# DeSantis's war on Disney **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [April 19, 2022, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desantiss-war-on-disney/963073 "2022-04-19T18:56:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2022, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desantiss-war-on-disney/963073/201 "2022-04-23T13:54:18Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > calculous I know this is probably a typo, but as a kind of portmanteau of “calculus” and “callous” it absolutely works to describe the way corporations make decisions like this. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2022, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desantiss-war-on-disney/963073/202 "2022-04-23T13:54:54Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > > [@UltraVires](#): > > > > any suggestion of “fascism” in those bills are an absurdity and really denigrate the victims of real fascism. > > Fascism didn’t _start_ with concentration camps. > > It starts with marginalizing and othering groups of people. Which is what Republicans have been doing in their hearts for a long time, and with a slew of bills ever since _Obergefell_, but especially in the last couple of years. If you ask me, Disney hasn’t quite gone _far enough_. They should speak out against the Texas directive to treat trans kids receiving gender-affirming medical care as child abuse, as well. Abbott and DeSantis are both trying to out-Trump each other, which means greater and greater cruelty, in the hopes that it’ll win them the White House. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2022, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desantiss-war-on-disney/963073/203 "2022-04-23T14:05:24Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > They should not make that wager with my money. Put the debate aside…guns, gay rights, abortion, etc. If you take a stand on any of those issues, either way, you are inviting backlash from customers. Just run a fucking fun park and be done with it. Guns and abortions aren’t people. Disney is taking the same stance towards gay people in 2022 that some companies were taking towards black people in 1952. And Ron DeSantis is taking the other side; which makes him the Lester Maddox/George Wallace/Orval Faubus figure here. (Of course, students in Florida aren’t being taught about civil rights history so they don’t know this.) Which side of this struggle do you want to be on? ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2022, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desantiss-war-on-disney/963073/204 "2022-04-23T14:10:07Z")
Disney doesn’t have opinions. Their corporate leadership makes decisions about press releases and memos and such. I see no reason that it’s more likely these messages are more about executives’ personal beliefs on the issue vs what they think is best for the bottom line. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2022, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desantiss-war-on-disney/963073/205 "2022-04-23T14:13:22Z")
The bill is very clearly about bigotry and hatred, since there was zero danger to kids in schools regarding sex or gender identity education. This is the purest kind of culture war bullshit - make up an issue out of whole cloth and say it’s threatening children, and then attack one’s critics as predators, groomers, etc. Florida has already started removing books from their curricula, with no public justification at all. It’s an indefensible bill. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2022, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desantiss-war-on-disney/963073/206 "2022-04-23T14:15:00Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > The park would be subsumed by the swamp in short order without the hard work of gays and lesbians? Please. Your straw continues, and still has not managed to be spun into even a single strand of gold. Their entertainment aspect of their business, the one that puts out movies that make them billions of dollars, has a whole bunch of “creative types”. Many of them _are_ LGBTQ, and most of the rest are empathetic enough to ally with them. Not to mention that many of the fans of their movies also are of a demographic where they are biased towards the needs of such marginalized groups. If Disney continued to support the Florida government in spite of its discriminatory actions of late, then it would lose a substantial part of its creative talent, as well as its fanbase. Out of curiosity, are you this heated up about political donations by corporations? Are you as upset when a corporation uses money as speech as when they use actual words as speech? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2022, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desantiss-war-on-disney/963073/207 "2022-04-23T14:18:27Z")
Ignoring side arguments, from a simple economic stand point, what DeSantis is doing is a terrible economic decision for the 2 counties involved. He is willing to screw those two counties up to win points by playing tough guy against Disney Corp. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2022, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desantiss-war-on-disney/963073/208 "2022-04-23T14:36:12Z")
I don’t really understand the reaction to what Disney did. The activists were asking Disney to _do_ all kinds of stuff, like cancel projects in Florida and move employees to other states. Disney put out a letter instead. The right _won_ in that Disney refused to actually do anything, and now they’re acting like they were mortally wounded by one of those cartoon guns that says “bang.” ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2022, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desantiss-war-on-disney/963073/209 "2022-04-23T14:37:42Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > He is willing to screw those two counties up to win points by playing tough guy against Disney Corp. To be fair, those counties lean fairly Democratic, so screwing up those two counties is a win for him as well. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2022, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desantiss-war-on-disney/963073/210 "2022-04-23T14:44:55Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > To be fair, those counties lean fairly Democratic, so screwing up those two counties is a win for him as well. States don’t have electoral colleges. Counties don’t vote. There are many more DeSantis voters in those two counties than were in his margin of victory in 2018. He’s highly likely to win anyways given the national environment and the shift in Hispanic opinions since then, but Orange County and Osceola County aren’t black holes that don’t matter at all. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2022, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desantiss-war-on-disney/963073/211 "2022-04-23T15:04:35Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > Counties don’t vote. People in counties do. > [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > There are many more DeSantis voters in those two counties than were in his margin of victory in 2018. He’s highly likely to win anyways given the national environment and the shift in Hispanic opinions since then, but Orange County and Osceola County aren’t black holes that don’t matter at all. And most of the DeSantis voters will vote for him, even if they have been personally harmed by increased taxes, in order to pwn the libs. For them, it’s not the economic policies that are important, they are willing to live in squalor, so long as their kid doesn’t have to encounter any icky LGBTQ ideas or people in school. And that’s assuming that DeSantis even put that much thought into it. I _do_ think that Disney put a whole lot of thought into its position and how it will work out economically for them, OTOH, I don’t think that the Republicans have done nearly as much thinking as to how their policies will work out for the people of their state. Sometimes when your first and only instinct is to “punch back ten times harder”, you end up breaking your wrist. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2022, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desantiss-war-on-disney/963073/212 "2022-04-23T15:43:07Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > They should not make that wager with my money. I feel like you’re missing the fundamental purpose of a corporation. Corporations exist specifically to take risk with other people’s money. That’s literally why they exist: people put money into them, the corporation takes a risk in the market, and if it doesn’t pay out, the people who put money into the corporation are partially shielded from the fallout. > [@UltraVires](#): > > I don’t understand this statement, and it is demonstrably untrue. I went down to the local Circle K for coffee this morning. I have no idea about their position on human rights or if they even have one. I just wanted a coffee. If your kid wants to see Mickey Mouse, I doubt that anyone peruses their public policy positions on the war in Ukraine. Most people do not give two shits about a corporate policy. I’m genuinely puzzled by how you think this anecdote proves anything. We know that you don’t care about Disney’s political positions. I’m not sure how explaining that you also don’t care about Circle K’s political positions adds any new insight to the debate. Anyway, let’s stipulate that 95% of the buying public doesn’t care about a corporation’s position on Issue X, and will continue to patronize them regardless of any position they take. 3% of the public will stop patronizing the corporation if they don’t support Issue X. 2% of the public will stop patronizing the corporation if they don’t oppose Issue X. Does the corporation not have a fiduciary duty to support Issue X, and get that extra 1% of revenue? ---
**Author:** ![sachertorte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sachertorte/32/3727_2.png) [@sachertorte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sachertorte)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2022, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desantiss-war-on-disney/963073/213 "2022-04-23T16:24:01Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > Really?? Seriously? The park would be subsumed by the swamp in short order without the hard work of gays and lesbians? Please. I’m trying to be reasonable and understanding but you all are coming up with this sort of shit. Did you completely miss the outrage coming from Disney employees? There was an actual walkout planned. (Did it happen? I was on vacation at the time so I’m not sure) Chapek had so say something to show he and the Walt Disney Company had their employees’ back. Honestly, what Chapek said was incredibly milquetoast and if Desantis had not overreacted, I suspect most on the LGBTQ+ side would have been meh about the Disney response as possibly ‘just words’ and ‘not enough.’ ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2022, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desantiss-war-on-disney/963073/214 "2022-04-23T16:36:30Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Which side of this struggle do you want to be on? He’s made that **very** clear. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2022, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desantiss-war-on-disney/963073/215 "2022-04-23T16:42:19Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > Can I move to FL and have Ultravires, Inc. be my own government? Why not? Yes, you can. It was easily done. My family, in fact, [owned the city of Beverly Beach, Florida](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-campground-a-mds-story/953669/) for a period of about a decade in the 1970s. My grandfather and uncle bought a parcel of land along A1A, bordering both the Atlantic Ocean and the Halifax river. It was in the sparsely-populated (then) unincorporated township of Beverly Beach, and their plans were to develop a campground and mobile home park. However, the land purchase was so large we had to apply for the same government district that Disney had, because, when complete, our mobile home park would effectively _be_ Beverly Beach as 70% of the population eventually lived there. So, part of our agreement was to install a water treatment plant, a sewage system, electric connections for all residents in unincorporated BB outside of our district, etc. Our mobile home park had to build an extra large meeting center as it doubled (at that time) as the city town hall. We even laid the first cable coaxial lines for the residents. The exemption was temporary… 20 years, I think, and I don’t think it was kept by whoever we sold the campground to, which is not surprising: the district had outlived the usefulness of the business model. My family literally built a city using private investment and yet here you are… a ‘conservative’… asking _is it right to build a city for private investment?_ Really? Anyway, to your question, as for now one likely can still do this if they show Ron De Satan that they have the correct GroupThink. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2022, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desantiss-war-on-disney/963073/216 "2022-04-23T17:06:21Z")
OTOH, am glad to see conservatives come out against the company town. Conservatives: The US should never give land away to private interests for their gain. 19th-century US History: [Uhhhhhh, about that…](https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/railroad-land-grants/16718) ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2022, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desantiss-war-on-disney/963073/217 "2022-04-23T17:11:38Z")
Of course Disney is looking out for their bottom line. Florida’s battle against education has gone beyond “Don’t say Gay”. The latest is the battle against SEL , which stands for Social Emotional Learning. Social Emotional Learning emphasizes self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision making, social awareness and relationship skills. Most liberals, moderates, and any sane conservatives that may still exist think these are good things. They help may schools safe places, especially for kids that are slow learners or otherwise different. Note that SEL has been a part of school curricula for a while now, it’s not something new that liberals are trying to impose. Many parents want their children to learn these values at school. It is important to many parents that their children are treated respectfully and not bullied by teachers and other students. Quality public education is something people with children, or people that may someday want to have children, consider when they weight job offers and decide whether or relocate for employment. While the elderly Village idiots in Florida may be cackling with glee at the thought of liberal children being systematically bullied at school and getting pathetic little Viagra hard-ons at the idea of their grandkids getting to call their classmates faggots and retards with impunity, decent people with children don’t want that. So, what happens when people that are are gay or transgender, people with children or other family members who are gay or transgender, people who suspect their children might come out as gay or transgender as well as all other minorities and people that want their children to be decent human beings decide they won’t take a job at Disney if they have to relocate to Florida or decide, in this job market, to work at someplace other than Disney so they won’t have to live In Florida? Keep in mind that a large portion of the jobs at Disney are in entertainment and tech, fields that tend to be very liberal and that attract lots of gay and transgender people. Disney has a strong corporate incentive to get these laws repealed because they need their business to be more competent than Truth Social. And that not even mentioning the customer boycotts. Disney has more to fear from a liberal boycott than a conservative one. Like it or not, liberals in the US have higher incomes and more discretionary income than conservatives and are more likely to take expensive family vacations. And family vacations to Disney are expensive, especially if you stay in their hotels and eat in their restaurants. A whole bunch of broke-ass rednecks pretending to boycott Disney laughable. And conservatives only get all pearl-clutchy about “cancel culture” because it works. Lastly, if you’ve been following right-wing media, they’ve started going after Disney based on their content, because they portray minorities with kindness and sensitivity. Plus, they are spreading rumors that the parks themselves are cover for Disney’s child sex trafficking business. So, I think Disney is showing great fiduciary responsibility by fighting Florida tooth and nail, and I think they need to fight harder. It’s not just the vague “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which gave them the fig leaf to say stupid stuff like “We just don’t want our kindergartners being taught how to give blowjobs.” In the past week, they’ve forbidden schools from teaching children self-awareness, responsible decision making and respect for other and banned medically necessary treatments for transgender youth. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2022, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desantiss-war-on-disney/963073/218 "2022-04-23T17:18:01Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > > > Which side of this struggle do you want to be on? > > He’s made that **very** clear. I’m trying to give UltraVires a little credit by assuming he may not see the big picture and realize which side he’s on. Most people, even conservatives, now see that the black civil rights movement was a good cause (or at least now see that they should say that they see the black civil rights movement was a good cause). This followed the usual pattern; liberals had to fight against conservatives who were strongly opposed to black people having civil rights. The liberals won. And then a generation later, the conservatives rewrote history and claimed they had always been in favor of black civil rights. I was hoping that by pointing out the parallels between past civil rights struggles (which conservatives have now embraced) and current civil rights struggles (which conservatives are still opposing) UltraVires might see the pattern and break free of the current conservative line and jump ahead to the part where conservatives support LGBTQ civil rights. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2022, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desantiss-war-on-disney/963073/219 "2022-04-23T17:23:06Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > In the past week, they’ve forbidden schools from teaching children self-awareness, responsible decision making and respect for other and banned medically necessary treatments for transgender youth. Republicans are even more scared of children learning how to think than they are of children learning how to have sex. And they should be. The future of the Republican party depends of having a large base of people who don’t think. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2022, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desantiss-war-on-disney/963073/220 "2022-04-23T17:23:15Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > (which conservatives have now embraced) OBJECTION! Assuming facts not in evidence. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desantiss-war-on-disney/963073.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desantiss-war-on-disney/963073.md?page=12)