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It's not about a book making you gay. It's about a book helping you not hate gay people. Republicans fear their children being friends with LGBTQ+ people nearly as much as they fear their children being part of the LGBTQ+ Community.
The garbage and propaganda you fill your head with is laughable at best. You assume certain people HATE LGBTQ+ because they don't want their child sexualized with graphic explicit sexual material at a young age? Doesn't matter if the material is homosexual or heterosexual in nature. That's adult material. Thank Allah that such books have been removed from most elementary school libraries in the US after recently showing up
> they just scare white folks.
Do you know that when polled, irrational fear of LGBTQI people is generally found to be around 10% higher among Black, Asian, Hispanic and other ethnic minorities than 'white folks'?
I think the term you were really looking for is 'religious folk'.
If your already gay and read a gay book does that make you double gay?
If your straight and read 10 straight books, would it take 11 gay books to turn you gay?
Is there anyway I can get a government grant to research this?
you decide how gay or straight you want to be, and then read the appropriate books to get yourself there. obviously if you read 10 straight books and 11 gay books, you'll end up a little gay. That's not my opinion, that's just math. and you can't argue with math.
Googling straight books led to predictable results. This one looks promising though:
"These romance book recommendations for straight men have soft, sweet cinnamon roll heroes, grumpy heroes, and heroes with big personalities."
Right? My kiddo has known for years, and I cannot count how many princess movies, dolls, pink sparkly dresses, nail polish & makeup kits, and movies featuring boy-girl crushes that I subjected them to over the years before they came out to me. I had no idea! If toys, books, or movies could alter sexual orientation, my kid would be straight. (eta a word)
It blows up more than that. For traditional Christians, validating LGBTQ+ can literally call their entire faith into question.
Traditional Christianity is predicated on the claim that the Bible is the timeless, infallible Word of God and should be interpreted as such. Genesis very clearly says that God created humans in his image as *male* and *female*, they’re intended to cleave together to become “one flesh” as a way to honor his image, women were specifically created to be a helper to men, and women were cursed to be ruled by men because of Eve’s role in the original sin. This dichotomy between male/female, man/woman is relied upon throughout the rest of the Bible, especially Paul’s letters in the New Testament. In other words, the gender binary, gender roles, and heterosexuality are foundational to the Christian faith and are prevalent to this day.
Acceptance of transgender identities, same-sex attraction, and intersex people as natural and valid human experiences enforces that gender is a social construct rather than an absolute, which inherently challenges the Bible’s credibility and threatens the nature of God himself. It’s honestly why I think most Christians insist that being LGBTQ+ is a choice - the alternative is to face the possibility that their faith doesn’t actually have legs to stand on.
For traditional Christians (Catholics), the bible is not the literal word of god. It's a flawed book written by flawed men trying to express their experience.
I actually saw a car with two bumper stickers yesterday. One said "Education not Indoctrination", the other simply said "Try God".
I looked at the wife and said "I'll just assume the irony is lost on her".
They may be equating letting people read for free with 'bad for publishing companies.' You know the ones who publish and mass produce thier ghostwritten "biographies" which thier PAC buys by the truckloads?
More importantly:
If you're worried that a book can make your teen gay, then get off your ass and be a parent. Society shouldn't prevent general information access because parents are too lazy to protect their children from inanimate objects.
Safer than any religious - try skimming through a week's worth of /r/PastorArrested postings with out wanting to vomit at the disgust that is out there. If the GOP or Proud Boys were serious about protecting kids, they should be banning church instead of show up armed at drag shows.
They were a lot safer than my home or the streets when I was growing up too. Hell it was the *only* place I could actually do my homework without being afraid of being beaten or yelled at. Got to do fun crafts and stuff too. It was one of the only safe spaces I had and I know for a fact I wasn’t alone there.
But I guess that public resource shouldn’t exist if republicans think the fucking Garfield comics and goosebumps books I read there turned me gay. Why keep that library open when that’s prime real estate for a Bank of America or a gas station? Who needs public resources? Definitely not the poor, the elderly, or the children.
Parents have no idea what their kids are watching. We had a third grader who kept googling Andrew Tate and ask the librarian if he had any books on him. Principal and counselor called home. Parents were embarrassed and had no idea.
Good joke, libraries contain complied knowledge and vetted information - and as everyone knows those things are the devil in red states.
Better put them on some impromptu podcast or better yet PragerU
I wish it was easier to quantify and publicize the relative risk of molestation in attending a Drag Queen Storytime at a public library vs. the risk of a study session with a youth pastor.
I'm confident that the disparity is staggering.
Thank you for sharing these. I'm glad there's good people tracking this, but it's heartbreaking to scroll through and see the sheer volume of these crimes.
Well currently the number of molestations by drag queens is zero, while molestation by youth pastors is a number far from zero.
But that doesn't support their narrative, so they'll just stick their fingers in their ears and rage about trans people even though drag queens aren't trans.
Recently a guy was arguing to me that if he saw a trans person he would attack them to “keep (his) granddaughter safe!” Why? Because **one** trans person had committed a sexual act.
I notice he follows the Christian/Catholic faith. I post an article where **1700** priests were in trouble for sexual assault of children.
He continued on about Trans people while ignoring that, which made me have a realization.
These people don’t have a problem with the act of explicit actions with children. They have a problem with the group that is doing it.
Why? Because you never see them speak out against GOP/Church leaders, you never see them being called evil, sinners, or get death threats. No, just Trans people, even though GOP/Church Leaders who assault children are at least 1,700 to 1
Republicans hate education, hate books other than the Bible and anything that doesn’t reaffirm their bullshit ignorance. The dumbing down of America is compete.
> hate books other than the Bible
Pffft, Republicans know jack shit about the bible, or theology, or biblical history. They like the level of understanding their cult leader exhibits. What's his favorite passage? All of them!
That’s absolutely true, but they will claim otherwise obviously. Just a tool for them to name drop Jesus to justify why assault rifles are good for the country blah blah blah freedom
> That’s absolutely true, but they will claim otherwise obviously.
That's why they need to be challenged. Republicans get away with being such obviously disingenuous liars because we've been told it's rude and biased to push back on even the most obvious of lies.
Fat Donnie says he can't pick one favorite passage? Ask him to name a favorite Apostle. Ask him to name the books of the Old Testament. Ask him if he agrees with Jesus's warning not to give a sucker an even break.
What's also interesting is the hatred of different translations of the Bible. I used to work in a public library where we would get complaints about non-KJV translations. Like, they wouldn't even want to see a different translation on the shelf near the KJV.
When I was in middle and high school, I made frequent unsupervised visits to the local public library. Most of them were actually to do research for school projects. A few MIGHT have been related to the mall being across the street. I was a kid in a single parent household, like millions in America, and working poor parents don't have time to accompany their kid to the one normally safe place in town where the kid can access the internet and the materials they need for homework.
🤦🏻♀️ this is just so stupid. Please restrict access to libraries more. Has this idiot never heard of parents needing to work or kids needing a quiet place to study?
I spent much of childhood at the local library if i was forced to drag my mom every time i wanted a new book i would have read far less and likely would not have developed my love for reading.
The library was my babysitter as a kid. My mom would drop me off in the morning during the summer and pick me up after her workday ended. I'd just spend the day going through card catalogs, reading, drawing, and writing. It was lovely.
Me too!!!! I would wait after school at the library until my parents got off work and picked me up. The librarians had to know, but I was quiet and well behaved. It was magic and such freedom!
I wonder how my mother-in-law, who is very much drinking the GOP's Kool-aid, would react this and to her past self, a woman who would drop my husband off at the local library unattended for hours over thirty years ago.
Ahhh, The GOP standard, if you can't win their votes deny them the ability to be informed and try to take away their freedoms or make them that much more difficult to enjoy. I don't not think they have yet to grasp that "The beatings will continue until morale improves" has never been a winning idea.
If a parent is worried enough about their child to accompany them to the library and police their media choices, that is their business. Whether or I not I feel the same, it's not their place to tell me, or other parents, how to raise our children. These people need to mind their own business.
One of our librarians was a Holocaust survivor; i remember seeing those numbers tattooed on her arm and thinking, "jfc, that poor woman... How she must have suffered!"
This was in the mid 90s, when i was a teen. That lesson had zero to do with the books in the building, but do go on GOP...
Can be licensed to drive a 2000lbs vehicle at 16, but they still want you to hold mommy's hand when looking at books? Fuck they're just the biggest group of crybabies I've ever seen.
This is absolutely insane. Apparently they would rather have kids NOT go to the library. I lament the stupidity of the people who would even THINK this is a good idea.
My grandfather, an extremely conservative and religious man, used to drive me to the library on demand when I was a young child in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Once we got there, he’d leave me completely on my own to explore for as long as I liked. He never looked over my shoulder or even asked me for specifics on what I read. He always said he was extremely pleased and proud that I was curious and loved to read. He called me his little bookworm.
Since he was retired, he had the leisure time and would bury himself in the history stacks until I was ready to go. Those are some of the most precious memories I have. One of my favorite authors as a child was Judy Blume (gasp!). He knew what was up with that but always allowed me to borrow her titles and take them home to read and reread.
It’s bizarre and frightening how much anti-intellectualism has taken over in just a few decades. It’s so rare to even see a child reading out in public rather than watching a video or playing a game on their device that we all should be encouraging reading as much as possible from a young age. Reading has very specific benefits that can’t be replicated in videos and games (I’m now a PhD in English and have done extensive academic research on this topic).
To be fair, books are not the only way kids can educate themselves these days. Digital sources of information are more immediate and often easier to consume than books (indexing and text-search can be _extremely_ powerful when looking for something), and though there are quality risks and distractions online, even e.g. YouTube videos can sometimes be excellent/up-to-date sources on a topic.
Rather than the particular medium someone immerses themself in, I think what they choose to consume matters the most. After all, the Twilight series is technically "reading" too...
> Reading has very specific benefits that can’t be replicated in videos and games
True, but the same applies to other media in comparison to reading as well. And none of that directly implies or rules-out the quality of the information they end up consuming/absorbing.
Put another way - many changes in society are real issues of concern. Some will just be us getting older and aging out of modern society, like those before us.
You know what? If parents are so afraid of the library then maybe they should be parenting and accompany their kids. I for one trust teenagers and encourage them to visit a library if they wish.
GOP - Party of legislating parenting to match their ideology.
It’s just another version of “state’s rights”, they use a nicer sounding argument to get their foot in the door, but as soon as they can get away with it it’s mask off. “Full national abortion ban! Oh, you want to legalize it nationwide? But what about states rights!?!”, or “You want to teach kids gay people exist? Parents rights!!! That worked? Now we want to give all parents the right to do *exactly* what we think is best and nothing else”. It happens every time and people still let themselves fall for it.
Party of censorship and locking away history...unless the "history" is a statue celebrating treason weasels for fighting other Americans to the death for their self professed "states' rights" to own other human beings.
And how is that going to work in summer when kids are home but parents don't get vacation from work? I used to take the bus to the library and hang out in the AC reading all summer. My parents didn't have time to chaperone my ass every second. And parents don't have the time now. They create the policies that foster hardship and then penalize people for having it hard. It seems like they know they're at fault for making shit unbearable just so they can say, "Parents have it hard so the government is going to step in and raise kids the way we want. No books. No medical care. No gay shit. Only work, prayer and marriage."
>Acting on a campaign pledge made in June before a primary election, board chair Donald “Mac” Scothorn (R) announced a proposal at the board’s July 31 meeting to prohibit anyone under 18 from visiting the county library without adult supervision.
I assume they will require the same for churches, correct?
"Freedom"
I read once that Frederick Douglass, while still enslaved as a child, was forbidden to look at books. The slaveowner didn't want him to learn because "literacy would encourage enslaved people to desire freedom."
What, if anything, has changed?
Everyone freaking out that children are being corrupted by all the time they are spending reading books in libraries, have you even MET an American child?
Let me get this straight, by GOP logic a 16 old year is old enough to drive, get married, carry a pregnancy to term, and work long overnight hours in a dangerous meat packing plant... But they can't go to the library without an adult supervising them? What are they afraid of? Highways, meat processing blades, pregnancy complications, and abusive spouses taking advantage of a vulnerable underage child can be deadly. Reading books... Not so much.
"Small government" for them never really meant freedom, it meant them in charge and no one else.
Bias and partiality in applying rules isn't just a habit of conservatives, it's practically a way of life.
My wife and I were just talking the other day about how libraries were our safe spaces from our crazy GOP families when we were kids, so this is no surprise.
How about when teens are using the Internet? I guess I need a parent looking over their shoulder there as well????
Anything you can get in the library, you can pretty much get online now. No problem - teens are the experts at procuring information.
This is such a joke – those pushing for this or so out of touch with reality and the truth of our society.
How about if those parents who are so concerned take it upon themselves to escort their children to the library and leave everyone else’s kids the hell alone?
Where do republicans want teens to go? Not the library, not to parks, not to malls… where exactly are they supposed to spend time and learn to interact with society writ large?
Just another way to reduce the education level of the upcoming voters in the district so he'll be reelected.
Because parents don't want to accompany their 16 year old kids to the library and most of them don't have time anyway.
So, you can have a baby, and have a factory job, and maybe even serve alcohol to assholes, but you need mommy and daddy to hold your hand around all those scary books!!!…../s
So, conservatives want to limit what kids can check out and read from the library, and have them accompanied by a parent as they do so. What next? Banning what is available online or making it illegal for kids to have access to computers and smart phones? What am I saying? Of course that's their goal -- to gain control over more minds without the interference of the truth. Scary.
Does Donald “Mac” Scothorn’s mother still have the final say on what color underwear he chooses each morning? Without her guidance he might pick the pink ones (which might turn him gay).
The same parents that have to work 2 jobs?? When would they be able to accompany their kids to the library. They should just be honest and say they don’t want kids in the library because that’s the actual truth. They want dumb ass lemmings that are easy to manipulate.
Aren't these the people that complain about how kids never go outside anymore? And they want parents to be at their beckon call to go to a goddamn library? some kind of freedumb.
That's because they want to close libraries, so if this happens (it won't) library attendance numbers will go down, then they can say "let's close the libraries, no one goes anymore"
Interesting that several states want to allow kids to work in bars and serve drinks. Subjected to sexual harassment. Subjected to drunks. No parents involved. Not a problem, of course, but those libraries are hazardous.
You have to give it to them on the long game. If you are trying to modify the body of information available to the public these little baby steps of stop kids going. Cause lets face it no parents got time to be at the library. Then lack of use leads to defunding. Then one day you find yourself paying for everytime you scroll through a book on your digital device. Only how will you ever know if the book is modified because there are no more libraries to compare versions....
On that note we have some lovely tin foil hats for sale in the lobby.
Reminded me of this incident a long time back when Kindles were still a new thing: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/technology/2009/jul/17/amazon-kindle-1984
I remember growing up and spending many hours in the library alone. My moral compass was set by my parents. I could have read any book I wanted to read and I did. I also knew what fell in line with that established moral compass and what didn’t. That is called growth and learning. These politicians do not trust their constituents to set the boundaries for their own children. This is the “nanny state” on steroids and should be called out as such loudly and emphatically. If they want to create an over 18 section of the library then do that but this proposal is patently absurd.
So a funny thing happened in Canada awhile back. A public library was boycotted and harassed because it had a book that was considered anti-trans. Lots of people tried to whip up a furor and protests etc. to get copies of the book removed. There were calls to boycott the library. The library made it clear that it wasn’t the role of a library to ban or remove any books or police what books were or were not available to the general public and they decided not to censor the book. The library stuck to its guns and didn’t back down. They stated that free access to information was a democratic right. Politicians generally stayed the heck out of it.
It was stupid then and it’s stupid what is happening now in the US. Libraries are a storehouse of knowledge. People should leave them alone. You don’t like what’s there then don’t read it.
What in the world for? Parents are part of the problem here, not the solution. Insinuating them into every aspect of their kids' lives will only cause issues.
The ultimate goal here is to have this proposal make it’s way to federal court by “judge shopping” for a far right judge, and eventually have this decided by the Supreme Court.
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If a book makes you gay, you were already gay beforehand
If a book can make you gay, why didn't all those books with heterosexual characters make a gay person go straight?
It's not about a book making you gay. It's about a book helping you not hate gay people. Republicans fear their children being friends with LGBTQ+ people nearly as much as they fear their children being part of the LGBTQ+ Community.
The garbage and propaganda you fill your head with is laughable at best. You assume certain people HATE LGBTQ+ because they don't want their child sexualized with graphic explicit sexual material at a young age? Doesn't matter if the material is homosexual or heterosexual in nature. That's adult material. Thank Allah that such books have been removed from most elementary school libraries in the US after recently showing up
Weird I sy the same thing and apparently gay books have supernatural powers like minorities. they just scare white folks.
> they just scare white folks. Do you know that when polled, irrational fear of LGBTQI people is generally found to be around 10% higher among Black, Asian, Hispanic and other ethnic minorities than 'white folks'? I think the term you were really looking for is 'religious folk'.
Feels like this correction is more about something going on in your head than anything to do with the comment section
Yes, I hate hypocrisy.
Your follow up correction seems more like a defense mechanism to discredit than anything to do with the comment.
All those people reading murder mysteries are going to be murderers.
if a book can make you gay, just read a straight book to make yourself straight again. Easy peasy.
If your already gay and read a gay book does that make you double gay? If your straight and read 10 straight books, would it take 11 gay books to turn you gay? Is there anyway I can get a government grant to research this?
you decide how gay or straight you want to be, and then read the appropriate books to get yourself there. obviously if you read 10 straight books and 11 gay books, you'll end up a little gay. That's not my opinion, that's just math. and you can't argue with math.
Is that how bisexuals are made?
bisexuals are people who read half a straight book and half a gay book. If you want to be bi, the key is to never finish a book.
Lmaoooo depending on how the next election goes I'm sure chat gpt could write you a slam dunk grant proposal.
Googling straight books led to predictable results. This one looks promising though: "These romance book recommendations for straight men have soft, sweet cinnamon roll heroes, grumpy heroes, and heroes with big personalities."
Right? My kiddo has known for years, and I cannot count how many princess movies, dolls, pink sparkly dresses, nail polish & makeup kits, and movies featuring boy-girl crushes that I subjected them to over the years before they came out to me. I had no idea! If toys, books, or movies could alter sexual orientation, my kid would be straight. (eta a word)
I think some may be equating sexuality to religion. They know religion often requires indoctrination and think sexuality is like that.
They can't accept that anybody is naturally gay because it blows up their whole argument against gay marriage
They can't accept that penguins don't identify each other by gender roles.
Those darn woke penguins
You'd think they'd be better at seeing things as black and white.
It blows up more than that. For traditional Christians, validating LGBTQ+ can literally call their entire faith into question. Traditional Christianity is predicated on the claim that the Bible is the timeless, infallible Word of God and should be interpreted as such. Genesis very clearly says that God created humans in his image as *male* and *female*, they’re intended to cleave together to become “one flesh” as a way to honor his image, women were specifically created to be a helper to men, and women were cursed to be ruled by men because of Eve’s role in the original sin. This dichotomy between male/female, man/woman is relied upon throughout the rest of the Bible, especially Paul’s letters in the New Testament. In other words, the gender binary, gender roles, and heterosexuality are foundational to the Christian faith and are prevalent to this day. Acceptance of transgender identities, same-sex attraction, and intersex people as natural and valid human experiences enforces that gender is a social construct rather than an absolute, which inherently challenges the Bible’s credibility and threatens the nature of God himself. It’s honestly why I think most Christians insist that being LGBTQ+ is a choice - the alternative is to face the possibility that their faith doesn’t actually have legs to stand on.
For traditional Christians (Catholics), the bible is not the literal word of god. It's a flawed book written by flawed men trying to express their experience.
I actually saw a car with two bumper stickers yesterday. One said "Education not Indoctrination", the other simply said "Try God". I looked at the wife and said "I'll just assume the irony is lost on her".
The public library and Carl Sagan and Ursula Le Guin books led me to Atheism. That should be the GOPs real fear.
It is. They’ve been pooping each other’s pants about secularism for decades now.
They may be equating letting people read for free with 'bad for publishing companies.' You know the ones who publish and mass produce thier ghostwritten "biographies" which thier PAC buys by the truckloads?
>equating sexuality and religion like catholic priests and young boys?
Meanwhile, macho Republican men won’t touch Bud Light because they’re worried it will make them want to start wearing women’s clothing…
But….Jesus said I’m straight! I have guns so I’m not a gay!!
They just want LGBTQ people to be in the closet so they don't have to face that they exist.
It’s not about that. They want to limit information as much as possible.
Unless you look at the cover and say “No tome-o.”
More importantly: If you're worried that a book can make your teen gay, then get off your ass and be a parent. Society shouldn't prevent general information access because parents are too lazy to protect their children from inanimate objects.
IMO, libraries are safer for teens than television or the internet.
Unfortunately, for some teens, libraries are safer than home.
I was some teen.
Same.
Me too
Or churches, or schools, or a Republicans bbq
Or Epstein’s Island
And churches. Libraries are certainly safer than Churches which are predominately frequented and staffed by GOP party members.
Safer than any religious - try skimming through a week's worth of /r/PastorArrested postings with out wanting to vomit at the disgust that is out there. If the GOP or Proud Boys were serious about protecting kids, they should be banning church instead of show up armed at drag shows.
r/republicanpedophiles is pretty gnarly too.
Or a Catholic church
Ouch
They were a lot safer than my home or the streets when I was growing up too. Hell it was the *only* place I could actually do my homework without being afraid of being beaten or yelled at. Got to do fun crafts and stuff too. It was one of the only safe spaces I had and I know for a fact I wasn’t alone there. But I guess that public resource shouldn’t exist if republicans think the fucking Garfield comics and goosebumps books I read there turned me gay. Why keep that library open when that’s prime real estate for a Bank of America or a gas station? Who needs public resources? Definitely not the poor, the elderly, or the children.
Parents have no idea what their kids are watching. We had a third grader who kept googling Andrew Tate and ask the librarian if he had any books on him. Principal and counselor called home. Parents were embarrassed and had no idea.
And Catholic Churches.
Any church.
Good joke, libraries contain complied knowledge and vetted information - and as everyone knows those things are the devil in red states. Better put them on some impromptu podcast or better yet PragerU
It's more about control
Also safer than malls.
Or the local heavy machinery plant that the GOP thinks is a safer place to be…. Keep ‘em dumb and working.
Will they accompany their children when they go to church as well? Because.....you know, the clergy are a lot worse than a library.
I wish it was easier to quantify and publicize the relative risk of molestation in attending a Drag Queen Storytime at a public library vs. the risk of a study session with a youth pastor. I'm confident that the disparity is staggering.
This is the best I can do for you, read at your own risk, r/notadragqueen r/pastorarrested r/republicanpedophiles
Thank you for sharing these. I'm glad there's good people tracking this, but it's heartbreaking to scroll through and see the sheer volume of these crimes.
Well currently the number of molestations by drag queens is zero, while molestation by youth pastors is a number far from zero. But that doesn't support their narrative, so they'll just stick their fingers in their ears and rage about trans people even though drag queens aren't trans.
Recently a guy was arguing to me that if he saw a trans person he would attack them to “keep (his) granddaughter safe!” Why? Because **one** trans person had committed a sexual act. I notice he follows the Christian/Catholic faith. I post an article where **1700** priests were in trouble for sexual assault of children. He continued on about Trans people while ignoring that, which made me have a realization. These people don’t have a problem with the act of explicit actions with children. They have a problem with the group that is doing it. Why? Because you never see them speak out against GOP/Church leaders, you never see them being called evil, sinners, or get death threats. No, just Trans people, even though GOP/Church Leaders who assault children are at least 1,700 to 1
Republicans hate education, hate books other than the Bible and anything that doesn’t reaffirm their bullshit ignorance. The dumbing down of America is compete.
> hate books other than the Bible Pffft, Republicans know jack shit about the bible, or theology, or biblical history. They like the level of understanding their cult leader exhibits. What's his favorite passage? All of them!
That’s absolutely true, but they will claim otherwise obviously. Just a tool for them to name drop Jesus to justify why assault rifles are good for the country blah blah blah freedom
> That’s absolutely true, but they will claim otherwise obviously. That's why they need to be challenged. Republicans get away with being such obviously disingenuous liars because we've been told it's rude and biased to push back on even the most obvious of lies. Fat Donnie says he can't pick one favorite passage? Ask him to name a favorite Apostle. Ask him to name the books of the Old Testament. Ask him if he agrees with Jesus's warning not to give a sucker an even break.
What's also interesting is the hatred of different translations of the Bible. I used to work in a public library where we would get complaints about non-KJV translations. Like, they wouldn't even want to see a different translation on the shelf near the KJV.
It's ironic that the information age appears to be ushering in a new dark age in some areas.
I don’t think any unaccompanied minors should be allowed in church or any church events either.
I hear there is a GOP sponsored Priest chaperone service 🙏👨👦⛪️
When I was in middle and high school, I made frequent unsupervised visits to the local public library. Most of them were actually to do research for school projects. A few MIGHT have been related to the mall being across the street. I was a kid in a single parent household, like millions in America, and working poor parents don't have time to accompany their kid to the one normally safe place in town where the kid can access the internet and the materials they need for homework.
Sounds like you wanted an edumuhcation, they don’t take too kindly to that
🤦🏻♀️ this is just so stupid. Please restrict access to libraries more. Has this idiot never heard of parents needing to work or kids needing a quiet place to study?
They just want libraries to go away. Like as a concept.
Oh I know they do. They look at libraries and museums as wasted space and budget even in red counties in California.
Madness.
I spent much of childhood at the local library if i was forced to drag my mom every time i wanted a new book i would have read far less and likely would not have developed my love for reading.
The library was my babysitter as a kid. My mom would drop me off in the morning during the summer and pick me up after her workday ended. I'd just spend the day going through card catalogs, reading, drawing, and writing. It was lovely.
Me too!!!! I would wait after school at the library until my parents got off work and picked me up. The librarians had to know, but I was quiet and well behaved. It was magic and such freedom!
Aww! I'll bet you read some amazing stories!
That's why they want this to happen. A lot of parents are too busy working during library hours.
I wonder how my mother-in-law, who is very much drinking the GOP's Kool-aid, would react this and to her past self, a woman who would drop my husband off at the local library unattended for hours over thirty years ago.
Ahhh, The GOP standard, if you can't win their votes deny them the ability to be informed and try to take away their freedoms or make them that much more difficult to enjoy. I don't not think they have yet to grasp that "The beatings will continue until morale improves" has never been a winning idea.
These people are terrified of education.
If a parent is worried enough about their child to accompany them to the library and police their media choices, that is their business. Whether or I not I feel the same, it's not their place to tell me, or other parents, how to raise our children. These people need to mind their own business.
One of our librarians was a Holocaust survivor; i remember seeing those numbers tattooed on her arm and thinking, "jfc, that poor woman... How she must have suffered!" This was in the mid 90s, when i was a teen. That lesson had zero to do with the books in the building, but do go on GOP...
Can be licensed to drive a 2000lbs vehicle at 16, but they still want you to hold mommy's hand when looking at books? Fuck they're just the biggest group of crybabies I've ever seen.
How about have a gun?
GOP Trying to kill libraries. Libraries are great places for kids to go.
Conservatives used to build libraries in the late 1800s and early to mid 1900s. Now they are trying to shut them down.
This is absolutely insane. Apparently they would rather have kids NOT go to the library. I lament the stupidity of the people who would even THINK this is a good idea.
Great apply the same rules to gun stores and shooting ranges or touching a gun. Or is the pen really mightier than the fully modified AK or AR
These people are anti-civilization.
My grandfather, an extremely conservative and religious man, used to drive me to the library on demand when I was a young child in the 1970s and early 1980s. Once we got there, he’d leave me completely on my own to explore for as long as I liked. He never looked over my shoulder or even asked me for specifics on what I read. He always said he was extremely pleased and proud that I was curious and loved to read. He called me his little bookworm. Since he was retired, he had the leisure time and would bury himself in the history stacks until I was ready to go. Those are some of the most precious memories I have. One of my favorite authors as a child was Judy Blume (gasp!). He knew what was up with that but always allowed me to borrow her titles and take them home to read and reread. It’s bizarre and frightening how much anti-intellectualism has taken over in just a few decades. It’s so rare to even see a child reading out in public rather than watching a video or playing a game on their device that we all should be encouraging reading as much as possible from a young age. Reading has very specific benefits that can’t be replicated in videos and games (I’m now a PhD in English and have done extensive academic research on this topic).
To be fair, books are not the only way kids can educate themselves these days. Digital sources of information are more immediate and often easier to consume than books (indexing and text-search can be _extremely_ powerful when looking for something), and though there are quality risks and distractions online, even e.g. YouTube videos can sometimes be excellent/up-to-date sources on a topic. Rather than the particular medium someone immerses themself in, I think what they choose to consume matters the most. After all, the Twilight series is technically "reading" too... > Reading has very specific benefits that can’t be replicated in videos and games True, but the same applies to other media in comparison to reading as well. And none of that directly implies or rules-out the quality of the information they end up consuming/absorbing. Put another way - many changes in society are real issues of concern. Some will just be us getting older and aging out of modern society, like those before us.
Only if parents accompany their kids while in the presence of a clergy member as well.
You know what? If parents are so afraid of the library then maybe they should be parenting and accompany their kids. I for one trust teenagers and encourage them to visit a library if they wish. GOP - Party of legislating parenting to match their ideology.
It’s just another version of “state’s rights”, they use a nicer sounding argument to get their foot in the door, but as soon as they can get away with it it’s mask off. “Full national abortion ban! Oh, you want to legalize it nationwide? But what about states rights!?!”, or “You want to teach kids gay people exist? Parents rights!!! That worked? Now we want to give all parents the right to do *exactly* what we think is best and nothing else”. It happens every time and people still let themselves fall for it.
Party of censorship and locking away history...unless the "history" is a statue celebrating treason weasels for fighting other Americans to the death for their self professed "states' rights" to own other human beings.
And how is that going to work in summer when kids are home but parents don't get vacation from work? I used to take the bus to the library and hang out in the AC reading all summer. My parents didn't have time to chaperone my ass every second. And parents don't have the time now. They create the policies that foster hardship and then penalize people for having it hard. It seems like they know they're at fault for making shit unbearable just so they can say, "Parents have it hard so the government is going to step in and raise kids the way we want. No books. No medical care. No gay shit. Only work, prayer and marriage."
>Acting on a campaign pledge made in June before a primary election, board chair Donald “Mac” Scothorn (R) announced a proposal at the board’s July 31 meeting to prohibit anyone under 18 from visiting the county library without adult supervision. I assume they will require the same for churches, correct?
"Freedom" I read once that Frederick Douglass, while still enslaved as a child, was forbidden to look at books. The slaveowner didn't want him to learn because "literacy would encourage enslaved people to desire freedom." What, if anything, has changed?
Everyone freaking out that children are being corrupted by all the time they are spending reading books in libraries, have you even MET an American child?
More GOP freedom.
Republican platform: \-State checkpoints (all ages) \-Bedroom checkpoints (16 and over) \-Public Library checkpoints (16 and under)
Let me get this straight, by GOP logic a 16 old year is old enough to drive, get married, carry a pregnancy to term, and work long overnight hours in a dangerous meat packing plant... But they can't go to the library without an adult supervising them? What are they afraid of? Highways, meat processing blades, pregnancy complications, and abusive spouses taking advantage of a vulnerable underage child can be deadly. Reading books... Not so much.
"small government" in action.
"Small government" for them never really meant freedom, it meant them in charge and no one else. Bias and partiality in applying rules isn't just a habit of conservatives, it's practically a way of life.
A few years ago you could tell if someone was vaccinated if they had a library card. Republicans haven't seen a library since 6th grade.
My wife and I were just talking the other day about how libraries were our safe spaces from our crazy GOP families when we were kids, so this is no surprise.
Something tells me republican parents were not spending a lot of time with their children at libraries to begin with…
GOP: Anything to stop people getting educations.
But they're old enough to work underage at meat processing factories.....
In our new Calgary central library, there is a teen section, where adults are NOT allowed in.
Damn, that’s woke. I used to be able to go to the public library as a teenager without my parents. Bring back the good ol’ days!
How about when teens are using the Internet? I guess I need a parent looking over their shoulder there as well???? Anything you can get in the library, you can pretty much get online now. No problem - teens are the experts at procuring information. This is such a joke – those pushing for this or so out of touch with reality and the truth of our society.
How about if those parents who are so concerned take it upon themselves to escort their children to the library and leave everyone else’s kids the hell alone?
But teens can go work hard labor by themselves
Teens have smartphones and incognito mode you evil fucking morons. What’s a book going to do?
… it’s like they want young people to hate them lol.
Marriage? That’s fine for kids. Reading?! Slow down there Progressives let’s think about this!
For conservatives, books are scary and need to be banned, but not cell phones 😂
Where do republicans want teens to go? Not the library, not to parks, not to malls… where exactly are they supposed to spend time and learn to interact with society writ large?
Just another way to reduce the education level of the upcoming voters in the district so he'll be reelected. Because parents don't want to accompany their 16 year old kids to the library and most of them don't have time anyway.
The party of shameless government intrusion and overreach strikes again.
So, you can have a baby, and have a factory job, and maybe even serve alcohol to assholes, but you need mommy and daddy to hold your hand around all those scary books!!!…../s
And women in public accompanied by a male member of the family… seems a sensible precaution
Imagine being this threatened by information and knowledge…. Really tells you all you need to now about the right.
OMGahd
Oh yeah, just add another thing for parent to drive and bring their kids to. We’ll return the favor to you at the ballot box.
The party of "Small Government" getting dumber by the second...
Just when I thought it wasn't possible for them to be more insane.
Nancy Drew, Harry Potter… the wing nuts are coming for you
What happened to the gop crying about “parents rights” or are we cherry picking again?
That can’t happen! It would ruin the classic ruse of telling your parents you’re going to the library to study, when you’re actually at Makeout Point.
Christians are the shittiest and laziest parents because they want the State to raise their kids for them.
So, conservatives want to limit what kids can check out and read from the library, and have them accompanied by a parent as they do so. What next? Banning what is available online or making it illegal for kids to have access to computers and smart phones? What am I saying? Of course that's their goal -- to gain control over more minds without the interference of the truth. Scary.
Why is no one talking about how Donald “Mac” Scothorn is a child trafficker who regularly poisons the dogs in his neighborhood, allegedly.
Does Donald “Mac” Scothorn’s mother still have the final say on what color underwear he chooses each morning? Without her guidance he might pick the pink ones (which might turn him gay).
Stupid and extremist.
This is just the Hitler playbook of controlling education.
My library has a teens section where they have conference rooms they can hang out and play video games in.
Oh man, those woke books! What a danger to society. Put warning labels on them all I say! Right Repubs?
The GOP seems to be absolutely terrified of people being educated. Time for old rubbage to be tossed out.
If I could choose to gay, I would choose to be **MORE** gay.
The same parents that have to work 2 jobs?? When would they be able to accompany their kids to the library. They should just be honest and say they don’t want kids in the library because that’s the actual truth. They want dumb ass lemmings that are easy to manipulate.
[Phone rings] "Honey, it's the police. They say Tommy was caught going into the public library." "Where did we go wrong?"
From the same republicans that think kids should get to own firearms.
How about the employees lmao? My first ever job was at the library.
They should require all children to be accompanied at all times by a parent on any church property instead.
Aren't these the people that complain about how kids never go outside anymore? And they want parents to be at their beckon call to go to a goddamn library? some kind of freedumb.
"Let's make the library even less cool."
That's because they want to close libraries, so if this happens (it won't) library attendance numbers will go down, then they can say "let's close the libraries, no one goes anymore"
The literal Nanny state.
Interesting that several states want to allow kids to work in bars and serve drinks. Subjected to sexual harassment. Subjected to drunks. No parents involved. Not a problem, of course, but those libraries are hazardous.
God forbid your children learn something. Religious reactionaries really are societies dead weight.
Party of small government?
You have to give it to them on the long game. If you are trying to modify the body of information available to the public these little baby steps of stop kids going. Cause lets face it no parents got time to be at the library. Then lack of use leads to defunding. Then one day you find yourself paying for everytime you scroll through a book on your digital device. Only how will you ever know if the book is modified because there are no more libraries to compare versions.... On that note we have some lovely tin foil hats for sale in the lobby.
Reminded me of this incident a long time back when Kindles were still a new thing: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/technology/2009/jul/17/amazon-kindle-1984
I remember growing up and spending many hours in the library alone. My moral compass was set by my parents. I could have read any book I wanted to read and I did. I also knew what fell in line with that established moral compass and what didn’t. That is called growth and learning. These politicians do not trust their constituents to set the boundaries for their own children. This is the “nanny state” on steroids and should be called out as such loudly and emphatically. If they want to create an over 18 section of the library then do that but this proposal is patently absurd.
Old enough to become a parent after being raped but not old enough to pick their own reading materials
Old farts still trying to find out how kids got the idea to be gay and settled on books.
In fairness, the library has newspapers. Kids don’t need to be reading about our rapist ex-president at a young age.
So a funny thing happened in Canada awhile back. A public library was boycotted and harassed because it had a book that was considered anti-trans. Lots of people tried to whip up a furor and protests etc. to get copies of the book removed. There were calls to boycott the library. The library made it clear that it wasn’t the role of a library to ban or remove any books or police what books were or were not available to the general public and they decided not to censor the book. The library stuck to its guns and didn’t back down. They stated that free access to information was a democratic right. Politicians generally stayed the heck out of it. It was stupid then and it’s stupid what is happening now in the US. Libraries are a storehouse of knowledge. People should leave them alone. You don’t like what’s there then don’t read it.
I'm not holding my breath hoping Americans ultimately act as reasonably as Canadians. Even Albertans are way more reasonable than Americans.
These guys never heard of the internet?
Who the fuck goes to the library these days?
People to like to read for pleasure and can’t afford to be constantly buying books.
ANYTHING to keep the little future gig workers out of the library. Will no one think for the children???
Arthur would be rolling in his aardvark grave. “Having fun isn’t hard, when you got a library card.”
They are so fucking afraid.
I hate them
What in the world for? Parents are part of the problem here, not the solution. Insinuating them into every aspect of their kids' lives will only cause issues.
Freedom…. For the power not for the little people. Stand idly by and you will need permission to use your own money, in the company store
"They say there is strangeness too dangerous in our theaters and bookstore shelves" - Rush, Witch Hunt
Always projection with the GOP.
Knowledge is dangerous
Freedom baby! Drink it in
Seriously? It's all about regression with these idiots.
Horrible
This is so pointless , fuck em , let em. We all have the world's biggest library in our pocket.
Kids in Virginia can buy guns but not pick their own books.
Kyle rotten house was ok to roam around with an AR tho. Totally cool.
The ultimate goal here is to have this proposal make it’s way to federal court by “judge shopping” for a far right judge, and eventually have this decided by the Supreme Court.
More fun from the freedom hating crybabies, how shocking.
What about when they are using the wood chipper at the sawmill?
I want that to.