Thursday, July 28, 2022

'Climate lockdown': On reducing personal consumption

Reducing personal consumption is not a new idea. But here's a new framing, borrowing from pandemic precautions: climate lockdown. Read the essay by Marjan Krebelj on Medium: "A Case for an Immediate Climate Lockdown" (July 22, 2022). Another: "The Storm Is Coming and We’re Headed Right Into it" (July 25, 2022).

hungry baby birds in a nest

Wednesday, July 27, 2022

USAmerican white evangelicals' anger at desegregation led to their anti-abortion cause

Immediately following 1969 desegregation law in Holmes County, some white parents started white-only private schools. They were 501(c)(3) non-profits that didn't have to pay taxes, and donors didn't have to pay income tax on money they donated to these schools. Green v. Kennedy (1970) ruled against these private schools and Nixon changed the IRS code too. Evangelicals like Jerry Falwell were unhappy with the ruling.

Up to this point in USAmerican history, white evangelicals hadn't been a voting bloc, and conservative political organizers realized that this could be a turning point to seize the evangelical vote. But they didn't want to take up the explicitly racist cause of segregation academies, which is what the white evangelicals really cared about in the moment. Instead, they wanted to channel evangelical outrage toward another cause.

Similarly, see also this July 25, 2022 article from FiveThirtyEight: "How The Fight To Ban Abortion Is Rooted In The ‘Great Replacement’ Theory." It says:

"The movement to end legal abortion has a long, racist history... Throughout colonial America and into the 19th century, abortions were fairly common with the help of a midwife or other women and could be obtained until the point that you could feel movement inside... But the dynamics surrounding the procedure changed by the mid-19th century... Laws limiting abortion, it was believed, would ultimately force middle- and upper-class white women — who had the most access to detect and terminate unwanted pregnancies — to bear more white children. ... Declining white birth rates, along with the rising eugenics movement — a now-discredited pseudoscience focused on the genetic fitness of white Americans — were connected to the practice of abortion, and this helped bolster flawed, racist arguments for a total ban of the procedure. ... Their tactics worked. By the 1900s, abortion was illegal in every U.S. state. ... while the [1973] decision in Roe overturned the nation’s remaining abortion bans, it didn’t address the underlying forces that had helped establish them, which brings us to today, as the anti-abortion movement is once again front and center following the court’s decision to overturn Roe."
Billy Graham praying outdoors

Jonathan Poletti wrote this for Medium about Charles Stanley:

"The Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism noted that 'as late as the 1970s he had guards stationed outside the church to keep African-Americans out.'

Charles Stanley was an architect of the 'Religious Right.'

He was a founding member of the Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition. He worked to get Ronald Reagan elected.

I realized: Charles Stanley was not a pastor, really, so much as a political activist with a vision of a white supremacist Christian nation.

* * *

And so ‘Evangelicals’ were born.

It was a movement that surprised Billy Graham himself. But from then on, Charles Stanley was at the wheel."

See also: "American history to explain ‘How did we get here?’" (7-minute read) and "The Butter-Pie Effect" (9-minute read). Medium lets you read a certain number of stories for free every month. You may also consider a paid membership on the platform.

Sunday, July 24, 2022

How to get an automatic warning of transphobic websites and users

Today I learned that there is a Shinigami Eyes extension available on GitHub to indicate which internet material is trans-friendly and which is trans-antagonistic.

I hope that's useful. Carry on...

a pearl necklace. the woman is smiling but you can't see the rest of her face above her lips.

Wednesday, July 20, 2022

Anti-transgender messaging campaign, July–August 2022

Christopher F. Rufo will be publishing anti-transgender propaganda beginning today and continuing for the next six weeks, concluding his messaging in mid-August just before U.S. kids return to school.

I later wrote more: "'Radical Gender Theory' is Itself a Social Construct". It's a 5-minute read on Medium.


Also:

July 6, 2023: Jennifer Bilek @bjportraits tweets:'Gender identity' is extremely powerful corporate propaganda, advancing a #Transhumanist agenda: the melding of humans with technology & biotech, to force us beyond our human borders. Our human roots are in procreative sex, which 'gender identity' seeks to abolish legally, linguistically, socially, and materially. The propaganda is so powerful & so prolific it has worked as it was meant to: as #cult indoctrination of the masses. Even those who think they are outside of the #cult are running on about 'gender people.' 'gender medicine,' 'gender dysphoria,' 'tran$ people,' 'gender clinics,' etc., when none of this corporate hooey was here 15yrs ago. This did not happen by osmosis. An apparatus was built for the indoctrination and it was sent, via tech, into the global market, along with every sphere of our culture. It's been funded by some of the richest men (and a few women) in the world- all invested in the medical, tech complex and supported by financial titans who don't give a crap about people who are marginalized or who are claiming special identities. I #FollowTheMoney and so should you. #StayHuman @11thBlog

Update

July 12, 2023: Chris Rufo made a 12-minute video about a "transgender empire":

https://twitter.com/realchrisrufo/status/1679143593238462464

I'm not making it a clickable link because he doesn't need the SEO.

fire

Tuesday, July 19, 2022

'Groomer' slur banned from Reddit

scary-weird Christmas elf decoration

On the trans person's body: It was 'a little phrase just for you!'

goat

I referenced this tweet in "GΓΆdel is Sure Bach, and Trans People Are Sure Their Gender". It's a 6-minute read on Medium. Medium lets you read a certain number of stories for free every month. You may also consider a paid membership on the platform.

Monday, July 18, 2022

US: Republicans have a national bill to prevent kids from asserting their own gender

Fascists do this because they are upset by "the agility of the future".

Even though:

See "Gender Identity 5 Years After Social Transition" (Pediatrics, July 13, 2022). They examined 317 children, at an average age of 8, who identified as transgender at the beginning of the study. "We found," the authors write, "that an average of 5 years after their initial social transition, most "identified as binary transgender youth (94%)...and 3.5% as nonbinary." Only 2.5% "identified as cisgender."


Update: California is a sanctuary state for trans kids. This law took effect Jan. 1, 2023. SENATOR WIENER’S HISTORIC BILL TO PROVIDE REFUGE FOR TRANS KIDS AND THEIR FAMILIES SIGNED INTO LAW

However: "A newly formed group is petitioning to put an anti-transgender measure on the 2024 California ballot. The so-called Protect Kids of California Act of 2024 would ban gender-affirming care for minors, require school faculty to out students to parents, and repeal pre-existing protections for trans students." (Parents in California Are Petitioning to Get an Anti-Trans Initiative On the Ballot, James Factora, them, December 11, 2023)

Update: Maine may become a refuge state too. On January 15, 2024, there was a hearing on a bill "to ensure that transgender individuals and their families, who seek safety and medical care in the state, are not compelled to return to their home states by extremist attorneys general, possibly under the threat of arrest. It would also make arresting the parents of trans youth pursuant to out of state warrants the 'lowest law enforcement priority.'" Furthermore, Erin Reed explains:

"Importantly, this provision does not not imply, as some conservative accounts have proclaimed, that the state will 'take away trans kids from non-affirming parents.' Rather, this provision merely gives judges temporary jurisdiction over a kid present in the state. The state would still have to prove to a judge that a transgender teen is at risk of abuse or neglect if returned to their family in the exact same way the state would have to prove similar things about a cisgender kid....this clause enables parents in Maine to present their case to a judge and argue that gender-affirming care is in the child's best interest. The bill does not require the judge to rule in favor of the parent; it merely allows the court to consider the argument."

This info may be helpful: "Mental health benefits of gender-affirming hormones for teens persist for two years in new study" (Jan 18, 2023, Stat News)


fawn


One big idea behind the "separate the LGB from the TQ" memes is to discourage gender nonconformity.

Regarding a picture of an NFL American football player with lots of muscles and buzzed hair captioned 'LGB' next to a picture of a person with beard stubble wearing lavender dangle earrings and a spaghetti-strap shirt exposing chest hair, Euan Yours tweets: It's actually legitimately interesting the way the right are trying to assimilate 'LGB' people into Straightness

UN: 1 million species will go extinct

"Humanity is on track to cause one million species to go extinct, according to UN report." A new study projects that at least one million extinctions are going to occur as a result of climate change. Matthew Rozsa. Salon. July 17, 2022.

One thousand are mammals. See this HuffPost article

2021 octubre, New York Times: biodiversidad y extinciΓ³n, en espaΓ±ol

black crowned crane
Image by Kerstin Riemer from Pixabay

Sunday, July 17, 2022

Scientific info on the current heatwave in Europe

A long Twitter thread with powerful scientific images about the current heatwave in Europe. By Karl Mathiesen, the senior climate correspondent for POLITICO Europe.


70% of crops died in Italy's Po River Delta: Video




By the way:


HuffPost article
Huffpost headline saying EUROPE BOILS: U.K. FEARS HOTTEST DAY EVER — FIRES ‘LITERALLY EXPLODING’

Also FYI:


planet Earth

Saturday, July 16, 2022

Old-style movie timer

Found this cool old-school movie timer, free to use, on YouTube.

Boring transphobic article by Joan Smith in the New Statesman

The New Statesman (July 2022) has a boring anti-transgender article. As of 16 July, the online article has the headline "The Tories are right to debate the trans issue – it’s not a distraction," but in the social media preview, it's "trans question," not "trans issue." Also, they put the term "trans question" in the URL, "the-tories-trans-question-essential." Because the phrase "the trans question" parallels "the Jewish question," that word choice got a little attention on Twitter. But the article itself is boring.

The article begins by saying that "a single issue – where the candidates stand on the definition of a woman" is the top priority in the British contest for Conservative leadership. We should "debate gender," says Joan Smith. The problem? "Changes to language and public facilities...have happened with next to no consultation...raising questions about democratic consent."

Consultation of whom?

If someone says they're from Dallas or that they've converted to Catholicism, I treat them as the expert on their identity, and I let them live their life. There is such a thing as truth or falsehood. If I find out that they only spent a week in Dallas and they've never been inside a Catholic Church, it seems I've debunked their claim and I may be skeptical of what they tell me in the future. But the meaning of truth here has got nothing to do with "democratic consent." There's no consultation or consent involved in someone actually being from Dallas or actually being Catholic. They don't need to ask my permission to be who they are.

Smith goes on: "So much of what has happened, from organisations like Stonewall arguing against single-sex spaces to the creation of an atmosphere where feminists are thrown off Twitter for 'liking' gender-critical tweets, has occurred by stealth." No further context is provided, and as it stands, this statement is nonsense, since it implies that it's quite important to be able to have a Twitter account and yet it's not very important to refrain from approving of others' bad tweets. Exactly what is meant by being "thrown off Twitter" is, of course, not stated. (If the original tweet didn't fall afoul of Twitter policies, then Twitter wouldn't penalize others for "liking" the tweet.) If it means the freedom to have controversial interactions that publicly demean a group of people with no one from that group publicly criticizing you in reply — no.

red cross x for wrongness

It is an "overdue debate," she says, though it has been going on for years. Tthe Conservatives are doing the right thing by openly debating what has happened to women’s spaces, rights and free speech," and "they are right to insist that biological sex matters," while Labour "refus[es] to give clear answers to questions about biological sex." So "the Tories are limbering up to campaign as a right-wing party that knows what a woman is, up against a bunch of centre-left politicians who are terrified to give a clear answer."

The whole article is disingenuous because she implies there is a clear answer to the question of what qualifies someone as a woman or man (and that answer is their biological sex), yet she says it needs to be "debated" in the political arena, chiefly by forcing the center-left to say it.


Confirmed at "Britain's Conservative party leadership race is turning into a transphobic spectacle." Tara John, CNN. July 17, 2022:

"Britain's Conservative leadership contest kicked off this week, a weeks-long process that will result in the country's next prime minister. Besides the standard pledges of tax cuts or a slimmed down state, there has also been an enthusiastic promotion of anti-trans positions, potentially marking an intensification of the current government's "war on woke."

Leading the pack of hopefuls is Rishi Sunak, Britain's former Chancellor of the Exchequer whose resignation from the government last week contributed to the resignation of Prime Minister Boris Johnson. After the second round of voting among Conservative Party lawmakers earlier this month, Sunak topped the list of the five candidates who remain in the running.

One of Sunak's first policy pledges, after he announced his intention to run, was protecting "women's rights," he wrote in a Twitter post, linking to an article in which an unnamed Sunak ally was quoted as saying the lawmaker was "critical of recent trends to erase women via the use of clumsy, gender-neutral language.""

The CNN article also talks about junior minister Penny Mordaunt:

Mordaunt has spent a lot of time this week rowing back on her past pro-trans views. She told online newspaper Pink News in 2018, for example, that "trans women are women."

In a 10-part Twitter thread posted last Sunday, Mordaunt u-turned, stressing that trans women might be legally female by law but "that DOES NOT mean they are biological women, like me." She added: "I am biologically a woman. If I have a hysterectomy or mastectomy, I am still a woman. And I am legally a woman."

If you're afraid of your own anger, it's hard to stand up to political bullies

"Dr. Mark Goulston on why Democrats keep losing: They're afraid of their own anger. Psychiatrist Mark Goulston says Democrats are traumatized and eager to hide their rage. To win, they will need it." Chauncey DeVega. Salon. July 11, 2022.

Here's an excerpt from the introduction to the interview:

"In a recent essay at Medium, Dr. Mark Goulston, a leading psychiatrist, former FBI hostage negotiation trainer and the author of the bestsellers "Just Listen" and "Talking to 'Crazy,'" offers a provocative explanation for the Democratic Party's weakness. He argues that Democrats are "highly conflict avoidant" and that such a temperament has made them "mincemeat to the vast majority of the GOP who is allegiant to Donald Trump."

In my recent conversation with Goulston, he expanded on this analysis, arguing that Democrats keep losing to the Republicans because they refuse to speak passionately, clearly and in declarative terms to the American people. He warns that Republicans, especially Trump loyalists, are bullies who embrace and welcome conflict, and that Democrats do not fight back effectively because they refuse to acknowledge the reality that bullies must be confronted and cannot be negotiated with or defeated with rational arguments. Goulston further explains that Trump's followers remain loyal to him precisely because of his antisocial and anti-human behavior, not despite it.

Goulston also explains that many members of America's political class and the news media are naive or in denial about the nature of human evil, and therefore continue to express shock and surprise at each new revelation about the obvious crimes of the Trump regime. At the end of this conversation Goulston shares the advice he would give to Biden and other Democratic leaders about how to break their pattern of self-defeating behavior and formulate a winning plan to defeat the Republicans and preserve American democracy."

You can check out the article at Salon.

snarling tiger

Also:

Also, telling extremist people that their ideas are within normal and acceptable bounds may just embolden them to become more extreme. It's as if you're giving them permission.

Jeff Sharlet tweets on August 13, 2023: And look, it’s just two words, big deal, right? But by inaccurately calling Prager 'right leaning' you're telling actual right leaning people and moderates who’d be horrified by Prager’s real far right extremism that this isn’t a big deal. Which discourages civic involvement.

Tuesday, July 12, 2022

Will major corporations reach net-zero emissions?

The New York Times sent a newsletter today:

"In Times Opinion’s latest video, we’ve dissected pledges from three companies that produce quantities of emissions so large, they could single-handedly influence the future of the planet. Their targets are set years, even decades, into the future and are contingent on technology that’s not available at the scale required. Today, “net-zero emissions” seems more like clever marketing of science fiction scenarios than a reachable goal."

"New Climate Promises, Same Old Global Warming." Video by Agnes Walton and Kristopher Knight. New York Times. July 12, 2022.

That's my subscriber gift link so you can view the video for free.

And here's a CNN video. "Climate expert: Fossil fuel companies could fix climate crisis 'within a generation'." Amanpour. "Climate modelling expert and Oxford professor Myles Allen tells Amanpour heatwaves searing Europe will continue breaking records until countries reach zero-net emission targets."

Earth

Monday, July 11, 2022

In India, writers and public figures are restricted from posting on Twitter

From a Washington Post editorial, "Twitter’s case against India is crucial to the internet’s future," July 10, 2022:

"Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party has been chipping away at free expression online for some time, most notably with the passing of a law last year extending the executive’s censorship powers. Now, the government can demand that news and information providers remove certain material within 36 hours of receiving a request, and it can initiate criminal proceedings against a designated company grievance officer located in the country if these mandates are rebuffed. These threats don’t appear idle: Twitter’s top executive was summoned by police in one state for failing to take down a violent video; armed forces once showed up at the company’s offices as part of an investigation about a matter as anodyne as a tweet having been labeled “manipulated media.”

Perhaps it is not surprising, then, that while Twitter has in the past resisted blocking the posts of Indian journalists, activists and politicians, the company acquiesced this month after apparently receiving a noncompliance letter. The firm geographically restricted tweets from writers including Post Opinions contributor Rana Ayyub as well as advocacy organization Freedom House."

baby birds in a nest

Saturday, July 9, 2022

Anti-oppressive ecological thinking

"Decoloniality and anti-oppressive practices for a more ethical ecology" (Trisos et al.) was published a couple months ago. The authors recommend "five shifts" for academics in ecology:

  • decolonize your mind
  • know your histories
  • decolonize access
  • decolonize expertise
  • practise ethical ecology in inclusive teams

Per Nature.com, the paper abstract is:

Ecological research and practice are crucial to understanding and guiding more positive relationships between people and ecosystems. However, ecology as a discipline and the diversity of those who call themselves ecologists have also been shaped and held back by often exclusionary Western approaches to knowing and doing ecology. To overcome these historical constraints and to make ecology inclusive of the diverse peoples inhabiting Earth’s varied ecosystems, ecologists must expand their knowledge, both in theory and practice, to incorporate varied perspectives, approaches and interpretations from, with and within the natural environment and across global systems. We outline five shifts that could help to transform academic ecological practice: decolonize your mind; know your histories; decolonize access; decolonize expertise; and practise ethical ecology in inclusive teams. We challenge the discipline to become more inclusive, creative and ethical at a moment when the perils of entrenched thinking have never been clearer.
— Trisos, C.H., Auerbach, J. & Katti, M. Decoloniality and anti-oppressive practices for a more ethical ecology. Nat Ecol Evol 5, 1205–1212 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01460-w

fawn

Friday, July 8, 2022

As Florida's "Don't Say Gay" takes effect

If you support the Muckrake podcast on Patreon, you can hear this full episode 75: "Big State Governors Moving In On The Presidency", July 8, 2022, in which Jared Yates Sexton says:

"DeSantis is picking up every Never Trump donor — every major Never Trump donor — and most of the Trump donors at the same time. He's consolidating power and, as we predicted, ding ding ding, the Republican Party's already saying: He's not Trump! We're done with Trump! Look at that criminal buffoon! We're ready to go to someone serious." (30:10–30:32)

"Meanwhile, what is he doing as governor? [The] university system of Florida just pushed this thing where you're going to have to start registering — as students and faculty — your political opinions. He has a police force that's going to basically take over elections. You name it: Up and down the line, this guy has more authoritarian principles and ideology than Donald Trump and everybody's moving over to that side of it." (30:43–31:05)

(There's an abbreviated version of the episode on Apple podcasts.)


The law was approved in March. During the following month, "references to pedophiles and 'grooming' rose by more than 400 percent... Researchers said they reported 100 of the most hateful tweets they saw to Twitter. Only one was removed."

Update: In March 2023, DeSantis is expanding Don't Say Gay. It'll be through Grade 12 now.


The Tikvah Fund organized a New York City appearance by Ron DeSantis on June 12, 2022. The event was held at an event venue called Pier Sixty, which put out a statement two days in advance saying that "we could not disagree more strongly with many of Ron DeSantis' actions in office," and that, while they've "never controlled the content, program or speakers" at the hundreds of events they've hosted, in this particular case they would send all funds from Tikvah to LGBTQ+ causes.



Florida would also like to impose gender on kids:


Japanese death demon called a shinigami

By the way, an August 2022 update: A July opinion poll of a hypothetical 2024 presidential matchup found Trump beating DeSantis by 30 points (53%–23%), and then, in August, the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago gave Trump a sympathy boost, so the gap widened to 40 points (57%–17%). But a lot of the Republican establishment wants DeSantis. And Trump might be indicted. So DeSantis might become president.

An October 2022 update:




January 2023: It's happening in the UK.

February 2023:

"...Gov. Ron DeSantis requested all public universities comply in delivering data from student health services on transgender students who sought gender-affirming care at the institutions.

DeSantis asked to see a breakdown of the medical data of students who received gender-affirming care from public entities. This includes anyone in the general public who sought gender-affirming care at the hospitals located at these public universities. In addition, he wants their ages and the dates they received gender-affirming care. The deadline to submit those records was February 10.

Insider has confirmed that University of Florida, Florida State University, University of Central Florida, Florida A&M University, Florida International University, and the University of North Florida have complied with the request, but has yet to hear back from the rest."

— "Ron DeSantis requested the information of trans students who sought care at Florida's public universities. Now students are planning a statewide walkout." Annalise Mabe, Insider, Feb 16, 2023

"President Joe Biden called efforts to restrict transgender rights in Florida 'close to sinful' in an interview released Monday [March 13, 2023], suggesting federal laws should be passed to protect those rights in all states." — CNN

Yes, it happened (HuffPost, May 18, 2023):

"An LGTBQ+ pride event usually held along the riverwalk in Tampa, Florida, has been canceled after hard-right Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bevy of anti-LGBTQ+ bills into law this week.

Tampa Pride President Carrie West confirmed to several local news outlets that the event, called Tampa Pride on the River, would not go ahead in September because it features drag performances at a public venue."

Alejandar Caraballo on Twitter, May 25, 2023: Republicans think 12 years old is too young to learn about LGBTQ people but old enough to work in bars and slaughterhouses, get married, and be forced to give birth to their rapists baby. The party of 'protecting children.'

Florida State Representative Randy Fine (R-Palm Bay) has no problem funding burlesque shows for charity — shows that children can attend too — as long as they feature cis women and not gay men or trans people. FL GOP Rep Who Wants to Outlaw Drag Queens Funds Straight Burlesque James Finn, April 17, 2023. If you're paywalled out, please become a member.

In May 2023, someone rewired an Orlando traffic sign to say KILL ALL GAYS.

A parent who had indeed signed permission for their kid to watch PG movies in school complained because the teacher showed a Disney movie.

"Florida just banned everything I teach at the university level." — Dr. William Horne. See the unrolled thread.

"Gay Floridians Are Leaving in Droves, Says Pride Organizer." Daily Beast. May 29, 2023.

Transformers Conference in Orlando says on June 7 that no crossdressing will be permitted at the conference per Florida state law. Erin Reed tweets: How about rather than banning crossdressing at cons, you stop holding your cons in Florida.
details about the TFCon from its Twitter handle
June 8 tweet: now the conference is offering a refund to LGBTQ people who don't feel safe attending

July 20, 2023: A Los Angeles Times profile of a trans woman preparing to leave Florida.

July 23, 2023: The DeSantis campaign shared a video with a sonnenrad (sunwheel), which is Nazi imagery.

The @desantiscams account just deleted this video after at least one campaign staffer RT'd it. I wonder if this was also made in-house. — Luke Thompson, July 23, 2023, Twitter

DeSantis's comments on surgery

Following DeSantis's May 2023 signing of a law on gender-affirming care that banned it for children and restricted it for adults, he appeared in the December 6, 2023 Republican presidential candidate debate and said: "I did a bill in Florida to stop the gender mutilation of minors. It’s child abuse and it’s wrong." CNN gave context:

"Gender affirming care...is not 'abuse' or 'mutilation' according to the medical community. It is a recommended practice by most major medical associations. The American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry – agree that gender-affirming care is clinically appropriate for children and adults."

Additionally, minors were rarely getting surgery to begin with. "Some adolescents may choose what’s commonly called top surgery...that removes breast or chest tissue, but the surgical choice would be rare. Generally, experts say, these are not procedures adolescents would need. The Endocrine Society and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health guidelines say that genital reassignment surgery should be reserved for adults only." — Fact checking the December GOP debate, Jen Christensen, CNN, December 7, 2023

Donate

Donate: Southern Trans Youth Emergency Project

"Florida’s situation is the result of multiple different strands of the far-right, some of which are tacitly at odds with one another. ... [Florida is] one of the few places having a resurgence of organized and blatant neo-Nazism, this time in the form of the Goyim Defense League, Order of the Black Sun and others who are doing explicitly antisemitic flash mobs, banner drops, and other in-real life actions. These include signs that say things like “Have You Thanked Hitler Today?” and are really Jewish focused, demanding the hanging of Jews, openly saying that Jews are the center of all that is wrong in modern society. There have been a lot of large actions (large for them), coming from the Nazi crowd and we should think of this as qualitatively different than the world of Trump or DeSantis, who each have their own crews. The Nazis are explicitly revolutionary and therefore see both candidates as anathema, and the various neo-Nazi crews have made explicit in their messaging just how much they hate DeSantis. That said, the rhetoric of both Trump and DeSantis normalizes racism and therefore primes potential recruits to be more vulnerable to neo-Nazi messaging."
— Shane Burley, interviewed by Kelly Hayes, "Fascism in Florida, The State of Antifascism and Thinking About Electoral Defense." Organizing My Thoughts (Substack), Sep 19, 2023.

Florida county bans the dictionary

"The Escambia County School District, located in the Florida panhandle, has removed several dictionaries from its library shelves...

HB 1069 gives residents the right to demand the removal of any library book that "depicts or describes sexual conduct," as defined under Florida law, whether or not the book is pornographic. Rather than considering complaints, the Escambia County School Board adopted an emergency rule last June that required the district's librarians to conduct a review of all library books and remove titles that may violate HB 1069 [the May 2023 law]."

Florida school district removes dictionaries from libraries, citing law championed by DeSantis, Judd Legum, Popular Information, January 10, 2024

In fact, Escambia County removed "more than 1,600 titles for mentions of 'sexual conduct' that could violate a 2023 state law."
Florida law led school district to pull 1,600 books — including dictionaries, Justine McDaniel and Hannah Natanson, Washington Post, January 11, 2024

In California

"Lake Arrowhead shop owner shot to death over Pride Flag" Detectives learned the suspect made several disparaging remarks about a rainbow flag hanging outside the store before shooting the owner, Brody Levesque, Los Angeles Blade, August 19, 2023

Outcome

"With the explicit and tacit encouragement of the Florida Department of Education, the law was broadly interpreted to mandate the banning of library books with LGBTQ characters, the cancellation of Pride Month, and the removal of rainbow flags. It also created confusion about whether it was permissible to discuss LGBTQ people in any context in Florida classrooms." — Judd Legum, Popular Information, March 13, 2024

However, as Legum goes on to explain, in March 2024, "the State of Florida agreed to settle a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality" of the law. Now, "the only aspect of the law that remains is a prohibition on classroom instruction about 'sexual orientation' and 'gender identity.' Per the terms of the settlement, an example of this would be 'teaching an overview of modern gender theory.' This is not something that happens very often, if at all, in K-12 education."

In case you missed it

Have you seen inside the book 'To Climates Unknown'?

The alternate history novel To Climates Unknown by Arturo Serrano was released on November 25, the 400th anniversary of the mythical First ...