Ron DeSantis's fascist obsession with Disney

an Editorial cartoon and an animation

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From NYMag:

Florida governor Ron DeSantis thought he had the House of Mouse beat. Earlier this year, he signed a law that would seize a tax entity called the Reedy Creek Improvement District — which, for the past 50 years, has let the Magic Kingdom basically run its own municipal services — and hand it over to his allies. “When you lose your way, you gotta have people that are going to tell you the truth,” DeSantis said in February. “All these board members very much would like to see the type of entertainment that all families can appreciate.”

Disney is the definition of “entertainment that all families can appreciate.” So by “all families,” so when he says this, the governor of Desantistan means even the bigoted ones.

But before DeSantis was able to replace the Reedy Creek board’s members with his own donors, the outgoing members had one last maneuver — as DeSantis and his supporters just found out. In a meeting on February 8, the board approved a measure to strip itself of its broad authority (similar to that of a county) and to give Disney “prior review and comment” on any changes in order to “ensure consistency with the overall design and theming” of the park. The board also is not allowed to use Disney’s name or trademarks, including “fanciful characters such as Mickey Mouse.”

“I’m surprised that they didn’t tell us about it as soon as we were appointed,” said incoming board member Brian Aungst Jr. after a meeting on Wednesday in which the news was made public. Another new member, Ron Peri, said that the measure “essentially makes Disney the government” and that all they can do at the moment is “maintain the roads and maintain basic infrastructure.”

I’ve condemned Disney in the past for how it treats its workers (more below the video),

and generally speaking, I would rather no corporation ever have powers similar to the government. But when that government they’re fighting is a fiefdom run by an autocrat and his party, and the business is being targeted for speaking out against the abuse of a vulnerable minority group, I can root for that business in that fight. And I can still admire them for how much they seem to delight in metaphorically punching a fascist in the face.

It was a clever act of sabotage, made even more so by a so-called royal-lives clause. To get around a contract that bans rules that are in effect in perpetuity, the outgoing board made it so Disney would retain its new powers “until 21 years after the death of the last survivor of the descendants of King Charles III.” Only when (or maybe if) the Mountbatten-Windsor family ends would Disney lose its special-tax privileges.

So, even if the British monarchy were to fall tomorrow, Ron DeSantis wouldn’t be able to wrest power from Disney until sometime around the year 2105, but only if Prince William’s son George never sires any children.

Fascists and other tyrants are deeply insecure men who overcompensate by masochistically forcing others to eat shit (that’s the official political science term for forcing them to live with bigoted, cruel and sadistic policies). And they can’t stand to be embarrassed. DeSantis responded to Disney’s slap in the face with a Mickey Mouse glove by declaring he just might build a state prison, or maybe just a competing amusement park, right next to Disneyworld. Presumably it’ll be named “MAGAland,” where the costumed characters who greet the children will be dressed as Proud Boys, as shirtless Putins astride a horse, as older rich homeowners pointing guns at imaginary BLM marchers, and as insecure khaki-wearing masochists with crew cuts wielding tiki torches. And far more Americans than we’d ever expect, would flock to it.

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