this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2023
531 points (96.8% liked)

World News

38977 readers
2234 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Dankry@lemmy.world 160 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

The damage DeSantis and Florida republicans are doing to the state’s educational curriculum will have catastrophic effects on an entire generation. It’s terrifyingly evil.

[–] Anomandaris@kbin.social 41 points 1 year ago (8 children)

It's so weird to me, what do they expect to happen to the economy of their state when their workforce has such a poor education?

[–] Dankry@lemmy.world 65 points 1 year ago (2 children)

They simply do not care. That’s going to be someone else’s problem. Which is the fundamental problem with the modern Republican Party. They have no regard for the future.

[–] Anomandaris@kbin.social 22 points 1 year ago (2 children)

But the other side of that is no political accountability. There's no risk of punishment, so why should they care? Insider trading, corruption, nepotism, general lying, acting in bad faith, and intentionally misrepresenting facts to disrupt useful debate.

Politicians get away with all of that and more, and get paid massive amounts of money, above and below the table, while they do it.

[–] DreamerOfImprobableDreams@kbin.social 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yep, the Republican base has proven they'll vote for literally anyone with an (R) next to their name no matter how many felonies they commit. And because they're fanatics, they turn out to vote every time, no matter what.

The only way we get out of this nightmare is to hold the line, keep voting every cycle to keep the mainiacs out of power until the party inevitably implodes due to demographic shifts. Hopefully it'll happen soon, worrying about this shit is exhausting. But until then, we can't afford to be complacent.

[–] TheDarkKnight@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Hey at least insider trading is a bipartisan effort!

[–] chakan2@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

I disagree with that statement. The Rs have a deep regard for the future. They are doing a fantastic job at making the next few generations capitolistic cogs.

They're keep people riled up about irrelevant fringe issues while totally dismantling education, Healthcare, and freedom of speech.

The Rs are playing the long game, and they're winning. (And to be fair, the Ds are doing their damn best to enable that behavior)

[–] Crushinator@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

The GOP doesn’t care about their constituents beyond the bare minimum required to get votes from them. They’ll do only what is needed to stay in office, even if that’s nothing except blame Democrats for everything possible.

[–] fiat_lux@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's intentional. "Automation will take our jobs!" Has been used to scare people for centuries, but the reality is physical labour is expensive and tricky in many situations to automate. Which is why Amazon goes through people like they're me with a bag of chips. Power structures rely on large and ever-growing amounts of people with no formal education to do the physical work. This is one reason abortion rights are being rolled back in the US and nobody seems to care about what happens after a baby is born.

People with education are riskier because they might be able to compete with your incompetent nepotism hire. But you need people who are educated to go into professional industries so they can continue to automate existing jobs, which helps keep wages down. So that people can be legitimately scared of a robot or AI taking their job and losing their income.

Which keeps the old-money and their nepotism hire offspring comfortably at the top of the food chain.

[–] pete@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

They don't care, they (lawmakers) don't have their fortunes tied to Florida, but they do have their fortunes tied to Florida electorate voting D

[–] ninbreaker@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago

They'll find a way to profit from the poorly educated, just like how they're doing it now. They'll find a way to spin this as a positive for the GDP

[–] chakan2@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

I don't think they care. As long as the top 100 elite ultra rich people in Florida stay rich... They're good with burning down the state.

[–] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 6 points 1 year ago

Tourism economy doesn't needs educated people.

[–] fubo@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The folks whose support really matters to DeSantis are invested in other states and countries; they don't depend on the success of the Florida economy for their continued wealth.

They can import skilled immigrants to serve them, including in their hospitals and nursing homes. They can then ensure those workers remain non-citizens — meaning that they can be abused without any political recourse. So they don't need their own city's local children (who are mostly brown anyway, but are citizens — for the moment) to grow up to be doctors.

(Remember: Doctors are mostly working-class these days, in the technical Marxian sense: they work for a salary; heck, they may not even get equity. The elite can buy doctors abroad and keep 'em in their basements.)

Fascist strategy: To the working class, sell hate & cruelty for their entertainment, thus also providing a payoff to hate media outlets. To the rich, sell low taxes & no rights for the poors — but demand absolute political loyalty from business leaders, punishing political dissent even by the rich (see Disney). Get rid of birthright citizenship; establish a permanent racial servant underclass of immigrants without political rights.

[–] PaulDevonUK@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

2 people downvoted this. I wonder what colour hats they were wearing?

[–] Dankry@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago

Lol right? I miss the days where if you found yourself in a crowd of red hats it meant you were at a Limp Bizkit concert rather than a Klan rally.

[–] stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Republicans have been killing the educational system forever now it feels like

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Tarcion@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 year ago

That is precisely the point. It is the official position of the GOP to push all children toward private Christian schools. Step 1 of that plan is obviously to make public education so incredibly terrible that people start asking for better access to private schools.

All of the seemingly stupid things this governor does to screw with education are at face abhorrent but also serve only to damage the educational system in Florida.

Honestly I feel like "educations" like these will cause damage for multiple generations, maybe even centuries out.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] housepanther@lemmy.goblackcat.com 61 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I am hoping that Florida's so-called new Black History curriculum gets challenged by organizations such as the NAACP and the Southern Poverty Law Center. In no way, shape, or form was slavery a good or acceptable concept.

[–] FaelNum@kbin.social 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Agreed. I don't see a path to justify forced labor as something that benefits all, but damn there are trying.

[–] housepanther@lemmy.goblackcat.com 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Florida is really doing a lot of trying lately. Trying to undo a century or more worth of human progress.

[–] BrudderAaron@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Place some TNT along the border and just let the ocean take care of the rest of them.

[–] cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

DeSantis is already distancing himself so even he knows it's bad.

Fuck DeathSantis hard without any lube. I hate that motherfucker with a passion.

[–] taldennz@lemmy.nz 57 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Are they kidding.

This is slavery, not even indentured servitude, let alone a fair exchange of labour for compensation... There is no point at which the slave is released to make use of those skills.

Any and all skills gained are either used as tools by the owner, or as coping/survival mechanisms by the slave.

Slavery is, in all ways, an abhorrent exploitation and degradation of a human being.

That there is even the slightest tolerance for this curriculum change is appalling. Is Florida really so filled with the morally bankrupt and apathetic that this can pass without ending the careers of the contributors?

How can we ever expect greater progress on stamping out the ongoing modern forms of slavery, when things like this can make its way into the classroom.

 

I really hope this change is crushed before it reaches the ears of impressionable children. But the fact that it got this far means that this is the kind of thinking that too many already get at home.

[–] NewEnglandRedshirt@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I agree with you 100%. What they are latching on to is the fact that SOMETIMES, in EXTREMELY LIMITED AND SPECIFIC CIRCUMSTANCES, some enslaved people were able to "hire themselves out" as craftsmen when they had done whatever work the enslaver had required of them. An even more limited number of those enslaved people were paid for their work and got to keep their pay.

But the percentage of people we are talking about here is tiny ... but it is nonzero. The standard therefore isn't completely wrong, but it absolutely gives the impression that these cases were waaaay more common than they actually were.

[–] steltek@lemm.ee 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You reminded me of a legal case I read recently: Guardian of Sally v. Beatty

An unnamed(!) victim of slavery had an agreement with her enslaver to keep excess wage money from her work, which she used to buy the freedom of another person, Sally. Her enslaver figured she didn't have the right to own "property" and it was his lucky day to now own 2 human beings. The courts disagreed and said Sally was a free person. However this was still South Carolina so they made sure to patch up that little "loophole" after the case was over.

The full list is quite interesting. The ~1780 cases in New England outlawing slavery (while the Revolution was ongoing!). Dred Scott and Amistad, of course. Cases mostly from 1780 to 1859. But then heinously, but somehow unsurprisingly, there's a case from 2021: Nestle Inc makes an appearance using child slave labor for cocoa.

[–] livus@kbin.social 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I wish more people realized that when we talk about child slavery in the cocoa industry we are not talking about kids working alongside their parents.

We are mostly talking about trafficked and stolen children taken to plantations in the middle of nowhere and forced to labour long hours by themselves.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] livus@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The standard therefore isn’t completely wrong, but it absolutely gives the impression that these cases were waaaay more common than they actually were.

It's also dishonest because it leaves out the limitations that slavery put on those same people.

One of them could have been the next Mozart but we will never know because they weren't allowed to do anything more than hire themself out as a piano tuner at wages far below those a white person would get.

[–] FartsWithAnAccent@lemmy.world 40 points 1 year ago (3 children)

You mean like escaping slavery or killing slavers?

[–] FaelNum@kbin.social 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Seems like a good skill to have in the back pocket even today.

[–] FartsWithAnAccent@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Timeless skills really.

[–] revelrous@sopuli.xyz 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

John Brown did nothing wrong. (except maybe a bit tactically at the end.)

[–] FaelNum@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Had not heard of him. Turns out to be a worthy research hole to fall into for others wondering.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Vlhacs@reddthat.com 35 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's the dumbest take ever even if you're just trying to play devil's advocate, never mind making it an official state PUBLIC EDUCATION POLICY. It's like saying slaves were fed during slavery that allowed them to live. Technically yes they were fed, technically yes they learned skills, but it's all overridden by the fact that THEY WERE ENSLAVED. There's no room to find any silver lining in this situation that could potentially give any props to slave owners because it's one of the most subhuman behavior imaginable.

[–] TheLowestStone@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Technically correct, the best ki-

Nope, that reference really doesn't work this time.

[–] Wreckronomicon@lemmy.world 31 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

"Any attempt to reduce slaves to just victims of oppression fails to recognize their strength, courage and resiliency during a difficult time in American history. Florida students deserve to learn how slaves took advantage of whatever circumstances they were in to benefit themselves and the community of African descendants."

Fucking WOW

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] blazera@kbin.social 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

priceless cotton picking skills, for all those cotton farms that they owned.

Put your back into it when you throw it onto the pile of Florida's embarassment, it's getting harder to reach the top.

[–] chaogomu@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago

Don't forget that the female slaves developed child-rearing skills after the master raped them. And since importing new slaves was banned by law (but often not policed very well) the master could then turn around and sell off what were likely his own children, and get a higher price for them if they were lighter skinned.

There were slaveholders who focused more on selling children than on picking cotton.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] A_A@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Blacks nations, like any other, developed much stronger skills when they defeated oppression than when subjected to slavery.

[–] TheDeadGuy@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Exactly. Business leaders at the time had cried that their companies and the strength of the US as a whole would fall without the manpower of slavery. Then the exact opposite happened, and industrial creativity and efficiency exploded. Rich men always seem to get it wrong

[–] TwoGems@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yes Republicans. Keep failing so you can lose 2024.

You say that like the people who keep voting them into office aren't also horrible people.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] ninbreaker@kbin.social 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Florida is what you get when you don't learn the lessons from 1984 and Fahrenheit 451

[–] DreamerOfImprobableDreams@kbin.social 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nah, it's what happens when you read them as instruction manuals.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] kameecoding@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

"really, they were just unpaid interns"

Wow they really are ramping up on all angles how to discredit or silence race injustices (crimes, history, all of it) in American history. Almost like they are scared they will lose republican votes if the new voters are educated enough to realize having white supremacists enthusiastically support the 2016 president who was criticized for how he spoke of other ethnicities was a BAD thing.

load more comments
view more: next ›