Michael Bloomberg Falsely Claims DeSantis’ ‘Stop WOKE Act’ Limits Open Debate
August 17, 2022 Updated 10:19 A.M. ET
TALLAHASSEE (FLV) – Former Democrat candidate for president Michael Bloomberg fired off a hit-piece on Gov. Ron DeSantis’ highly touted ‘Stop WOKE Act,’ which aims to encourage freedom of discussion surrounding topics of race, color, sex, national origin, historical events, and current events.
“The free exchange of ideas in classrooms is critical to higher education and democratic society,” he said. “A new law in Florida seeks to limit open debate – and the future of the country rests on the commitment of higher-education leaders to defend it.”
Primely, the law – HB 7 – contains provisions barring instructing students that members of one race/color/sex/national origin are “morally superior” to another, and forcing them to accept those ideas as true.
The law does not only pertain to teaching and education, but also to workplace training, preventing utilizing those teaching methods as a condition of employment, membership, certification, licensing, credentialing, or passing an exam.
Bloomberg penned a WSJ opinion piece saying that “Republican Censorship Goes for Woke.”
“Consider Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who signed a bill that as of July 1 bars professors from expressing any view in a classroom that ‘espouses, promotes, [or] advances’ anything that could make students feel guilty about history, as it relates to race and gender,” he writes.
However, that quote from Bloomberg splices up provisions of the law that clarify its meaning. Read the in-context provision below, clarifying that teachers and employers must not use these believes as a condition of employment, certification, exam passage, etc.:
Providing that subjecting any individual, as a condition of employment, membership, certification, licensing, credentialing, or passing an examination, to training, instruction, or any other required activity that espouses, promotes, advances, inculcates, or compels such individual to believe specified concepts constitutes discrimination based on race, color, sex, or national origin;
CS/HB 7: Individual Freedom, the Florida Senate
Contrary to what Bloomberg reports, teachers are legally permitted to express their opinions, but those opinions relating to subjects outlined in HB 7 are not allowed to be insisted on examinations and grading criteria to be correct and unquestionable.
Bryan Griffin, press secretary for DeSantis, fired back at Bloomberg, saying he himself “abandoned the cause of free speech when [he] allied with the online censorship and disinformation bureau crowd.”
“Freely exchanging ideas is critical to society, but Wokeism stifles speech by insisting particular viewpoints are adopted,” he explained. “The Florida legislation you mischaracterize (and fail to quote) prohibits those with agency (employers, teachers) from insisting that certain discriminatory concepts are true or must be adopted by others.”
Christina Pushaw, Director of Rapid Response for the DeSantis campaign, mocked Bloomberg for seemingly opposing the freedom to teach that one race is superior to another: “Because that’s what the bill protects against.”
