myrmepropagandist

This whole book banning thing, Moms of 'Liberty' the pulling of school libraries, turning school libraries into detention centers.

It's obviously all connected & 'concerns' about trans people and CRT are just excuses to make the policy go down more smoothly with the public. To make the debate a mess, emotionally charged & awkward.

The real goal is obvious: Limit the exposure of young people to libraries. It's a war on libraries.

And I've been too shocked to really process what that means.

Sep 10, 2023 at 12:17pmWeb
Show threadJadeRobinSep 10, 2023

@futurebird I feel that going after libraries is just one vector of the attack on education. They want to limit people's access to ideas/info that is inconvenient to the right's goals.

It's hard to fight for a world you can't imagine.

Show threadJW prince of CPHSep 10, 2023
@JadeRobin @futurebird - but not impossible, which is why the oppression will eventually fail anyway. We still shouldn't make it easy for them though.
Show threadWilfried KlaebeSep 10, 2023
@JadeRobin "Fahrenheit 451" and "1984" combined.
@futurebird
Show threadMark W. AlexanderSep 10, 2023
@JadeRobin @futurebird
The primary purpose of #US #PublicSchools is to produce loyal, obedient laborers.
Show threadMAQSep 18, 2023
@JadeRobin @futurebird https://www.project2025.org/ You know they're just comforting to go to & use unless you have a dedicated office which I don't but wish I did. The link is detailing how aggressive these idiots are pushing to undo any progressive thought cuz they hate the phrase white guilt & evolving ease it is for the public to learn about the history of this country.
Project 2025 | Presidential Transition Project

Presidential Transition Project The 2025 Presidential Transition Project paves the way for an effective conservative Administration based on four pillars.

Project 2025 | Presidential Transition Project
Show threadSharon Gibson MorganSep 10, 2023

@futurebird This transformation of libraries is happening at public schools in Houston. The state has taken over HISD schools. Of course, the targeted schools have students who are predominantly Hispanic and African American. All in the name of "reform."

This transformation going on elsewhere as well?

Show threadsharpstickSep 10, 2023

@futurebird The tools of totalitarianism are fear, “righteous” anger and ignorance. They will brook no contradiction or grey areas of discussion. Books are conversations over time, ideas launched from one intelligence to another. In a library all of those conversations meet and overlap and compete.

There is another human proclivity that shares these tools, the religious compulsion. Which is something I am growing less and less enamored with every day as I become more and more convinced that knowledge and enlightenment are our only paths out of this tragedy.

As it is used today, to be woke, or awoken, is to be made aware of information/knowledge that you were previously ignorant to. You are exposed to new perspectives, new research, new experiences that differ from yours. This is the essence of education.

To be anti woke means to be anti education, anti intellectual and hence anti library.

Show threadCyber YukiSep 10, 2023

@sharpstick @futurebird We should fight with our own propaganda. Get creative. Make posters. Get them out.

"Nazis burned books yesterday. Today they ban them. The result is the same."

"We don't want another inquisition. Do you?"

"The same people who jailed gays are the same people who burned witches. (illustration of the Salem Witch trials) Say no to book bans."

"If these look similar, it's because they are." (side by side comparison between the Catholic Index Librorum Prohibitorum" and the "Banned books list" by conservatives). "SAY NO TO BOOK BANS."

"They're not here to protect families. They want to control what you think."

"Human rights are not up for debate. Say no to book bans."

(another image of Nazis burning books) "How is banning books 'freedom' at all?"

Show threadPhilipp Alexander VollmerSep 10, 2023

@futurebird

Ask your library to ban that book which describes the adventures of a young Jewish man, who never married, never had a child, had a temper and was a magician. He healed people by touching, conjuring food, living with twelve men and sleeping with them naked on the roof of the house, and was friends with a hooker.

Beside that, the first part of the book has a favorite view of slavery, slaughter and its main protagonist, a middle east deity, is the god of ISIS.

#bible

Show threadGatekeeper..Sep 10, 2023
@futurebird
Show threadAlonSep 10, 2023
@GatekeepKen @futurebird Ku Klux Karens is amazing.
Show threadGatekeeper..Sep 10, 2023

@Alon @futurebird

Twatzies...lol
Nikki Haley's backers..

Show threadAndii אַנדִֽיSep 10, 2023
@GatekeepKen @futurebird
so many of those are funny, it's hard to choose between them. I think my tops are Twatzies, Book Ban Barbies, Assholes with Casseroles and Klanned Karenhood. (The latter I'm more diffident about because I know people called Karen who aren't karens).
Show threadGatekeeper..Sep 10, 2023
@Andii @futurebird
So, it's not an attack on all people named Karen, but you didn't here it from me.
Show threadAndii אַנדִֽיSep 10, 2023
@GatekeepKen @futurebird
I hear you. Or rather I don't 😉
Show threadSuz KorbelSep 10, 2023
@futurebird yes, and it’s bigger than just limiting access to libraries. It is the strangulation of public education, and the commensurate breeding ground for far right political “Christian” soldiers running and winning school board seats. Long term building candidates for higher office who will channel all funds to private charters.
Show threadEmber? Sep 10, 2023
@futurebird when your whole narrative falls apart with education and critical thinking you start to fight real hard to suppress those things.
Show threadPeoriaBummerSep 10, 2023
@futurebird Are you telling me conservatives might not genuinely care about the sanctity of women’s sports?
Show threadËtikēmikSep 10, 2023
@futurebird The anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-black aspects aren’t just cover. True, they’re sweeteners for those who aren’t in the movement but share some of its worldview. Silencing voices that conflict with the right-wing indoctrination that true believers like MfR want the education system to purvey isn’t a by-product of PR, though. Their projects always stem from paranoia about a declining white birth-rate. Attacks on books with LGBTQ+ and black themes are therefore quite predictable.
Show threadMO SugermanSep 10, 2023
@futurebird I’ve heard people say that closing a library is how you burn books without lighting a match.
Show threadLikesOldMacsSep 10, 2023
@futurebird starting to think George Orwell was a time traveler sent to warn us, and not just a fiction writer.
Show threadLinebyline→mastoart.socialSep 10, 2023
@likesoldmacs @futurebird Dystopia writers are all like that. They don't predict things they think might happen; they follow the things they see already happening to their logical conclusion.
Show threadLikesOldMacsSep 10, 2023
@linebyline @futurebird very true! I've been lost in the "they're ruining our ability to use language" rabbit hole for too long now 🫠
Show threadChris McCabeSep 10, 2023
@futurebird https://www.spl.org/programs-and-services/teens/books-unbanned
Books Unbanned

Teens and young adults ages 13 to 26 living anywhere in the U.S. can access our entire collection of e-books and audiobooks.

Show threadnshrubsSep 10, 2023
@futurebird @lisamelton It's also a war against public ed. When you convince others that public ed is "failing", throw in bad tests for "accountability" & more convincing, then put in a voucher program that defunds public ed while giving public money to unregulated, unaccountable private schools, you can pick & choose who actually gets educated & the rest get trained for cheap labor. Look at the belief system of Betsy DeVos - that's Christian Dominionism in a nutshell. https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/iowa-view/2020/05/28/devos-aims-prop-up-religious-schools-expense-public-education/5268933002/
Betsy DeVos' endgame: Dismantle our public schools

She issued guidance that would redirect hundreds of millions of dollars of CARES Act funding to more affluent private schools.

The Des Moines Register
Show threadWoodswalkedSep 10, 2023

@Nshrubs

It is also a central example they decry as “tax and spend,” public libraries and public schools have always been political in that they serve everyone, and promote skills like reading.
Slaves, serfs, subjects, are not people they want educated. Desegregation led to an explosion of private schools. We all see this.

cc: @futurebird @lisamelton

Show threadnshrubsSep 10, 2023
@Woodswalked @futurebird @lisamelton I disagree - I don't think everyone sees this. Poll after poll, you see parents happy with their own school, but frequently say public ed on the whole is failing. This view is fed to them day after day by media, which rarely reports the good stuff, by easy access to hate radio/websites, RW "think" tank propaganda passed off as "research", & exacerbated by the inaccessibility of actual research (paywalls, academic language). https://news.gallup.com/poll/354083/parents-remain-largely-satisfied-child-education.aspx
Show threadRogueDharmaBumSep 10, 2023

@futurebird

Yes, because as we all know, the best way to make kids not want to do a thing is to make it forbidden.

ETA: This is how we get Night Vale style librarians in this timeline, btw.

Show threadWoodswalkedSep 10, 2023
@futurebird
It’s a war on children. ALEC makes money by the school-to-prison pipeline. Some societies invest in education for all, which reaps rewards for all. Some societies invest in education of exclusively the elite, and reap rewards of a huge gulf between their child and their child’s servants.
Replacing libraries with guards tells you which society you are now a part of.
Show threadGrassroots JoeSep 12, 2023

@Woodswalked @futurebird

Let's be clear that this is not anywhere near close to the entire country. To the contrary, it's a very distinct minority with outsized political power due to antidemocratic quirks in our system magnified by massive financial backing from reactionary wealthy elites unshackled by the Roberts Court's Citizens United & other campaign finance rulings.

We are vigorously fighting them and we can and must defeat them at the ballot box.

Show threadWoodswalkedSep 12, 2023

@joeinwynnewood

I ~think~ we agree.
1886 Santa Clara v. Southern Pacific -Blatchford
2010 Citizens United v. FEC -Roberts
ALEC is national, in every state - maybe territories?
Therefore entire country.
Funders of ALEC represent a tiny, powerful distinct minority.

Oligarchs are rigging the system to eliminate democracy.
How far apart are our views?

Edit: funders & investors is redundant
cc: @futurebird

Show threadGrassroots JoeSep 12, 2023

@Woodswalked @futurebird

I doubt we are far apart at all, I just want to be clear that we are in a society that could become one with a huge widespread gulf, but we are not yet that and many of us are very actively engaged in making sure we do not become one.

We have agency and it is extremely important to keep that agency front and center so bystanders (so-to-speak) are given full opportunity to join in the fight.

Show threadWoodswalkedSep 12, 2023

@joeinwynnewood

I now think the distance between us is that you think we could become that & want to avoid it. While I think we are that & have a shot at reversing it.
Either way, we both think that voting, and organizing is paramount.

cc: @futurebird

Show threadGrassroots JoeSep 12, 2023

@Woodswalked @futurebird

I know we are somewhere in between those 2. Florida, Texas, etc. are there, CT, NY, NJ, CA, MA... are not.

I'm in PA and we are at risk, but still OK & so long as we hold the governors office and state House, we will trend in a positive direction. Lots more public school finding this year and vouchers beaten back.

Show threadWoodswalkedSep 12, 2023

@joeinwynnewood

I am in deep red. Might affect some nuance of the view. Still, we agree we are not in a healthy place and need to vote. Can’t give up. Literally a matter of life or death.

cc: @futurebird

Show threadAndrew C.A. ElliottSep 10, 2023

@futurebird

Yesterday I visited the ancient city of Ephesus. This is the Library of Celsus there (around 100 CE). I'd say that almost 2000 years ago, they knew what was important. Some of us today seem to have forgotten.

Show threadbubbajetSep 10, 2023

@futurebird @lisamelton Yep. stupid people are easier to control. That’s what the GOP and the people that fund it want. Stupid people. Control.

Sad stuff. Fight it at every turn.

Show threadGrandpa DonSep 10, 2023

@futurebird

George Orwell described it well. He was off by decades, but the Thought Police (ThinkPol) are becoming a very real thing.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_Police

Thought Police - Wikipedia

Show threadWithoutAPaddleSep 10, 2023
@futurebird associate libraries/books with being punished. Dystopian
Show threadmyrmepropagandistSep 10, 2023

@RedCanoe

Worse. They are getting rid of the books. The schools won't have a library. Just kid jail.

If I put that in a short story everyone would go "make your villains more believable, no one is that cartoonishly evil!"

(The people responsible make mealy mouthed claims that discipline centers aren't 'jails for kids' They will teach 'leadership' or some nonsense. They say there will be books in the classrooms so who needs a library? The librarian is gone. Kids will know what this means.)

Show threadCyber YukiSep 10, 2023

@futurebird @RedCanoe

If I put that in a short story everyone would go "make your villains more believable, no one is that cartoonishly evil!"

Yeah, since 2016 that's practically par for the course. 🫤

Show threadBernie Luckily Does ItSep 12, 2023
@yuki2501 @futurebird @RedCanoe One time for English class I wrote a short story about the survivors of a dam collapse pretending because government funds were spent trying to stop it. It was the most cynical thing I ever wrote. But compared to what's happening with COVID it was horrendously naive.
Show threadLev PetrovitchSep 10, 2023

@futurebird

I'm starting to think that R.H. Heinlein in "If this goes on —" was just out by some years…
@RedCanoe

Show threadShar(yna)Tran/Shark(aeopteryx)Sep 10, 2023
@futurebird and according to the crap they're trying to do in TX, they don't even want books in the classrooms! It's heinous.
Show thread🆘Bill Cole 🇺🇦Sep 10, 2023
@futurebird @lisamelton It’s not just libraries, it is general accessibility of education and information that they are fighting. See Betsy DeVos, who has worked overtly for decades to destroy public education. She’s the perfect exemplar, a rich person who believes in denying education to those who cannot pay for it.
Show threadAviva GarySep 10, 2023

@futurebird Well... we know one thing: it's nothing good.

Consequently, we need to end run it. Many people in the thread had good orgs and things to do just that.

We can do it ✊

Show threadSpace Burger Steve 🌌🍔🤪Sep 10, 2023
@futurebird Considering how religion ties in, it reminds me of the justification behind one of the times the library of Alexandria was destroyed. "Either it contradicts the Quran, in which case it is heretical, or it doesn't, in which case it is superfluous." Different religion, but that's the most "saying the quiet part loud" quote I've ever seen on the topic.
Show threadBernie Luckily Does ItSep 12, 2023
@Space_Burger_Steve @futurebird Given that almost all Muslims believe that when Hadith contradicts the Quran the Hadith takes precedence, I'm going to guess that's not a direct quote.
Show threadSpace Burger Steve 🌌🍔🤪Sep 13, 2023
@BernieDoesIt Looking at it again, there's a lot to unpack with who actually said this, whether it was Amr Ibn al-'Ās or the Kalifah, and whether or not the whole thing is a fabrication. That's my bad, but I don't want to hijack the thread over it. 😅​
Show threadDoug 🌈🇨🇦 Sep 10, 2023
@futurebird
War on knowledge and reason.
Show threadShannon ClarkSep 10, 2023

@futurebird I think it’s worse and more than that. It’s part of a movement to fight against public school as we know it - they want instead home schooling and charter schools that force their beliefs on students (and which likely deliberately discourage women from careers). They want to fight integrated, diverse public schools. Libraries are just one battlefield.

(See also counties that are rejecting free lunches for kids as it “might spoil them”)

Show threadAutisticMumTo3Sep 10, 2023
@futurebird
So many 'liberty' or 'freedom' organisations seem to want strict control of people not freedom or liberty
Show threadcuan_knaggsSep 10, 2023
@futurebird they're fine with the libraries as long as they get to control what's in them and who has access them
Show threadClare 🏴Sep 10, 2023
@futurebird my sister is a school librarian. It’s an important time to have good people in these positions.
Show threadRichard W. Woodley ELBOWS UP 🇨🇦🌹🚴‍♂️📷 🗺️Sep 11, 2023
@futurebird
Part of the war on education which includes focusing all "education" on job training and creating good pliable employees and convincing them that contract or piecework is better for them.
Show threadsmells of bikesSep 11, 2023
@futurebird Same with the war on social networks and the internet ID legislation. They've realized that if kids get outside information, they reject the bigoted crap they've been fed by their parents.
Show threadCykonotSep 11, 2023
@futurebird prison tech graduates to use in schools before being forced on us all
Show threadSamhain NightSep 11, 2023
@futurebird It’s a war on knowledge, a war on truth.
Show threadPatSep 11, 2023

@futurebird

#Uspoli #Cdnpoli #Tyranny

The secret of freedom lies in educating people

whereas

the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant

~ Maximilien Robespierre

Show threadLady Liberty 🗽Sep 11, 2023
@futurebird it’s called modern slavery.