A HS student to their TX school board, which is banning books:

“I’m not going to sit here and talk about the slippery slope that book banning leads to because I learned from a book, that I checked out from my school’s library, that I don’t need to resort to logical fallacy to make a point. I’m simply going to say that no government – and public school is an extension of government – has ever banned books, and banned information from its public, and been remembered in history as the good guys.”

A Children’s Biography About Michelle Obama Among The Books Texas Parents Want To Ban

White, conservative backlash is being propped up by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who is calling for criminal charges against school staff for providing children with certain books.

Essence
@bodhipaksa awful. I was glad when my child was in grade school, Rosa Parks visited and she got her book autographed. Always taught love and acceptance of all. In high school, there was GLSEN which we supported. No banning books or films and we live in a conservative town. I don’t understand the book banning. Thankfully, our Governor wouldn’t do that.
@strong_sue @bodhipaksa but…the next one might!

@reardon15 @bodhipaksa I checked. The last one did unfortunately. It prohibits the use of sexually explicit material in schools except if “The exempted material possesses serious educational value for minors or possesses serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.” And parental consent is given.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona-education/2022/10/02/arizona-school-book-bans-what-know-house-bill-2495/10454106002/

What to know about a new Arizona law and how it could ban books in school libraries

The bill, sponsored by Jake Hoffman, requires Arizona schools to get parental approval to teach books or other material that make references to sex.

The Arizona Republic
@strong_sue @bodhipaksa why would such materials be in public schools anyway?

@reardon15 @strong_sue "Such materials"? It sounds like you're assuming there is some merit in these bannings.

The purposes of the current rounds of book bannings are 1) to stop kids being aware of racism. 2) To ban any mention of sexual orientations except straightness. 3) To make the claim that teachers are sexually "grooming" kids, in order to undermine faith in the public education system.

It's a dishonest attempt at authoritarian social control.

@bodhipaksa @reardon15 @strong_sue

Fortunately the law of unintended consequences makes it much more likely that the books banned in Florida schools will be read, see the Streisand effect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect

Streisand effect: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia