TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA —A federal judge has blocked parts of the so-called Stop W.O.K.E. Act, a Florida law that restricts the use of Critical Race Theory and similar Marxist psychological warfare techniques in public colleges and universities.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker ordered a temporary injunction against portions of the act. This order is to remain in place as the court reviews the case.
USED TO CAUSE PSYCHOLOGICAL HARM
“We strongly disagree with Judge Walker’s preliminary injunction orders on the enforcement of the Stop W.O.K.E. Act and will continue to fight to prevent Florida’s students and employees from being subjected to discriminatory classroom instruction or mandated discriminatory workplace training,” Governor DeSantis’ Press Secretary Bryan Griffin told The Florida Standard.
The DeSantis administration championed the legislation, the Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act, after identifying that Critical Race Theory (CRT) was widely used in education in order to cause psychological harm to children and division in society.
“ATTACK ON ACADEMIC FREEDOM”
Critics of the legislation argue that the Stop W.O.K.E. Act is an attack on academic freedom and the First Amendment.
“Viewpoint-based discrimination allows the government to skew the marketplace of ideas to its own position,” Clay Calvert, a law professor at The University of Florida told the Washington Post. “That’s why it’s so reprehensible,” he said of the legislation.
Bryan Griffin disagrees and states that the DeSantis administration intends to appeal the injunction.
“The Stop W.O.K.E. Act protects the open exchange of ideas by prohibiting teachers or employers who hold agency over others from forcing discriminatory concepts on students as part of classroom instruction or on employees as a condition of maintaining employment. An ‘open-minded and critical’ environment necessitates that one is free from discrimination,” he says.
TACTICS FOR SOCIETAL DISINTEGRATION
CRT is a vehicle for a societal disintegration agenda rooted in Marxism and aimed at dividing Americans, preparing the field for the transition into a utopian collectivist society. It is based on Critical Theory, a school of thought developed by the Frankfurt School, a group of primarily German intellectuals who came to the United States in the 1930s.
One of the theory’s main authors was Herbert Marcuse, who taught at Columbia University and the University of California at San Diego. During the Second World War, Marcuse also worked for the Office of Strategic Services – the predecessor to the Central Intelligence Agency.
IDEOLOGICAL SUBVERSION
Marcuse, a Marxist, observed that people in post-war America were too happy and content with their lives under capitalism and thus not receptive to participating in a Communist revolution. Together with fellow academics Horkheimer, Adorno and Lukacs he developed Critical Theory, which in reality is more of a plan for ideological subversion and psychological warfare rather than an academic theory.
The concept is based on the Hegelian dialectic; by creating division, chaos and conflict in society along cultural and ethnic lines, Marcuse believed that the capitalist and democratic system could be overthrown – or “negated” – to make room for a “better” society.
In his victory speech after winning a second term as Florida governor, Ron DeSantis said that “Florida is where woke goes to die.”
