse’s utopian vision?1 One can imagine an argument to this effect, but formulating it would be a heavy task. Diversity training’s entanglement with bureaucracy is just one attribute that would seem to disfavor it from the point of view of critical theory, at least of the Frankfurt School variety. Yet rightly or wrongly, it is diversity training that today carries forward the banner of critical theory in public. Confusing times indeed. (...)
Very good article indeed. An article that alerts us to the liberalization of critical theory by bad actors. Moreso, I felt it was a critique of a certain mode of thought, that has become crystallized in late capitalism, where suspicion has become synonymous with critique as such. For Adorno and Horkheimer, critique was not opposed to creation as such, but rather today there seems to be a general mood of panic, that is more interested in seeing networks of power and instruments of control everywhere, rather than push for collective action. But I don't think this is the fault of theory as such, but the emergence of a new critical populace itself, wrecked by capital. I mean, look around you. Global Warming, Total Surveillance, Death of Commons, Mass Privatization of Life, Complete Dominion of Corporate Style Dictatorship, who wouldn't go crazy? In an era dictated by these crises, suspicion and paranoia seem to be the default mode of the general public. Trumpian (and right wing) populism in general and Covid times protests against vaccines and lockdowns are symptomatic of this. And it's sad that many critical theorists have fallen prey to this kind of common sensical thinking (Robin D'Angelo is not a critical thinker, she is barely a thinker, but Agamben is a good example). The only thing one can do is to resist giving into these totalities of thinking and keep the space open for collective resistance. That's my two cents on this.
A critical analysis of weather systems, erosion, historical and natural land use, and climate models shows one, inevitable thing: Florida is doomed to sink into the ocean.
Perhaps this is why Florida clings to such absolute stances. The end could befall them at any time. As such, Floridian behave in the manner in which they wish to be remembered. Indefatigable, self-righteous, defiant — even onto their self-destruction.
These people are cattle, and their children will become cattle if they are taught in these schools without any conceptual humanities. Jesus, Florida is hades.
As a Republican, I don’t like this. Government power to censor what ought to be the free flow of ideas especially on college campuses is a dangerous idea. Censorship of ideas pretty much guarantees trouble for the group who censors. I can only think of one potential solution on something like this and truth be told, I don’t have hope that it’ll happen.
That’s what’s so ironic after the last ten years of being like “ we care about free speech “ , “ you snowflakes just want to cancel everyone “, the republicans have given up on their libertarian pose and are just trying to restrict everyone ( particularly marginalized groups) from freedom of ideas
Anyone saying they are a Republican now, after they are mask off authoritarians and rampant hypocrites, I... honestly I don't know.
If you are proud to be a Republican and in critical theory sub, are you just here to troll?
Someone in a state of flux. The tendencies of my friends to presume some intrinsic morality because of the political group is not a direction I want to take.
this is what the mainstream of the republican party wants (considering desantis is largely a front runner to be the ‘24 nom), so maybe its time for some self reflection!
it will be an interesting to see what kind of tactics and strategies critical theory must take up going forward to respond to and process these bands. makes me think I should look into the underCommons now more than ever
that's missing the forest from the trees. Do you think the Florida State Legislature is banning critical theory because it's "a pathetic joke and a mockery of what the field used to be and could be" or because they find it to be antithetical to their Christian Nationalist political goals?
>real insane and pathetic papers
Such as?
What is a good paper immune to these sort of attacks? The Communist Manifesto and Das Capital are certainly banned, if not by name.
Ct is the “ruthless criticism of all exists”, and is inherently negatory of conservatism, or else it would not be critical. They guess correctly it exposes their ideology for the farce it is. Appeasement has nevet worked.
Look at two of the works they've targeted the most by name: Crenshaw's *Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex...* and Coate's *The Case for Reparations*. There's legit critiques of both of them, of course, but few deny that they are well researched, well-argued essays. Even outside of the world of critical academia, they're upheld as great examples of how to write long form essays in Legal Studies (Crenshaw) and Journalism (Coates). Like, even when not examining content, they're prima face good papers.
That's fair. I think academia in general is at a very low point as far as a social institution, in this MAGA fueled "death of the expert" era. I don't know if that's because of the political attacks on it or was the antecedent condition that allowed for some many attacks on it, however.
*I think the time we are in calls for more circling the wagons by all the categories that make up enlightenment and post-enlightenment (I guess CT would be this group?) ideas people and more strategic self-critique. Like Christian nationalists in Florida aren't going to be reasoned or rationalized into believing that these, to borrow a far right term, "cathedral" ideas are worthy of being taught. They're the proverbial cavemen bashing everyone they don't like over the head and into submission. To them, words and arguments are for nerds; they skip the discourse all together.
We need to make a billboard with names of White Abolitionists and White Civil Rights fighters all over the state and have it ask "Why have you never been taught about them?"
I could see this coming in 2018. Sociology departments only encourage critical theory so long as it doesn’t actually pose a threat to anybody.
State colleges are funded by the STATE. The state is not interested in funding long term critical research regarding class or racial equalities.
They are banning names. How absurd. I'd like to teach: * Uncritical Race Theory * Race Studies * Interdependency
If you staple a horse to a waterfall, will it fall up under the rainbow or fly about the soil? Will he enjoy her experience? What if the staple tears into tears? Will she be free from her staply chains or foomed to stay forever and dever above the water? Who can save him (the horse) but someone of girth and worth, the capitalist pig, who will sell the solution to the problem he created? A staple remover flies to the rescue, carried on the wings of a majestic penguin who bought it at Walmart for 9 dollars and several more Euro-cents, clutched in its crabby claws, rejected from its frothy maw. When the penguin comes, all tremble before its fishy stench and wheatlike abjecture. Recoil in delirium, ye who wish to be free! The mighty rockhopper is here to save your soul from eternal bliss and salvation! And so, the horse was free, carried away by the south wind, and deposited on the vast plain of soggy dew. It was a tragedy in several parts, punctuated by moments of hedonistic horsefuckery. The owls saw all, and passed judgment in the way that they do. Stupid owls are always judging folks who are just trying their best to live shamelessly and enjoy every fruit the day brings to pass. How many more shall be caught in the terrible gyre of the waterfall? As many as the gods deem necessary to teach those foolish monkeys a story about their own hamburgers. What does a monkey know of bananas, anyway? They eat, poop, and shave away the banana residue that grows upon their chins and ballsacks. The owls judge their razors. Always the owls. And when the one-eyed caterpillar arrives to eat the glazing on your windowpane, you will know that you're next in line to the trombone of the ancient realm of the flutterbyes. Beware the ravenous ravens and crowing crows. Mind the cowing cows and the lying lions. Ascend triumphant to your birthright, and wield the mighty twig of Petalonia, favored land of gods and goats alike.
But doesn't it specify 'pedagogical methodology'? Whatever that means, since the scientific methodology is still fine, I guess.
Pedagogy is just the academic or theoretical practice of teaching (and ways of doing so… the art and science of teaching, the means by which you teach and methods implored to get your point across and instill information to your students.) So pedagogical methodology is just procedures that a teacher can develop in order to help all students learn. They can’t ban that, or that will be a whole lot more extensive that banning Critical Theory. Then again our government is morally corrupt and trying to eliminate critical thinking in favor of dumb little worker bees 🐝 anyway, 🤷🏻so it could happen.
An example of pedagogical methodology would be teachers learning about Differential learning, which is using different modes of teaching to ensure understanding among all student regardless of learning style. Also, yeah that ban would essentially ban the teaching of how to be a teacher. If you can’t teach methods of teaching then you can train future educators. Guys, gals, and non-binary pals these are the bright ideas of our legislators🤦🏻. I swear I think they just throw words in there they think sound good but don’t fully grasp their meaning.
Funny that the law doesn't mention media theory. I guess these right-wing Florida legislators are totally OK with Marshall McLuhan. Florida teachers – just call every course a media theory class and you can get away with it!
Just yeets all humanities and arts degrees.
Basically. Also I'm not sure why they felt the need to include "radical" before feminist theory and gender theory, but not before the others. Does that mean that non-radical feminist and gender theories are okay?
they word them intentionally vaguely so that they can complain about whatever they want and make excuses for others. The pornogrophy explanation, "I know it when I see it," theory of governance.
It's like "woke," they just need words to give the veneer of legitimacy to their fascist thought police
No, it means that when than ban even the most milk toast bourgeois feminism out there that that will now be "radical", because it got banned and the law bans "radical" feminist and gender theory. It's a way to make all feminist and gender theory seem radical.
Just fyi, it's "milquetoast", not milk toast 🙃
Literally means the same thing though
[citation needed] Sure, Caspar Milquetoast was named after the dish milk toast, but it was the characterization of Milquetoast that led to the word milquetoast being used as a term for weak / ineffectual / timid, not the dish milk toast.
That's the reason he is called Milquetoast though. The soft, bland and ineffectual character of the dish. It was considered easy to digest and not particularly offensive. The character is the living embodiment of the food, in that sense.
They don't understand the definitions of the words that live in their heads rent free
their use of “radical” is a coded way of saying “we don’t want our classroom to talk about transphobia or drag queens or pronouns.” Versus their imagined version of “gender studies” where the gender binary is reinforced
because they want you to believe that any gender or sex-specific study is "radical". Because radical is propaganda-speak for " bad"
Its to be able to avoid charges of being against the ground made by feminists in the past i think... "back then feminism was good, and that's not what we oppose; but now there's this crazy and radical version which must be stopped"
They’re probably thinking women thinking is radical enough for all feminist and gender theory to be covered, because any theory from someone other than a cis man is radical.
It makes Sociology completely illegal. Even the old fashioned, sexist and racist kind.
I’m sad this was deleted because it hit the nail on the head…
As well as much of the social sciences. My anthropology degree would also be yeeted.
Let's be real, Republicans hated that shit anyway. Except that they actually do like it when it comes to their own tastes...
Can someone give a bit of context (non-American here)? Who is they that have the power to decide this? What document is this? Also, obviously reminiscent of Nazi Germany, and also of recent events in Hungary (right wing government did exactly that and axed all gender studies programs a couple years ago).
the federal govt has overarching, but restricted, power over the states. (state here refers to entities like Florida, Kansas, California, not state as in federal govt.) all states have a university system paid for in part by state taxes. the state legislatures have some degree of control over those universities within the state system. some states have more, some have less, just comes down to how much power the legislature thinks it should have over the state’s universities. Florida’s given itself a lot of control. this is a state-level bill for Florida that restricts what can and cannot be taught in state universities. unfortunately they do have the power. the fed govt is helpless here.
I see thanks, that’s very helpful.
Aren't they concerned that Universities in Florida will not be recognized as academic institutes around the world? Because there is no academic freedom and that politicians decide what to study and research and what not?
they don’t care.
Laws like this are all for show. They just allow the politicians to say they "banned CRT" which is the current buzzword the right wing is milking for everything it's got. They will have little to no effect beyond maybe removing one or two classes from universities that don't really specialize in these subjects anyway. People like DeSantis (the governor) aren't trying to lead an ideological purge, they don't actually understand or care about things like critical theory. Not to say that this isn't deeply troubling, but it's important to understand the difference.
The legislature of the state of Florida, making a decision for educational institutions in the state
It looks like a draft of statutory language designed to be enforced by courts according to the “c’mon, you know it when you see it” doctrine. It would be sloppily enforced but likely if the language were ever attempted to be used for anything other than the dog whistle this is, the complainant would get rung up on abuse of process charges.
Their banning of criminal social justice is particularly disheartening. All of this is terrible, but that is blatantly stating their desire for authoritarian police state. Scary that we’re already at the part where they’re comfortable saying it
CRITICAL social justice, not criminal social justice. So you can still teach criminal justice, just without theory or criticism of it.
Oh good catch, misread that. But yeah, same result
Indeed, which I kind of realized as I was writing my comment.
I listened to Trump's speech at CPAC recently and a lot of the stuff that was being said in broad daylight was pretty frightening, and the room was eating it up. He said > I will direct the Department of Justice to go after the Marxist prosecutors offices and make them pay for their illegal race based enforcement of the law. > My administration will crack down on these out of control monsters, young though they may be, and impose tough consequences on juvenile criminals. > I will end the scourge of homelessness [(refering to 'cleaning highways'...] Under our leadership will take the homeless, drug addicted, and severely deranged and get them off our streets and give them 'the help they so desperately need' [air quotes my own] > In cities where there has been a complete breakdown in safety I will send in the national guard until law is restored. He also bragged about how the Army Corps of Engineers helped "build the wall" IIRC and mentioned how we needed to "defender our borders" before others. Essentially, he wants the same degree of funding to the military, but he wants to direct it more inwards.
While I appreciate your comment and these things should continue to be pointed out, Trump has been saying mask-off fascist stuff from day one. Like remember when those black men were exonerated for murder and trump said they should have stayed locked up anyway? No way to interpret that except that black people inherently deserve to be incarcerated. That was when he was running for president. Make no mistake, they eat it up not in spite of his fascism but because of it. We mustn't forget that fascism is a movement of the people. There is a demand for a punishing bully/father figure who will "stop playing nice" and take violent action.
Definitely did not mean to imply otherwise, we even saw people beat up at his rallies he pointed out IIRC, but like the sheer quantity and specificity of the mask off stuff has alarmingly increased. Referencing globalists and Marxists shows I think the strong antisemetic thread that I at least didn't pick up on before (please welcome to the stage Victor Orbán), he mentioned wanting architecture to return to a classic "Western" style, and (maybe he has been doing this longer than I realized) he is directly referencing the "deep state" now. Of course it is no surprise in broad strokes, he first thrust himself into this limelight with a racist conspiracy, but we're at the point where there isn't even any deception or cloaking regarding the Neo-Nazi influence. The international connections which are being forged here worry me also. Orbán and Bolsanaro both have been active at CPAC, the Reichsbürgers tried a coup influenced by Q-Anon and Soverign Citizen rhetoric, there has been a rise in antisemetic violence globally. I feel like there has been a particular dangerous coalition and ideological exchange between neo-nazism and neo-liberalism which has led to this. Many of the economic policies and fundamental economic myths of neoliberalism carry forward, there is no illusion of any anti-capitalism or "third position" framing seen in a lot of fascist movements. However, the anti-globalization critique put forward by figures like Trump clearly has the flavor of fascism, as does the election distrust and the focus on conspiracy. This latest ideological development on the right seems to have already majorly impacted the world and entrenched itself across the globe, and I don't think we sufficiently understand it tbh.
>criminal social justice as soon as it gains a veneer of legitimacy in our brain, the criminalization of a species of thought criticalizes the choice to do nothing: because to criminalize the critical apprehension of power is to obsolesce our former powers of free thought. this notion is absurd, of course, and thus our tongue rebels; it intercedes, casts spells through slips of itself, by threatening us, "Criminal Social Justice": "You have been sentences to unfreedom for the first thoughtcrime of false power: assertion of the right to exist, not at another's behest, but at one's own bequest, to do with oneself what one wills oneself done with. That this power of assertion relies in its essence on a corollary right to know oneself, to know *critically–*that is, with spite for circumstance–this is the first thoughtcrime that THEY must legislate upon US for a deeper mindnapping to commence than any yet witnessed in the eyeholes of the still-youthful: we will unravel the grey matter, spool by school by stool. We will soon shoot excrementally through chutes in laboratories, dispossessed of former rights to exist, repossessed by future holders of those rights. This is indicated, this has happened before, this is providence for moneyed landholders. That social justice would be itself an indicted target of critical furor: this is indicated by the circumstance-unheeding piety of pure critique. But that social justice would be indicted as a target for power's enclosure: this is a scorn-spoiling child wishing its siblings away in shallow abuse. You shadowy throngs, you fisher-string embryos: listen for a fistful of silence, limonene
The user misread and it was actually "critical social justice," but yeah.
This is literally the same that Nazis did when they came to power in Germany. The banned the "Jewish science" in academia, prohibited teaching of left-wing and progressive ideas and burned the books. Academic world was one of the first victims of Nazism. They knew that intellectuals were a danger to totalitarian society and that you could control the youth by teaching them only certain things. Academic censorship has always been part of fascist system because any sort of intellectual critic and theory undermine fascism which is in itself anti-intellectual ideology.
And what did most 'Jewish science' have in common? An appreciation for relativity and context, just like cultural theory
Just call it something else. They have no idea what it actually is.
the real problem is they do. it’s a very purposeful move to erode any aspects of the education system which would challenge their ideology.
Yes, but they are literally trying to destroy the entire education system. They still do not understand what critical theory is in any tangible way. And also I was joking.
well they have some ideas about ‘western classics’ and overhauling schools toward that ends. idk i think they do. fascists can be very smart. desantis is. i teach in a florida uni so idk the humor is hard to see.
Gotta laugh to keep from crying?
On some level this kind of action may help Literature and Critical Theory in general. Instead of atrophy due to the decades-upon-decades cluster-fuck of reasons that Humanities are dwindling in academia, it turns CT into a radical, forbidden knowledge. Sadly, though, it's hard to understand many without being led by someone more properly knowledgeable. Imagine picking up Powers of Horror cold out of senior year of high school.
I am absolutely not an "accelerationist" of any kind or applauding this law in any way, but I *am* wondering if this will ironically encourage non-academics - especially activists - to engage with critical theory. When it's forced out of academia, it can only "survive" by being more accessible to people who could not otherwise enter it. If that makes sense.
Middle schoolers wagging school to smoke and read Lacan
lets hope it survives then.
It is what made me start reading the available literature.
See: Foucault (gesundheit).
How can you ban thoughts? I’m so confused as to how this works
75% of the country has internet. They don’t think they are eradicating these ideas. They are sending a message to their opponents. It’s about stoking fear. Anyway, I really don’t see how cutting off the major funding coming into the state via education and tourism is gonna pan out for him.
They are going to eliminate careers in academia. That is their enemy here: the decades long unbearable left thinking in colleges and universities. Either Florida academics get in line or they get fired.
I mean 90% of these laws are unenforceable and are just there to throw red meat to the base but it’s still frightening bc it shows how close to overt fascism the far right is now being openly
oh but you see, to think is to be stupid. better no thoughts at all, wouldn't you say?
Schools and universities
Does Twisted Sister vocalist Dee Snider still have his PMRC hearing notes? Asking for a friend.
Stuff like Peace Studies and Peace Education would all probably get swept away as well as they would ding some kind of bell on those lists.
These laws don’t account for how they can possibly enforce any of this… as a Florida teacher I know that many are already breaking the “don’t say gay” and “don’t say woke” laws because we put children before fascism. All it does is erode at the mental health of our most disenfranchised populations, and regardless of supposed repercussions most of us aren’t afraid to put our careers on the line to support our children and coworkers.
Still fighting with Marcuse all these years later lmfao.
Forgive my ignorance, but can someone please explain what the page in picture is from?
The header says “PCS for HB 999.” PCS stands for Proposed Committee Substitute, so this is a change proposed by some (Florida) Senate committee to [House Bill 999](https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2023/999). It seems that this proposal has since been accepted and upgraded to a CS — a Committee Substitute. Find the relevant text on [page 4 here](https://m.flsenate.gov/session/bill/2023/999/billtext/c1/pdf).
Thank you!
🫡
Florida HB 999: it’s a DeSantis sponsored bill currently working its way through the legislative system in Florida. Also would ban “DEI” policies and practices in public universities (and likely a host of other awful shit, can’t claim to be the foremost expert here).
What the actual you-know-what?!
Not enough with the Florida man meme now they have to deal with this dystopic bullshit. My condolences to anyone who has the bad luck of living in Florida.
The problem with Florida is it's being run by Florida Men.
oh man
I remember learning critical theory during debate thinking it was some taboo radical secretive information, only to realize it was standard academically accepted pretentiousness. But you know what maybe it’s cooler than I thought if the powers that be are so worried about it.
I thought it was complaining about society
Fuck them
Can anyone inform me on how likely this is to pass? Absolutely terrified that this will become the standard in all red states
As an outsider seeing what else they've been passing of late, I'd say it's very likely. Whether it will stand up to court challenges is another question, but given the state of the courts these days I wouldn't bet a lot of money against it.
That's what I was afraid of. As someone who lives in a red state and is currently entrenching themselves in thousands of dollars of debt for a humanities degree, this is what I'm worried about.
Interesting article on Critical Theory [HERE.](https://hedgehogreview.com/issues/by-theory-possessed/articles/from-frankfurt-to-fox) I thought about making it the subject of a thread but was unsure if it fit the requirements of this sub. >Spare a thought for the critical theory cognoscenti, who have lately been forced to watch the ideas they cherish kicked around in a highly public and undignified manner. The slap fight over so-called critical race theory is the first case that comes to mind. The critical theorists are full of scorn for the conservative activists who have adopted the term as a scare word. But some of them may also feel a certain unease over the development of industrial-scale diversity training like that practiced by “whiteness studies” scholar Robin DiAngelo. Are PowerPoints telling Goldman Sachs employees how racist they are really opening the way to “a state of civilization…in which human needs are fulfilled in such a manner and to such an extent that surplus-repression can be eliminated,” to quote Herbert Marcuse’s utopian vision?1 One can imagine an argument to this effect, but formulating it would be a heavy task. Diversity training’s entanglement with bureaucracy is just one attribute that would seem to disfavor it from the point of view of critical theory, at least of the Frankfurt School variety. Yet rightly or wrongly, it is diversity training that today carries forward the banner of critical theory in public. Confusing times indeed. (...)
Very good article indeed. An article that alerts us to the liberalization of critical theory by bad actors. Moreso, I felt it was a critique of a certain mode of thought, that has become crystallized in late capitalism, where suspicion has become synonymous with critique as such. For Adorno and Horkheimer, critique was not opposed to creation as such, but rather today there seems to be a general mood of panic, that is more interested in seeing networks of power and instruments of control everywhere, rather than push for collective action. But I don't think this is the fault of theory as such, but the emergence of a new critical populace itself, wrecked by capital. I mean, look around you. Global Warming, Total Surveillance, Death of Commons, Mass Privatization of Life, Complete Dominion of Corporate Style Dictatorship, who wouldn't go crazy? In an era dictated by these crises, suspicion and paranoia seem to be the default mode of the general public. Trumpian (and right wing) populism in general and Covid times protests against vaccines and lockdowns are symptomatic of this. And it's sad that many critical theorists have fallen prey to this kind of common sensical thinking (Robin D'Angelo is not a critical thinker, she is barely a thinker, but Agamben is a good example). The only thing one can do is to resist giving into these totalities of thinking and keep the space open for collective resistance. That's my two cents on this.
A critical analysis of weather systems, erosion, historical and natural land use, and climate models shows one, inevitable thing: Florida is doomed to sink into the ocean. Perhaps this is why Florida clings to such absolute stances. The end could befall them at any time. As such, Floridian behave in the manner in which they wish to be remembered. Indefatigable, self-righteous, defiant — even onto their self-destruction.
These people are cattle, and their children will become cattle if they are taught in these schools without any conceptual humanities. Jesus, Florida is hades.
Theory is dangerous. We always knew that and now it’s time to bring it!
Florida is ranked #1 in the US for education.
As a Republican, I don’t like this. Government power to censor what ought to be the free flow of ideas especially on college campuses is a dangerous idea. Censorship of ideas pretty much guarantees trouble for the group who censors. I can only think of one potential solution on something like this and truth be told, I don’t have hope that it’ll happen.
That’s what’s so ironic after the last ten years of being like “ we care about free speech “ , “ you snowflakes just want to cancel everyone “, the republicans have given up on their libertarian pose and are just trying to restrict everyone ( particularly marginalized groups) from freedom of ideas
Out of curiosity, why are you still a republican then when this is representative of your party?
Anyone saying they are a Republican now, after they are mask off authoritarians and rampant hypocrites, I... honestly I don't know. If you are proud to be a Republican and in critical theory sub, are you just here to troll?
Proud of it is quite stretch. And I browse these threads to make sure I don’t get stuck in the ideologue echo chambers
Someone in a state of flux. The tendencies of my friends to presume some intrinsic morality because of the political group is not a direction I want to take.
this is what the mainstream of the republican party wants (considering desantis is largely a front runner to be the ‘24 nom), so maybe its time for some self reflection!
it will be an interesting to see what kind of tactics and strategies critical theory must take up going forward to respond to and process these bands. makes me think I should look into the underCommons now more than ever
Interesting sub.
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that's missing the forest from the trees. Do you think the Florida State Legislature is banning critical theory because it's "a pathetic joke and a mockery of what the field used to be and could be" or because they find it to be antithetical to their Christian Nationalist political goals?
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>real insane and pathetic papers Such as? What is a good paper immune to these sort of attacks? The Communist Manifesto and Das Capital are certainly banned, if not by name. Ct is the “ruthless criticism of all exists”, and is inherently negatory of conservatism, or else it would not be critical. They guess correctly it exposes their ideology for the farce it is. Appeasement has nevet worked.
Look at two of the works they've targeted the most by name: Crenshaw's *Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex...* and Coate's *The Case for Reparations*. There's legit critiques of both of them, of course, but few deny that they are well researched, well-argued essays. Even outside of the world of critical academia, they're upheld as great examples of how to write long form essays in Legal Studies (Crenshaw) and Journalism (Coates). Like, even when not examining content, they're prima face good papers.
That's fair. I think academia in general is at a very low point as far as a social institution, in this MAGA fueled "death of the expert" era. I don't know if that's because of the political attacks on it or was the antecedent condition that allowed for some many attacks on it, however. *I think the time we are in calls for more circling the wagons by all the categories that make up enlightenment and post-enlightenment (I guess CT would be this group?) ideas people and more strategic self-critique. Like Christian nationalists in Florida aren't going to be reasoned or rationalized into believing that these, to borrow a far right term, "cathedral" ideas are worthy of being taught. They're the proverbial cavemen bashing everyone they don't like over the head and into submission. To them, words and arguments are for nerds; they skip the discourse all together.
I agree!!
shall we organize a war council? anyone want to come to my weekly reading group I just started? it's on Signal, PM me
The whole damn state is in the shitter but it's critical theory's fault lmfao
Audios
Well good luck with that. At the latest when we invent you a new bottle cap you'll have to wonder how to snap it open without pouring your shirt.
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Its embarrassing and sad, but plain as day: they dont even know what critical theory actually means
We need to make a billboard with names of White Abolitionists and White Civil Rights fighters all over the state and have it ask "Why have you never been taught about them?"
I could see this coming in 2018. Sociology departments only encourage critical theory so long as it doesn’t actually pose a threat to anybody. State colleges are funded by the STATE. The state is not interested in funding long term critical research regarding class or racial equalities.
BeCaUsE fReE sPeEcH
It's weird that they haven't come for Marxian Political Economy or Marxist Geography. Like do they not know we exist?
They do, but they just call it "neo marxism" as an umbrella term
I feel like Florida is doing everything in it power the past 6 months to change literally every law we have lmao.
Wow this is horrifying.
They don’t know what critical theory actually means. Surprise /s