When I was a kid they would safety-pin a note to your clothing. 
It goes without saying that DeSantis’ fight against teaching anything related to race or gender identity was never really about protecting impressionable young children, but it kind of gives the game away when one says “oh and not in college-level courses either.”
It’s very difficult to educate people not to be fearful when the media is constantly fear-mongering, though. We have never successfully stopped that. A few outlets made public apologies for spending decades or centuries demonizing Black people as the source of most crime and violence in the US. Did that stop the inequality of coverage and negative images? No, it didn’t.
Now we’re seeing the same tactics being used against an ever-increasing number of marginalized groups. We are offering cups of reason and clarity like water to folks who are hooked on FUD being served from a fountain.
I didn’t hear her offering a solution, just an analysis. I don’t have a fix, fear of the “other” goes way back in our history. I am hopeful as i see more of us, especially young people, willingly and earnestly embracing a much broader range of humans as us. As for the terrified conservative minority, i am from WV. I have seen the fear of having everything you have known taken from you, then accepting wholeheartedly when someone gives them someone to blame. Blacks didn’t shut down the mines, trans people didn’t make their kids move away, progressives aren’t responsible for the shitshow of an economy there. The ones who actually are responsible for those things, though, have convinced them to blame the scary, scary “others.” Remember Trump promising to bring back coal jobs? And the Obama “war on coal?” Yeah, they bought those. Also, that it was Nancy Pelosi who is responsible for those jobs not coming. Fear is all they have, but it is really deeply rooted. To the point that a significant percentage can just never make it back. But that group (by and large) is old and dying off. The youth are much less open to that sort of terror, which is why the fascists fear them so much, and why openly indoctrinating them is such a high priority. My generation (i think i am a bit older than you) can only fight a rear guard action, but reinforcements are coming as we speak, we just need to hold on.
NYT: “His motives remain unclear…”
“Let’s not allow baseless barriers in government housing to contribute to this crisis any longer,” bill sponsor Republican Rep. Demi Busatta Cabrera of Miami said in the House debate
Wow, right? Republicans passed a law prohibiting discrimination in housing, in Florida. Will wonders never cease?
Oh, right, they’re not talking about LGBTQIA+ residents, or recent immigrants, etc. Oh, no:
Republicans Declare Banning Universal Free School Meals a 2024 Priority
As states across the country move to make sure students are well fed, Republicans have announced their intention to fight back.
States across the country are moving to provide universal free school meals to all our children. Meanwhile, Republicans are trying to stop them from doing just that.
The Republican Study Committee (of which some three-quarters of House Republicans are members) on Wednesday released its desired 2024 budget, in which the party boldly declares its priority to eliminate the Community Eligibility Provision, or CEP, from the School Lunch Program. Why? Because “CEP allows certain schools to provide free school lunches regardless of the individual eligibility of each student.” …
Of note is that the CEP is not even something every school participates in; it is a meal service program reserved for qualifying schools and districts in low-income areas. The program enables schools that predominantly serve children from low-income backgrounds to offer all students free breakfast and lunch, instead of means-testing them and having to manage collecting applications on an individual basis. As with many universal-oriented programs, it is more practically efficient and, as a bonus, lifts all boats. This is what Republicans are looking to eliminate.
It’s the kind of provision that many would want every school to participate in. Why not guarantee all our children are well fed as they learn and think about our world and their place in it, after all?
But indeed, as California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico, and as of this week, Vermont, all move to provide universal free school meals in one form or another—and at least another 21 states consider similar moves—Republicans are trying to whittle down avenues to accomplish that goal.
Along with trying to stop schools from giving all their students free meals, the proposed 2024 Republican budget includes efforts to:
- cut Social Security and Medicare
- make Trump’s tax cuts for the top 1 percent permanent
- impose work requirements on “all federal benefit programs,” like food stamps and Medicare
- extend work requirements on those aged 55–64
- bring back all of twice-impeached and twice-arrested former President Donald Trump’s deregulations, including the weakening of environmental protection.
Yes and.
Kingsolver absolutely nails it.
… In one memorable passage, Demon lists off all the insults thrown at them: “Hillbilly, rednecks, moonshiners, ridge runners, hicks. Deplorables.” The last alludes to a comment by Hillary Clinton, referring to Trump supporters as “a basket of deplorables”. Now Kingsolver often spots bumper stickers proudly declaring “I’m a deplorable” in her neighbourhood. But her agent and editor, both based in New York, questioned whether she should include it. “I decided, yes, I’m leaving it in because I want this to make the reader uncomfortable.”
At the time of the last election, as non-Republicans in a red state, Kingsolver and her husband did wonder if they should be fearful. “I love my neighbours, and I know they love me. But there’s still this feeling like somebody’s going to come down the road with the Trump flag and shoot you,” she says, in a way that isn’t clear if she’s serious. “It’s scary how detached some people have come from the possibility of compromise, the notion that ‘my people matter and I hate yours’ – that’s terrifying.” …
Again, Hillary Clinton actually said that not all Trump supporters were deplorables – some were racists but others had legitimate reasons to want change. Somehow, though, they all seem to have decided that meant them.
Is there some sort of technical term for “the admission of guilt by taking specific personal offence at a vague generic statement that people who are guilty exist”?
No idea, but I have heard the expression “a hit dog will holler” to refer to it.
WTF is wrong with these people?
I use the term “people” advisedly.
They are cruel people who like to see others suffer.
Since speculation on any psychological or mental condition of any person or people is not allowed per bbs rules, it’s difficult to say. I realize you’re likely posing the question rhetorically. Plenty of us are asking the same.
But.
Yes.
Something is wrong.
Something is very wrong.
I have met some folks who are part of the reinforcements.
They are in full custody of their humanity.
I am so grateful for their willing hearts and courage.
“The cruelty is the point” be damned, it’s like he’s deliberately going out of his way to just flat out kill people.
Dallas and Austin currently require workers to be given at least 10 minutes to cool down and hydrate every four hours.
Which is still not frequent enough, by practical standards. 
