Woozle/2022/02/03

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This is crossposted from Nextdoor.

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Topic: thought control

So this is a thing: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-books-race-sexuality-schools-rcna13886

I'm wondering if we all can agree now that banning books, especially over the objections of teachers, students, and librarians, is Bad, full stop.

I think of it this way:

I wouldn't support banning books or preventing teaching about things I disagree with, even strongly. Creationism, eugenics, flat-earth theory, Holocaust denial, white supremacy. Kids need to know about these things, and to be able to find out more.

It's important not to teach those ideas as correct, but kids should know what they're getting into by existing in the 21st century. If a book advocates a truly heinous or fallacious idea as fact, the school can put a warning label on the cover or something, preferably directing the reader to more accurate information, while still allowing the student access to the book.

And yet certain elements of society seem to feel it necessary to completely *remove* access to books and information they disagree with. Why?

The only reason I can think of is that they're afraid that a fully-informed reader might not judge them favorably, and they can't deal with that.