I admire the students that are setting up book clubs for banned books. They are recognizing that they are being given a list of what they should read.
They’re also evidence of why the book banning doesn’t really work as well today as conservatives would like it to.
Book banning was an effective way of controlling what your young population was exposed to before the internet and social media. It worked best when the young weren’t even aware of the information they were being denied.
But social media is making sure they’re all very much aware of what has been hidden from them. They know what’s going on. You will find teenagers in particular are kind of resistant to being told no by an authority, so they’re going to do something about it.
Now, don’t feel too excited about this, because there’s a threat here. Every single time you see a conservative talking about more stringent age verification for things on the internet, part of what they’re actually trying to do is create an avenue to control the information kids are exposed to. They are pretty open about how LGBT issues, particularly the T ones, can be labeled as “sexual” and “inappropriate”. With very simple changes to the regulation, they can suppress children’s access to anything they like as long as they make a half-assed argument that it’s “inappropriate”.
Classic Prohibition Blunder
“You’re not allowed to do that” is American for “You’re going to do that, and with as much spite and vinegar as possible.”
Those who erase history are attempting to repeat it
My high school English teacher did this, although we didn’t know it at the time. It wasn’t until I was doing an essay on banned books in college that I realized all of the ones we read in his class were banned. Really made me appreciate him more.
Fun trick I do with my children is to way things like “Oh yeah you don’t want that. It’s forbidden” if I want them to read more about it.
More like “Based books” amirite