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As calls to ban books intensify, digital librarians offer perspective

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Re: As calls to ban books intensify, digital librarians offer perspective

#161

Post by cik2e »

SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #152
at-fates-hands wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> An example of this is the right's claim that many of these banned books are almost pornographic in nature. I'm pretty sure illustrations of people having sex and an illustration of a younger child giving an older child oral sex falls into that category: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FBdP1kYXoAA_c0T?format=jpg&name=... People lost their minds when a woman read several pages from the book "Gender Queer" by Maia Kobabe…

What’s the context of those images? It seems perfectly appropriate for highschool.

I've seen people downplaying the contents book using arguments like "these kids are already looking at porn, so who cares?" Whatever, I don't have an issue with that. Been there, done that.

But how about this one? What if you're one of the many kids who want to but can't get laid in high school? Seeing teenage sex normalized by the school itself could lead to all kinds of additional insecurities.

Re: As calls to ban books intensify, digital librarians offer perspective

#162

Post by pmontra »

> material that may cause discomfort to readers.

The world is going to discomfort them more often than not so they better train also by reading all kind of books or competitors (in the broadest possible meaning) will eat them alive while they rest inside a comfortable bubble.

Re: As calls to ban books intensify, digital librarians offer perspective

#163

Post by jrm4 »

In a world where the cost of giving every single human being every book they could possibly want is trivial, we need to drastically rethink all of this, not the stupid and open censorship we see here, but the absurd friction that the old IP system plus Amazon creates.

Re: As calls to ban books intensify, digital librarians offer perspective

#164

Post by 0x7E3 »

ModernMech wrote: post #127
WkndTriathlete wrote: post #122

I'll admit that the one that puzzled me was the school district that banned "Catch-22".

This is likely why: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22#Anti-capitalism I mean, really there's a lot in there that the people banning these books would probably find offensive. Questioning the MIC, questioning God, questioning capitalism...

That's wild, I took almost the opposite message from that scene. Since the bombing run is seen as inevitable Milo engineers the situation to guarantee a minimum of actual damage is done in order to protect his profits.

Re: As calls to ban books intensify, digital librarians offer perspective

#165

Post by wolverine876 »

throwawayboise wrote: post #149
wolverine876 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a common philosophical question applied to this topic: The logically easy philosophical definition is always the extreme - in this case, absolutely no restriction - and there are always objections using false equivalencies and slippery slopes ('if you violate the extreme in this way, you can violate it in any way'). Real life is not about logical extremes. Nothing in the US Bill of Rights is unlimited, for examp…

I don't want them watching porn at the public library either. It ruins the experience to have to witness a homeless person jacking off at a computer station, and not something I want my taxes paying for.

What does it have to do with homeless people? I thought we were talking about school libraries, which generally don't have adult visitors?

Also, do you have anything to back up yet another ugly stereotype about groups of people who are 'other'?

Re: As calls to ban books intensify, digital librarians offer perspective

#166

Post by [deleted] »

pram wrote: post #135
Cpoll wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am not a fan of Ayn Rand's philosophy I've been thinking about this lately, and I'm not sure where I stand. I'm against book burning, but I feel like there are also problems with unchecked dissemination of ideas. I think this is flawed logic in a few ways, but I'll put it down anyway: 1. Is there a difference between an undiscerning student (i.e. young, impressionable, hasn't been taught critical thinking, doesn'…

Having personally read some of Rand’s fiction as a teen (from my high school library no less!) I think you’d be hard pressed to find a reason to “ban” them. The narrative in Anthem, for example, is so hilariously over the top I’m not sure what the argument would be. It’s a Pol Pot “Year Zero” style civilization, and the randian superman subverts the established collectivist order by single handedly reinventing the li…

[deleted]

Re: As calls to ban books intensify, digital librarians offer perspective

#167

Post by naasking »

lr4444lr wrote: post #97
quadrifoliate wrote: post #9

A lot of the other comments on here are saying that this is banning books from curricula [1]. But I would...like to see the sources for this assertion? All of the stories I have seen [1][2] say that the books are banned from the school library system . As far as I am aware, school libraries usually contain a wide range of books, not just whatever is required for the curriculum. So banning a book from a school library…

The books being on the school library or on classroom shelves connotes that the educational custodians of our children, who have literal and legal responsibility for their safety and well being on multiple levels, have approved them. Not so much to promote every idea they contain, but at least that they express things in a way that is psychologically appropriate for kids at their level of development. What kinds of i…

> but at least that they express things in a way that is psychologically appropriate for kids at their level of development

Frankly, we have little real idea what's psychologically appropriate for kids. Consider that over 65% of papers in psychology fail replication. I would be very skeptical of anyone claiming they know what's psychologically good for anyone.

Re: As calls to ban books intensify, digital librarians offer perspective

#168

Post by [deleted] »

shkkmo wrote: post #138
jl2718 wrote: post #113

The “Banned Books” movement is clearly only about any books that have faced even minor protest from “the other side” of the political spectrum. They frame the censorship debate in terms of provocative, but otherwise meaningless fiction. Real censorship of factual and relevant information exists today, and they support it.

Who is "they" in your comment? Open Library is part of the Internet Archive which has generally been pretty effective at limiting censorship rather than promoting it..

[deleted]

Re: As calls to ban books intensify, digital librarians offer perspective

#169

Post by JaimeThompson »

CountDrewku wrote: post #63

k-12 students are not adults. We ban and censor all sorts of things for the the underage crowd, look up CIPA. There are borderline pedophilia books available at school libraries. I've also seen several examples of incredibly racist CRT books in classrooms. I don't think young kids should have unfettered access to this stuff. They're not able to process it correctly. If communities are saying they do not want this is…

Should religious texts which contain such things or related topics be removed as well?

Re: As calls to ban books intensify, digital librarians offer perspective

#170

Post by Viliam1234 »

pram wrote: post #135
Cpoll wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am not a fan of Ayn Rand's philosophy I've been thinking about this lately, and I'm not sure where I stand. I'm against book burning, but I feel like there are also problems with unchecked dissemination of ideas. I think this is flawed logic in a few ways, but I'll put it down anyway: 1. Is there a difference between an undiscerning student (i.e. young, impressionable, hasn't been taught critical thinking, doesn'…

Having personally read some of Rand’s fiction as a teen (from my high school library no less!) I think you’d be hard pressed to find a reason to “ban” them. The narrative in Anthem, for example, is so hilariously over the top I’m not sure what the argument would be. It’s a Pol Pot “Year Zero” style civilization, and the randian superman subverts the established collectivist order by single handedly reinventing the li…

Rand's novels contain realistic villains and unrealistic heroes.
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