Chris Rufo, a rightwing culture-war celebrity and close Ron DeSantis ally, has maintained a close relationship with IM-1776, a ādissident rightā magazine that regularly showers praise on dictators and authoritarians, puffs racist ideologues, and attacks liberal democracy.
The outletās editors and writers ā many of them so-called āanonsā working under pseudonyms ā have variously advocated for the repeal of the Civil Rights Act; celebrated figures such as the āUnabomberā Ted Kaczynski and the proto-fascist Italian nationalist Gabriele DāAnnunzio; and advanced conspiracy theories about the Covid pandemic, and what they term the āregimeā, a leftist power structure that they imagine unites the state, large corporations, universities and the media.
I admit Iām not in Florida, but I donāt agree that criticism is criticism. āAre you an asshole to women?ā is a hugely different question to ādo you support a terrorist?ā A lot fewer people will care about āDeSantis is an asshole to womenā than they will āDeSantis supports terrorism.ā
But thatās the thing, DeSantis is knowingly supporting terrorism right now, one of his proxies is LibsofTiktok, aka Chaya Raichik, sheās been pushing stochastic terrorism and has been linked to several bombing attempts and threats. He also refuses to condemn Nazis as they threaten Jews at synagogues across the state, heās even had Nazi iconography in his campaign ads and quietly fired/reassigned the person responsible for that. So Ron DeSantis is no stranger to supporting terrorism, he supports Nazis, Proud Boys, Putin, people banning and burning books, bullying gay and trans kids, so you can say he definitely supports terrorism from his actions.
You seem to think heās going to change if confronted or modify his behavior, but bullies like him only change when they get their asses kicked, and who is going to be able to kick the ass of a governor who surrounds himself with lackeys willing to do his enemies harm? Police willing to arrest his foes? A political party that enables and supports this garbage behavior? DeSantis has no reason to change, even worse, he thinks we all need to change to conform to his worldview, and thatās what he is trying to do with what heās removing from our schools from the elementary to the college level. Heās a Christian nationalist fascist, and some hard hitting questions arenāt going to change anything about that, they may even increase his support among conservatives.
I donāt think heās going to change.
I think the press should have some balls and ask those questions rather than shy away from them whether or not it will change. You canāt honestly believe that hard questions shouldnāt be asked.
Of course i think hard questions should be asked, but again like I said in my first reply to you, heās not going to answer, so why waste time? Why chance having your press credentials fād with? Why chance right wing psychopaths trying to intimidate you? Especially when you already know heās not going to answer.
You seem to still not be getting it, either that or youāre sealioning me, but Iām going to continue to treat you as sincere, but what youāre not getting is that this man does not do criticism under any circumstances, ffs he married his wife because sheās basically a pretty version of a āYes manā. Any reporter who tries to show criticism will almost certainly be wasting their time, while also making a powerful enemy willing to cause them problems.
DeSantis is also going to avoid those instances where he may find himself at risk of hearing criticisms, this is just who he is, and believe me plenty of us have loads of questions and criticisms for him. I mean ffs he literally had one of his aides die in the hallway outside of his office, wouldnāt you think weād want to know more about something like that? Yet he will never answer, because he knows he doesnāt have to, and he knows that he doesnāt actually care about anything except his and his agendas success. This guy is a Harvard law school grad, a veteran Navy officer who worked closely with the SEALS and Gitmo interrogators, he knows exactly what heās doing and what type of people heās consorting with, and like his role with the SEALS and Gitmo interrogators, he knows exactly what he can get away with.
You really need to come to terms with who youāre talking about and learn to understand him better, because heās going to keep being a problem for all of us, and will continue to ignore, deflect, and project any criticism.
Okay, so who should the media ask the hard questions to if not people like state governors? I donāt understand why you think a non-answer is a non-story. Not responding to ādo you support terrorismā is, in itself, a story.
But I really want to know who you think the media should ask hard questions to.
The media should ask hard questions to the people that arenāt going to just ignore or deflect them obviously, maybe they should ask Donald Trump some harder questions, because Donnie is going to talk whether you want him to or not.
There are a whole slew of folks that the media would be better suited at going after than DeSantis, but there are also other folks similar to DeSantis that still shouldnāt be ignored, especially the ones that are more vulnerable than DeSantis is.The only people that should be asking DeSantis questions are the ones he canāt lie to, he canāt deflect on, and thatās something like the FBI.
Also again we all know the answer about DeSantis supporting terrorism, that answer is yes, hell CPAC sarcasticly admitted that they are domestic terrorists:
They know what they are and what theyāre doing, itās the naive folks who donāt realize wonāt care, and their supporters who definitely donāt care, and no journalist asking questions is going to change those people.
Iāve got two DeSantis humpers in my life and there is nothing you can say to make them waver about Ron being the ābest governor in the USā because believe me, Iāve tried, they know heās a petty little tyrant, but thatās what they want, and itās pathetic and unAmerican, neither of these people can articulate why they like DeSantis, but Iām fairly certain itās rooted in racism and the way DeSantis attacks his detractors. I know this because one of these people also admitted to being a Klandice Owens fan, and his fandom for her was summed up by him as "I like it when she āgets themāā as in he likes it when Klandice gish gallops and attacks people on her show. They like the outrage and theyāre attracted to it and the drama like moths to flame.
DeSantis should be thoroughly reported on, but again, I wouldnāt waste my time asking questions, heās not going to answer, but he should be thoroughly covered by the press while not expecting to ever get an answer fromhim or his team.