Originally published at: Some light book-burning in Chagrin Falls, USA | Boing Boing
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The last panel of this comic has the solution. E-book purveyors, like Amazon, should make “banned books” available for free download to students. I know that every student does not a reader or phone, but it would at least be a start and maybe there could be a loaner program for e-readers at libraries.
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I’m sorry but Bari Weiss, Bret Stephens, and countless other NY Times Opinion Section writers have made it clear that the only threat to books is a nefarious conspiracy of two sophomores at Oberlin and a Columbia grad student pushing for people to stop putting Marilyn Manson on their Spotify playlists.
NY Times political reporter Jeremy Peters has done extensive interviews of people who are in no ways GOP activists openly lying to him about being Democrats, and Peters is convinced Republicans aren’t interested in banning books.
And NY Times front page staple Michael Powell is dedicated to the free speech beat and he is only able to find problems asserted without proof to him by disgruntled parents of kids at elite NYC private schools about something something diversity.
There is no campaign attacking the First Amendment by the right. Although if there was, craven denial of that campaign by countless NY Times writers would surely protect the NY Times from any repercussions. There is no way the GOP might crack down on them, right? Nobody can see that coming.
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And Bradbury wasn’t EVEN credited
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We live in an era where the GOP is trying to seize electronic voter data to pursue bogus criminal cases and retaliate against people who vote for Democrats.
How safe will download data be? How long before downloads are cross referenced to public school locations and English teachers are fired when there are 20 possible downloads of 1984 by area students?
There is no easy technical solution. The only answer is a public backlash against the specific people banning books.
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Probably never. They have already recuperated that book so that Orwell’s actual politics are never mentioned.
20 possible downloads of Homage To Catalonia on the other hand…
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“Some LIGHT book-burning…”
I see what you did there.
Like the “45” design on the “fireman’s” hat. You should copyright it.
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I’m wearing one of my library shirts today: “The worst thing about censorship is ■■■■■ ■■■■■”
eta: Best use I’ve found yet of that little BB tic!
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I find your argument to be delightfully ■■■■■.
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Note how the 45 on the helmet kinda looks like a swastika. Subtile.
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There very much is…
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Trump-MAGA Governmental Consultancies (GREEN) Inc.[1], acting on behalf of The Right-Sized Government of the United States of America, wishes it to be known that President Trump had not read any books by Ray Bradbury before deciding on this policy.
Indeed, Trump-MAGA Governmental Consultancies (GREEN) Inc. is proud to present many, many witnesses who are willing to testify in court that President Trump has never a Ray Bradbury book. And in some cases people willing to testify that he has not read any books at all.
You have been automatically billed by Trump-MAGA Governmental Consultancies (GREEN) Inc. for reading this message.
[1] Please note that Trump-MAGA Governmental Consultancies (GREEN) Inc. is currently less than 60 days away from its scheduled yearly bankruptcy. If you are replying to this message on or after that bankruptcy, please address your message to Trump-MAGA Governmental Consultancies (BLUE) Inc., which will be receiving all assets and rights of Trump-MAGA Governmental Consultancies (GREEN) Inc., with no liabilities - tax or otherwise - as per the Presidential Companies Act of 2024. If your query is regarding a debt, liability or tax, please call your nearest Mexican Embassy or Consulate quoting “WALL”. Thank you for your time reading this important note, for which you have also been automatically billed.
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How the hell do yo know my password???
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m o i s t m o i s t?
I don’t get it.
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No, I’m sorry, when the NY Times assigns front page space to poorly researched, biased assertions by Michael Powell about how the biggest threat to the First Amendment is a ritzy Manhattan private school teacher’s reading assignment, clearly that’s the only place where we should be paying attention.
The only reason the NY Times would be making that kind of assignment of resources and page space is genuine threat level, and not some kind of ideological bias and class loyalty.
It’s just as valid as letting Bret Stephens use his prominent soap box to accuse a Jewish professor of using Gestapo tactics when the professor tweeted to his few dozen followers a joke about Stephens being a bedbug.
Clearly the NY Times is correct to minimize the open fascism in the GOP and let Stephens promote a completely reasonable equivalency. I mean, one of their readers might not get their kid off the waitlist for Dartmouth despite making a $100K donation to grease the skids.
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The right wing are very much trying to ban books. They are trying to burn books. Whatever the NYT might be doing, that doesn’t mean it’s not true. 
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Wait, you weren’t being sarcastic? Seriously, wtf are you talking about? I’m not even going to go on one of my usual link-tornadoes because… seriously?
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I’m getting that because the NYT has lots of questionable editorial decisions, that there is no right wing attack on books in schools… Which is not true. It very obviously is happening.
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Bullshit. There is no threat from the left.
I live on TERF island, and the press here are in the middle of a manufactured moral panic where trans people can not get coverage without having ten transphobic voices speaking against them. Sometimes they don’t even bother getting the trans person’s opinion, then lie about how no trans people want to talk to them (Hello, BBC).
Yet, somehow, we’re the ones silencing people.
This is just reheated Zentrumism from the 1930s. Those of us who would have been victims back then (The Berlin book burnings in 1933 were partly of the research done for and by trans people) will not forget this, and we will not forgive easily.
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