Culture Wars

[kalm]

Kansas Librarians Sue After Being Fired Over Autism Display Mistaken for LGBTQ+ Support

In June, Kari Wheeler and Brandy Lancaster, librarians at the Sterling Free Public Library in Sterling, a small community in central Kansas, created two displays celebrating and raising awareness about autism and neurodiversity. The displays featured rainbow colors and messages advocating for diversity and understanding, including quotes like “We all think differently” and “In diversity is beauty and strength,” according to the paper.

The displays were part of the nationwide summer reading program themed “All Together Now.”

However, according to a lawsuit filed on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for Kansas, the displays were misconstrued by a board member as promoting an “LGBTQ agenda,” leading to Wheeler and Lancaster’s termination. The lawsuit alleges that board member Michelle Miller waged an “illegal campaign” to censor the displays based on her misconception, implicating the library’s board, the city, and the mayor in violating the librarians’ rights to free speech.

Some MAGAts are idiots.

This not how you win the culture war.

[houndawg]

Kansas Librarians Sue After Being Fired Over Autism Display Mistaken for LGBTQ+ Support





Some MAGAts are idiots.

This not how you win the culture war.

I wonder if these evangelical types have thought about where you won't find anybody on Sunday if they've already been force-fed your bullshit all week in school

[UNI88]

3 questions for Patricia McCormick, whose book 'Sold' has been banned in 6 states

It’s so important for kids to see themselves in the books they read. When kids have these experiences like sexual assault, the book gives them a way to talk about it — and then their friends and teachers can help. I find it hard to understand why books with sexual content are so threatening. I was always aware that I was writing for other people’s children, but after all, I too am a mom of now-adult children myself. But a story about the rape of a child, when they call that pornography, it’s wrong. That’s rape. They’re leaving young people defenseless in a way to understand some of the darker parts of the world.

And to those who say, "Some students may feel uncomfortable" or "Some students may feel guilty if certain things are taught," that is such a broad overstatement. We should all feel sad. We should all feel accountable to addressing and making change in situations where there’s systemic inequity. I’m not saying we should feel guilty or we should make little kids feel guilty. Absolutely not. But there’s a sense of shared responsibility for us all in this fractured world and an opportunity to say, "Here's a story that shows how one person is hurt by that, and what can I do." It really short-circuits kids’ ability to be empathetic and altruistic.

[UNI88]

School culture wars push students to form banned book clubs, anti-censorship groups

Student-led banned book clubs and anti-censorship groups have been popping up in states where a conservative-led movement to remove certain books or lessons has led to boisterous board meetings, protests, and more.

The students behind these groups say they have long been left out of the conversation, despite being the most impacted by such restrictions.

"I thought it would be perfect to do a banned book club -- one: as just a way to read beautiful literature that's important and should be read and then two: kind of as an act of resistance," said 16-year-old Iris Mogul who recently started a banned book club in Miami, Florida.

I think banning books is going to backfire. More students will seek out and read these books than would have if they hadn't been banned.

Nice work Governors deconkis, abbutt, etc.

[houndawg]

School culture wars push students to form banned book clubs, anti-censorship groups

Student-led banned book clubs and anti-censorship groups have been popping up in states where a conservative-led movement to remove certain books or lessons has led to boisterous board meetings, protests, and more.

The students behind these groups say they have long been left out of the conversation, despite being the most impacted by such restrictions.

"I thought it would be perfect to do a banned book club -- one: as just a way to read beautiful literature that's important and should be read and then two: kind of as an act of resistance," said 16-year-old Iris Mogul who recently started a banned book club in Miami, Florida.

I think banning books is going to backfire. More students will seek out and read these books than would have if they hadn't been banned.

Nice work Governors deconkis, abbutt, etc.

Teenagers will be wearing t-shirts to school with quotes from banned books.

Its been getting harder and harder for young folk to piss off their elders since my day. All we had to do was grow our hair long, play rock'n'roll, and smoke weed and it jangled the old fucks right down to their toes - nowdays if you want to piss them off you have to cut off your pecker and wear a dress - so I see this as an attempt at de-escalation. Probably won't work because the target audience doesn't read, even the ones that can.

[kalm]

School culture wars push students to form banned book clubs, anti-censorship groups



I think banning books is going to backfire. More students will seek out and read these books than would have if they hadn't been banned.

Nice work Governors deconkis, abbutt, etc.

Teenagers will be wearing t-shirts to school with quotes from banned books.

Its been getting harder and harder for young folk to piss off their elders since my day. All we had to do was grow our hair long, play rock'n'roll, and smoke weed and it jangled the old fucks right down to their toes - nowdays if you want to piss them off you have to cut off your pecker and wear a dress - so I see this as an attempt at de-escalation. Probably won't work because the target audience doesn't read, even the ones that can.

[UNI88]

Mary KayKayKay needs help from "talented clappers".

[GannonFan]

Mary KayKayKay needs help from "talented clappers".

Pennridge is the school district right next to ours. My wife keeps showing me the videos of the whackos supporting the crap going on in that school district. It's only a small couple of people who are the real fanatics, but there are far too many people that just go along with it because they haven't spent an iota of time thinking about it.

[kalm]

Mary KayKayKay needs help from "talented clappers".

Talented clappers ya say?

[UNI88]

Alabama public library system mistakenly flags children’s book as ‘sexually explicit’ because author’s last name is Gay

[Skjellyfetti]

haven't read the book, but stella seems pretty dykish from the cover. young ladies should be presented in children's literature wearing modest dresses and not dressed as boys and climbing trees. her mid-driff is also exposed - so, stella is also a clearly slut. this is an appropriate ban.

[UNI88]

haven't read the book, but stella seems pretty dykish from the cover. young ladies should be presented in children's literature wearing modest dresses and not dressed as boys and climbing trees. her mid-driff is also exposed - so, stella is also a clearly slut. this is an appropriate ban.

Thank you Goodman Jelly.

[SeattleGriz]

School culture wars push students to form banned book clubs, anti-censorship groups



I think banning books is going to backfire. More students will seek out and read these books than would have if they hadn't been banned.

Nice work Governors deconkis, abbutt, etc.

Teenagers will be wearing t-shirts to school with quotes from banned books.

Its been getting harder and harder for young folk to piss off their elders since my day. All we had to do was grow our hair long, play rock'n'roll, and smoke weed and it jangled the old fucks right down to their toes - nowdays if you want to piss them off you have to cut off your pecker and wear a dress - so I see this as an attempt at de-escalation. Probably won't work because the target audience doesn't read, even the ones that can.

You doing that explains so much.

[Caribbean Hen]

Teenagers will be wearing t-shirts to school with quotes from banned books.

Its been getting harder and harder for young folk to piss off their elders since my day. All we had to do was grow our hair long, play rock'n'roll, and smoke weed and it jangled the old fucks right down to their toes - nowdays if you want to piss them off you have to cut off your pecker and wear a dress - so I see this as an attempt at de-escalation. Probably won't work because the target audience doesn't read, even the ones that can.

You doing that explains so much.

Lmao

[kalm]

Nice culture and movement you have there, righties.

A “ReAwaken America” tour event scheduled to be hosted at Trump National Doral in Miami is set to feature Eric Trump, Lara Trump, other notable far-right speakers and Ian Smith—a fitness influencer who spreads antisemitic propaganda and gained notoriety after he refused to close his gym during the Covid-19 pandemic.

KEY FACTS

Smith is scheduled to speak at 1:15 p.m. on Friday, according to a video listing speakers, though they don’t say what Smith will be discussing.


Smith is popular among the far-right and has recommended neo-Nazi propaganda such as a World War II movie that paints Germany as the victim and questions the taught history of the war, posts memes denying the Holocaust on social media and said on an episode of the far-right The Pete Quinones Show podcast that Jewish people are behind “all of these things that are used to control us.”

Other speakers at Friday’s ReAwaken America event include My Pillow CEO and Trump supporter Mike Lindell, and Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security advisor who has become a noted conspiracist.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohan ... trump/amp/

[UNI88]

Moms for Liberty: Birchers in Heels

There are worthwhile arguments to be had about contemporary gender ideology and about how to respond to the history and legacy of race in America—about how to address these issues in public institutions like schools and where to draw the line between necessary instruction and ideological indoctrination. In a nation with 50 million children in thousands of school districts, there will be no shortage of controversial examples to be debated.
…
The big Moms for Liberty demand was a letter from Williamson County chapter chair Robin Steenman demanding the removal of a list of books from the public school curriculum and changes in the manual given to teachers to accompany these readings. What are these objectionable books? They include Ruby Bridges Goes to School: My True Story, by Ruby Bridges—the story of the first black girl to attend a newly integrated school in Louisiana. Among the complaints about the book is that it shows Norman Rockwell’s famous depiction of Bridges in The Problem We All Live With.

That’s right: Norman Rockwell is too subversive for Moms for Liberty.

The letter demands an end to the “negative psychological effect” and “emotional trauma” that might come from learning too much about the history of segregation.

There is a certain irony that conservatives have spent years complaining about overly sensitive “snowflakes” who demand to be shielded from opposing views and need “safe spaces” and “trigger warnings”—yet here are conservatives demanding a safe space for children from basic facts about the struggle for civil rights.
…
The upshot of the Moms for Liberty approach is to impose a heckler’s veto that empowers the most paranoid and hypersensitive. Another set of complaints evaluated by Williamson County includes a claim that the choice of a group activity for kindergartners was intended “probably to foster a communist mentality of the group being more important than the self.” The group slammed a video about seahorses, where the male actually does carry the eggs until they hatch, as an attempt to “normalize” the notion “that males can get pregnant” and “suggest that gender is fluid.” A picture book about African-American tap-dancing pioneer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, was denounced as “CRT” for referring to the realities of racial prejudice and segregation in the early 20th century. A book on Galileo, the 17th century Florentine who was tortured for promoting his scientific discoveries, was denounced because it makes the Catholic Church look bad and therefore “makes kids question tradition.” The levels of irony are very thick here.

[kalm]

Moms for Liberty: Birchers in Heels

There are worthwhile arguments to be had about contemporary gender ideology and about how to respond to the history and legacy of race in America—about how to address these issues in public institutions like schools and where to draw the line between necessary instruction and ideological indoctrination. In a nation with 50 million children in thousands of school districts, there will be no shortage of controversial examples to be debated.
…
The big Moms for Liberty demand was a letter from Williamson County chapter chair Robin Steenman demanding the removal of a list of books from the public school curriculum and changes in the manual given to teachers to accompany these readings. What are these objectionable books? They include Ruby Bridges Goes to School: My True Story, by Ruby Bridges—the story of the first black girl to attend a newly integrated school in Louisiana. Among the complaints about the book is that it shows Norman Rockwell’s famous depiction of Bridges in The Problem We All Live With.

That’s right: Norman Rockwell is too subversive for Moms for Liberty.

The letter demands an end to the “negative psychological effect” and “emotional trauma” that might come from learning too much about the history of segregation.

There is a certain irony that conservatives have spent years complaining about overly sensitive “snowflakes” who demand to be shielded from opposing views and need “safe spaces” and “trigger warnings”—yet here are conservatives demanding a safe space for children from basic facts about the struggle for civil rights.
…
The upshot of the Moms for Liberty approach is to impose a heckler’s veto that empowers the most paranoid and hypersensitive. Another set of complaints evaluated by Williamson County includes a claim that the choice of a group activity for kindergartners was intended “probably to foster a communist mentality of the group being more important than the self.” The group slammed a video about seahorses, where the male actually does carry the eggs until they hatch, as an attempt to “normalize” the notion “that males can get pregnant” and “suggest that gender is fluid.” A picture book about African-American tap-dancing pioneer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, was denounced as “CRT” for referring to the realities of racial prejudice and segregation in the early 20th century. A book on Galileo, the 17th century Florentine who was tortured for promoting his scientific discoveries, was denounced because it makes the Catholic Church look bad and therefore “makes kids question tradition.” The levels of irony are very thick here.

This guy has been owning their shit for awhile.

[houndawg]

School culture wars push students to form banned book clubs, anti-censorship groups

Student-led banned book clubs and anti-censorship groups have been popping up in states where a conservative-led movement to remove certain books or lessons has led to boisterous board meetings, protests, and more.

The students behind these groups say they have long been left out of the conversation, despite being the most impacted by such restrictions.

"I thought it would be perfect to do a banned book club -- one: as just a way to read beautiful literature that's important and should be read and then two: kind of as an act of resistance," said 16-year-old Iris Mogul who recently started a banned book club in Miami, Florida.

I think banning books is going to backfire. More students will seek out and read these books than would have if they hadn't been banned.

Nice work Governors deconkis, abbutt, etc.

Guaranteed.

[houndawg]

Moms for Liberty: Birchers in Heels

This guy has been owning their shit for awhile.

"....remembering the days of her youth when she played the whore in Egypt and lusted after her lovers there whose members were like those of donkeys and whose issue was like that of horses." Ezekiel 23

the "money-shot"....and they want this filth freely available to children?

..are you a money-shot christian, SG...

[UNI88]

GOP lawmakers, Michigan Right To Life sue to block voter-approved abortion rights

A group of Michigan GOP lawmakers and the anti-abortion rights group Right To Life of Michigan on Wednesday sued to overturn the will of state voters who approved a 2022 constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights 56.7% to 44.3%.

OMG, THE GOP IS WEAPONIZING THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM!

[UNI88]

The tides they are a turning. Regular people are getting sick of MAGAt yahoos trying to shove their extremist BS down everyone's throats.

[GannonFan]

The tides they are a turning. Regular people are getting sick of MAGAt yahoos trying to shove their extremist BS down everyone's throats.

Yup, Pennridge swung back, as did the Central Bucks schools, because these folks were whacky. And in the case of the Central Bucks schools it was costing them money in court to boot. My school district, right next to Pennridge, stayed Republican, but it was real close. My wife even worked at a polling place this year handing out materials for the Democrats (she said she was shocked how many straight ticket voters there seems to be based on those who only took materials from one side going into the polling place and not even making eye contact with the other side). Our school board hadn't done anything crazy yet, but had some being seen attending Moms for Liberty events. Hopefully the shelacking of the whackos next door will give them pause before trying anything.

[UNI88]

The tides they are a turning. Regular people are getting sick of MAGAt yahoos trying to shove their extremist BS down everyone's throats.

Yup, Pennridge swung back, as did the Central Bucks schools, because these folks were whacky. And in the case of the Central Bucks schools it was costing them money in court to boot. My school district, right next to Pennridge, stayed Republican, but it was real close. My wife even worked at a polling place this year handing out materials for the Democrats (she said she was shocked how many straight ticket voters there seems to be based on those who only took materials from one side going into the polling place and not even making eye contact with the other side). Our school board hadn't done anything crazy yet, but had some being seen attending Moms for Liberty events. Hopefully the shelacking of the whackos next door will give them pause before trying anything.

Hopefully.

Instead of looking in the mirror and being honest with themselves, MAGAt yahoos will continue to blame their losses on "RINOS' like Mitt Romney. Being louder and more obnoxious might appeal to the base but I don't think it's going to help woo moderates/independents at any level.

trump and his minions have never been good at taking responsibility.

[kalm]

The tides they are a turning. Regular people are getting sick of MAGAt yahoos trying to shove their extremist BS down everyone's throats.

Yup, Pennridge swung back, as did the Central Bucks schools, because these folks were whacky. And in the case of the Central Bucks schools it was costing them money in court to boot. My school district, right next to Pennridge, stayed Republican, but it was real close. My wife even worked at a polling place this year handing out materials for the Democrats (she said she was shocked how many straight ticket voters there seems to be based on those who only took materials from one side going into the polling place and not even making eye contact with the other side). Our school board hadn't done anything crazy yet, but had some being seen attending Moms for Liberty events. Hopefully the shelacking of the whackos next door will give them pause before trying anything.

Good on you guys for being involved, Ganny.

[GannonFan]

Yup, Pennridge swung back, as did the Central Bucks schools, because these folks were whacky. And in the case of the Central Bucks schools it was costing them money in court to boot. My school district, right next to Pennridge, stayed Republican, but it was real close. My wife even worked at a polling place this year handing out materials for the Democrats (she said she was shocked how many straight ticket voters there seems to be based on those who only took materials from one side going into the polling place and not even making eye contact with the other side). Our school board hadn't done anything crazy yet, but had some being seen attending Moms for Liberty events. Hopefully the shelacking of the whackos next door will give them pause before trying anything.

Good on you guys for being involved, Ganny.

My 6 year term as Township Auditor will be over this coming January - I opted not to run for reelection or write my name in this time. I almost got selected for the planning board, but I'm really holding out for the water board - I can put my chemical engineering degree to use there. I guess either there or the sewer authority. Tough choices.

My wife really got into it this year - she mailed postcards to voters, sent text messages to younger voters, we had the sign in front of our house for the Democratic slate for weeks, and like I said she even handed out fliers at the local polling place. I felt bad they lost, but at the same time I don't think the Republicans on our school board are likely to go all Pennridge crazy, especially after these election results, but hopefully they've been put on notice to just do the job and not go nuts.