Media exploits racist shooting to tarnish Ron DeSantis and stifle discussion.

A day after a racist psychopath murdered ⁤three⁢ black customers at a Jacksonville Dollar General ⁣store this week,‌ NBC News informs ⁤ us that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ “policies toward the Black community” are coming “under fresh scrutiny.”

Matt Dixon “reports:”

Florida’s Black community and beyond have been vocally opposed to the DeSantis ‌administration’s focus⁣ on wiping out‍ higher education diversity programs, the teaching ​of institutional racism to public school students, scrutinizing African American history⁢ courses and drawing a redistricting map that erased northern Florida’s only Black-performing congressional seat, which included​ the city of Jacksonville.

What,⁤ you may wonder, does that string of completely unrelated left-wing grievances have to do with a ‌shooting? Is the claim here that teaching kids 1619-style pseudohistory or‌ funding “higher education diversity programs” would have changed the mind⁣ of a suicidal murderer? I mean, presumably, ⁢the shooter was in school when the⁤ old Florida AP history course⁣ was ⁢still‍ being taught, when DEI ideologues still had ⁤their state-funded ‍jobs, and when Florida’s only “Black-performing congressional seat” was⁣ still ‍a thing.

Of course, ‍even if the 21-year-old‌ went on a shooting spree because he believed Florida’s⁤ new ⁤honors curriculum was just a ‍clandestine call from ​DeSantis to engage in racial violence, it says nothing about the text itself. You can read the state’s history standards right here. There is nothing racist about them.

Of⁣ the⁣ 13-member committee of scholars​ who put together Florida’s course, five were African American. There are, as Charlie Cooke at National Review has⁣ pointed out, 191 mentions of American slavery and racism. The great evil of American history is given plenty of ‌attention.

This entire “controversy” was ginned up over a single⁢ sentence that contends some slaves “developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their⁣ personal benefit.”​ AP’s African American studies curriculum released by the⁢ College Board also says slaves learned “specialized trades”⁣ during slavery and later used “these skills​ to provide for themselves and others” once free. Because it is a statement of‍ fact. And statements of fact aren’t racist merely ​because they grate against your trendy ideology.

Then again,⁤ all of this is ginned up.

Take the Associated Press — once the model of straightforward journalism, now a left-wing advocacy group. “Ron DeSantis scoffed ‍when‍ the NAACP issued a ‍travel advisory this spring warning‍ Black⁣ people to use ‘extreme care’ if traveling to Florida,” ⁢ writes Steve Peoples. “Just three months later, DeSantis is leading​ his state through the aftermath of ⁣a⁢ racist attack that left ‍three African Americans⁢ dead.”

Yes, scoffing ‌at the partisans of⁢ the NAACP, which⁤ engaged in this political stunt for just such a moment, is the right thing to do. It is preposterous to argue that Florida is ⁣an outlier of any sort when it comes to violence or racism. Then again, the NAACP’s headquarters are in Baltimore, one of the nation’s most dangerous cities for‍ African Americans. ⁤Maybe Florida should be the one issuing travel advisories.

Still, the conceit ‌of the AP piece, as with so many others like it, is that⁤ Republicans contribute to violence by virtue of having political opinions. This is not, incidentally, a standard employed when⁤ a ​trans person massacres kids in a Christian school, a racist murders five white⁢ cops,​ or even when a racist kills 10 in the blue ⁣state of New York.

Peoples claims, for example, that Republicans have‍ worked to appeal to the “GOP’s white conservative base” (you are just⁣ automatons defined by skin color these days) by “downplaying the existence of racism in⁣ America.”

This claim, really a lie, is based ⁣on a nonexistent requirement that every⁣ American treat the far left’s⁢ assertions about racism as objective truth. It’s ⁣tantamount to accusing anyone ​who disagrees with QAnon of “downplaying the existence of pedophilia in‍ America.”

No, people disagree ⁢about the scope of a problem. Yet, according to the AP, if one diverges from​ the worldview of Black Lives Matter, they are in league with white supremacists.

Even criticism of “wokeness” — which, I think most conservatives view as a catchall for progressive cultural values — is, according⁢ to NBC,⁢ an attempt to undermine “people of color” and ​other “marginalized communities.”‍ If you disparage wokeness, you are basically ‍buying Klansmen AR-15s, which is very​ convenient.

Because it’s become so common for the left to insinuate⁤ (or blame) conservatives for inciting violence, we might‌ forget how vile those‍ accusations can be. But⁢ they’re not ‌only contemptible for the obvious reasons. They are meant to shut you up. No one should let these nuts⁢ hinder ‍their ability to engage in political disagreements, and no one should let cynical ‍activists masquerading as journalists use those ‍nuts to⁢ chill speech,‌ either.

Which⁣ is, of ​course, the point of all this.