Hijacking freedom: Ron DeSantis and the scourge of fascist politics

Abstract

This article examines how the concept of freedom has been appropriated by the far right to impose a number of authoritarian policies designed to dismantle the critical functions of public and higher education. It explores, in particular, the ways in which Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has used an appeal to freedom to punish critics, wage a war on trans people, misrepresent the history of slavery, and impose a new version of McCarthyism on higher education. It challenges what it terms neoliberal and fascist notions of freedom by making clear that democracy and capitalism are incompatible, and that any viable notion of freedom must address not only personal and political rights but also economic rights. Freedom from domination must be matched by a freedom to live in a world marked by the principles of justice, equality, and dignity. There is no freedom in the midst of massive inequalities in wealth, power, and education.

Keywords:

• Freedom
• surveillance
• education
• fascism
• critical pedagogy
• democracy
• selfies
• narcisissm
• commodification

Notes

1 On the mobilizing passions of fascism, see Robert O. Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), especially pp. 218-219.

2 This issue is taken up brilliantly by Federico Finchelstein, A Brief History of Fascist Lies (Oakland: University of California Press, 2020).

3 For a more expansive version of these claims, see “Governor State of the State Address,” released by DeSantis’ Office on March 7, 2023. Online: https://www.flgov.com/2023/03/07/governor-ron-desantis-delivers-state-of-the-state-address/.

4 Governor George Wallace’s 1963 Inaugural Address, delivered at the Capitol in Montgomery, Alabama can be found here: https://digital.archives.alabama.gov/digital/collection/voices/id/2952/.

5 For an excellent analysis of how freedom historically was used to oppress others, see Jefferson Cowie, Freedom’s Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power (New York: Basic Books, 2022) and Tyler Stovall, White Freedom: The Racial History of an Idea (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021).

6 For an extensive critical analysis of the right-wing war on Black studies, see Robin D. G. Kelley, “The Long War on Black Studies,” The New York Review of Books (June 17, 2023). Online: https://www.nybooks.com/online/2023/06/17/the-long-war-on-black-studies.

7 An excellent summary of DeSantis’ education policy can be found in Thomas B. Edsall, “The Death Knell for Higher Education in Florida,” New York Times (March 8, 2023). Online: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/08/opinion/desantis-florida-history-colleges.html; also see: John K. Wilson, “Conservatives have Turned Against Academic Freedom Again. Here’s Why.” The Washington Post [September 26, 2022]. Online: https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/09/26/conservatives-repress-free-speech-campuses/; see also, Brett Bachman, “DeSantis Signs Bill Requiring Florida Students, Professors to Register Political Views with State.” Salon [JUNE 24,2021] Online: www.salon.com/2021/06/23/desantis-signs-bill-requiring-florida-students-professors-to-register-political-views-with-state/.

8 Chris Hedges interviews Ellen Schrecker, “Americans Were Once Promised Affordable College for All. What Happened?” The Real News Network (May 5, 2023). Online: https://therealnews.com/americans-were-once-promised-affordable-college-for-all-what-happened; Ellen Schrecker, “The 50-Year War on Higher Education: To Understand Today’s Political Battles, You Need to Know How They Began,” The Chronicle of Higher Education (October 14, 2022). Online: https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-50-year-war-on-higher-education. See also Ellen Schrecker, The Lost Promise: American Universities in the 1960s (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2021).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Henry A. Giroux

Henry A. Giroux currently holds the McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest in the English and Cultural Studies Department and is the Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy. His primary research areas are cultural studies, youth studies, critical pedagogy, popular culture, media studies, social theory, and the politics of higher and public education. He is particularly interested in what he calls the war on youth, the corporatization of higher education, the politics of neoliberalism, the assault on civic literacy and the collapse of public memory, public pedagogy, the educative nature of politics, and the rise of various youth movements across the globe. His most recent books include Pedagogy of Resistance: Against Manufactured Ignorance (Bloomsbury 2022); Insurrections: Education in the Age of Counter-revolutionary politics (Bloomsbury in 2023), and co-authored with Anthony DiMaggio, Fascism on Trial: Education and the Possibility of Democracy (Bloomsbury, 2024). His website is https://www.henryagiroux.com