A new book ban goes into effect in Idaho on July 1.
House Bill 710, a key political win for the Idaho Family Policy Center (IFPC), is targeted at books with Black, feminist or LGBTQ+ themes. It allows any person affiliated with a student at a public or private school to sue its library for carrying a book with “obscene materials.”
The policy defines obscene materials as any literature containing nudity or homosexuality.
While the Bible contains each of these concepts in both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, it does not seem that Christian and Jewish texts were the intended target of the ban, but rather books written by queer or Black authors.
IFPC voiced its opposition to The Handmaid’s Tale, the popular dystopian novel criticizing fascism and misogyny, on June 7 after it was removed from the Idaho Fine Arts Academy school library.
Governor Brad Little [R] signed the policy in April, saying that the bill would keep children from reading harmful materials.
The Idaho Library Association is against the bill and says it is harmful to young people, librarians and LGBTQ+ people.
Idaho’s education system ranked 47th in a January analysis of state education levels conducted by Scholaroo.
It’s amazing how you always know you are on the wrong side of history when it comes to this. Did you ban a book? Yes? Ok you know where you are now.
Like everything else there is wiggle room, or you could have been dealing with a no-good alternatives situation, but this one test is absolute. You can make a moral justification for temporary slavery, say your nation is being invaded by people willing to genocide your population and you really need people to work for the war effort. Slavery is often considered the ultimate evil but there still exists situations where you could argue it needs to happen for a little while.
You just can never find a situation where ideas were dangerous and must be abolished from a person’s head. Heresy is always a victimless crime. It does nothing to anyone else that someone commits wrong-think.
I just find this astonishing. Every other sin of the human race there is some crazy horrible circumstances that I can say it has to be this way because as bad as it is not doing it is worse. Except for one.
Not sure how to react to a neo-nazi book club at the local high school doing membership drives though. There are always going to be people, regardless of society’s guidance and teachings, who are extra susceptible to that kind of shit.
I think free speech absolutism leads to tolerating the intolerant, which just doesn’t work when you are dealing with imperfect primate neurological evolution. People experience the uncaring universe, and our brains struggle to identify the complex and nuanced systems at the root of strife, causing them to look for simpler answers (Jewish space lasers vs. incomprehensible market interactions that over-exploit delicate ecosystems causing droughts). Our brains are set up to tackle problems at smaller scales, and what better way than scapegoating can you reduce a root cause to be more manageable? Mental gymnastics only have to be done once.
You can educate most people to equip them to defeat neo-nazi rhetoric logically, but humans cannot be programmed with the right answers and society will always produce some fuck-ups. Is it easier to prevent a new member of a hate group by banning their ideas, or let them ruin an innocent life and attempt to rehab them after?
Neither group reads books.
Well aware. Freedom has a price. There will always be people who will eat or lazy themselves into an early grave for example.
Right so you personally know the truth and you have a right to stop other people from reading what you think is wrong because people dumber than you might fall for. Is that a good summary?
That is a perfect summary! I do not trust the general public with neo-nazi propaganda, and have no qualms with banning it. Time has proven that dumb people are going to read it and drag down the rest of us. Nobody should be arguing with them at this point in history. The 1990’s and 2000’s were proving grounds for free speech absolutism for dumbasses, and it has failed miserably with the far-right power grabs that have been happening since. I want a better society, not a perfect one.
Guess I was too subtle.
More likely that you don’t know the meaning of the word “subtle.”
Sure, but at least I am not a book burner.
Fair enough.