MSNBC has officially run out of original thoughts. On Thursday’s Alex Wagner Tonight, the eponymous host and Columbia Journalism School Dean Jelani Cobb came together to agree with Critical Race Theorist Kimberlé Crenshaw that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is a fascist.
Wagner had a problem with the term “culture war,” believing it to be too tame:
I think that it is worth stepping back for a moment and looking at the tactics that are being employed here, and not mincing words about what is going on. Setting aside the sort of endgame of what happens in the university system, Michelle Goldberg had a piece in the Times that basically compared what Governor DeSantis was doing to what an autocrat like Viktor Orban in Hungary is doing. We had Kimberlé Crenshaw on the show and she basically said that we should stop calling it a cultural war, this is fascism.”
While the current segment was mostly about the university system, the interview Wagner referenced was about the A.P. African-American Studies controversy making it a bit ironic that MSNBC frequently says Critical Race Theory is a made up controversy while citing one of its most famous advocates to call people fascists.
Cobb, however, loved the word choice:
Yeah, I don't, actually. I don't think that is an overstatement and I think that if we were actually, you know, looking at what the long term objectives are here, it would be astounding, and terrifying for people. But you know, in fact it is being framed as culture wars, people thinking oh this is, you know, basically like the equivalent-- the political equivalent of a sports rivalry. You know, we’re not thinking of this in the long term in terms of what its implications are for free expression.”
He also tried to paint Florida Republicans as confused hypocrites, “which is also weird because one of the things that they’re using, the rhetoric that they are using is that this is actually an attempt to bolster free expression. And, you know, that is the, kind of, the height of cynical politics as it relates to this.”
Wagner chimed in to call it “gas lighting,” but that only proves Cobb and Wagner have never been on the wrong side of the pronoun police or diversity consultant class.
Making the segment even more outrageous was that Wagner admitted Florida isn’t actually in a hurry to ban every book that has ever been written, “Teachers are papering over their libraries in classrooms not because all the books have been censored, but because they're terrified that they are going to run afoul of these cloudy, murky new pieces of legislation.”
Are they terrified because of the legislation or because they’re perception of the legislation is shaped by what they hear on MSNBC?
This segment was sponsored by Golden Corral.
Here is a transcript for the March 2 show:
MSNBC Alex Wagner Tonight
3/2/2023
9:28 PM ET
ALEX WAGNER: There is the, sort of, discreet conversation about what happens to Florida. But I think that it is worth stepping back for a moment and looking at the tactics that are being employed here, and not mincing words about what is going on. Setting aside the sort of endgame of what happens in the university system, Michelle Goldberg had a piece in the Times that basically compared what Governor DeSantis was doing to what an autocrat like Viktor Orban in Hungary is doing.
We had Kimberlé Crenshaw on the show and she basically said that we should stop calling it a cultural war, this is fascism. This is what it looks like when you have the state trying to control and suppress its citizens. Do you think that is an overstatement? Where do you stand on that?
JELANI COBB: Yeah, I don't, actually. I don't think that is an overstatement and I think that if we were actually, you know, looking at what the long term objectives are here, it would be astounding, and terrifying for people.
But you know, in fact it is being framed as culture wars, people thinking oh this is, you know, basically like the equivalent-- the political equivalent of a sports rivalry. You know, we’re not thinking of this in the long term in terms of what its implications are for free expression.
WAGNER: Yes.
COBB: And--which is also weird because one of the things that they’re using, the rhetoric that they are using is that this is actually an attempt to bolster free expression. And, you know, that is the, kind of, the height of cynical politics as it relates to this.
WAGNER: I think it is officially called gaslighting—
COBB: Yeah, exactly.
WAGNER: -- but you know, one of the things about the measures that the governor and his allies are taking is that they are so, they are both at once extreme and totally vague, right? You can't engage in activities that are divisive or inclusive, or divisive, you know?
Does that mean that the Black Student Union can survive the litmus test?
COBB: Right.
WAGNER: Teachers are papering over their libraries in classrooms not because all the books have been censored, but because they're terrified that they are going to run afoul of these cloudy, murky new pieces of legislation.
COBB: Right.
