Gov. DeSantis institutes surveys of viewpoint diversity in schools, left-wing media goes nuts

House Bill 233, one of three education bills signed Tuesday, would require the state’s colleges and universities to "conduct annual assessments of the viewpoint diversity and intellectual freedom at their institutions to ensure that Florida’s postsecondary students will be shown diverse ideas and opinions, including those that they may disagree with or find uncomfortable."

The bill also prevents staff members from "shielding" students "access to, or observation of, ideas and opinions that they may find uncomfortable, unwelcome, disagreeable, or offensive."

The bill comes hot on the heels of of DeSantis signing into law the banning of critical race theory teachings in schools, as well as the teaching of "the evils of communism and totalitarianism."

"It used to be thought that a university campus was a place where you’d be exposed to a lot of different ideas,” said DeSantis in a press conference this week. “Unfortunately, now the norm is really these are more intellectually repressive environments, you have orthodoxies that are promoted and other viewpoints are shunned, or even suppressed.

"We don’t want that in Florida, you need to have a true contest of ideas," he added.

Left-wing media had a field day with DeSantis’ recent actions, with MSNBC’s Joy Reid insinuating that he was attempting to turn Florida into communist China with the state’s "patriotic education campaign," giving him the nickname "Ron Comrade DeSantis."

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes suggested that said surveys were, in themselves, an attempt to indoctrinate, and that the state would "threaten" and "punish" those found not to have the right views.

Many, including Reid, were quick to suggest that DeSantis was attempting to become "the country’s top MAGA warrior.’

The Washington Post’s Max Boot wrote in an opinion piece Tuesday that DeSantis is "setting himself up as Trump’s running mate or successor by showing a genius for appealing to every disreputable prejudice of the GOP base. This man knows how to outrage Democrats and, therefore, delight Republicans."

In a straw poll conducted at the Western Conservative Summit, DeSantis was found to be more approved than former President Donald Trump, with a 74 percent approval rate compared to 71 percent.