Yeah, I know, I'm playing a lot of catch up on these columns. I was gone for, what, three weeks I think?
Anyway, while I was gone my home state of Illinois did something pretty fucking remarkable. They banned book banning. I cannot tell you how much this pleases me. The reasoning is pretty sound, too. According to WBEZ, there were 70 ban attempts in IL alone last year. That's fucking insane. Guess how these cocksuckers tried to rationalize their attempts? Oh yeah. We need to protect the children!
Apparently not from gun violence, though, right? Right? *awkward collar pull*
(Which reminds me, people who say that we can't fuck with gun laws because of the Second Amendment really seem eager to throw the First Amendment under the bus . . .)
Setting aside that it's probably a lot easier on children to make them survive books rather than bullets, this comes at a critical time in the country when people want to deny rights to other people, and the most important thing they can do is to make sure no one empathizes with those people who can't have rights. Because if you learned their plight, you might not be so eager to deny them said rights. It's intellectual fascism of the highest order. Strangle the thought of "the other" in the cradle before it can grow up to help others learn compassion.
I'm sure this will surprise no one, but guess if any Republican voted for the bill. Just guess.
Right, zero. Which is funny because they're usually the ones bitching about the Thought Police, never stopping to think for one fucking second that they, themselves, are the Thought Police.
One of them, an asshole state senator by the name of Jason Plummer, tried a different approach to argue against banning book banning. He said it should be in the hands of local residents because they pay the taxes that support the libraries. "None of your constituents voted for this random organization," he said. "And you're taking their powers away from them simply because you may not agree with their beliefs."
It sounds almost reasonable. It's like people who don't have children complaining about paying taxes for schools. I have no offspring in need of education. Why should I pay for local schools? Like I said, almost reasonable.
But it's horseshit. Libraries exist so people can learn things. Not so they can jerk off in their little echo-chambers. When you pay local taxes, you're paying for the betterment, not of society as a whole, but your specific corner of society. That's why non-parents pay for schools, for example. Do you feel ripped off if your taxes, used in local law enforcement, never pay off because you made it to the end of your life and never had to call the police? That's stupid.
So is the idea that a library must contain only ideas that a group of people like. I'd prefer, for example, that no young and impressionable minds have access to something like Mein Kampf, but do you see me requesting that it be banned? I'm a hetero white guy, so you'd think I'd be on the banners' side, because let's face it, most challenged books are in that spot because they represent LGBTQ and POC people. But the fact of the matter is, if you stick to what you know, in my case the hetero white man experience, then how do you grow as an individual? How can you be more helpful to the rest of society? I am currently reading a John Ridley book called Those Who Walk in Darkness, which is actually pretty spot on for our topic tonight. In a world where people have superpowers, and one of them (ONE!) detonates an entire major city, all of them are outlawed in America. Those who stay have no rights if the authorities find them. Most cops take a shoot-first attitude in cases like this.
Sound kind of familiar?
I'm getting ready to go off on a rant, and I really don't have that much time for that. This is really starting to get away from me, and I have to be up early for work tomorrow. Suffice it to say, those who want to control thought need go no further than book banning. That is step one in making sure The People think only the thoughts you want them to. I'm glad that IL, the state where I was born and where I live, made banning books illegal. They did give libraries an out. If they want to ban books, that's fine, but you lose your funding if you do.
Suck on that.
One more thing. Just because it's the law of the land now doesn't mean it's the law forever. We all thought Roe v Wade was set in stone, and look what happened to that. So we must remain vigilant to make sure assholes don't overturn this law. Just remember that.
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