What a great object lesson in Fascism.
Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools
341–350 of 500 posts
Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools
#342Earlier quoted context omitted.
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I disagree with the assertion that destroying public education is a right-wing goal. While there may be some individuals or groups with that belief, it is not a universally held position among those who identify as right-wing. Additionally, making it a crime to teach is not a tactic that is being used by any mainstream political group or party. Education is an important issue that affects the future of society and sh…
> it is not a universally held position among those who identify as right-wing
Nobody said it was universal. But it is incredibly dishonest to pretend that there isn't a huge effort to destroy public education among the right wing. Libraries are under attack across the nation, and there is a major push to dissolve the separation of church and state. This movement is underway, and it's being pushed by the right wing. That is not to say that every single conservative supports it.
> Additionally, making it a crime to teach is not a tactic that is being used by any mainstream political group or party.
Except, did you read the article? It's a felony for teachers to have wrongthink books in their classrooms. The Ministry of Truth maintains a list of permissible books. This is a law passed by DeSantis, the most likely 2024 candidate for president. If that ain't mainstream, I don't know what is.
Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools
#343Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools
#344This is a backlash to these kind of books: https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1615866743444078593 https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1613623613156098049 https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1612817285676244997 https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1609719090456793089/... Please don't attack me for posting something from this Twitter account, I don't endorse them, I'm just providing an example of what t…
Oh no, teens might see a cartoon dick! Alert the police!
I assume that the downvoting comes from the crowd unable to distinguish that different books have different target demographics and who are thereby convinced that first graders are being forced to read This Book Is Gay until the rainbow hypno-rays have corrupted them.
Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools
#345Earlier quoted context omitted.
Additionally, the content of the book has to pass rather insane content rules, including banning any description or implication of homosexuality. Wildly, they branded it as 'Parents rights' as in: "If I don't want my kid to read X...NOBODY's should". The outcome is an attempt to whitewash out topics that are inconvenient to the agenda at play to protect the agenda long term. $5 says it just makes teen pregnancy happe…
Banning books at the state level should result in revocation of any federal funding allocated for state schools.
I'm with you in principle, but I worry that this would result in defunding the schools which need the most help: those in the most extremist states willing to accept funding revocation in response to book bans.
Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools
#346If anybody thinks this is a good idea, I'm looking forward to reading your opinions.
I can make a charitable case for it. It's mandatory state/public education, so the curriculum is legislated and kids are forced to be there, and to start, we have a captive audience. The subject legislation was in response to some arguably extreme cases where there is a concerted effort to distribute lgbtq pornography to kids as a way to use critical theories to shift social norms around sexuality, but uniquely using…
> some activists are using pornography as a vehicle to inject this critical narrative into the sexual developent of school children
Which activists would those be, and what pornography?
Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools
#347Earlier quoted context omitted.
You should really emphasize your first sentence in some way, it was really easy to have eyes drawn to the second part when skimming down the thread.
It's unfortunate that Hacker News doesn't support bold text. I would have bolded it if I could - it seems like a lot of people replying to me completely missed that I don't actually agree with any of these arguments, and am just telling people arguments that those on the other side make.
My eyes also fell directly to your second paragraph and I immediately thought you should step away from the compiler and experience the world if you really believe this. It’s because you wrote it like you were making the argument and there was no separation between yourself in the context it was written.
Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools
#348Earlier quoted context omitted.
So they already have the worst teacher shortage, and they're determined to make it even worse by making it a crime to encourage children to read. This is completely insane. How can this be even remotely constitutional? Please tell me at least the current Florida legislature is deeply unpopular because of their commitment to censorship and opposition to education.
Encouraging children to read is not a crime and nobody ever claimed that it was, will be, or should be.
Read the article, man. Felony means it's a crime.
Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools
#349Earlier quoted context omitted.
I still remember that in 2010, the approval rating of US Congress was 10%, and yet 90% of incumbents was reelected. How the hell is that possible?
I think it is because their state's congressman they think is acting in their interest, while the other states' congressman are not. And they're not wrong... Personally I also find it bizarre system where the majority vote of the other 49 states tells your state what to do, under federal law, particularly in wholly intrastate matters.
A lot of federal-law-telling-states-what-to-do is not tied to criminal punishment, but rather financial punishment. Federal taxation basically permits the US government the first share of our income. The US government then chooses to redistribute large chunks of money back to the state government, but only as long as it plays by the rules. So states can either play by the rules, or have to make up that money by essentially double-taxing their residents.
I'm sure states would love to just take that money in directly, but the federal government gets first dibs and states complete with each other on the remaining taxation. For instance, Florida is not just a popular retirement spot for the weather -- it also has zero income tax and a property tax with capped year-over-year growth.
Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools
#350Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's unecessarily divisive that criticism on teachers' unions is labeled "right-wing". It's also linguistically dishonest to call policy measures "attacks" and "assaults". Sometimes organizations become so detached from reality and everyday life that minor changes become necessary. But rather than engage with their detractors, the unions seem to sic the media on them.
> It's also linguistically dishonest to call policy measures "attacks" and "assaults" When "policy measures" include using state violence it's dishonest to not call them "'attacks' and 'assaults'".
If you want to parse it that finely, then pretty much ALL policy is an attack. E.g.: The school board sets a budget, the result of which is that I have to pay some tax. If I don't pay that tax, they'll eventually forcibly remove me from my home. That's plainly an attack.