Until recently, kids were thrilled when their parents said: “We’re going to Disney World!” But that was in the beforetimes, before Florida’s autocratic governor put Disney World under the control of his state’s thought police, turning it into “DeSantis World.”

Having made kid-friendly Disney kowtow to his own magic kingdom of right-wing ideological conformity, Governor Ron is now demanding that the entire Sunshine State convert to the darkness of DeSantis World. A major tactic in his push is to rewrite the state’s school books to “protect” young ones from having to learn that such historical unpleasantness as racism and sexism have shaped their society… and are still doing so.

To advance RonThink, he has rammed his “Stop WOKE Act” into law, requiring teachers to – shhh – soften or just eliminate references to America’s racial problems. Pretend it never happened, is Professor DeSantis’ instruction.

Indeed, one educational publisher obediently followed his dictate rewriting the uplifting 1955 story of Rosa Parks confronting the flagrant, institutional racism of Montgomery, Alabama’s public bus service. Before DeSantis, the publisher told the story straight. “In her city, the law said African Americans had to give up their seats… if a White person wanted to sit down. [Parks] would not give up her seat. The police came and took her to jail.”

Now, after DeSantification, here’s the publisher’s re-write: “One day, [Parks] rode the bus. She was told to move to a different seat. She did not. She did what she believed was right.” Hmmm. No reference to her even being African-American or to the law requiring her to bow to any White person’s demand for her seat. And no mention of police hauling her to jail because of the color of her skin.

DeSantis World is where people’s dream of social justice goes to die.

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