It’s the motte and bailey fallacy. Take one hot issue, then downplay it as far as possible to make it seem the other side is nuts.
Some of these “banned” books have sexual content, from how to masturbate to the use of sex toys, etc. People take to reading them at school board meetings, YouTube on the street interviews, etc to point out how graphic they are. Should they be in a 3rd grade (age 8) or lower public school library? They aren’t banned from all stores. A parent that wishes to teach their kids these topics are free to buy them for the kids. How much should public schools cover in sex ed, and how young do you start? Those are questions we should discuss.
But no, they will just say these books teach that “gay people exist.” As if blow jobs and anal sex are for the gays only?
This is the completely rational discussion that is entirely appropriate to be having.
However, this is decidedly not the discussion being had.
The voices making the rational arguments are either completely outnumbered, or intentionally squelched by corporate news because rational discussions do not sell adverts.
Personally, I’ll always take the side of “burning books is bad.”
Here’s a list of my personal favorite books that were banned by Frisco school board in Texas:
1984 (allowed in hs)
20,000 leagues under the sea (allowed in ms)
All of A Song of Ice and Fire (never allowed)
The adventures of Tom Sawyer (allowed in ms)
American gods (never allowed)
Brown v board of education: a fight for justice (allowed in ms)
Fahrenheit 451 (allowed in hs)
Jane Eyre (allowed in hs)
MLK: journey of a king (allowed in ms)
Pride and prejudice (allowed in hs)
Queer: the ultimate LGBTQ guide for teens (never allowed) this might be my absolute favorite because there’s no claim of obscene content. The reason for banning is “does not align with curriculum”.
The fellowship of the ring (allowed in ms)
The hobbit (allowed in ms)
The lovely bones (never allowed)
The other two LOTR books (allowed in ms)
Trans mission: my quest to a beard (never allowed) also no claim of sexual content, “does not align with curriculum”
I think that I’ve made my point, but I do want to also make mention of the fact that this does not affect children who have parents that are wealthy enough to buy them books or those who have enough time to take their kids to the public library. This targets exclusively under privileged students, and those who do not want their parents to know that they are reading LGBTQ literature.
Also because I assume somebody is going to claim this is cherry picking, I just googled “books banned in Texas 2023 list”, and chose Frisco because it was the first one with such a long list.
It’s the motte and bailey fallacy. Take one hot issue, then downplay it as far as possible to make it seem the other side is nuts.
Some of these “banned” books have sexual content, from how to masturbate to the use of sex toys, etc. People take to reading them at school board meetings, YouTube on the street interviews, etc to point out how graphic they are. Should they be in a 3rd grade (age 8) or lower public school library? They aren’t banned from all stores. A parent that wishes to teach their kids these topics are free to buy them for the kids. How much should public schools cover in sex ed, and how young do you start? Those are questions we should discuss.
But no, they will just say these books teach that “gay people exist.” As if blow jobs and anal sex are for the gays only?
This is the completely rational discussion that is entirely appropriate to be having.
However, this is decidedly not the discussion being had.
The voices making the rational arguments are either completely outnumbered, or intentionally squelched by corporate news because rational discussions do not sell adverts.
Personally, I’ll always take the side of “burning books is bad.”
Here’s a list of my personal favorite books that were banned by Frisco school board in Texas:
1984 (allowed in hs)
20,000 leagues under the sea (allowed in ms)
All of A Song of Ice and Fire (never allowed)
The adventures of Tom Sawyer (allowed in ms)
American gods (never allowed)
Brown v board of education: a fight for justice (allowed in ms)
Fahrenheit 451 (allowed in hs)
Jane Eyre (allowed in hs)
MLK: journey of a king (allowed in ms)
Pride and prejudice (allowed in hs)
Queer: the ultimate LGBTQ guide for teens (never allowed) this might be my absolute favorite because there’s no claim of obscene content. The reason for banning is “does not align with curriculum”.
The fellowship of the ring (allowed in ms)
The hobbit (allowed in ms)
The lovely bones (never allowed)
The other two LOTR books (allowed in ms)
Trans mission: my quest to a beard (never allowed) also no claim of sexual content, “does not align with curriculum”
The full list of books banned in Frisco can be found here: https://www.friscoisd.org/departments/library-media-services/library-collection-review-project/materials-removed
For a full list of every book banned in a Texas school district: https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/list-of-texas-banned-books-shows-state-has-most-in-us-17480532
I think that I’ve made my point, but I do want to also make mention of the fact that this does not affect children who have parents that are wealthy enough to buy them books or those who have enough time to take their kids to the public library. This targets exclusively under privileged students, and those who do not want their parents to know that they are reading LGBTQ literature.
Also because I assume somebody is going to claim this is cherry picking, I just googled “books banned in Texas 2023 list”, and chose Frisco because it was the first one with such a long list.