Mastodawn

Denny 🏳️‍🌈1d ago

Objectively, it's far more troubling that they're banning Toni Morrison and David Levithan and Art Spiegelman and any books that even hint at representing the right's Horsemen of the Apocalypse

But there's something so completely batshit about banning _Calvin and Hobbes_, a comic strip so family friendly that it ran uncensored in the most conservative newspapers in the country for more than a decade

https://pen.org/magic-tree-house-author-calvin-and-hobbes-among-hundreds-of-tennessee-book-bans/

‘Magic Tree House’ Author, ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ among hundreds of Tennessee book bans - PEN America

The removals in Tennessee are the result of a growing political movement to control information through book banning.

PEN America

AlexanderVI 2d ago

@kims that Calvin is just too prideful. So much back-chat.

/s

Wayne Werner 2d ago

@kims bet this is ok though:

Your breasts are like two fawns,
like twin fawns of a gazelle
that browse among the lilies.
- Bible, Song of Solomon 4:5

Not to mention Kings has some great stuff about tent stakes

Ozzie D, NP-hard

@kims I hope the ACLU-PEN 1st amendment lawsuit prevails. https://pen.org/roe-v-rutherford-county-board-of-education/

Roe v. Rutherford County Board of Education - PEN America

Ensuring that students have access to books on a wide range of topics and a diversity of viewpoints is a core function of public education.

PEN America

Matilda T. Zombie Queen 2d ago

@kims Cults gonna cult

UncleRico 1d ago

@matildazq @kims Nazis gonna Nazi.

ManniCalavera 1d ago

@kims
Calvin & Hobbes for me is about freedom of imagination, of being nonconformist and happy about it, about being self-sufficient and/or -reliant, about being independent, it is about being reflective sometimes, and its even a mild, sly and good-hearted satire of suburbia. From this perspective I can see why its banned by the ghouls that have the reins now.

ManniCalavera 1d ago

@kims
Post-Shower thoughts 😀 :
Its also being curious of the unknown, making friends with aliens an defying authority!

Fishercat 1d ago

@ManniCalavera @kims Came here to say this. Calvin is a weird little dude who revels in it. He's unrepentant, and has no fear or particular respect for authority. Exactly the sort of spirit the death cultists want to crush.

Odd reverberations 1d ago

@kims To evangelicals, Calvin represents a “demon of rebellion.”

My parents had “demon hunters” come to our home to get rid of our demons. Teenagers, obviously, all have demons of rebellion and lust. Kids younger than that, too.

This is what’s coming for America. Sorry everyone. 😢

Dwight Williams (💉 x9)+😷🇨🇦1d ago

@radicalfaery @kims I am left unsurprised by this news.

*sigh a la Charlie Brown*

Joe Heafner 1d ago

@kims @YakyuNightOwl Wait till they ban science books that don’t conform to the Bible! It’s coming.

MacroniSalad 1d ago

@kims by the definitions in the article, it seems that any book that contains a page numbered 69 should be banned, since it contains a “depiction of sexual conduct”

@macronisalad @kims The bible itself would be among the books banned by this standard, even looking at the actual content. There's all kinds of stuff in there that I can't even describe without a content warning.

punIssuer 1d ago

@hosford42 @macronisalad @kims I think the bible doesn't describe the acts, it just says that they did it
Correct me if I'm wrong, I only looked up the one scene where Lot's daughters got him drunk and did it without him knowing...

@punissuer @macronisalad @kims I can't argue this without going into the details I'm avoiding going into, but that one definitely came to mind and consistently leaves me disturbed.

@kims maybe they don't like mom and dad's anticapitalism:

(via https://www.reddit.com/r/calvinandhobbes/comments/hpd7e3/these_days_the_junk_mail_comes_through_instagram/)

@kims edited to put a proper alt-ed image in there

Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK 1d ago

@sarajw @kims also this:

>Calvin's father distinctly prefers cycling to driving. When Calvin asked his father if he had any ideas for his traffic safety poster, he exclaimed: "Cyclists have a right to the road too, you polluting maniacs! I hope gas goes up to 8 bucks a gallon!".

https://calvinandhobbes.fandom.com/wiki/Cycling

Cycling

Cycling is a running gag in Calvin and Hobbes. Two bicycles are featured prominently. The first, child-sized, is Calvin's. The second, full-size, belongs to Calvin's father. Calvin and his dad are polar opposites when it comes to cycling: while his father loves to get up early in the morning for a bike ride, Calvin simply despises it. Main article: Calvin's Killer Bicycle On several occasions, Calvin has tried to learn how to ride his bike, usually with his father's help. When his parents...

The Calvin and Hobbes Wiki

Arratoon 1d ago

@sarajw @mothninja @kims I love the way Bill Watterson said all he had to say then just stopped. Inspirational. The Mark Hollis/Stina Nordenstam of cartoon strips.

Zeh Fernando 1d ago

@sarajw @kims Yeah, I bought a C&H collection and started reading it to my 5yo. I thought it would be a good easy time, but oh boy. The strip can be acid and critical to the core. Really introspective stuff. I found myself having to explain a lot of bad shit about the world. Pretty complex concepts.

Not surprised some of those in power want to ban it. The strip is clearly anti-ignorance.

@zeh @kims I mean, it is named after two philosophers :)

Marcos Dione 1d ago

@sarajw @zeh @kims :-O #TIL

Zeh Fernando 1d ago

@sarajw @kims ooohhhhhh

Virginicus 1d ago

@sarajw @zeh @kims The one phrase I remember from Calvinist theology is “total depravity”. 😀

@sarajw @kims the older I get the cooler Calvin's parents are

@sarajw @kims and it had dinosaurs !

@CypherSephiroth @kims oh gosh no are these people also in dinosaur denial?

@kims #uspol They banned "The complete book of cats"?🤪

@kims They also banned "The New Encyclopedia of the Cat". Someone really doesn't like #cats. 🤔 🤷‍♀️

Sam Levine 1d ago

@kims Things like this presumably (chosen for laughs, not because it's the most transgressive of Watterson's comics)

Pedro Fernandes 1d ago

@kims @siracusa surreal

Robert Cassidy 1d ago

@kims Calvin and Hobbs encouraged Dodge pickup owners to piss on Ford pickup owners for decades. That kind of pee-pee out against hard working Americans is what got us into this mess.

Stephen Elliott~Buckley 1d ago

Only Nazis ban Maus.

#cdnpoli #canada #mexico #fascism #antifa #elbowsup #bcpoli #vancouver #burnaby #canlab

Dwight Williams (💉 x9)+😷🇨🇦1d ago

@Maxfieldripken @kims Yep.

Which means these people are announcing themselves.

Arena Cops 🇺🇦✌1d ago

@kims The half-dead Confederacy's remobilizing, successfully having resisted lessons from history & humanity.

Too dumb to learn? 🤔😎🇺🇸✌

YES. Go on, scumbags. Ban all the books. Crank your cultist bullshit up to 11, maximize your demonic paranoia, drive your own children away.

You won't allow yourself to understand why they left, or how you became so hateful to them.
They come to the city, make friends and build lives for themselves.

You'll be left behind, with your LaHaye books and your Veggie Tales, steeping in your resentment until your heart finally seizes up.

no one will miss ya
#cultists

Michael Katz 1d ago

@kims Agree that this is INSANE. Blood pressure going to the roof.

Random thought: do you think they're playing 4D Chess and the best way to encourage a kid to read something is to ban it?

Kim Scheinberg 1d ago

@MGKatz036
Lol, absolutely not

They don't even realize that the most subversive part of Calvin & Hobbes is all the anti-capitalism

Michael Katz 1d ago

@kims the funniest trope is banning Fahrenheit 451.

Luna chan 1d ago

@kims What the right wing in the US has become is disgusting.
They seem to have decided 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 are instuction manuals.

Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE 1d ago

@kims And still nobody has managed to explain to me how "book ban" can even be a concept in the land of the first amendment.

@kims It's named after a famous theologian, for god's sake! You'd think they'd be all about it

@kims Can't have people realizing they're playing Calvinball.

Mike Waghorne 1d ago

@kims But they won't ban the Bible, which us full of all kinds of atrocities, anti-women nonsense, anti-science nonsense, pro-slavery rules, and genocide. Why Calvin and Hobbes?

I'd say they're right about Calvin and Hobbes.

Probably the central influence on my son, multiple readings.

Jürgen Hubert 1d ago

Fascism is a hell of a drug.

@kims This is batshit crazy. Why would someone ban Calvin and Hobbes??

@kims Holy shit, what a dystopian sentence: "Unfortunately, as an artist, Mr. Jolley’s book features depictions of the human body that are in direct violation of the law."

Asta v. Schröder 1d ago

@kims I am still - 30 years after my first visit to the USA - completely aghast of the cognitive ignorance: US Americans truly believing to live in a free country with free speech while shopping in book stores that have tables dedicated to "banned" books... as if banning books was a normal concept.

peachfront 1d ago

i am just guessing here, but probably Calvin & Hobbes was banned because it was revealed at some point that Calvin had a penis & he was capable of directed urination

thus Calvin became the star of a popular Ford bumper sticker in the South where he was pissing on a Chevy logo or maybe it was the other way around , the Chevy truck driver had the sticker showing Calvin pissing on Ford (memory fails since i really DGAF about the whole issue)

Words are Wind 1d ago

@kims
More evidence that Tennessee is a fascist state.