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Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

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Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

#231

Post by notfromhere »

alexb_ wrote: post #68
deugtniet wrote: post #4

If anybody thinks this is a good idea, I'm looking forward to reading your opinions.

Let me be clear that I do not agree at all, in any way with this argument, I'm just answering your question as to what the opinion of people who like this think. There are books which contain explicit depictions of sex between teenagers. Why do you want teenagers thinking that having sex before you are 18 is normal? Kids shouldn't be reading stuff about sex (gay, straight, or otherwise) before they are adults. The on…

So I guess kids shouldn’t read the Bible then?

Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

#232

Post by mcv »

zeroonetwothree wrote: post #178
AlexandrB wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I thought the GOP was all about freedom?

That hasn’t been the case since Lincoln died. (Not that the other party is much better)

Let's not pretend both parties are equally bad. There is a lot wrong with the Democratic Party, and with the US political system in general, but the Republicans rushing to turn the US into a fascist dystopia. There are degrees of bad, and the GOP is significantly worse at this point.

Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

#233

Post by jonathankoren »

My high school library had “Tropic of Cancer” and “Tropic of Capricorn”.

I wish I realized just how fucking awesome that was at the time. Instead, I just looked at them and thought, “We’ll, those are odd titles.”

Kudos Mrs Proctor, wherever you are.

Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

#234

Post by panzagl »

OrvalWintermute wrote: post #28

The problem is that some of the libraries are hosting sexually explicit material that is accessible to younger children that some parents claim is sexually grooming the children. Some of these books have been included on reading lists. The book that is the poster child for this is the cartoon book Gender Queer https://www.westernjournal.com/book-depicting-child-pornogra...

Thank you for providing a concrete example of what's being targeted.

Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

#235

Post by GordonS »

mfer wrote: post #216
jeffbee wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there was really widespread agreement that the book did not belong in the library, then it wouldn't have been there in the first place. What these laws do is enable tiny vocal minorities to wield censorship powers.

> widespread agreement There isn't widespread agreement. That's how we got here. Parents are disagreeing with teachers as to what material they want in front of their kids. The book I referred to earlier described using sex toys and had an add to get them. This is in a library for kids aged 5-10ish. People were arguing in support of the book being in that library. Who gets to choose what's appropriate?

If you're going to keep making such claims, you really need to name the book.

Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

#236

Post by crooked-v »

slibhb wrote: post #171

This is part of an ongoing conflict between schools and parents. E.g. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/22/us/gender-identity-studen... While banning books is creepy and unproductive, the schools have exceeded their warrant and it's no surprise that the pendulum is swinging back.

The schools have "exceeded their warrant"... how, exactly?

You linked an article about schools with a standard policy of allowing kids to use preferred names and gender expressions. So what? It's a complete nothingburger that's only notable because kids these days tend to be accepting enough for their peers to be comfortable doing that when in the past they weren't.

Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

#237

Post by civilized »

My son and daughter get books from the school library every week. I would be so upset if our state's government stopped that.

My heart goes out to normal Floridians facing these lunatics in power, backed by a delusional mob coked up on fake news, threatening to make their kids' teachers felons if they let the kids have books.

Sounds like Afghanistan not America.

Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

#238

Post by sowbug »

scifibestfi wrote: post #51
mabbo wrote: post #3

Hey America, is everything okay down there? Y'all have some truly dystopian stuff going on there. Felony prosecution for showing kids books that the Governor didn't approve of? Yikes.

 

Most cases defending basic freedoms involve reprehensible facts. In the US, Miranda was a burglar. Clarence Brandenburg was a KKK leader. Paul Cohen wore a t-shirt reading "FUCK THE DRAFT" at a time when such words weren't part of polite public discourse.

The only thing worse than a law against your definition of "bad" content is a law against your definition of "good" content. But that's what will be next if this law moves the Overton window.

Which is why it's dangerous to focus on the actual content being regulated. Be upset that content -- any content -- is being regulated, because the US Bill of Rights is supposed to prohibit such laws. In a free country, there shouldn't be laws controlling what people say to each other.

Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

#239

Post by notch656c »

mcv wrote: post #206
notch656c wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the government doesn't have the assent of the people is it not illegitimate? I thought the whole presumption under our system was the representatives have the assent of the majority.

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.

Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

#240

Post by Dig1t »

This 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 the backlash is actually a response to.

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