“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, and intolerable...” ― H.L. Mencken.
The American Library Association has just released preliminary 2022 data on book bans in America. Here is an excerpt from the release.
“Eight months into 2022, the number of attempts to ban or restrict library resources in schools, universities, and public libraries, is on track to exceed record counts from 2021, according to preliminary data released today by the American Library Association (ALA) in advance of Banned Books Week (Sept. 18-24).
Between January 1 and August 31, 2022, ALA documented 681 attempts to ban or restrict library resources, and 1,651 unique titles were targeted. In 2021, ALA reported 729 attempts to censor library resources, targeting 1,597 books, which represented the highest number of attempted book bans since ALA began compiling these lists more than 20 years ago.
Americans have won 13 Nobel literature prizes in Literature. Writers who wrote in English have received 32. But to a conservative, it is critical that any ideas, which do not fit with their whitewashed version of society and its history are banned, burned, and discarded.
Fascists cannot risk independent, critical thinkers challenging their comfortable ideas of race and gender superiority. The citizens cannot be allowed to see “the other” as human beings.
The Nazis demonized Jews, gays, communists, unionists, and gypsies as subhuman. Communists once warned of capitalist dogs. Conservatives once warned of the Red Menace. And today’s GOP has picked up the mantle and reduced the LGBTQ+ community, refugees, and undocumented aliens to pariahs.
The truth is the truth, regardless of whatever fearmonger would have the base believe. Fearful and narrow-minded conservatives can burn all the books they want, but
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America was a full partner in the slave trade. Southern whites fought a war to preserve slavery. And for a century ex-slaves and their descendants were subject to the despicable official racism of Jim Crow laws. And state politicians are still trying to keep minorities out of the ballot box.
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Gays and lesbians exist. Some children are born with genitalia that does not jibe with their psychological sex. Some people’s gender is not binary. Gender reassignment counseling, hormones, and surgeries are not “mutilation”.
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Conversion therapy is child abuse. And rapists do not put on dresses to assault women in public bathrooms.
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“Abstinence-only” sex-ed and purity pledges do not stop kids from having sex. But they do increase unwanted pregnancies and STIs.
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There is no “gay agenda." Schools are not indoctrinating kids. And CRT is not taught in K-12.
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Evolution is as solid a scientific theory as the theory of gravity. Climate change is real, human-caused, and will be devastating if not addressed. Burning shit is not the future. Alternate and renewable energy is.
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The Founders did not create The United States as a religious country. It was not grounded in Judeo/Christian values (Whatever those are. They never say.) Liberals are not persecuting Christians. No one is planning a Bible or gun grab. There are thousands of opinions on the nature of God. Jesus was a person of color. The little mermaid can be any damn race you like — as can Santa Claus.
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Armed guards and armored schools will not stop gun massacres. The AR-15 is a war weapon, not a “modern sporting rifle” and it is rarely used to hunt. Sensible gun measures will reduce gun violence.
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School shootings are real — there are no “crisis actors”.
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Tax cuts on the rich do not benefit the poor. Low corporate tax rates do not create jobs. Biden is not increasing taxes on the middle class.
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God is not mad at America. We are not in Christian end times. And predictions of our imminent demise at the hands of the Divine are crap.
- Elvis is dead. So is JFK Jr. And the Clintons never killed anyone.
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.” ― H.L. Mencken.
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Undocumented foreigners are no more like to commit crimes than natives. They do not come here for handouts. And they work by the millions in jobs Americans will not do.
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A border wall will not stop the flood of drugs into America or keep foreigners out.
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QAnon is bullshit - as are the global Jewish banker takeover, the Illuminati, and the New World Order. The United Nations is not going to change the US land use policy.
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There is no deep state. Muslim terrorists are responsible for 9/11 — not the government or Jews. And FEMA has no death camos in abandoned Walmarts.
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Ukraine is not led by NAZIs.
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The COVID vaccination is not microchipped. The MMR vaccine does not cause autism. Bill Gates is not practicing genocide. And the government, while it often gets things wrong, is not deliberately lying to the people.
- Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. And Democrats did not rig the 2020 election.
But if you listen to conservative politicians. All of the above is a liberal plot. To them, truth is not independent or absolute, but it is whatever they say it is. And they are bowdlerizing school curriculums and banning books to keep America’s youth from knowing that.
It is not someone’s fault if they are born with a low IQ — half of Americans have one of 99 or less — but it is a sin to choose to be ignorant. And raise ignorant children.