Florida's governor says he will "save our beef, but a lab-grown meat firm calls it an assault on liberty.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has banned lab-grown meat, saying he will "save our beef" from the "global elite" and its "authoritarian plans".
"Florida is fighting back against the global elite's plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs," Mr DeSantis said in a statement.
The first-in-the-nation law prohibits anyone from selling or distributing lab-grown meat in Florida.
Similar efforts are under way in Alabama, Arizona and Tennessee.
Lab-grown or "cultivated" meat was first cleared for consumption in the US in 2022.
Studies have suggested that eating cultivated meat can cut carbon emissions and water usage, and free up land for nature, compared to eating traditionally produced meat.
Ah, the 'global elite,' who they also call 'globalists.' And who are they talking about?
The term is now frequently used as a pejorative by far-right movements and conspiracy theorists, as in the New World Order conspiracy theory;[3] it is associated with antisemitism, as antisemites frequently appropriate the term globalist to refer to Jews.[3][4][5]
I apologize if you thought I was implying that. I am in no way agreeing that there is a "Deep State" or anything to that effect. I was trying to draw criticism to DeSantis' use of the word Globalists, which does have antisemitic overtones, while the House just passed a bill that could lead to criticism of Israel in any way would count as antisemitism.
I think the term has no real meaning to them anymore. It’s just another term thrown at anything they don’t like, like “woke” or whatever. I’m sure some definitely use it deliberately, but I think most lack the directed prejudice and just use it lazily as a catch-all for “liberal”.
That's the whole point of obfuscating it in the first place. If you come out and say "Jews who control the world want to force everyone to eat bugs", you sound like an idiot. So, you give it a candy coating to make it go down better, and hope a certain percentage will eventually "do their own research" and come to your desired conclusion.
It's the most strategically sound method you can come up with to perpetuate the conspiracy theories in the modern day. It's similar to how cults don't start the recruitment process by walking up to you and going "Hey, want to join a cult?"
The late, legendarily brutal campaign consultant Lee Atwater explains how Republicans can win the vote of racists without sounding racist themselves:
You start out in 1954 by saying, “N*****, n*****, n*****.” By 1968 you can’t say “n*****”—that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract. Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.… “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “N*****, n*****.”
Whatever they are saying is just a standin for a slur. Look at the tweet about "Baltimore's DEI mayor" and too immediately see that they are just using CRT, woke, gender ideology, DEI, elite, or whatever new term comes into Vogue next month as a stand in for whatever applicable slur.
It's part of the "other," which is used to create fear that drives support for their politicians.
Right wing leaders and their propagandists can't be too specific with concepts because large parts of them are contrived. They don't need to be specific because their target audience is people who think and make decisions more with emotions, which doesn't require clear concepts and terms, than reason.
"The left" absolutely does it too, although it's not as bad.
They don't just turn terms into slurs to rally the morons, they do it to attack the ideological base of their opponents.
"Globalist" became a dogwhistle for Jewish people because fascists pretended to think socialism, which inherently rejects nationalism or loses all meaning, was a Jewish conspiracy. By turning it into a meaningless slur they're not just turning their base against the idea, they're making their opponents react to its use as slur.
As it happens, neoliberalism ended up having a different kind of globalist goal, so they got a free 2 for 1 slur against their ideological enemies even though the end goals are wildly different. And, obviously, fascists don't see the need to explain how the "Jewish conspiracy" is behind both socialism and neoliberalism.
It also just turns people against the concept without understanding what it actually is.
Thus me just last week having to argue with a "socialist" social democrat about how "globalism" isn't a dogwhistle on an ideological level.
The 'global elite' wouldn't touch lab grown meat. This stuff is meant to sustain the poor when cow meat production becomes cost prohibitive (it already is without government subsidies).
That's ridiculous. Every scientist I have ever seen involved in this field says it is about getting people to give up or at least eat less meat for the good of the planet.
Our points don't disagree. Point #1 The goal is food production in order to sustain a growing population. Current production is ecologically and economically unsustainable. Point #2 The "global elite" wouldn't be caught dead eating lab grown meat unless they are doing a promo for the "lab grown meat" company.