Andreas H
Steven BeschlossWhen a school board, a library or a state bans books, it’s not a show of strength. It’s a sign they’re ruled by fear. Fear of knowledge. Fear of opposing views. Fear of democracy.
climate voter/degrowthist@StevenBeschloss Education should be about the pursuit of truth and the tools to evaluate information in its pursuit. Just simply erasing history is the fascist approach to education.
Anagram Man@StevenBeschloss
DeSantis needs to go ASAP
DeSantis needs to go ASAP
Big Head Tales@StevenBeschloss
#Republicans are trying to replace American democracy with their #FourthReich.
Patricia Kayden@StevenBeschloss It's a sign of fascism and that too many Americans are okay with fascism. It's frightening.
xs4me2@StevenBeschloss It is high time to stop them.
Extinction (our fate)@StevenBeschloss That's a nice analysis. But how can it be mobilized to disempower and/or change the people who are pushing for these bans?
Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe@StevenBeschloss fear of conflict
David@StevenBeschloss Are the schools going to give equal time to non-lbtgqrdpcvhzxykm+ issues?
Catmama 🐈
michi@StevenBeschloss Wouldn't it be nice if we had more critical thinkers who valued knowledge?
m3enzo@StevenBeschloss History repeats itself.
R@StevenBeschloss I think that this is about the control of thought.
For years we've heard many on the right paranoidly claiming that colleges, and sometimes primary schools, were brainwashing children to be Marxists, anarchists, gay, atheist, and anti-American. Now they are choosing to do what they believe is a reversal of that action: censorship and social engineering through the control over access to information and speech in their favor.
KingOfHearts@StevenBeschloss If you can’t abide the dark side of your history, and you can’t ignore it, just erase it.
JohnW@StevenBeschloss Knowledge is their enemy.
bichael@StevenBeschloss I agree with you. I serve as a library commissioner in the fortunately more tolerant San Francisco Bay Area. But what is the solution in regards to dealing with such school boards, libraries, or states? Or those that simply preach "alternative facts" aka lies?
(On a not unrelated note, I very much enjoy your wise and thoughtful expressions on the media.)
Stug@StevenBeschloss
They are afraid of the future.
Unless something they really don't like looks inevitable then they have no reason to do what they're doing. All they can manage is to slow down what's coming
They are afraid of the future.
Unless something they really don't like looks inevitable then they have no reason to do what they're doing. All they can manage is to slow down what's coming
Yo Mismo 
@StevenBeschloss what about banning mastodon instances?
Big Dan T@yomismo @StevenBeschloss I new to mastodon so I missed where they are banning books for a entire state, o r anywhere. Did I miss something or is this just another false “what about ism”?
@biddant @StevenBeschloss there are many books in the world, Mein Kampf is one of them, there has been a mastodon instance lately that has been banned from other instances because of some antisemitism comments. I do not understand why books must not be banned while other opinion forums are.
I'm against any kind of opinion banning , though I am against misinformation.
Banning either books or opinions is not the way to go, no matter what those books or opinions are.
Chusi
ofa_jeremy@StevenBeschloss Fear of change.
Khae Thano@StevenBeschloss Someone in a debate argued that it was okay to burn books that contained misinformation on a topic according to a class/someone, as had been the case for a long time. He equated this with drugs, being harmful substances that negatively impact society, the most appropriate thing is to burn them, so they burn books so that there is such a negative impact. Doesn't mean I agree with this analogy, but I found it interesting and shared
Z@StevenBeschloss what about books that have no real knowledge in them? Like books of climate change deniers, or conspiracy theorists? Those arguably do more harm than good.
@smicur @StevenBeschloss yes but those aren’t what DeSantis is banning. Those are the “good” books. They are pushing back on “wokeness”. See the difference?
Riedler@StevenBeschloss I agree in this case, but also I think Mein Kampf should be banned (as it is here in Austria afaik) and I'm not sure where to draw the line.
Alan Martello@StevenBeschloss fear of losing power they believe is rightfully theirs
Tom Whittaker@StevenBeschloss So you would be okay with these books being available to middle school age children?
https://13wham.com/news/local/pittsford-schools-to-evaluate-select-books-amid-concerns
Emile Snyder@StevenBeschloss fear that things will not go their way and they will have to change.
Threadbane@StevenBeschloss It's theocracy in action. Xianity is indistinguishable from Islam in this regard.
Sleepy@StevenBeschloss It’s funny, a lot of my favorite books are on the ban list and I own a copy of them. Good luck trying to prevent my kids from reading these if they have interest.
@StevenBeschloss It’s sad because the children are suffering by being turned away from classic literature. Education is taking a major hit over this matter. Don’t force them to read the material but don’t block them from it either. If one doesn’t like it, don’t read it. Don’t ruin it for everyone.
Darwin Woodka@StevenBeschloss Fear of their kids learning to read
Jeff@StevenBeschloss and fear of knowledge.
@StevenBeschloss Have ya seen Idiocracy? We are getting closer every day!