Is Ron DeSantis a foe of free speech? The left-leaning factions of our society would have you believe so. They cite his recent ban on Critical Race Theory in schools, a decision that the disgraced far-left Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) lambasted as a breach of “academic freedom, freedom of expression and access to information under the First Amendment.” The SPLC went on to file a lawsuit against DeSantis for his restriction on LGBTQ studies for kids, accusing the move of “freezing speech and expression.”
Outcry from the SPLC, a body that appears to exist merely to financially ruin and silence dissenting voices, is a comic spectacle. After all, a school curriculum can accommodate only a certain range of topics, and it’s quite within the state’s remit to dictate how this precious time should be utilized.
Let’s imagine teachers nationwide decided to fill hours of their classes teaching kids Fortnite dances on TikTok. Would we cry foul over free speech violation if the state decided to demand a more productive use of class time? If we consider race-baiting to be more detrimental to young minds than TikTok dance trends, then DeSantis’ stringent stance deserves praise.
But let’s not get twisted in knots by the left’s dubious onslaught on the Florida governor’s free speech record. Fabricated anxieties about DeSantis’ commitment to free speech shouldn’t blind us to actual ones.
It’s a bummer to report that the Florida governor has fallen spectacularly short on the most pivotal free speech battlefield of our era — the struggle against Big Tech censorship. Even more disturbingly, if the whispers reaching my ears are anything to go by, he deliberately dropped the ball.
Guest Post by Swamp Patroller
Swamp Patroller is a lawyer and technology policy expert based in northern Virginia.
