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A Nationwide Book Ban Bill Has Been Introduced in the House of Representatives

124 pointsby LostMyLogintoday at 3:34 AM82 commentsview on HN

Comments

yakytoday at 4:33 AM

This is creepily similar to Russia circa 10+ years ago with its "gay propaganda" and "child protection" laws, and strong government support for the church.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/11/russia-law-ban...

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Perentitoday at 7:43 AM

Could you claim any book with boys being different to girls breaches the sex talk rules? I'm just wondering how you could use this law to show how ridiculous it is.

ArchieScrivenertoday at 7:30 AM

We should make Mein Kampf available, too? Anarchist Cookbook?

SilverElfintoday at 5:53 AM

Age verification (porn bans), VPN bans, restrictions on 3D printing - all of these are other policies, both proposed and already in law, that make additional violations of individual rights easier to pass, because these things have been normalized. It’s why the slippery slope isn’t always a logical fallacy.

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givemeethekeystoday at 6:57 AM

Why is there a federal department of education, anyway? Shouldn't the states be fully responsible for educating their population?

Tyrubiastoday at 4:17 AM

It’s honestly terrifying that efforts to ban books and restrict what teachers can teach have made such a big comeback in the US. When I was in school, we always discussed banned books from the perspective of “we used to ban things that made people uncomfortable in the bad old days, but that could never happen in the 21st century”. Obviously that glossed over a lot of nuance, but it still shocks me as an adult seeing repression we discussed only from a historical perspective make its way back into the legislature.

Part of the purpose of education is exposing students to strange, uncomfortable, and even frightening ideas and giving them the tools to critically think about and even empathize with such ideas. They don’t have to even be “useful” ideas, since it’s important that students are given the tools to grow and become anything they want. It seems like a lot of groups around the country just want students to grow up to become drones working to prop up the economy. Anything that might make people question the nature of society or their role in it must be suppressed according to them.

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Spivaktoday at 4:41 AM

And we're finally here on the national stage.

1. Ban exposing minors to "sexual material." Who would be against that? Surely only weirdos would push to expose kids to sex and pornography. Make sure this gets challenged in court and that it's found constitutional under 1A.

2. Define things we don't like as sexual material. Obviously being gay is entirely about sex, just like being trans is about genitals. You don't even have to speculate that this is the motive—it's defined explicitly in the bill.

3. Boom, you found a legal way to ban what would otherwise be a pretty obvious 1A violation.

This is the public institutions half, it's harder to swing a bill like this for private institutions which is why that's handled with age verification bills. That way it's not technically a ban.

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Dig1ttoday at 6:23 AM

If you can buy the book on Amazon or find it at your local library is the book really "banned"?

johnnyanmactoday at 4:31 AM

> prohibiting use of funds under the act “to develop, implement, facilitate, host, or promote any program or activity for, or to provide or promote literature or other materials to, children under the age of 18 that includes sexually oriented material, and for other purposes.

"For other purposes" is going to be doing a Herculean effort of carrying for the next few years if this passes. for example:

>This bill includes “lewd” and “lascivious” dancing as prohibited topics or themes.

I guess we learned nothing from Footloose.

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And yes, for a TLDR on the article and the general situation of this the last decease or so: such book bans tends to be a roundabout way to associate "sexually oriented" topics with the trans community. Sometimes the entire LGBT umbrella is hit.

Pre-epstien, I'd be surprised that such people care much more about what goes on with a person's state of being than the person themselves. But it really seems like every accusation is a confession.

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ThrowawayTestrtoday at 5:01 AM

Man, anything to distract people from the files.

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zoklet-enjoyertoday at 6:53 AM

The rep who introduced the bill quoted Hitler in a speech 2 days into her term. And then she spent the next 5 years advocating for horrible, repressive legislation. Disgusting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Miller_(politician)#:~:te...

JohnTHallertoday at 4:50 AM

Republicans keep telling everyone who they are. But a good chunk of folks keep denying it.

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koonsolotoday at 6:55 AM

And in other news, the Trump appointed ambassador in Belgium, Bill White, is fine with adult men sucking the blood from a baby penis.

And if you think I'm kidding, no I'm not.

Some of those boys end up with herpes, but it's all fine in MAGA land.

Source, straight from the horses mouth: https://youtu.be/KolvU5m0CZI?si=KMnq_y8KfGuhXkDY&t=410

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ecshafertoday at 4:55 AM

[flagged]

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ufociatoday at 5:14 AM

Doesn't look like a ban, a mere withholding of federal funds.

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snthpytoday at 6:07 AM

"Stop the Sexualization of Children Act" yeah right, because the biggest sexual threats to children are identity affirming books and not the paedophile sex trafficking networks run by the elites which have seen zero prosecutions in the US. At this point the US government is a total joke and laughing stock for the rest of the world.

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gdullitoday at 4:54 AM

Sorry, the toothpaste doesn't go back into the tube with social issues. Interracial marriage isn't going away either lol.

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WalterBrighttoday at 7:09 AM

When I grew up there weren't any sex books in the school libraries, nor in the public libraries. The books were available elsewhere, usually in adult shops.

Adult books are for adults.

Somehow, the kids were just fine.

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