Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ® said he would support the legal fund of a man who is accused of vandalizing a display by The Satanic Temple inside the Iowa Capitol on Thursday.

Michael Cassidy was charged with fourth-degree criminal mischief for knocking over and destroying a statue erected by the temple inside the capitol, The Des Moines Register first reported.

“Satan has no place in our society and should not be recognized as a ‘religion’ by the federal government,” DeSantis said on X, formerly Twitter. “I’ll chip in to contribute to this veteran’s legal defense fund. Good prevails over evil — that’s the American spirit.”

    • Telorand@reddthat.com
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      9 months ago

      Actually, I think this likely ends with Michael Cassidy paying TST for vandalizing their statue. Which means ol’ Ronnie is effectively making a donation to TST.

        • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          They could pull the same bullshit they did with the Pledge and the Motto, saying that they were culturally relevant and had no religious effect because nobody takes the pledge or the motto that seriously. “Nativity scenes have a long tradition in local govern buildings yadda yadda christofascism.”

          • LeadSoldier@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            The fact that the supreme Court can use that argument is insane. Is not washing our hands before surgery American tradition? Is slavery American tradition? Just because we’ve done something before, doesn’t make it legal in any other topic area.

            Americans also just renamed some of their Christian holidays in order to pretend that there’s equality. My daughter still has to do homework during Chanukkah every night but gets the week of Christmas off but now the same exact vacation from school is called “winter break” so it’s totally “not religious now.”

            • ZzyzxRoad@sh.itjust.works
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              9 months ago

              My daughter still has to do homework during Chanukkah every night but gets the week of Christmas off

              Was just thinking about this with my college, as finals week is during Chanukkah. I don’t think concessions should be made for any religion, but it’s definitely a blatant sign that christians think they are more important than everyone else and that it’s essentially already the state religion in the US.

          • skydivekingair@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            That would be an argument for not putting the statue up, not a solid case that a random citizen has the right to destroy the property. The statue was up and he has the right to petition or sue for removal, not to take it into his own hands even if the statue was up illegally. But I’m not a law person so I could be off the mark.

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      9 months ago

      No, it doesn’t. It ends with only Christian shit remaining.

  • Cranakis @lemmy.one
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    9 months ago

    Good prevails over evil — that’s the American spirit.

    Which is why the Satanists should prevail Ron.

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    9 months ago

    As a Florida resident I have the same comment in my head whenever this idiot racist homophobic governor says shit like this, and that is “don’t you have better shit to do?” Because look at all of the problems in this state, meanwhile this idiot is so blinded by his fucking culture war and his religious servility or the lure of the power that these things bring to him.

    Meanwhile he’s got staffers making campaign videos with Nazi iconography while real Nazis are parading around the state threatening the many Jewish folks here, he’s got an entire coastline that’s collapsing to unusability because not just he but his predecessor and his entire political party believe that if you ban the term “climate change” from political dialogue the problem will just magically go away. Then you have this fucktard interfering with our already garbage and broken school system, and interfering not in ways to make it better but much much worse, and then making college worse for the actual adults who should be allowed to make their choices on if they want to explore gender or racial studies, while also not having propaganda that literally tells them “it’s okay the slaves benefitted from slavery” forced on them because of a bunch of political assholes trying to reshape the world to be more accepting of checks notes fucking slavery.

    Fuck Ron DeSantis, fuck Rick Scott, and fuck the Florida GOP, they are garbage people making a vulnerable overly populated state much much worse, the GOP doesn’t fix things, they hoard power and wealth that’s their only real purposes.

      • Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works
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        9 months ago

        In France - every second of every day for about a century (?) or so… until very recently when Macron did something. Just seems a pity that US politicians are too stupid / ignorant to understand their own history - even if it’s an incredibly short span of time; relatively speaking

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    Classic legal defense in a country that constitutionally cannot favor one religion over another, “it was illegal but we favor your religion to prevail over this other one so it’s fine.”

  • crawancon@lemm.ee
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    Goooood Gooood let the lack of religious freedom flow through your public support Ron. let your ignorance be your guide

  • ATDA@lemmy.world
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    If the government doesn’t recognize Satan as a religious figure I’ve got bad news about Jebus…

  • TWeaK@lemm.ee
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    DeSantis promising other peoples’ money for causes that money was not donated for isn’t on anyone’s bingo cards at this point, because it’s practically a given.

    Let’s not forget that DeSantis used Florida taxpayer money, which was ringfenced for dealing with migrants in Florida, to pay his friend’s chartered airline business to ship migrants from Texas to Massachusetts - an act that had no benefit to Florida whatsoever, but certainly benefited his friend’s chartered airline (which DeSantis uses frequently on the State taxpayer’s dime without disclosing his expenditure.

    Criminals gonna crim.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Ron DeSantis ® said he would support the legal fund of a man who is accused of vandalizing a display by The Satanic Temple inside the Iowa Capitol on Thursday.

    Michael Cassidy was charged with fourth-degree criminal mischief for knocking over and destroying a statue erected by the temple inside the capitol, The Des Moines Register first reported.

    It consisted of a figure of the demon Baphomet with a bejeweled goat head alongside prayer candles.

    “We don’t want to yield some kind of power to the government to begin picking and choosing between religious groups,” Satanic Temple co-founder Lucien Greaves said in a CNN interview Thursday.

    Cassidy’s legal defense fund raised more than $20,000 in just its first few hours, Newsweek reported, including $10,000 from conservative activist group Turning Point USA.

    Cassidy previously ran for a Mississippi congressional seat in 2022, losing to Rep. Michael Guest (R-Miss.)


    The original article contains 402 words, the summary contains 147 words. Saved 63%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • NotAFuckingBot@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Doesn’t Satan need you back in hell, DeSantis? Please return promptly so you can answer your true Master in person.

  • Clbull@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    “Your honor, Simpsons did it!”

    “Simpsons did it?”

    “Yes, your honor.”

    “I hereby find the defendant not guilty.”