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By Caitlin O'Kane
September 20, 2022 / 4:09 PM / CBS News
The number of books banned in American school districts is increasing, a new report by PEN America has found. Between July 2021 and June 2022, books were banned 2,532 times in public schools across the U.S., according to the nonprofit, which works to defend free expression.
PEN American says 1,648 unique book titles were banned in that period. Between July 2021 and March 2022, PEN tracked 1,586 book bans. Since that report was published in April, 275 more book bans were recorded between April and June 2022.
Many books – 41% – that were banned included LGBTQ themes, protagonists or prominent secondary characters. A whopping 40% that were banned included people of color. Books with issues of race and racism (21%) and books with themes of rights and activism (10%) were also among those banned. About 22% of the books that were banned had sexual content. Biographies, autobiographies and stories about religious minorities are also on the list of banned books. ...
One of my neighbours, a right winger, is proud of the fact that she doesn't read books, not even any fiction. All she reads is facebook. She's actually one of my more reasonable neighbours. One of the first people I met when I moved to this wilderness spot in Australia that turned out to be a little slice of American style psychoville, is an anti-vax sovreign citizen who screamed in my face, calling me all sorts of names, when I politely disagreed with her about vaccines. After I de-escalated the situation I tried to explain scientific method to her, (I studied psychology). She actually refused to listen. She actually believed that listening to me explaining scientific method would contaminate her mind and push out "facts". I've got a hypothesis that a majority of these sort of conspiracy theorists and anti-science, anti-knowledge types suffer from undiagnosed and untreated personality disorders. She definately, in my opinion, has borderline personality disorder. Unfortunately, the rest of the people living around here are pretty much the same. I have really bad luck when it comes to neighbours.
Has anyone heard of the Fandom Forward group, formerly known as the Harry Potter Alliance? If you want to get actively involved in fighting against book banning and bigotry they've been fighting these issues for decades now. They were originally a fan club for the Harry Potter books. When Harry Potter started getting banned in American schools they took up activism. They also support LGBQT+ issues. That's why they changed their name to Fandom Forward after Rowling came out as a bigot. Most of the members are adults now but it open to kids and adults.
More evidence that faithfools are desperate. They know their numbers are decreasing rapidly……so they’re trying to spread fear. LOSERS.
Ban the Bible!
Ban the Torah!
Ban the Koran!
Who in their right minds want such filth on our bookshelves?
Now you're talking.
And ... you are afraid of other people thinking as well.
That is the real point. No reason for a fool to fear he will learn to think, but the fear his neighbors will learn to think is overwhelming.
There are banned book clubs springing up all over the country.
The majority are being started by students who live in districts where books have been banned.
The quickest way to get somebody, especially a kid, to do something is to tell them that they can't
True……just look at how successful the ‘War on drugs’ has been. (Sarcasm) and the failure of DARE, (Drug abuse resistance education) has been.
Again, without reading anything, I'm betting this is a Republican initiative and most of the books feature gays, minorities, and liberal thinking ideas.
These small-minded school boards do their students a grave disservice.
A coordinated effort nationwide by the far right to make their agenda of christian minority hate the rule of the land. Many of them think that reading a book about LGBTQ is going to make you LGBTQ. They can't accept that people are different than them and are trying to make them and all they stand for go away. The genie is out of the bottle (closet?), learn to accept it and make the world a better place.
Accept is something they will never do, and unfortunately the bigots can’t die off fast enough….
It is repeatedly demonstrated that the members of the groups who are coercing the removal of books from school and municipal libraries, haven't even read the books they're banning.
They’re all a bunch of fuckin’ loser assholes.
It's history being played over again. 'We don't like it, so it should be destroyed.' Will we ever learn to look at another's way of life, then say ' This is my I don't give a fuck face ---> ' I don't give one
what others may do or believe, and I get along with most of them. Read on!