By the Zonagirante.com team @spinning zone
Cover art by Zonagirante Studio
Editor's Note
And suddenly you glance at the news and are confronted with fearful decisions made by absurd people in power. And all of this unexpectedly brings back a fond memory: your mother.
Here's the thing. Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, has decided, through an internal typographic style directive, to ban the use of the Calibri font and revert to the rigid Times New Roman in official documents. For Rubio, using Calibri is too "woke," too inclusive.
Aren't public documents supposed to be as clear as possible, so that all citizens can read and understand them? Why does it bother these people so much that everyone understands, that everyone can access the information?
My mother, who spent a good part of her work and leisure time in front of screens, always asked me to use Calibri in the texts we reviewed for her proposals. It's a gentle, friendly font that never loses its seriousness and is accessible to many. I'm sure that right now she'd be annoyed by Marquito's nonsense, just another reactionary, like so many others who are superfluous.
This situation prompted us at Zonagirante.com to write this article, in which we want to discuss, without melodrama but with precision, some of the absurdities perpetrated by those in power globally. Decisions made on a whim, without any real basis, that don't aim to bring order to the world but rather to make it more insular.
Introduction
None of the cases presented in this text emerged from nothing. Many have been brewing for years in speeches, opinion columns, election campaigns, and low-intensity culture wars. What distinguishes this year is not the origin of these ideas, but their implementation.
In 2025, the absurdity was no longer hidden. What was once presented as “debate,” “legitimate concern,” or “defense of values” now translates directly into circulars, ordinances, prohibitions, and vetoes. We're not talking about grand plans or sophisticated conspiracies, but rather small, poorly thought-out, often badly written decisions with very real consequences.
This is not an inventory of evils, but something far more unsettling: a catalog of administrative blunders committed by powerful individuals who confuse governing with imposing their personal obsessions. The banality of the gesture is, perhaps, the most alarming aspect.
1. United States: Typography as a Battlefield
Banning Calibri in official documents does not solve any problems of communication, efficiency, or transparency. It doesn't reduce costs, it doesn't improve reading, it doesn't modernize the State. It is, quite simply, a symbolic gesture.
The font, now viewed with ideological suspicion. Graphic design, treated as a moral threat. In the name of a crusade against "woke," something as fundamental as legibility is sacrificed. Governing, it seems, also consists of choosing the wrong letters.
2. Argentina: Language under decree
In March 2024, The Argentine government issued a directive prohibiting the use of inclusive language and gender perspective in national public administration documents.. The measure was justified as a way to "organize the language" and "defend clarity".
The problem is that no one was obligated to use inclusive language. It didn't hinder procedures or create administrative chaos. The ban solved nothing. It only made it clear that the State arrogates to itself the right to decide how its employees can express themselves, even when that expression doesn't affect their job.
A culture war waged from a memorandum.
3. Florida: Libraries in retreat
In several school districts in Florida, Hundreds of books were removed from school libraries between 2024 and 2025. The reasons varied: references to sexuality, historical racism, gender identity, or simply ideological discomfort.
These weren't obscure texts, but award-winning and widely used works. In many cases, the books were removed "just in case," for fear of administrative sanctions. The school became a minefield. The librarian, a constant suspect.
4. Hungary: when the State decides what exists
Under the umbrella of the so-called “child protection law”, The Hungarian government deepened the censorship of LGBTIQ+ content in education, public media, and cultural products accessible to minors.
Books withdrawn, mandatory warnings, edited educational materials. All in the name of an abstract threat. No one is protected by erasing reality. Silence is administered as public policy.
5. Italy: correcting the past
The review of educational content on colonialism and migration in Italy It was presented as an attempt to "balance the historical narrative.". In practice, it meant softening terms, removing uncomfortable contexts, and rewriting without academic consensus.
This isn't a historiographical debate. It's political window dressing. The past edited with white-out.
6. Peru: morality with a budget
Although many of these decisions were not legally upheld, the message was clear: cultural funding can become a tool for ideological control. It's not cultural policy. It's fearmongering with a budget.
7. Mexico: rules that say nothing, but allow everything
Ambiguous municipal regulations on the use of public space They allowed the cancellation of concerts, performances and cultural activities for reasons as vague as "affecting the urban image".
When a rule doesn't clearly define what it prohibits, it enables arbitrariness. And arbitrariness always finds someone to upset.
8. Spain: selective silence
Noise ordinances in several Spanish cities disproportionately affected independent cultural initiatives., while large sponsored events continued to operate with special permits.
It's not a crusade against noise. It's a hierarchy of silence. And, as always, silence prevails for the youngest.
Closing
None of these decisions, taken separately, seems capable of changing the world. Together, however, they paint a disturbing picture: one in which governing means narrowing down, forcibly simplifying, and casting doubt on clarity.
The ridiculous administration of the world is not carried out with grand speeches, but with small, ill-conceived orders. With banned fonts. With withdrawn books. With censored words. With imposed silences.
And perhaps therein lies the real problem: not in malice, but in the poverty of imagination of those who believe that to command is to diminish.
