So, there's a reason when Ron Desantis was running for president, I was still considering voting blue no matter who even if he got the nomination. He is also kind of dangerous to democracy, just in a more subtle way. Take him, for example, removing sociology as a core college class in florida.
Now, I'm going to be blunt. Is sociology "woke"? Yes it actually is. Critical theory actually gets its origins in sociology to some extent, and as I've stated before, it's an offshoot of the sociological paradigm of conflict theory. It is also a legitimate academic theory. Why do I crap on it so much despite that? Because people end up making it their entire personality and developing a cult around it, that's why. But that doesn't mean that it isn't a legitimate theory people should learn about. If anything, that's the one place where it should be learned, and the one place where it can be learned in its proper context and not by terminally online SJWs who just throw academic buzzwords at you with no context and then half the country ends up thinking it's made up.
But Pudding Ron wants to do away with that. He believes that the very idea of critical theory is so dangerous, and that the theory is so fake, that no one should ever learn about it. This is academic censorship. It should not be tolerated, it should not be seen as okay, F this guy.
Colleges are places to learn. They are places to have your ideas challenged, and they are places where academic discourse should be as liberal (not politically liberal, but liberal as in free) as possible.
I think the right often has an argument about safe spaces and freedom of speech on college campuses. Right wing views should NOT be censored or sanctioned (unless someone goes full on into some nazi crap). I was a right winger in college. If colleges censored my views, it would actually be counterproductive to the learning process. You want people to come to conclusions on their own, not forced to come to conclusions. When I went to college, I was told that it doesnt matter WHAT I believe insofar as it matters HOW i got to such a position and whether it can be justified. And that's actually why I believe (politically) liberal ideas win in a free market of ideas. They have more evidence. They are supported by reason. They can be demonstrated. And that's why, as much as I despise the adherents to the social justice religion, I don't go full on into "this stuff is made up." It's not made it. It's a legitimate academic theory. It's just one of many possible theories one can consider, and I would say actual "woke" people are about as closed minded as any conservative, and they share more in common with conservatives than they're willing to admit. Horseshoe theory at work.
As such, when Ron Desanctimonious (yeah, I'm really laying into him today) decides to ban academic theories he doesnt like because he's a denialist of them, I'm going to come out against them, because I support free speech and open academic discourse.
Even more so, I'm going to say that his ideas are counterproductive. How are people going to actually be able to learn about these things in a relatively objective context and be able to make decisions based on it (just as I did) if it isnt taught properly? Learning about critical theory from SJWs online is one of the worst ways to do it because they come off as deranged cult members trying to indoctrinate you into a religion. And alas, in some ways, while Desantis wanted to crack down on the theory to ban it from academic settings to stop its spread, he actually ends up just further polarizing society where now the adherents get to play the edgy persecution complex card that they believe in forbidden knowledge and that they know oh so much about the world more than everyone else. Stop, Ron, you're making them stronger.
It's a lot like if you had some leftie trying to ban christianity and that just causes all the christians to get obnoxious with the persecution complex. They already partially believe the world is against them, why give them anything to confirm their delusions? Same thing here.
Honestly, political factions need to stay out of academia and stop trying to push their moral policing nonsense on others. And that applies both to the left AND the right. Academics need to just focus on teaching truth, and teaching it objectively. We need to stop turning everything into propaganda one way or another.
And the right in particular needs to stop being so anti intellectual in general. Seriously, yall need some of that free college I want you guys to have. If you did, you wouldnt be trying to ignorantly ban things you disagree with and hopefully, like me, see value on academic freedom and freedom of discourse.
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