The Washington Post reports that most book challenges come from a tiny number of activists:
The majority of the 1,000-plus book challenges analyzed by The Post were filed by just 11 people.
Each of these people brought 10 or more challenges against books in their school district; one man filed 92 challenges. Together, these serial filers constituted 6 percent of all book challengers — but were responsible for 60 percent of all filings.
This is good news. Think about it: there's not a huge nationwide campaign to ban books from school libraries. There are literally eleven people in the whole country responsible for most challenges. And there's no telling how many of these challenges are even successful in the first place.
The fact that this is happening at all is obviously dispiriting, but it's simply not a widespread or popular activity. It's the province of a tiny handful of cranks who got way more publicity than they deserved a couple of months ago. In the end, it's a nothingburger.
I've watched, amused, as conservative parents have gone on and on about parental rights this school year, and then as the same parents have proudly dressed up their teens for Bridgerton Proms.
And I know most of the moms, at least, have watched and know sex and coupling of many flavors are part and parcel of life in Shondaland's Queen Charlotte's court.
They are confused, and reactionary, not informed.
There are only about 70 people in the Westboro Baptist Church too. Yet, they are just about the only people going around the country protesting funerals in the most degrading ways possible, and harassing the surviving family members of dead people.
Alex Jones was only 1 person calling the victims of Sandy Hook "crisis actors." Yet, if it wasn't for his lies, the parents of Sandy Hook victims wouldn't have spent the last decade-plus having random other monsters come out of the woodwork and harass them with taunts of "your child isn't dead."
Never underestimate the damage a few monsters can do. And never let those fckers off the hook simply because they number so few in a country of 330M. All those sick fcks deserve to be shunned by everyone decent in our society, and their bodies tossed into a landfill when they eventually do us all a favor and leave this plane of existence.
But it begs the question why are the authorities so eager to mollify this trivial body of trivial idiots?
It's either gutlessness or complicity.
The people actually filing complaints might be just the tip of a very large iceberg. Government officials may actually be sympathetic, either because they actually believe the book banners are right or because they sense that a large number of their constituents approve of them. There might also be organizations encouraging the book banners, possibly even identifying books to complain about. We shouldn't be too complacent just because there are only a small number of people on the front lines. They could be merely the vanguard of a large and conceivably well organized movement.
Definitely this.
Yep. Kevin's predictable Professor Pangloss schtick is tedious, wrong, and dangerous.
"But it begs the question why are the authorities so eager to mollify this trivial body of trivial idiots?"
Because the trivial body of trivial idiots makes a lot of noise and can cause a lot of damage. For a lot of school board officials (who, after all, get into school boardery becuase they presumably have an interest in running a school), capitulating on some aggressive request that this or that book be removed from a school library shelf may be an easier way to get back to work than spending untold hours fighting with some kook.
And/or school board people--who are not wealthy, and are about the least powerful of government officials--don't have the resources or the wherewithal to fight some of these fights, risk losing their jobs, and subject their schools (or themselves!) to a lot of legal costs in the process.
I'm not saying it's not cowardly, or that it's good, but it's understandable.
From the Washington Post report:
"It is unknown how many of these requests resulted in the books’ temporary or permanent removal from school, although a previous Post analysis suggests the majority of challenged books remain on the shelves."
+1
What @aldoushickman said.
Not to mention the possibility of being called out and doxed by some Fox blowhard and finding their family in specific physical danger. I hesitate to call it cowardice when everyone knows that there will be no help until it’s too late.
Why not both? Gutless because of fear of retribution, while failing to understand how law is being utilized against itself.
I suspect if it wasn't for social media, almost no one would even care about most of these. Local politics in conservative parts of "red" states have always had some crazy crap going on.
It would be a nothingburger if these cranks were treated as cranks.
I'd guess they'd monetized their activities and it gets eaten up by the right wing media.
It should be required, that anyone requesting a book be banned, must write a book report on it, first.
Yes there is a nationwide campaign to ban books - there are hundreds of politicians in red-state legislatures who have passed the laws that allow individuals to cause books to be banned. Those legislators don't want to take the responsibility for banning specific books when they can count on individual nutcases to do it. This campaign is another means of signifying opposition to the end of White Christian Supremacy and demonstrating the power of the MAGA faction. It is no longer acceptable to say you are opposed to racial equality, so they say they are opposed to "wokeism" and other specific things that are associated with the liberal side.
This particular campaign may peter out, but there will be others. The MAGA movement is not going to come to its senses in the near future.
While small in number, they are loudly amplified by our media in a way that frames the story as massive in nature. That is the problem. Sure some libraries suffer, most likely for short periods as backlash occurs against the banners ( https://www.wptv.com/news/treasure-coast/region-martin-county/martin-county-navy-veteran-goes-viral-after-comparing-martin-countys-book-ban-to-religious-facism ), but to the rank and file who hear their news curated by corporations believe that there is a massive movement against books of "woke" nature, never mind what WP buries on page 6.
*Sorry for the big link.
Pornography is not suitable for children of any age, and the books that the parents are complaining about are pornographic. When people go to school boards and protest these books by reading them to the school board, the board members shut them down because they are reading obscene material.
I've heard parts of The Bible are quite racy, and perhaps obscene, depending on your local standards. Should it be banned?
Ezekiel 23:
“ Yet she multiplied her acts of promiscuity, remembering the days of her youth when she acted like a prostitute in the land of Egypt 20 and lusted after their lovers, whose sexual members[d] were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of stallions. 21 So you revisited the depravity of your youth, when the Egyptians caressed your nipples to enjoy your youthful breasts.”
I’m not sure which local standards don’t think that is porn. Ban the Bible, for sure.
I disagree with your opening phrase. Sex is part of life, and knowledge of sex is an integral part of a properly broad based education. In general, pre-pubescent children are not interested in sexually explicit material and will not voluntarily read or view it ("ick, mushy stuff"), but if they're interested they should have access. I would note that a good parent will try to ensure that at least some of the material is realistic and that the children accessing it learn how to distinguish truth from fiction, in regard to sex just as much as in regard to any other subject.
No, the books that parents are complaining about aren’t pornographic. That is a complete and total lie.
Which of the books mentioned is obscene?
https://www.npr.org/2023/05/24/1177877340/amanda-gorman-poem-restricted-miami-school
But you knew already that you were lying.
Been mainlining OAN again have you?
I wouldn't characterize Amanda Gorman's book with her poem, "The Hill We Climb" or Toni Morrison's "Beloved" are pornographic?
Please just stop with the blanket statements that are not connected to reality.
You would characterize Amanda Gorman's book with her poem, "The Hill We Climb" or Toni Morrison's "Beloved" as pornographic?
Please just stop with the blanket statements that are not connected to reality..
And you are definitely not describing all of the loud interruptions and rudeness in Virginia, nor the implicit threats made to board members & teachers.
They haven't been "civil" at all, "civil twilight."
https://www.alternet.org/mom-amanda-gorman-proud-boys/
Would you look at the alt-right woman's connections that explain who she is & why she would be advocating for book banning.
Well, this makes the solution obvious. Limit the number of book challenges that any one person is allowed to file to one per year.
I could agree, if the permitted number of challenges per person per year is zero.
Weeeeeellllll, I do think we should allow for the possibility that a non-age-appropriate book might, maybe, on occasion find its way into a school library and might be better off getting moved to the grown-ups' library, so allowing at least a few challenges makes sense... but we absolutely should not tolerate idiots who try to impose their own blinkered standards on the whole community.
I don't accept the concept of "non-age-appropriate".
Who is doing this?
Well,
you can't explain that,
https://www.rawstory.com/flat-earth-gop/
It's a placebo, like an imaginary thought that, amazingly, can seem just like a real thought that's the basis of social conservative ideology.
Thanks, that was hilarious! Globes, globes, everywhere! 😂
Now, why didn't Yeshua think of that slogan?
We all know just how important both guns & babies were to the man they renamed "Jesus."
How many terrorists did it take to bring down the World Trade Center? The book banners may be few in number but they have big money funding them and they will cause untold damage if they are not stopped. I'm glad to see publishers stepping in to sue them.
I get Kevins point, but Big Texan brings up a valid argument.
A similar analogy would be for everyone to take heart that its only a few people in town who were burning crosses and actively terrorizing the community. The fact that so many were okay with it shouldnt enter our minds. Dont worry, everything is fine!
"How many terrorists did it take to bring down the World Trade Center?"
This would be a good point if the would-be book-banners were firebombing libraries. But they aren't. They are filing petitions and being loudmouths at school board meetings. Emphasizing that they are _not_ representative of some groundswell of support but are instead just fringe kooks is actually very helpful in getting officials to ignore them.
"The book banners may be few in number but they have big money funding them"
I'm sorry, what "big money" is in favor of something as pointless as school library book bans? There is no profit in this. DeSantis and his lot may fundraise off of these idiots, but the money spigot accordintly flows the other way.
Whenever I read a story about this stuff one group seems to show up most of the time: Moms for Liberty.
Most of the rightwing groups have reportedly been coordinating in numerous states by sharing scripts or talking points for public outcry opportunities and legislation.
What book banning is about is playing God, the heady elixir of self-righteousness (:) Me being self-righteous). As is being MTG, Hawley, Boebert or any of the other self-appointed Messiahs of the Right.
What someone might propose banning is Hawley's own absurd book about manliness. After his emciuraging gesture to the J6 mob & subsequent running from it, he's not one to enlighten anyone on the subject.
It's good news, but one thing lost in the Post's reporting is that this movement is expanding. National and state-wide groups are encouraging local groups to follow certain tactics and press certain issues, one of them being book banning. Even so, it's a small movement, but we are starting to see one or two or even a handful of people trying to ban books in school districts all over the country. It will still end up being a tiny percentage of people doing all the challenges, but it will probably be in the thousands, not tens, and we will all hear a lot more about it. It's all part of a national movement to weaponize the kooks across the country and tie everybody up in silly local battles.
Political opportunism plays a role.
Our local District Attorney jumped on the bandwagon and mused publicly about bringing charges against the local librarian for stocking 'Gender Queer' under the premise that it has child-sexual themes.
He's a youngish Repub DA and this is free publicity with the base.
He can ride the culture war into the Michigan House or Senate.
The newest chapter in Mr. Drum's long running series, "That Thing You're Worried About? It Doesn't Bother Me".
I find it a salutary corrective. The media has financial incentives to play up negativity and make everything look worse than it is. Bloggers who challenge alarmist narratives on the basis of cold, hard data are doing the public a service.