Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/04/17/ed-scare-book-bans-spreading-across-u-s-driven-by-conservative-rage.html
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But sure… who needs the humanities… 
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Whenever this comes up, folks are always on hand to helpfully remind everyone to “just turn up!” at the school boards and city meetings and so on.
One reason we’ve come to this pass is because the Dem establishment spent decades not showing up in support of liberal and progressive candidates for the boards on the assumption it was small time stuff that was beneath them.
Meanwhile, the Republicans at the national level were putting money and resources behind the candidates for dog-catcher, turning local races into farm-team tryouts and turning school board members into their shock troops.
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Even when conservatives and progressives show up to school board meetings in equal numbers the rage-fueled conservatives have the advantage because it takes fewer people to turn a civil gathering into a toxic one than it takes to turn a toxic gathering into a civil one. So the agenda ends up being set by those who thrive in a toxic environment.
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It’s true - they really do have an outsized impact in a lot of ways because they’re the ones being demanding, disruptive, violent, etc. - negative demands have more weight than positive ones. A small number of people making a lot of complaints get books removed (it doesn’t matter that they’re wildly outnumbered by people who want the books to stay). And generally, demands and protests and threats against events (e.g. drag queen story hour), specific books, librarians and library policy end up getting those things changed just through intimidation alone - the fear of disruption, much less violence, is enough.
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Which Amendment is it that making people “upset” or “guilty” from teaching facts is not allowed?
As a 14 year-old English kid in US High School History class I could have played havoc.
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May I make the predictably boring point that these people are very selective about the bits of the constitution they respect.
Send them some frozen peaches.
ETA Could someone write a kids book with an LGBQT+ theme all about social justice fighting fruits out to get the evil frozen peaches, and capturing them at assault rifle gunpoint on the last page, and call the book “Freeze! Peach!”
The irony when the fuckwits try to get it banned might just be worth it. (Is there a tongue in cheek emoji?)
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It finally arrived here. The mayor of a small town in the south of Brazil took some books from a library and put them in a trash can. She said She was protecting the city, the families etc.
[MP investiga prefeita de SC que fez vídeo simulando jogar livros de biblioteca pública no lixo | Santa Catarina | G1 (globo.com)]
Last year the government of this state made a list of books which should be banned. “Clockwork Orange”, “It”, Donnie Darko" and “Exorcism” are some of the titles. I think It was a crusade against the supernatural.
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