There is one question that I don't see being asked of right-wing politicians when they start talking about all the things they want to ban from the "public" (and I put "public" in quotes because the real public doesn't actually give a shit about any of this, but a fantasy public that the GOP pretends exists sure cares a lot about making sure their kids don't learn that it's possible for same sex couples to love each other). It's a simple one: "What's your end goal here?" Or, to put it more simply, "What are you trying to accomplish?"
As often as Florida governor, GOP presidential candidate, and man who looks like making children cry arouses him Ron DeSantis talks about crushing the "woke mind virus," which I think means, "Shit I can make sound scary," as often as he promises to "leave woke ideology in the dustbin of history," as he does in his truly, laughably shitty campaign website, I haven't seen a single challenge to him where he's asked, "The fuck do you want?"
Because what would be the answer? What could possibly be the answer to, say, the desired outcome in eliminating all programs at schools that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion? Just to game it out here, those in the DeSantis/Christopher Rufo camp of purging the offices of diversity or any academic programs that teach things like "racism is bad" would probably trot out their evil initials of doom and declare that, in and of themselves, DEI and CRT (whatever the fuck they think critical race theory is) are discriminatory. But how they're discriminatory is never explained because the explanation would have to include "against white people" and as blatant as they are about their racist intentions, they never quite make the leap to that. (Yes, there are exceptions who have always been shitheels and say the worst things possible.)
Even more insidious and directly harmful are the anti-science attacks on treatment for trans youths and the absolutely insane crusade against drag in public. It directly crosses with the book banning and curriculum censorship because anything that mentions LGBTQ+ people is seen as somehow "grooming" kids to become gay or trans or something not straight and cisgender. (And, by the way, fuck you if you have a problem with the term "cis." Language changes. Deal with it.)
Again, we haven't heard what the final objective is from DeSantis or legislators in all the states that have lost their goddamn minds (and court cases) over drag performances and trans treatment. They'll say they're preventing child sexual abuse, except facts don't back that up. They'll say it's for the welfare of children, except that makes zero sense in a world inundated with sexual imagery, images and ideas that don't necessarily say they are targeting only feels of heterosexual lust. I mean, I know a few lesbians who thoroughly enjoy the Tennessee Titans Cheerleaders.
I mean, it's fucking obvious what they want. They want to curtail the power of non-whites, power they see growing along with the teaching of the harm whiteness in this country has actually done. They want to push LGBTQ people back into the closet, or the prison, by making their existence illegal. They want to control speech, control sexuality, control all those things that they see as threats to their power, a power that is enforced through hegemonic whiteness and enforced heterosexuality.
Or, to put it another way, the politicians and media apparatchiks who push this agenda are fucking frightened little bitches asserting their remaining power to fuck shit up for everyone not them. (And let's be clear: the public doesn't support most of this shit.) They want to fuck up public education. They want to be able to jail or punish ideological enemies. And they want to do it by pretending that's what the endgame of "wokeness" is when the endgame of wokeness is really, simply to fucking ask people to stop being assholes and to acknowledge that reality is fucking real. Yeah, that means teaching children that shit was fucking awful and, hey, let's learn about the awfulness so we can be less shitty. Yeah, that means saying that trans people need our support and that queer couples are just couples. But I guess it takes some effort to do that. It's a hell of a lot easier to tell people, "You should be afraid. Go hide and cower with your guns until we make it safe for you again."
If the "anti-woke" forces had to say what they ultimately want, it would sound vile. It's about erasure. It's about elimination. It's about returning to an imagined past that they keep insisting was somehow good when, really, it was just a clusterfuck of hate, violence, and repression. That's why they need to be pushed to say it.
There is no "woke mind virus." There is only what's real and what's fake. And the GOP can't face reality.
