upvote
A family we know got swept up in the "banned books" movement. They repost banned book content on their Instagram and even got T-shirts with witty sayings about supporting banned books.

They bought some books for their kids from a banned books list thinking they were "banned" for thought-control reasons, but opened one up to find an illustrated guide to using mobile phone apps to find partners for anonymous hook-ups and a guide to following through with it.

The book clearly wasn't appropriate for their young children, so they hid it away. Now we joke that they've also banned the book.

reply
A lot of books are getting banned from schools because they mention gay characters or other "woke" content. Not at all the same thing.
reply
Because nobody wants (or should have to) read every LGBT-adjacent book to see which ones are explicitly teaching kids to use Grindr to solicit statutory rape from older men.

The "goal" is clear enticement to engage in illegal and dangerous activities, and your cause argues this is necessary literature for children to have access to. "This Book is Gay" was not easily banned; quite the fight was put up by the gay community and its allies to defend it, so it cannot be argued that it's just one psycho pushing it. There is no reason to presume anything gay-adjacent deserves the benefit of doubt when these are the lengths its supporters will push boundaries to.

That anybody needs mentorship in how to "accept" something they were supposedly "born" as and "always knew they were" is sophistry to begin with anyway. I didn't need to be told I was heterosexual, but nobody was given the chance to confuse me into thinking otherwise either. Gay literature (mostly boring, self-indulgent memoirs of narcissists and their sexual endeavors) is the most effective cult recruiting material imaginable since once you desensitize yourself to it, arousal becomes a positive feedback loop, driving continued engagement with it until it feels normal. Literal gay conversion. Training any other behavior works the same way-- ask any dominatrix or dog handler.

We're told we should give this sort of content to children, and for their benefit. Lmao. We give them amphetamines already.

We're also told a trans genocide is going on and the entire western world is about to experience population collapse because nobody is having kids, in addition to a male loneliness epidemic. Maybe teaching kids to engage in illegal, non-procreative sexual activity with adult strangers that strangle them to avoid legal risk/humiliation is a deranged and antisocial idea that is not in the best interests of humanity itself?

Maybe your way is...wrong?

reply
consider a world in which same sex attraction was normalized and produced children.

would you need someone to tell you you were heterosexual, or would you figure it out on your own (having rarely, if ever, seen it before)?

try considering things from other people's perspective. you'll find that it opens up your mind and heart to various forms of empathy!

reply
It's the school librarian's job to select books. These people are trained in childhood education.

Your imagination has clearly gone way off the deep end here. Reading that there are gay people doesn't turn people gay. If you think it does, that says more about you, I think.

Trying to hide the existence of gay people from children leads to homophobia from the straight kids, and mental health issues from the gay kids. You are dead wrong here.

reply
So you think parents should not have a say? Wouldn’t that be rather authoritarian to have whatever books and disregard criticism? Many librarians are activists and are choosing books that are not educational. They are actively selecting books that they agree with.
reply
You hire professionals to teach your children. If you think you can do it better than them, why are you sending your kids to school?
reply
I guess you are fine with the recent increase in homeschooling which is hitting record numbers. The activists..oops "professionals" don't like that either.
reply
deleted
reply
Can you list some of these books you want removed from school libraries, along with why?
reply
deleted
reply
Mein Kampf?
reply
No, make it part of the curriculum. Read it and shown how boring and stupid it is.

Demystify such nonsense

reply
> Read it and shown how boring and stupid it is.

Except it's not, or it couldn't have continued to radicalize people to this very day.

reply
People choose to commit atrocities in the name of the famous holy books - you either support banning them as well or concede there's something more to it.
reply
... Wait, are you claiming that people are, having not previously been exposed to Nazism, reading it, and going "well, this seems like a pretty good idea really"? I'm fairly sure that's not a thing. No-one's being radicalised by it; rather the only people who really read it are already radicalised, because, otherwise, why would you bother?

There may be books which radicalise people. But I'm fairly sure Mein Kampf is not one of them.

reply
I doubt that most owner have read it completely.

Like the bible people mostly know the parts of it that fit their own agenda.

And don’t underestimate the effect it has if you are forced to read a book in school from front to back and write essays about it.

reply
The irony of Mein Kampf suffering the streisand effect is not lost.
reply
Note that children do become adults while in (high) school. It's common for book-banners to imply that they are removing books from elementary school kids when they are actually removing them from adults and almost-adults in high schools.
reply
Sure. The place for these adults to get books is the county/city library and not the school library. As I said, there's a certain common denominator that we need to respect when talking about public schools.
reply
To a common denominator yes but if you aim for too much breath then you miss out on a lot of good things if you ban until almost everyone is satisfied. And some fads that get popular to ban things I disagree with like when people said violent games were the reason for violence or that rock and metal music made teenagers angry or that grunge makes them kill themselves. Many times some groups latch on to some popular culture topic as the reason for X pre-existing problem of the world.
reply