“The dumbing down of America is evident in the slow decay of substantive content, a kind of celebration of ignorance.”
Carl Sagan
thanks, sagan ;) what a cool guy
At a board meeting in October, one angry resident claimed her personal survey of the teen section revealed 60% of the books were “witchcraft.” Another said Gillette’s library had become an “indoctrination center.”
No one should listen to these lunatics. Sadly, they make it imperative that we pay very. Lose attention.
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I don’t think privatization of public goods is the best answer for this. I’d rather not let these individual private entities have so much power over a public resource. Don’t want to read it, fine. It’s not like they’ve got the Anarchist Cookbook for next week’s bookclub.
Also, if public knowledge is privatized and kept from these groups, it’d give them a more substantial platform to say they’re being marginalized and the system is working against them. The answer is to make sure youth are truly educated, and not simply indoctrinated into the ways of thinking their parents were. The youth needs to be taught how to form their own opinions rather than regurgitate whatever bs they have been fed
As an outsider I’m always amazed at that “land of the free” that is insistent on censoring stuff, and “home of the brave” that will run through the mud someone standing for freedom and having principles.
Once you realize that there are actually two Americas occupying the same geographic space, then everything makes more sense.
Only two? I thought we were more divided than that by now
I’m always amazed that people seem to think the USA is a monolith.
Why, because I said something is happening in the USA, you inferred that I said it’s happening everywhere in it, at all time? What amaze me is people that can derive immediate generalization from a single statement.
Here’s what you actually said:
As an outsider I’m always amazed at that “land of the free” that is insistent on censoring stuff, and “home of the brave” that will run through the mud someone standing for freedom and having principles.
Yes. I know. I was there. Are you implying that none of these things I said happened in the USA happened in the USA? Because, they did happen, and it was there. Kind of like what I said and you helpfully quoted.
My turn. Here’s what you actually said:
I’m always amazed that people seem to think the USA is a monolith.
Feel free to point where I said the USA is a monolith. Because while I did say that these horrible thing did happen in the USA, and that the USA is known to be “land of the free, home of the brave”, at no point I said, implied, or subtly hinted at that this was representative of the USA as a whole.
Your phrasing does in fact imply that it’s commonplace and widespread. For example:
that “land of the free” that
and
[that] “home of the brave” that
These phrasings can only refer to the country as a whole.
Your interpretation is yours, and yours only, don’t push it onto others.
Reposting my comment from a while ago, with some edits:
The library I work at has had Moms for Liberty attend several meetings demanding we withdraw books that are against their beliefs, no specific titles, just a general demand. This would include anything on LGBTQ+, children’s books with rainbows, our Banned Books display, and anything promoting voting and civics education. More recently, they want us to stop holding some events, including adult focused events about race relations in the Midwest, and we should no longer host any programs funded by State and Federal grants. Lastly, they have said we need to stop allowing the staff from joining ALA or the state library association.
If any of these restrictions or censorship upsets you at all, please attend a library board meeting and voice your support for the library. Some even let you write in. Groups like MFL make it a point to attend a lot of the meetings in hopes to get their way, and it’s working.
Similarly, I attend my local govt meetings each month to stay informed on this kind of stuff TBH. Can’t have these groups stunting communities and local public services to align with their twisted beliefs
As a side note… It is kinda depressing how my local community of 11k people only have at most 2 civillians besides myself attending the meetings. Do people really not care about where they live, and the local public services? The bus service here has almost been scrapped TWICE as one example, and right now a neighboring local govt is helping to pay for it for now. It won’t last for long, but you can be sure as heck people will complain when they’ve got to drive or uber into an already traffic clogged city due to the absence of public transit.
Not enough people attend to make a case to keep services and things in a sane condition, compared to organised twisted groups who make convincing cases for the wrong things.
I think its often less about not caring, and more not having the energy, or not believing it would do any good.
This is definitely part of it. Meetings are usually at 5pm but I have seen some start at 7pm and go on for hours, looking at you budget hearings. These are important; however, the information is usually in a giant PDF or print only. I think the other part of the equation is how the municipality communicates and engages with its population.
As a librarian, I want to help with organizing the information and make it available in different formats, but it takes a lot of buy in from elected officials and other departments. Not saying that’s how all local governments work, it’s just my experience with a couple.
On a side note, Data Governance and Analytics now falls under my department. This thread just gave a goal for next year, just got to figure out how to word it.
The library I work at has had Moms for Liberty attend several meetings (…) they want us to stop holding some events, including adult focused events about race relations in the Midwest
Uh, sorry, what the FUCK? They can’t be more obvious than this.
They were arguing that teens would show up, because we don’t prevent them from attending the event. This would lead to awkward conversations that the MFL group members are not ready to have as parents.
I don’t know what universe they live in, it’s hard enough to get teens to attend programs that are focused towards them let alone something like this.
My wife is a library administrator, and getting our teen daughter to go to the library is like pulling teeth. They have a teen room and everything.
My fiance is also a librarian in the midwest and your experiences seems to mirror his. We’re trying but it’s an uphill battle.
Idk who told conservatives about libraries but if we had just kept quiet about them they never would have even realized they still existed.
Now they are complaining about libraries having books in them. They won’t be happy until they are empty concrete rooms. Such a pitiful shame they can’t see the objective value of libraries.
Cletus don’t need no damn booklernin!
Cletus does sound similar to something they can’t find. Maybe we should rename libraries after him.
You’re more right than you may know. Conservatives in Houston are forcing several schools to convert their libraries into basically just detention halls.
Sounds like we should come up with a new name for libraries… lol
I dont understand, like how is the government compelled to break its own laws. Isnt library under free speech. I dont understand how such a failure of our institutions was able to happen.
It’s been a long and protracted fight. The Know Your Enemy podcast is a good place to revisit historical conservatism.
It’s a topic I care about so I’ll definitely start loading myself up on walking material.
That said, there’s over 100 episodes and they’re quite lengthy. Are there any episodes that stood out to you?
It’ll all come with time, but I’d ideally like to prioritize what you felt had more impact or potential, if you recall at all.
The Rush Limbaugh ep is probably as good a place to start as any. That man had an outsized influence on conservative tactics.
A few things
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Some library boards, directors, and even librarians themselves, against all reason, are on the same page as these psychos about banning books. Especially boards.
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Millages. Libraries need the approval of the residents in their service area, or they won’t get money and will have to close.
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A lot of this is shut down by formal processes. The library I work for has had emails and phone calls about our materials, but zero formal requests to review any specific books. They want to make the noises they need to make to fit in with the culture, but don’t want to actually stick their necks out by doing something like filing paperwork with their name on it.
It’s a sticky situation, but unless you’re in a deep red area, you’re probably fine. My collections include graphic novels, so I have their main target, Gender Queer, in there, and I haven’t to take any action regarding it being challenged. I’m ready for when I do, though.
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Whenever I see people trying to remove books about minorities conservatives hate, I check the catalogue of the library in question.
Sure is funny how often there’s a copy of Mein Kampf on the shelves that no conservative ever has any problem with.
The moment you bring up Mein Kampf with these people the 1st amendment suddenly is the most important thing they can think of and can’t be amended to exclude anything evil because muh freedums
I remember reading a gay coming-of-age book about a young man struggling to find *out who he was, and communicate that to his traditional father.
I’m not even LGBTQ+, but that book was incredible, and I learned a lot from it…
Librarians are heroes, so of course the GOP treats them like dirt.
This sucks. I have a spot on my shelf reserved for banned books. Whenever I used to see a new banned book pop up in the news, I’d go grab a copy. It happens so often now I can’t keep up anymore. I hope the librarian lands on their feet maybe moves to an area that appreciates the amazing service they’re providing.
Conservatives have chosen a really sustainable political path with these culture wars: https://www.axios.com/2022/02/17/lgbtq-generation-z-gallup
What’s really fucking aggravating is that conservatives will see the increasing percentages of LGBTQ individuals and think children have been indoctrinated, not the reality that more people are finally comfortable being themselves without the vitriol against them and the consequences of coming out.
You think “sustainable” is in their vocabulary? Under pretty much every aspect, they care about now, period.
Quick, save the kids ! They cannot know how to make babies ! it’s not, uh… natural ! or something
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Fascist USA
Since when does a town have the authority to fire a librarian?
Libraries are typically public institutions funded and run by the towns they are in.
Most public libraries in the US are owned and operated by the local town or county government.
Another said Gillette’s library had become an “indoctrination center.”
You know where we can start indoctrination of teens? A place they’re guaranteed to go and want to use? Libraries.
