The main instrument of fascism is fear. A case in point is the ruling passed by the Florida School Board just this past Wednesday, April 19, 2023:
Schools “Shall not intentionally provide classroom instruction to students in grades 4 through 12 on spiritual beliefs or religious affiliation, unless such instruction is expressly required by state academic standards.”
Presumably the purpose of this ruling was to avoid having a topic as hotly contested and as potentially divisive as religion enter the minds of impressionable teenagers.
Yet think of the actual consequences. Any 18 year old high school senior with religious beliefs is now a potential danger, because even acknowledging that such a student exists might get a teacher fired.
Think about it. A young person’s very existence — something they have no way to avoid, short of suicide — has been officially declared to be toxic.
Hmm, what does that remind me of … wait, I almost have it. Oh right — laws about Jews in Germany in the 1930s.
I may have gotten one or two details wrong in the wording of the ruling. But I am confident that I have precisely captured its exuberantly fascist essence.