The Roots of Our Discontent: Florida

I’m starting a little something different here at Reluctant Moderation. Each week, I’d like to take a look at some of the roots of our current state of discontent here in America, those places and events and people who seem to crystallize so much of what makes us so increasingly angry and miserable. And, since Florida seems to be an epicenter for discontent, I thought we’d start there. In case you missed it, noted historical fiction author Rachel Beanland, who was supposed to serve as the speaker for a book luncheon in Florida, was disinvited after members of the planning committee found her book (and thus, presumably, her planned talk) too reactionary or too volatile. She was subsequently dropped from being the headliner, and she rightly declined a lesser event at the same fair. The case is, the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s <a href="https://richmond.com/opinion/columnists/williams-a-richmond-authors-cancellation-in-florida-is-a-reality-check-on-censorship/article_44d56ae8-4864-11ee-8cd7-67673cf0a484.html?fbclid=IwAR3VSXSfcAJIdheyKIEGohS2P-VJyEcYh3kB0GqKpXEs1qp_af9a9UTpuf4" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Michael Paul Williams notes</a>, a bit puzzling. It’s not as if Beanland is some sort of fire-breathing Twitter social justice warrior. Moreover, the book itself isn’t even particularly inflammatory, though it does raise issues related to slavery and the marginalization of women in American culture in the 19th century. Apparently in the Florida of the 21st, even this bit of acknowledgment of a less-than-perfect American past is beyond the pale. Even more distressing is the fact that this bit of book banning isn’t even a government agency or a school but instead a private organization. <a href="https://medium.com/reluctant-moderation/the-roots-of-our-discontent-florida-855811d751c4">Learn More</a>