A snippet " The Topic Concentration chart above lends the clearest picture into the implied rationale behind the bans. Namely, the bans are not and have not been about the physical removal of a book from a shelf. The bans instead are meant to:

Virtue signal by people in positions of institutional power to voting-age parents interested in school choice, parental rights, and wedge social issues to the detriment of non-voting age students

Reject and exclude topics that challenge a perceived status quo from the public discourse (e.g. non-heteronormativity, non-cis identity, non-traditional gender roles, and non-Judeo-Christian books are targeted) "
  • user91@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Imagine being a twat parent petitioning for books being banned. Fucking pathetic.

  • Obsolete_Person@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    As a retired librarian, I know that this is nothing new. What is new is the organized and vicious manner people use these days.

    Before a crank might complain and we would bring out our intellectual freedom statements and policies. Let the rant go on a bit, then let the complainant know that as a public library we pride ourselves on the fact:

    We have something to offend everyone and that is a mandate that we defend.

    With people becoming more violent and unhinged, it is scary to be the holder of the knowledge and the force that protects intellectual freedom.

    The battle continues.

  • jamiero29@lemmynsfw.com
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    1 year ago

    I grew up in the 80s and remember all the panic and censoring of music that was being paraded in front of us in America that led to parental warnings being put on albums. I had never heard of “2 Live Crew” until I was told not to listen to it. So of course me and all my friends bought it to listen to it.

    It’s awful to see that people on my generation grew up to be idiots trying to do the same shitty thing that we grew up with to our own kids.

    • barrio_libre@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I remember rather enjoying hating Tipper Gore and all that ludicrous PMRC bullshit. I don’t think we ever took it that seriously… it’s not like they actually managed to ban anything; they just slapped some really effective “buy me!” labels on a few records.

      Today’s version feels more insidious. I never felt like Tipper Gore was one step from decompensating and starting a race war. These folks, though—there’s violence just under the surface.

    • Walop@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      Well, the Puritans didn’t escape persecution to Americas, but felt they didn’t have enough freedom to persecute others according to their views and went to find that.

      • LexiconDexicon@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Not true at all, the Catholics killed many Protestants and absolutely did persecute them unfairly, the catholic church was, and still is, a profit making organization, nothing more.

        Don’t be a history revisionist

          • LexiconDrexicon@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            That depends on the year you’re referring too, and the Church of England was never fully protestant anyways, they’re “Anglican” which is a weird mix of the two

            “Henry’s religious beliefs remained aligned to traditional Catholicism throughout his reign. In order to secure royal supremacy over the Church, however, Henry allied himself with Protestants, who until that time had been treated as heretics. The main doctrine of the Protestant Reformation was justification by faith alone rather than by good works.”

  • Pratai@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    I’ve never seen such unrestrained cowardice as what’s displayed in conservative policy.

        • LexiconDexicon@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Banning books doesn’t mean anything these days with everything being digitized, it’s just political grandstanding.

          It’s just making mountains out of molehills, but fear-mongering seems to work so well for both parties it seems

          Everyone loves them some outrage p0rn

  • TechyDad@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    My younger son has been seeking out banned books to read. In one of them, Looking For Alaska, he reported that the section which caused the ban was a few lines on one page. And even that was tame.

    I’m going to have to show him this list to help him choose what to read next.