So it's open fascism, then.
The FL GOP is pretty clearly engaged in viewpoint discrimination, which is at the heart of almost all of its most recent legislation impacting RCID, state universities, state public schools, and potentially even Twitter now; punishing political opponents, real or perceived, due to feeling they "took the wrong side" on an issue (e.g. wanting to punish Twitter for not allowing Elon Musk to take over, DeSantis's "it's actually about fiduciary responsibility!" PR being a very, very tiny fig leaf).
Which is not to say that Disney is the "good guy" here, either: RCID was a pretty massive giveaway when it happened, and there's tons of cases to be made for doing away with it. However, "do it because the company that supported me for years and initially didn't come out against our explicitly homophobic legislation, but then changed course due to a near-mutiny from its employees" is not the context under which RCID should be revoked, given the larger long term implications, which are explicitly fascistic in nature.
Any decent state court would find against this legislation due to said viewpoint discrimination, but this is Florida, the politics of which are broken on basically every level through gerrymandering and a host of other issues (which, admittedly, are not all exclusive to Florida).
That said, the silliest part of all of this is the very notion that Disney is "woke". First off, "woke" is the new "socialism"; a term used quite liberally by people who have no earthly idea what it even refers to, beyond "something I don't like or which makes me uncomfortable for reasons I refuse to adequately explain."
Disney, shock of shocks, is only firmly committed to one thing: making greater dividends for its shareholders. That's it. I'm sure there are artists and creators within the company who have more ambitious artistic goals and want to express themselves through their work, but as a corporate entity Disney only cares about "how do we maximize returns and increase shareholder value from last fiscal year's numbers?" Disney will appeal to different communities through its movies and content because it has made the very straightforward calculation that doing so will result in greater financial returns than not doing so. Disney doesn't set the cultural zeitgeist; it goes where the zeitgeist goes, and if that was away from respect and tolerance for marginalized communities then Disney would likely do little to nothing to stand athwart.
I mean, hell, look at Disney's marketing towards some foreign markets, where they go out of their way to minimize the presence of LGBT+ characters or even actors of color (the infamous Force Awakens poster in China that nearly erased John Boyega); Disney is no different from literally any other company, and the idea that they're "pushing a woke agenda" is code for "Disney is trying to appeal to a market I don't like, and again I refuse to expound on why I'm not comfortable with them." They want money, and they'll change positions to make more money as they see fit.
So yeah, this is a fight between a corporate entity whose only principle is "more money, pls" and a state government engaged in explicitly fascist politics. I don't intend to "cheer for" Disney so much as call out authoritarian governance for what it is.
