Anton LadanSep 18, 2023
Tinker ☀️

Reminder to go to your local library and volunteer to speak on their behalf. Let them know that if folks try to come and ban books that you'll speak publicly against them.

We found out folks were going to be commenting at our library calling for banning books.

So.

We all went and spoke out against them.

Only one person got up and called for a ban. She went first. Everyone after her started calling out her behavior and telling the library staff to keep the books.

The first woman and a couple others soon left before the end of comments.

Drive them out. Protect our libraries.

Sep 18, 2023 at 2:33amWeb
Show threadjackjackson77Sep 18, 2023
@tinker what books?
Show threadCoyotySep 18, 2023
@jackjackson77 @tinker Every book has someone wanting to ban it, often simply because it's a book.
Show threadTinker ☀️Sep 18, 2023
@jackjackson77 - All the books. Even the ones you find offensive. If they're adult books, put them in the adult section, thats fine. But dont remove them.
Show threadJillSep 18, 2023
@tinker ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Show threadDragon-sided DSep 18, 2023

@tinker

"[T]he remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.”

#supremecourt justice Brandeis, Whitney v. California (1927)
#freespeech

Show threadRichy222Sep 18, 2023
@tinker
Show threadMx. Luna Corbden 🐸Sep 18, 2023
@tinker @CosmicTraveler There was an article in a local progressive rag in our smallish conservative-leaning community about Mom’s for Liberty at the high school trying to get a book banned that’s about a girl with two dads going on a hike. The quotes from parents standing up for keeping it, and the school board’s strong statement in support of it was really encouraging!
Show threadMx. Luna Corbden 🐸Sep 18, 2023
@tinker @CosmicTraveler Found it! https://tw.town/@tumbleweird/111070231063754827
Tumbleweird (@[email protected])

“At the July 12 Richland School District board meeting, members of Moms for Liberty Benton County challenged a short story called Adventure in El Yunque by Christopher Rodriguez…” https://tumbleweird.org/community-members-unite-against-unfair-book-ban/

tw.town
Show threadLeaBugSep 19, 2023
@corbden @tinker @CosmicTraveler FFS this is ridiculous.
Show threadPer NilssonSep 18, 2023
@tinker
Show threadUereSep 18, 2023
@tinker It;s lucky we don't have such policies in the UK or rather Scotland. Keep doing what you're doing!
Show threadStaid WinnowSep 18, 2023

@tinker

The local library in my city is manned by MAGAts. Under a city council that is 100% Republican.

Creationist and ID books are in the science section.

I've no intention of supporting the library.

Show threadSquidAceBoiSep 18, 2023
@staidwinnow @tinker one of the things you could do is suggest titles that you think the library should have or attend library meetings and question them. I don’t trust MAGAts to keep things … civil especially if you’re a minority, so please be safe and exercise caution.
Show threadStaid WinnowSep 18, 2023

@sarahbi @tinker

No, my energies are better spent on getting Democrats elected to the City Council. We got a Democrat elected in a district that used to have Republicans elected unopposed.

Even got a Democrat to the City Council till he switched parties after being elected.

Why waste time convincing a handful of unelected librarians?

Show threadSquidAceBoiSep 18, 2023
@staidwinnow @tinker great point. Congrats on getting the Dem elected! Not an easy feat.
Show threadWilfried KlaebeSep 18, 2023
@staidwinnow That's not a library, that's a twisted perversion the concept of a library.
@tinker
Show threadXucaen ☮️💚🌿Sep 18, 2023

@tinker

Which books?

Show threadTinker ☀️Sep 18, 2023
@Xucaen - yes.
Show threadKerri LevineSep 18, 2023

@tinker

#DefendLibraries

Show threadmiddlenameisartSep 18, 2023
@tinker this is the way
Show threadKBSez ✅Sep 18, 2023

@tinker

GREAT IDEA! Boosting!

Show threadAleggraSep 18, 2023

@tinker

Excellent! Books are the only things that keep us from going back into our caves.
That and the fact that there aren’t many caves left.

Show threadHeather Wilkinson RojoSep 18, 2023
@tinker This makes me so happy to hear this! I hope this works all across the USA
Show threadJaySep 18, 2023
@tinker Also, just go to your local library. Their support depends on activity.
Show threadChookMother 🇦🇺🦘Sep 18, 2023
@tinker Well done👍🏻
Show threadCharLightSep 19, 2023
@tinker that's a very good idea and thank you
Show threadPrickly Pam (D-PA)Sep 19, 2023

@tinker

Also speak at school board and county council meetings.

(Yes, I've done both.)

Show threadLeBonkSep 20, 2023
@tinker
"They don't care about ideas; they care about power — and power is what beats them"
—Ian Danskin
Show threadJustice for Sepulveda MartinezSep 21, 2023
@tinker difficult to overstate how necessary this is! In Granbury Texas this fight started nearly a decade ago, it has now moved into a criminal investigation against a high school librarian, not sure how much worse it would have been if there hadn't been years of resistance to the public library campaign first.
Show threadInfoSecSherpaSep 21, 2023
@tinker ❤️
Show threadDavid BarkinSep 28, 2023

@tinker

I say BAN THE BIBLE. It's Full to the brim with Sex and Violence, Including Incest and child abuse!

Show threadTinker ☀️Sep 29, 2023

@Ulzana - I brought that up, lol!

Two things happen from it, they use it as a talking point "Oh my heavens! They're banning the Bible!!! See we told you they were anti-god and are trying to take away our religion! We should ban their books in retaliation!" - they say without context or irony.

And, two, it leads to just banning all books - which is their main goal. They would prefer to take out the Bible from the library - along with every other book - so that the only way to read is through their specific churches and their specific control.

Show threadDavid BarkinSep 29, 2023

@tinker

Well the Bible is full of Sex between parents and children, Rape, forced circumcision, and of course an unlimited amount of Violence.

All we have to is quote some of it.

I mean really...

Show threadTinker ☀️Sep 29, 2023

@Ulzana - Indeed.

One thing I've found is that it looks like hypocrisy to us, right?

Like... we think "How would you like to be treated the same way you treat others."

But to this specific crowd, they don't see it as hypocritical. Instead, for them, this is a "Do to others BEFORE they do to you!"

They think there are two classes of people. The oppressed and the oppressors. The bullied and the bullies.

So they KNOW that it can be used against them. They KNOW their own books could be banned.

So they intentionally want to ban other books and gain control of the situation so that their own books can't be banned.

They figure it's better to be the oppressor than the oppressed. So instead of making the situation equitable for all, they intentionally try to make their in-group the one in power by hurting all of their out-groups for the very purpose of preventing those out-groups from hurting their in-group in the same way they are hurting others.

Show threadDavid BarkinSep 29, 2023

@tinker

Mind you, I said "Quote it"

Have you EVER read someone quoting the Bible where a daughter works as a prostitute and Bangs her Father?

Sounds Hot... 😂

Show threadDavid BarkinSep 29, 2023

@tinker

If I recall she only worked as a prostitute in ORDER to bang her Father... 😂

(Perhaps I forget her motive... 🙂 )

Show threadTinker ☀️Sep 29, 2023
@Ulzana - so THAT'S where all these pornhub trends are coming from! 😛​​
Show threadGrendelSep 29, 2023

@tinker @Ulzana

I believe that that much of it is fueled by the lure of lazy thinking. Being polarized is easier cognitively and emotionally than critical thinking.

There are people on both sides of any issue that do this. I default to "banning books is bad", but I have to criticize my own absolutism; I don't believe a children's library should have books promoting antisemitism. I'm now forced to think case by case.

Critical thinking the right thing to do, but damn if it's not exhausting.

Show threadDavid BarkinSep 29, 2023

@grendel84 @tinker

In Florida School Libraries, ALL the books tell us that Slavery was actually a jobs training program. There are NO BOOKS that inform the reader as to what Slavery really was.

No book tells the reader that it was a Crime punishable by prison for a Slave to use ANY SKILL in the open market, Nor that it was a CRIME to teach a slave how to read and write.

Show threadGrendelSep 29, 2023

@Ulzana @tinker

That's horrible!
It (sadly) illustrates my point: Those books on slavery being a jobs training program should be banned.

AND the books that talk about the reality of slavery shouldn't be banned (while they may not be technically banned their absence has the same affect).

It reminds me with a quote that has stuck with me:
“The real problem of humanity is the following: We have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions and godlike technology.”
― Edward O. Wilson

Show threadDavid BarkinSep 29, 2023

@grendel84 @tinker

No offense, but there are books based upon facts, which present the sources, and books based on hate, which have NO SOURCES.

I'm not afraid of ignorance, rather I am afraid of ONLY promoting ignorance.

Will reading Mein Kampf make me a Nazi?

Show threadGrendelSep 29, 2023

@Ulzana @tinker

I'm so sorry, I'm afraid I may be struggling to communicate. I promise I'm acting in good faith trying to discuss and understand.

Are you trying to communicate that you believe that no books should be banned?

Show threadDavid BarkinSep 29, 2023

@grendel84 @tinker

Yes.

Most of these books will disappear when no one reads them.

And CERTAINLY NO Board of Education should buy them to educate their children. But that is NOT the same as banning them.

Do we have to ban creationist books to teach the theory of Evolution?

Show threadGrendelSep 29, 2023

@Ulzana @tinker

Thank you for clarifying.

For me it comes down to age. I believe that some things and aren't age appropriate, especially below 5th grade.

Now, I think I could get behind a system where select books required parental consent to check out.

I know there are parents who would abuse that, but to some extent I believe that parents should have autonomy over their children, even when we disagree with their beliefs.

Show threadDavid BarkinSep 29, 2023

@grendel84 @tinker

When I was a little kid I went to the public Library and took out "Grey's Anatomy." No one stopped me. I COULD have taken any book

But at the age of seven pornography BORED me... 😂

What books would you prevent kids from reading? Please be specific... 🙂

Show threadTinker ☀️Sep 29, 2023

@grendel84 @Ulzana - But that's how it is right now...

You can check out Mein Kampf at my local library (in fact, I just looked it up and someone already has it checked out... you can place a hold on it so you get next dibs when that person returns it).

There are steamy romance novels that you can check out, etc.

Kids can't check those out right now. They require parental permission already.

So the whole argument of "but the kids!!!!" is specious. It ALREADY exists.

They don't want to prevent kids from reading adult material. They want to remove all forms of material that show representation of various minority and out-groups, EVEN IF child appropriate.

Librarians ALREADY ensure kids don't read material that are above their age group or are not appropriate.

Show threadDavid BarkinSep 29, 2023

@tinker @grendel84

"Librarians ALREADY ensure kids don't read material that are above their age group or are not appropriate."

Such was Not the case when I was a little kid. I could have checked out anything.

But AS a little kid I had No Interest in many of the books.

Harold Lambs biography of Cyrus the Great includes Sex, but is mostly history. I read it as a little kid and the parts of sex went right by me... 😂

Mind you, I just reread it 68 years later

Show threadDavid BarkinSep 29, 2023

@tinker @grendel84

I have a copy of Mein Kampf, one of the MOST Boring books I've ever read... 😂