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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHorrifying: School's entire library cleaned out, any books checked out have to be "approved"
Link to tweet
This is going way too fucking far. All in the name of "protecting kids". From what? Having an independent thought not manufactured by Rupert Murdoch? Ron DeSantis is a mad man. I think he should be charged with crimes against humanity for this. I'd love to see him and Tucker Carlson dragged before the Hague.
Irish_Dem
(45,640 posts)What is the point?
Initech
(99,915 posts)Irish_Dem
(45,640 posts)That is not going to fly with the GOP overlords.
peppertree
(21,530 posts)The history books vanished - but those kids are getting a real lesson on Nazi Germany.
Irish_Dem
(45,640 posts)Maybe kids will actually read more with the ban.
peppertree
(21,530 posts)deSaster might just be creating a yooge generation of progressive young people with these ham-handed stunts.
Who knows? Maybe even in the panhandle!
Irish_Dem
(45,640 posts)Just to read books.
peppertree
(21,530 posts)DFW
(54,056 posts)I visited several times while it existed. Every time someone entered from the west, even West Berlin, all printed matter was confiscated, newspapers, whatever. They were terrified that their own people should be exposed to hazardous materials, such as ideas.
mrchris
(7 posts)I like some false balance with my breakfast.
peppertree
(21,530 posts)You're right, of course. Authoritarian regimes always go through that same spiral:
Their intolerance stifles ideas and constructive criticism, so things tend to get worse;
as they get worse, people become more and more discontent - which in turn makes the state more and more obsessed with the lives of others.
Like a snake eating its own tail.
That's what life would be like under one-party GOP rule - but, in some ways, worse than in East Germany.
Health, education, sciences, infrastructure - what the hell are those?
It would resemble Mobutu's Zaire - but with white leadership (and of course, orange).
NullTuples
(6,017 posts)usaf-vet
(6,094 posts)U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trumps declaration of love for the poorly educated in his Nevada victory speech
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump-socialmedia/trump-loves-the-poorly-educated-and-social-media-clamors-idUSKCN0VX26B
It's the dumb, uneducated person who can be tricked into giving away their last penny or voting against their own best interest.
The target for a con man.
As the old saying goes, "there is s sucker born every minute,"..... and two to take him.
Easterncedar
(2,124 posts)Why are we standing for this?
Initech
(99,915 posts)This is truly frightening, and I shudder to think what could happen should these scumbags retake the White House in '24.
Response to Easterncedar (Reply #2)
Chin music This message was self-deleted by its author.
NullTuples
(6,017 posts)Part of what DeSantis & the GOP are doing in Florida and elsewhere is demolishing public schools and libraries, and their ability to educate. The end goal is to privatize everything the government now provides. It started with Reagan, but Bush gave it a different nudge with his "Faith Based Initiatives" that replaced government social services with things like private homeless shelters & food banks run by churches & religious organizations. Under contract, of course, from the Government. Often very lucrative contracts, too. I have no doubt this is all part of a larger push to move states toward publicly funded, privately owned, religious schools.
Response to NullTuples (Reply #33)
Chin music This message was self-deleted by its author.
markodochartaigh
(1,080 posts)"Under contract, of course, from the Government. Often very lucrative contracts, too."
Republicans say that they are for cutting spending, but when they control the purse strings, the government contracts go to their friends and the price of everything goes up.
murielm99
(30,657 posts)Check out the American Library Association.
Irish_Dem
(45,640 posts)murielm99
(30,657 posts)Librarians have always fought back.
Hekate
(90,202 posts)dalton99a
(81,073 posts)Stinky The Clown
(67,697 posts)Initech
(99,915 posts)But it's definitely in Florida, that much I know. Fuck Ron DeSantis.
DBoon
(22,288 posts)But the person documenting this has reason to be afraid of retribution.
RKP5637
(67,032 posts)The US is heading down a very dark path, and one can be sure adversaries are taking notes. More and more US strands for United Stupidity.
Initech
(99,915 posts)Fox is leading this country down a very dark path and it's going to take a lot to stand up to the right wing bullshit machine.
RKP5637
(67,032 posts)bullshit is over the top.
Initech
(99,915 posts)And in the next they ban books and suck up to authoritarian leaders.
CTyankee
(63,771 posts)Nice back drop to a scene from book burning in school parking lots in Florida!
hadEnuf
(2,150 posts)It is seditious manufactured fascist propaganda.
RKP5637
(67,032 posts)peggysue2
(10,811 posts)But also the retooling of the public school curriculum from pre-K through University. Or establishing memory laws where legislators and courts (or Governors) determine the interpretation of history. DeSantis is trying this strategy out in Florida. Fortunately, he's getting pushback with his ban on AP African American studies.
Resistance is crucial.
Information and education are the Keys to the Kingdom. Fascists and dictators the world round know that controlling and 'grooming' young minds is how you control the future. Thus, anything outside the accepted ideological slant is punishable by law. Or worse.
It is a dark path. Which is why it needs a thousand burning suns to highlight what these maniacs are attempting to do, baby-step by baby-step.
RKP5637
(67,032 posts)NullTuples
(6,017 posts)My guess is that they'll remove the shelves next and from that point on a generation will be raised not knowing that classrooms are supposed to have books in them.
And the books from the current school clean-outs will either end up in dumpsters or go to friends of local politicians who will make a buck or ten selling the books to used book wholesalers without even getting their hands dirty.
RKP5637
(67,032 posts)keithbvadu2
(36,369 posts)If you haven't read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate, and you will be incompetent, because your personal experiences alone aren't broad enough to sustain you.
― Jim Mattis, Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9949532-if-you-haven-t-read-hundreds-of-books-you-are-functionally
=======================================
If you are only allowed to read 'approved' books, you will have limited exposure to ideas.
=======================================
Even the Bible had unapproved ideas.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=rewritten+bible+for+slaves
Heavily Abridged Slave Bible Removed Passages That Might Encourage Uprisings
Why Bibles Given to Slaves Omitted Most of the Old Testament
Response to Initech (Original post)
Rebl2 This message was self-deleted by its author.
NullTuples
(6,017 posts)90-percent
(6,828 posts): sarcasm :
is the du official sarcasm thingy. just remove the spaces on both sides of the word sarcasm above and voilà! check it in preview to avoid embarrassment and scorn.
-90% Jimmy
Baitball Blogger
(46,576 posts)And I am beginning to think he really isn't thinking about where this is going to take him. He is splitting Florida down political lines. I saw firsthand how this is filtering down to everyday level. It's anecdotal, but recently I stepped on a shuttle and immediately saw how the bus was divided by race or color. Though, us dark skinned people had taken the front of the shuttle. The people in the back were definitely conservative white types. In their dress and in their conversation. We heard all about their travel destinations and how they were eagerly anticipating their vacation plans. One conservative princess even described the pains she took to pack the right clothes. I checked out her shoes. Very fashionably black shiny boots with metal cuffs. But, not the kind that would withstand a good walk through snow. They all stated they were from Florida, but with midwestern roots. The rest of us just looked to the front of the bus and pretended they weren't there. At one point, the old guy sitting next to me kicked my foot. I looked up to see what was going on. He gave me this innocent surprised look. I just looked away.
I realized at that point, that I was fully Americanized. I know what side I'm on. This is a personal note from something that happened during my first interview for my first job when I was much younger. My soon to be boss kept asking probative questions that I didn't understand at the time. But I realized later he was trying to see if I was going to have trouble integrating to a diverse workforce that was managed by white managers. He was trying to see if I had a "chip on my shoulder". Since I was never a part of Stateside American culture from the 50s-70s, I didn't have any set opinions of anyone from any color. I was very young and very eager to assimilate.
Well, I'm fully Americanized now. If there was no money incentive involved, I probably would fail that interview today.
Once the latin-Americans in South Florida figure out how their culture is also being targeted, I predict game over for Ron De Santis.
NullTuples
(6,017 posts)I wonder if De Santis doesn't even need to think of where it will take him, because if the journey is based on division and bigotry, he knows he'll come out on top? He and people like him hold the economic, legal and law enforcement power. Split social power in half and it's a draw and no longer a threat.
Regarding your last sentence: I believe that's why the GOP embraced Christianity so tightly. Mexico, Central America & South America are around 90% Christian. Typically Catholic, often quite conservative and patriarchal. And South Florida Cuban Americans have a strong reputation for voting anti-Communism, anti-Socialism, aka Republican.
Baitball Blogger
(46,576 posts)brewing in South florida. But, what they haven't figured out, yet, is that even the Christian angle is anglo based. Once they feel like they're being put in the back of the bus by De Santis, they may have a thing or two to say about it.
NullTuples
(6,017 posts)Johnny2X2X
(18,745 posts)This is not about parental control. Its about a group of parents wanting to make your parental decisions for you. They dont trust you to raise your child so they want to decide what they can and cannot read.
Initech
(99,915 posts)Prof. Toru Tanaka
(1,924 posts)If my children were still in school, the LAST thing I would want taught to them would be values that Trump supports. Like lying, cheating, stealing and pushing for an authoritarian government.
I agree with the other posters in that this book banning is downright scary. "Protecting the children" is a bunch of bullshit- this is about power and mind control.
Initech
(99,915 posts)This is why I am truly scared of what these dipshits could be capable of if they get back in the White House with a willing Congress and SCOTUS.
keithbvadu2
(36,369 posts)Initech
(99,915 posts)colorado_ufo
(5,717 posts)2naSalit
(86,061 posts)Figure out whether to approve them? If so, that might have some positive outcomes, maybe.
spanone
(135,636 posts)BadgerMom
(2,766 posts)Organize. Protest. Hold the feet of the school board members to the flames. No ones primary source of income is from being a school board member. Usually its unpaid, I think. They can afford to stand for whats right, even if it costs them their position. If De Santis thinks he can replace every school board member in the state, maybe hed get the attention of the Justice Department. Maybe. But hed certainly get the attention of the voters nationwide. God damned awful look for a presidential candidate.
Its unfair that busy parents should have to be the front line for democracy, but thats whats happening.
Elwood P Dowd
(11,443 posts)bringthePaine
(1,726 posts)frogmarch
(12,145 posts)Hortensis
(58,785 posts)This is what extremism looks like. LW extremist governments also remove books that don't imprint their narrow ideology on all.
Prairie_Seagull
(3,229 posts)It's starting in Florida. Next stop?
Marthe48
(16,692 posts)is an innocent young mind. All the better prey for dirty old men and their evil purposes.
Abolishinist
(1,257 posts)it's Greenland Pines Elementary, in Jacksonville FL. I don't know why the tweet did not include this.
https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2023/01/27/parents-react-to-empty-classroom-library-shelves-as-dcps-continues-book-review/
KPN
(15,587 posts)just before I posted this:
"This needs more info that verifies that it is what it says it is. There are legitimatereasons for removing all books from library bookshelves -- moving the library to another room, replacing/upgrading/reconfiguring existing shelves are a couple."
Thank you Abolitionist. My concerns are fully mitigated. These people are downright scary. Glad to see there is some resistance rising among the Jacksonville Community ... and some press coverage.
sl8
(13,584 posts)KPN
(15,587 posts)although that fact in itself is frightening. On the upside, I believe this ultimately will blow up in their (DeSantis', right-wing ideologues') face.
roamer65
(36,739 posts)Fuck Florida and DeSatan.
OMGWTF
(3,901 posts)DBoon
(22,288 posts)I suspect her books will also be cut.
markodochartaigh
(1,080 posts)she worshipped the same god as they do, Mammon.
DBoon
(22,288 posts)Maybe provide some "Christian" group some of Any Rand's more outlandish quotes and see what happens.
Maybe get someone in FL to lodge a complaint against a high school with Atlas Shrugged on the shelf.
But I won't
WinstonSmith4740
(3,048 posts)Then I saw your post.
I first started reading "1984" when I was in college. Got about 2/3 of the way through, and put it down. I remember thinking, "Well, this is an interesting condemnation of communism under the Soviet Union, but this is America. It'll never happen here, and finals are next week". 15 years later, I picked it up again in 1984. After 4 years of the Republican party under Reagan, it scared the hell out of me. Still does.
Lonestarblue
(9,880 posts)Park it just outside school property on a public street so kids leaving for the day can check out books to take home. Stock it with all the same books removed from the schools. Or just give the books to kids. Let them have one new book per week. I imagine they could get a lot of donations to support this. Big sign on the side, Get the books the governor doesnt want you to read here!
What Republicans are doing today has strong parallels to Hitlers ability to train and control the minds of the German people. Republicans may not be planning to exterminate minorities, but they are hoping to exterminate their culture and their history to elevate white history and culture above everything else. And they also echo Hitlers hatred of queer individuals, thousands of whom were sent to camps alongside Jews. Of course the media will never report these parallels.
Hitler immediately made changes to the school curriculum. Education in "racial awareness" began at school and children were constantly reminded of their racial duties to the "national community". Biology, along with political education, became compulsory. Children learnt about "worthy" and "unworthy" races, about breeding and hereditary disease. "They measured their heads with tape measures, checked the colour of their eyes and texture of their hair against charts of Aryan or Nordic types, and constructed their own family trees to establish their biological, not historical, ancestry.... They also expanded on the racial inferiority of the Jews". (4)
As Louis L. Snyder has pointed out: "There were to be two basic educational ideas in his ideal state. First, there must be burnt into the heart and brains of youth the sense of race. Second, German youth must be made ready for war, educated for victory or death. The ultimate purpose of education was to fashion citizens conscious of the glory of country and filled with fanatical devotion to the national cause." (5)
https://spartacus-educational.com/GEReducation.htm
sarcasmo
(23,968 posts)reACTIONary
(5,749 posts)flashman13
(629 posts)REMEMBER: Where books are burned, it's a short step to burning people.
barbtries
(28,702 posts)trying to figure out how he gets away with this shit.
i just. HOW
He must be stopped. Someone somewhere should be busy following the money, investigating his personal life, anything to nail him. But it looks as if Floridians by and large are okay with a fascist takeover of their state!?
Prof. Toru Tanaka
(1,924 posts)DeSantis won his most recent term by 1.5 million votes and carried 60% of the vote. He won all but five counties in the entire state. And this despite his poor handling of the COVID pandemic. I am thankful he is not governor of my home state.
Warpy
(110,913 posts)beyond a scattering of stories over the past 2 years and none of them mentioned bare library shelves as picklefaced, bluenosed Christian "concerned parents" went over them. Most of this happened in slave states, no suprise there.
The most vicious anti democratic cons in history have happened under the banner of saving children.
Midnight Writer
(21,548 posts)The wielders of power know that books are far more dangerous to them than guns.
dlk
(11,438 posts)Trump and his minions have emboldened them, along with American (and Russian) oligarchs. It will be challenging to push them back under the rocks theyve crawled out from under.
Evolve Dammit
(16,632 posts)Initech
(99,915 posts)We should be rising up and marching against this shit. This is going way too far. I'm so fucking tired of Fox News attempting to dictate the course of this country. They do not own us. They are an entertainment network run by terrorists. Tucker Carlson should be in a mental institution.
Evolve Dammit
(16,632 posts)folks distraught as hell, but feel powerless. That needs to change. Better candidates, more support from Dems and condemnation od DeSatan from all Dems loudly. Not hearing it.
Initech
(99,915 posts)Hell my ultra red part of California has MAGA lunatics on the school board that we can't get rid of, and they're doing as much damage as they can possibly do. I do blame Fox for this, but Christian megachurches are also playing a huge part as to how we got here.
Evolve Dammit
(16,632 posts)podcasts galore. The megachurches. Now there is some "weaponization" and "grooming" (indoctrination). It is pretty daunting when you add it all up. As Paul Pelosi's attempted murderer said from prison, we're "going to kill Democracy". Please find out who guided and paid that soon-to-be convicted felon.
ificandream
(9,196 posts)We can't let this guy get elected.
Takket
(21,425 posts)If the state wants their own media experts to go into the room and review this then why wasnt it done right after the law passed? Why is their no grace period for the review to take place? It would seem like something as simple as we are sending someone from the state on January whatever to look at your books. Until then business as usual could have avoided this
How long tries the state have to do this review? How many people are trained? And why the hell does the school have to empty the shelves while they wait for the review? Seems if the state wants to review it should be on them to schedule it. Not the schools to empty shelves because they fear FELONY prosecution!!! Nuts.
Sogo
(4,967 posts)Celerity
(42,666 posts)jaxexpat
(6,703 posts)to become normal and propaganda to become "common knowledge". He looked at me like I had two heads and asked, "when is this supposed to happen?" I told him we'd see it in our lifetimes, but "you'll never remember what I'm saying to you right now because that's not how mythology works". He was a true trust-fund "conservative".
The species is mostly too stupid to learn from its mistakes.
onecaliberal
(32,489 posts)orangecrush
(19,237 posts)GusBob
(7,286 posts)Books are cheap now. Thrift stores are chock full and even refusing books
Rummage sales give them away. Cheap used books on Amazon. Cuz everyone is digital now
Make your own libraries, group up with like minded parents form clubs
Combine reading with a plethora of fun activities
Arts crafts, cooking baking, etc
Outdoor stuff, bike rides, picnic, swimming etc
Make it fun and keep the tight assed parents out
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,789 posts)Norbert
(6,030 posts)He wants to take this nationally.
orangecrush
(19,237 posts)Martin68
(22,671 posts)Skittles
(152,966 posts)THEY WANT EVERYONE TO BE OBEDIENT LITTLE FASCISTS
betsuni
(25,136 posts)ancianita
(35,813 posts)Librarians are smart for doing this. Librarians don't play.
The Wizard
(12,482 posts)Is the Third Reich lurking in plain sight.
usonian
(9,429 posts)In 4 or 5 years, after they discuss the matter
Initech
(99,915 posts)We need to start fighting back against these Nazi assholes at every level, we need to get them out of power NOW before they do more damage. We need to get them out of the school boards, state representatives, governors, senators, representatives. America First / MAGA is a cancer on politics and it needs to be eradicated ASAP.
usonian
(9,429 posts)Things are getting testy here, and for good reason.
They are a minority exerting all the leverage they can muster.
calimary
(80,700 posts)Places outside a schools authority, where kids can read all kinds of books that are kept from them for no legitimate reason.
The Reading Zone or The Safe Book Nook or Brain Builders Barn or Page-Turners Club or some such thing! How bout Dont Take My Books! Or Open Pages/Open Minds or Free Thinkers of America, Blast Off with Books Reading Is Brain-Feeding!
The Reading Den or Readers Hideaway
I could go on and on.
Wouldnt it be cool to have safe spaces to read and nurture young minds where the repressive busybodies and conservaNazis couldnt force their cockeyed will on the rest of us?
cstanleytech
(26,080 posts)YoshidaYui
(41,764 posts)Hotler
(11,353 posts)He's a Nazi and all that he needs is a little black mustache.
MiHale
(9,593 posts)RAY BRADBURY'S FAHRENHEIT 451!
old as dirt
(1,972 posts)Jilly_in_VA
(9,854 posts)when I would resort to homeschooling, if I couldn't leave the area. My youngest granddaughter is in FloriDUH and due to start kindergarten next year. I am wondering what her parents are thinking about school-wise. Her dad's job is there and non-transferable.