Republicans in VA now moving to ban books in the private sector

[HomerJS]

Democracy is great if you can keep it. Welcome to the authoritarian regime.

Book ban jumps from public schools to private stores like Barnes & Noble | Salon.com

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

“Any book worth banning is a book worth reading.” -Isaac Asimov.

Time to start making a list and reading them twice.

 

[ivwshane]

Is this really a winning proposition for them or are they just all in on fascism now?

I’d love to hear from our resident righties on this but I have a feeling that this will be yet another thread where they don’t participate.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Is this really a winning proposition for them or are they just all in on fascism now?

I’d love to hear from our resident righties on this but I have a feeling that this will be yet another thread where they don’t participate.

seems like they have been for a while, so now it's just expanding the fascism

 

[feralkid]

nm.

 

[Meghan54]

Democracy is great if you can keep it. Welcome to the authoritarian regime.

Book ban jumps from public schools to private stores like Barnes & Noble | Salon.com

Just to be an irritant, the article is nothing like the headline. Nowhere, other than the previous bans from school shelves, the article talks about restricting sales/loans to minors, not banning outright. Of course, the old "slippery slope" shit and all.....but the headline and first paragraph are lies.


Consider the first two sentences of the article:

1) A book for a young adult audience that the American Library Association described as "the most banned book in the country," is now under scrutiny for rejection from bookshelves at private stores.

2) A Republican Virginia state delegate has filed a lawsuit against the author and publisher of "Gender Queer," a book about the nonbinary and asexual experience, demanding the Barnes & Noble require parental consent before selling the book to minors.


Hmmm...something seems not the same between those two descriptions of what the article is about......

The sentiment posed in the two sentences are not the same. Either it's being banned or sales are age restricted. Seems that it's more age-restrictions at this point.

 

[tweaker2]

Another ploy for the nation's conservatives to rally around. In their efforts to distinguish themselves apart from those "heathen Democrats", the Repubs have been increasingly resorting to fundamentalist religious dogma and morality issues that most of them like to throw around yet not practice themselves and just don't give a damn about in reality. Further and further to the right they go, mostly due to their having absolutely nothing of substance to offer the nation's working class and the poor at the federal level toward raising their standards of living while demanding limitless corporate welfare and tax cuts for the wealthy every single chance they get.

 

[KB]

"Anderson told a CBS affiliate that "you don't have to learn about your sexuality by having illustration of two minors performing fellatio on each other. That's what Gender Queer has. It has two minors on there hands and knees performing fellatio and it's in vivid, graphic detail."

It sounds like the book is a bit more than just a discussion piece about homosexuals. Any idea if the kama sutru requires parental permission? If it doesn't, then this book shouldn't.

 

[Meghan54]

"Anderson told a CBS affiliate that "you don't have to learn about your sexuality by having illustration of two minors performing fellatio on each other. That's what Gender Queer has. It has two minors on there hands and knees performing fellatio and it's in vivid, graphic detail."

It sounds like the book is a bit more than just a discussion piece about homosexuals. Any idea if the kama sutru requires parental permission? If it doesn't, then this book shouldn't.

The "Kama Sutra" wasn't written by a gay person.....so there's that.....

 

[HomerJS]

Today's standard of Republican obscene is any topic about gender or race

 

[Greenman]

Age restrictions on books isn't banning them.

 

[Homerboy]

Age restrictions on books isn't banning them.

Agreed.
This isn't about banning the books, it's about parental permission for minors.

I'm pretty liberal, and I'm not entirely against this either. But the slope can be VERY slippery too, and give them an inch and you know they will look to take MILES.

 

[Meghan54]

Agreed.
This isn't about banning the books, it's about parental permission for minors.

I'm pretty liberal, and I'm not entirely against this either. But the slope can be VERY slippery too, and give them an inch and you know they will look to take MILES.

Completely agree. Just look at what's being bandied about in Repub. circles in realtion to Roe v. Wade being overturned.....despite the "that's all we want...leave it up to states" rhetoric being a lie because almost as fast as the leak happened, talk began to ban abortions nationally, removing it from state control, and talk of trying to ban contraceptives and criminalizing miscarriage treatment (Alabama currently, no doubt other red states will follow.)

Yeah, you cannot trust them to keep their "word" in any way, shape, or form.

 

[HomerJS]

Agreed.
This isn't about banning the books, it's about parental permission for minors.

I'm pretty liberal, and I'm not entirely against this either. But the slope can be VERY slippery too, and give them an inch and you know they will look to take MILES.

Barnes and Noble was specifically mentioned in the article. Did a quick search and found this. For those conservatives the title says it includes pictures!



No mention of age restricting ALL sexually explicit books. Just the ones they deem inappropriate. This is a backdoor (no pun intended) ban. In the case of Republicans it will be all gender and race based.

 

[sandorski]

Free Speech means Their Speech.

 

[Homerboy]

Barnes and Noble was specifically mentioned in the article. Did a quick search and found this. For those conservatives the title says it includes pictures!
View attachment 61973


No mention of age restricting ALL sexually explicit books. Just the ones they deem inappropriate. This is a backdoor (no pun intended) ban. In the case of Republicans it will be all gender and race based.

I didn't say I was entirely supporting it. And I'm guessing there has never been a age requirement on buying certain books in a book store. It's an interesting "problem" (I use that term VERY loosely). There are tons of sexually and violently explicit books available at B&N - should those be allowed to be purchased by minors? We (technically) have age "restrictions" on movies, why are books and graphic novels different?

We're venturing into Tipper Gore territory here and "Parental Guidance" stickers on the latest NWA album. I get the concept and don't entirely disagree with it, but as I said, it's such a slippery slope (please note, my kids were listening to/watching R rated stuff WAY too early for most parent's tastes).

 

[sportage]

I know some Q's that want to ban the bible. They claim the bible is incomplete and heavily edited by kings of era's past. That the good stuff was left out and what remains can not be trusted yet alone deemed accurate.
I guess they are referring to the scriptures of great orange god who lives in the land of Mar-A-Largo, who conducts miracles using Clorox bleach.

So, should the bible be banned as well? The Q's believe it should. It comes down to who is doing the banning, who decides? Republicans have made a mockery of the US constitution so should the US constitution be banned as well? Probably so....

 

[ivwshane]

Having age requirements is one thing (think porno magazines), requiring a permission slip is entirely different.

I for one would be happy to see kids reading any kind of books but then again I’m not an authoritarian snowflake who can’t handle my child being exposed to something other than my own beliefs.

 

[Jaskalas]

Agreed.
This isn't about banning the books, it's about parental permission for minors.

So the topic title is a bit.. off.
OTOH, I would agree with you on the slippery slope and wondering if it's any business of a legislature to determine age restrictions on a book. Especially if the proposal is out of line with similar content.

 

[ivwshane]

So the topic title is a bit.. off.
OTOH, I would agree with you on the slippery slope and wondering if it's any business of a legislature to determine age restrictions on a book. Especially if the proposal is out of line with similar content.

In a sane world you’d have to prove that such a restriction was necessary to prevent harm to the person they want to restrict. Or show that it’s necessary in order to protect the state’s interests.

 

[Zorba]

Agreed.
This isn't about banning the books, it's about parental permission for minors.

I'm pretty liberal, and I'm not entirely against this either. But the slope can be VERY slippery too, and give them an inch and you know they will look to take MILES.

Any kid that could drive themselves to Barnes and Nobles and but this book could Google gay sex as fast as any adult. I'd rather my kid see some illustrations than PornHub.

 

[K1052]

Any kid that could drive themselves to Barnes and Nobles and but this book could Google gay sex as fast as any adult. I'd rather my kid see some illustrations than PornHub.

As a child of the mid-AOL era I certainly can vouch that the vast majority of my education on this topic did indeed not come from the local B&N.

Would have been nice if sex education in this country was worth a damn.

 

[nakedfrog]

"Anderson told a CBS affiliate that "you don't have to learn about your sexuality by having illustration of two minors performing fellatio on each other. That's what Gender Queer has. It has two minors on there hands and knees performing fellatio and it's in vivid, graphic detail."

It sounds like the book is a bit more than just a discussion piece about homosexuals. Any idea if the kama sutru requires parental permission? If it doesn't, then this book shouldn't.

There's a page where the protagonist has their partner performing fellatio on their strap-on to see if they're into it. If you search "gender queer fellatio panel" you can see it, in all the "vivid, graphic detail" for yourself. Two panels, and the cartoon art style isn't what I'd call particularly detailed.
I read this last year before I found out it was a heavily banned book. It's a memoir about the author's experience of growing up as a gender queer person, from elementary school up to adulthood.

 

[Captante]

Would have been nice if sex education in this country was worth a damn.

This book was my "sex-ed" ROTFL .... my Dad had it on one of his many bookshelves from a college class he taught.


The Naked Ape: A Zoologist's Study of the Human Animal by Desmond Morris (1967)