New wave of bills targeting libraries is ‘a threat to our democracy,’ American Library Association warns

Additional_Prune@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 453 points –
New wave of bills targeting libraries is ‘a threat to our democracy,’ American Library Association warns
nbcnews.com

The association, founded in 1876, condemned legislation that would threaten librarians and other educators with criminal prosecution for possessing “obscene” material.

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What happened to freedom of speech? Personal accountability? Basic fucking parenting?

Let's not pretend censorship is new. People who are old enough remember Tipper Gore and Frank Zappa arguing over music censorship.

This is even dumber, since we have the internet now. Whatever these folks think kids are being exposed to by books, well uh, there's some more stuff on the internet they might be worried about.

Censorship is ridiculous on all forms of communication. Kids will find it if they want to.

Of course, I'm pointing out the additional level of absurdity performed by the censors in this case

yeah Frank Zappa released an instrumental album with "Parental Advisory Explicit Lyrics" on it in response.

the oligarchs who run the country don't want those things...

They don't give a shit. No one with any money cares if a 15 year old is jerking it. This is Christianity plain and simple.

Authoritarians want to watch us poop and have intercourse. They also want to count how many times we masturbate. That is the authoritarian sickness.

Authoritarians want to watch us poop and have intercourse. They also want to count how many times we masturbate. That is the authoritarian sickness.

What happened to freedom of speech?

Doesn't apply to school libraries. Would you be okay with having Hustler magazines at your local library?

Personal accountability? Basic fucking parenting?

What kind of parenting are you referring to? Do you expect parents to hold their kids' hands all day at school?

i expect them to trust their kids and not try to micromanage the entire country because the don't.

Wait, so are parents supposed to have "personal responsibility" or are they supposed to "trust their kids"?

are those mutually exclusive? i didn’t find them to be. as with every single thing, you have to be attentive and responsive to the actual kids and situation. those change as time goes on…

I don't know, really. You speak in vague generalities and I don't know what you're actually trying to say.

Tf school are you seeing do that? Honestly.

I didn't see any school do that. That's not the point. The point is, if it were in schools, would that be considered "freedom of speech"?

And if not, then we've established that "freedom of speech" does not protect pornographic content in children's public libraries.

How is it relevant if it isn't happening???

It's relevant because the question is not about what type of books are being "banned" but whether "freedom of speech" preserves the right to stock whatever books you want in a public school library.

If hustler releases a text only version of their magazines, that should be allowed.

There is no reason to restrict information.

There is a reason to restrict nude pinups, as there is not an educational purpose to them, they are entertainment.

There is no reason to restrict non-sexual depictions of nudity.

There is no reason to restrict sexual depictions of nudity, if the depiction supports a narrative of conflict resolution, safety, or another educational purpose.

If hustler releases a text only version of their magazines, that should be allowed.

In elementary schools? With children. Well that's certainly an interesting take.

There is no reason to restrict information.

Strange, all sorts of other information is restricted from children by law...

There is no reason to restrict non-sexual depictions of nudity.

Some of these books have graphical depictions of sexual acts. I'm not sure why anyone would think that's something important to have in a school library or programme.

I said

if the depiction supports a narrative of conflict resolution, safety, or another educational purpose.

The article says

“We’re seeing attempts by advocacy groups to file criminal charges against librarians and educators for books that they would like to see out of the library, and over and over again, these prosecutors decline to prosecute because there is absolutely no evidence that the books meet the most minimal standards for obscenity under the Miller Test,” she said.

The Miller Test is the U.S. Supreme Court’s legal test to determine what works are obscene. A book, a picture or a film is classified as obscene if it “describes or shows sexual conduct in a patently offensive way” or “lacks serious literary, artistic, political, educational, or scientific value.”

Libraries also serve highschools.

This article is completely age appropriate for a teenager even if it's above your reading level.

Yes because courts and judges never cater to the demands of their political friends. And politicians never do things for no reason other than to spite "the other side".

This article is completely age appropriate for a teenager

THAT IS LITERAL PORNOGRAPHY. I FEEL LIKE I'M TAKING CRAZY PILLS.

This text is pornography? It's candid, and it's opinionated in that it's pointedly describing how women's rights are being eroded.

With increasing attacks on reproductive rights, demand for emergency contraception among women is surging—and if guys are smart, they’ll gladly offer to cover the cost of it.

If ever there was a near-perfect business model in the United States designed around sex, it was the pharmaceutical industry wagering on drunk and horny people engaging in wild, sloppy, unprotected porking and instantly regretting it. Since forever ago, the coital community has been making questionable decisions with even more questionable people and the outcome, at least for a time, often resulted in some snot-nosed kid that nobody wanted being brought into the world nine months later. And while abortion was once common practice in the Land of the Free, increasing laws against terminating pregnancies, including the recent reversal of Roe v. Wade, has given women fewer choices after some guy they hardly know glazes their ovaries in the heat of the moment. Thankfully, along the Walk of Shame is a local pharmacy where any adult woman can purchase emergency contraceptives, such as Plan B—aka the “morning-after” pill—eliminating any possibility that some unwanted rug rat is going to come crawling from her snatch.

For the time being, anyway. Unfortunately, an alarming number of politicians at the state and federal level are presently dabbling in some bizarre, extremist God-fearing ethos that seems to have been stolen from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, one that contends that women must have the babies they make, even if it was because they were raped by their drunken uncle. No doubt, right-wing politicians are waging war against emergency contraceptives, with the U.S. Supreme Court announcing recently that it plans to hear a case that could lead to a ban of the FDA-approved abortion drug mifepristone. So, a lot more women are taking advantage of Plan B while they still can. Recent research shows that demand for emergency contraception has surged in the United States in recent years, presumably because nobody with a pussy wants to take the chance of finding out they are with child, just to have Uncle Sam’s zealotry-inspired overstep force them to give birth.

“It’s cheaper than raising a kid for the next 18 years,” Sasha, a 22-year-old student at the University of Toledo, tells HUSTLERMagazine.com.

Of course, emergency contraceptives are certainly cheaper than bringing up children or paying 18-plus years of child support, for that matter, but these drugs are still plenty expensive. Considering that Plan B can cost as much as $50, enough clumsy copulation can break the bank for those trying to pay rent and even eat on occasion. “It was super expensive [for me] back in college,” reports Laura, a 34-year-old chef, who like a lot of women her age did some sexual exploration during those years of academia.

This text is fine.

The images around the text are absolutely pornography, if you can't make the distinction between words and pictures you do need help.

I can read just fine, thank you.

The images around the text are absolutely pornography, if you can't make the distinction between words and pictures you do need help.

I can make the distinction just fine but it's completely irrelevant, considering they're on the same page...

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More apt is that knowledge and learning is a threat to "their" particular brand of democracy. So let us hassle and hobble libraries (with the ultimate goal of shutting them down) under the pretext of "obscene material".

"Hey we have this commercial library opening up you can read books by the chapter renting each chapter is really inexpensive."

I can see the writing on the wall.

Freedom! DEMOCRATS are Cancelling things!

Funny that the association was founded in 1876 when that's the century being emulated by banning "obscene" material.