Missouri's New Book Banning Bill Would Imprison Librarians And Defund Libraries

[Revoltingest]

Race and culture are two different things. I was a "rural white" most of my life, but I wasn't a willfully ignorant, insular fundie.

We must agree to disagree about the issue.
If the bill passes, we can re-visit the issue.

 

[metis]

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"Sponsored by minister and conservative Republican Rep. Ben Baker, the bill aims to create parental library review boards that would have immense power over what books would be allowed in state-funded libraries.

The elected, five-member panels would take suggestions from the public about what books to ban but ultimately would have control over which books are allowed in libraries. According to the law, any library that violates the law could be completely defunded and any librarians who try to circumvent it could face a $500 fine or up to a year in prison.

Baker added provisions that would allow the boards to remove anything they believe is “age-inappropriate sexual material.”

“This is a shockingly transparent attempt to legalize book banning in the state of Missouri. This act is clearly aimed at empowering small groups of parents to appoint themselves as censors over their state’s public libraries. Books wrestling with sexual themes, books uplifting LGBTQIA+ characters, books addressing issues such as sexual assault—all of these books are potentially on the chopping block if this bill is passed,” said James Tager, deputy director of Free Expression Research and Policy at PEN America, in a statement.

According to an interview with local Missouri news outlet The Springfield News-Leader, Baker wanted to write the bill after reading news reports of "drag queen story hours" that sometimes take place at public libraries.

The newspaper said libraries and public spaces in St. Louis and Kansas City have held these events, apparently enraging the conservative pastor and other religious groups.

“I’m trying to figure out a way for parents to have recourse if something's happened and actually the library board is saying 'Hey, we're OK with this' or even promoting it, which has happened,” Baker claimed.

Baker is well known in the state for pushing religiously backed bills, and last year he caused another firestorm with a bill that would have forced public schools to create Bible-based courses for K-12 students.

Librarians in the state, as well as LGBTQ activists, have come out fiercely against the bill, telling news outlets that it was tantamount to censorship. The drag queen story hours were a way for positive messages about LGBTQ people to be spread amongst young people, according to Shira Berkowitz, a spokeswoman for the LGBTQ advocacy group PROMO.

“We think that visibility is really, really important. Especially in a state where LGBTQ people can still be denied housing or fired because of who they are,” she told The Springfield News-Leader"
.source​

Thoughts?

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The only censorship I'm in favor of is when dealing with children, and that would entail keeping porn and overtly violent material away from them.

 

[Father Heathen]

Are they?
I look forward to your evidence.
But nonetheless, would problems originating in predominantly
black areas justify using insulting epithets for them? Nah.

I could criticize those who glorify gang culture for social attitudes that contribute to crime, but obviously such a group does not represent an entire race, nor does it exclusively include a single race.
Again, culture and race are two different things. Culture, which is a collection of beliefs, practices, ideas, attitudes, etc. shouldn't be above critique and scrutiny.

 

[Father Heathen]

The only censorship I'm in favor of is when dealing with children, and that would entail keeping porn and overtly violent material away from them.

Even then, that should be the parents' responsibility.

 

[metis]

Even then, that should be the parents' responsibility.

Ya, but if Mom & Dad ain't with Junior in the library, ...

 

[Kenny]

"She was told by one of the library attendants that . . . . ."
Hardly decent evidence, is it.

.,

Hardly!!! Forget they were pulling the books and giving them away... it is all just hearsay.

And, of course, your quote "The Springfield News-Leader"" should be a trusted site to give correct information...

with another headline like, ", we KNOW it is unbiased for sure Makes me wonder if you really did your homework.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

It is bigotry towards rural folk.
And since it's typically applied to rural whites
(like "redneck), it also smacks of racism.

Rural Indiana is very largely, mostly, and overwhelmingly white. You've seen where I used to live. Go around Alexandria or Elwood, it's even more white and they are actually racist there (still fairly racist in kokomo, as well) with the sundown town mentality still present to this day.
And have I mentioned they are big into inserting religion everywhere they can and begin anything public with prayer? And if you have a problem with it, you're the devil, you're legal points are discrimination against Christians, and it's just how they do things.
Tell them you're a draft dodger and they might tell you to leave like they did me for various bs reasons.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Race and culture are two different things. I was a "rural white" most of my life, but I wasn't a willfully ignorant, insular fundie.

Yay! We escaped from Hell!

 

[Twilight Hue]

I agree with you that banning Christian books is bad too. All book banning is bad. If I had kids I would encourage them to read both Christian apologetic and atheist books and make up their own minds for themselves.

Yeah I don't think books should be banned either and that includes the Bible, Mein Kampf, the Qur'an, Mark Twain, among numerous others that I can't think of at the moment.

The only exception will be perhaps elementary and middle school institutions where learning the basics should be the priority with the more advanced/controversial stuff left for later on.

 

[Revoltingest]

Tell them you're a draft dodger and they might tell you to leave like they did me for various bs reasons.

It's rare that anyone takes offense at my being a draft dodger.
The only such case I can remember is some liberal patriot
on the old History Channel forums. Usually, my being an
anti-government, gun owning, former weapon designer
smooths things over with right wing types.
Lefties....they can be so intolerant. They're the only ones
who ever give me s*** over things political. Judgie little
b****es.

 

[tas8831]

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"Sponsored by minister and conservative Republican Rep. Ben Baker...​

Thoughts?

.

My main thought is that this is why the descriptor "minister and conservative Republican" should be sufficient to disallow such folk from acquiring positions of authority in any level of government. History shows that, by and large, such people are not about serving their prescribed role, or serving their constituents, but are primarily focused on pushing their hideous agenda.

 

[tas8831]

It's rare that anyone takes offense at my being a draft dodger.
The only such case I can remember is some liberal patriot
on the old History Channel forums. Usually, my being an
anti-government, gun owning, former weapon designer
smooths things over with right wing types.
Lefties....they can be so intolerant. They're the only ones
who ever give me s*** over things political. Judgie little
b****es.

Lots of BS projection there.

It is pretty funny how the right fawns over the military, yet as long as one props up their failed ideologies, it is OK if they dodged military service. But a liberal that avoided military service? TRAITOR! COWARD! Righties are so predictable. And hypocritical.
They hate them some Bill Clinton, but love them some Rush Limbaugh.

 

[Revoltingest]

Lots of BS projection there.

I sense that I'm about to be on the receiving end of some.

It is pretty funny how the right fawns over the military, yet as long as one props up their failed ideologies, it is OK if they dodged military service. But a liberal that avoided military service? TRAITOR! COWARD! Righties are so predictable. And hypocritical.
They hate them some Bill Clinton, but love them some Rush Limbaugh.

I wasn't disappointed.

 

[Skwim]

My main thought is that this is why the descriptor "minister and conservative Republican" should be sufficient to disallow such folk from acquiring positions of authority in any level of government. History shows that, by and large, such people are not about serving their prescribed role, or serving their constituents, but are primarily focused on pushing their hideous agenda.

Yup.

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