The Right Wing’s War On Woke. Though it seems no one can actually define what Woke means, the so-called War on Woke has become the GOP’s latest attempt to divide us based on rewriting history, discriminating against the LGBTQ community, banning books, and telling educators what they can and cannot teach. Led by Florida’s autocratic governor, they have even attacked Disney for being too inclusionary and for speaking out against discrimination. (What else would you expect from a corporation that built its empire around a mouse, a duck, a dog, and a host of other characters?)
Picking up the torch and pitchfork from DeSantis, a group called Moms for Liberty has taken the fight nationwide. This wholesome sounding organization which claims to be nonpartisan has ties to the chair of the Florida GOP, the Heritage Foundation, the Proud Boys, and a number of conspiracy theorists.
One of the organization’s chapters even proudly quoted Hitler in one of its newsletters!
The group’s stated goals are to ban discussion of our nation’s history of slavery and racism for fear of making white kids feel guilty, to ban discussion of our nation’s woeful treatment of the indigenous population, to ban any discussion of homosexuality or transsexuality, to ban SEL (Social and Emotional Learning), to ban intersectionality (how a person’s social and political identities combine to create discrimination and privilege), and to ban Action Civics (how to understand and get involved in the community’s government).
Calling themselves Joyful Warriors (what’s joyful about spewing division and hate?), they have succeeded in taking over school boards to push their hateful ideas. In the process, they have turned school board meetings into shouting matches, and doxed and threatened educators, forcing many of them to resign. They have even set themselves up as kingmakers by inviting GOP presidential candidates to speak at their national summit (swamp may be more accurate).
Though liberty may be in the group’s title, it would seem that it’s not interested in universal liberty – just in forcing their own narrow-minded ideas onto others.