Opinion
As I wrote some time ago, Ron DeSantis for a while looked like the new Ronald Reagan. In a sense, that’s still true: DeSantis is the closest to a centre-right conservative who might reunite a bitterly divided America. But that’s not what America needs in 2024: things have got too dire for that. What America needs in 2024 is what Charles Murray pointed out was the reason behind’s Trump’s first election: he was the “murder weapon” for a Middle America pitched against an increasingly deranged coastal elite.
What was true in 2016 is even more true in 2024. So, it’s not DeSantis’ year, as he recognised early on. Still, he who knows when to fight and when not to fight, as Sun Tzu said, will always be victorious.
Meanwhile, DeSantis is still fighting the good fight in Florida.
Florida will have one of the country’s most restrictive social media bans for minors — if it withstands expected legal challenges — under a bill signed by Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday.
The bill will ban social media accounts for children under 14 and require parental permission for 14- and 15-year-olds. It was slightly watered down from a proposal DeSantis vetoed earlier this month, a week before the annual legislative session ended.
The new law was Republican Speaker Paul Renner’s top legislative priority. It takes effect Jan. 1.
As Renner rightly says, social media is a toxic influence on children’s still-developing brains (and not much better for adults). It’s as deleterious for brains as tobacco is for lungs — and the Big Tobacco of the 21st century are well aware of it.
The bill DeSantis vetoed would have banned minors under 16 from popular social media platforms regardless of parental consent. But before the veto, he worked out compromise language with Renner to alleviate the governor’s concerns and the Legislature sent DeSantis a second bill.
At issue are First Amendment rights, which would almost certainly have seen the original bill struck down in the courts.
DeSantis also acknowledged the law will be challenged on First Amendment issues, and bemoaned the fact the “Stop Woke Act” he signed into law two years ago was recently struck down by an appeals court with a majority of Republican-appointed judges. They ruled it violated free speech rights by banning private business from including discussions about racial inequality in employee training.
“Any time I see a bill, if I don’t think it’s constitutional, I veto it,” said DeSantis, a lawyer, expressing confidence that the social media ban will be upheld. “We not only satisfied me, but we also satisfied, I think, a fair application of the law and Constitution.”
Just as Big Tobacco did for years, social media companies are doing everything they can to stop their business model from being damaged.
Khara Boender, a state policy director for the Computer & Communications Industry Association, said in a news release that she understands the concern for online safety but expressed doubt the law will “meaningfully achieve those goals without infringing on the First Amendment rights of younger users.”
She also anticipated a legal challenge.
“This law could create substantial obstacles for young people seeking access to online information, a right afforded to all Americans regardless of age,” Bonder said.
The Boston Herald
Because every teenager needs unfettered access to trannies telling them to cut their breasts and penises off, and how to access powerful drugs which will sterilise them for life.