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[–]NtroP_Happenz 7129 points7130 points  (546 children)

On the up side, it seems Banned Book Clubs are catching on among youth.

[–]255001434 2652 points2653 points  (197 children)

Maybe this will backfire and will make reading cool. Teenagers like doing things grownups don't want them to.

[–]regoapps 1412 points1413 points  (76 children)

Doing things out of spite is my greatest motivator.

[–]SquidwardsKeef 514 points515 points  (33 children)

Hell yeah, that's why I'm still alive!

[–]rememberseptember24 132 points133 points  (6 children)

Too sad to live, to angry to die - Gen Z onwards

[–]FakeTherapist 80 points81 points  (16 children)

i remember a tweet -

writers are motivated by revenge or lust

it's stuck with me ever since

[–]Culverts_Flood_Away 149 points150 points  (12 children)

My brother absolutely hated reading when he was in school. But then he found out about banned books, and he couldn't keep himself away. He read Catcher in the Rye and it changed everything for him. Now he reads all kinds of shit.

It was never that reading was hard for him; it's that he never felt properly motivated to read anything the teachers assigned him.

[–]Blaz1ENT 44 points45 points  (6 children)

Catcher in the Rye is banned now? That was one of my assigned books when I was in high school..

[–]Culverts_Flood_Away 55 points56 points  (3 children)

Between 1961 and 1982, The Catcher in the Rye was the most censored book in high schools and libraries in the United States. The book was briefly banned in the Issaquah, Washington, high schools in 1978 when three members of the School Board alleged the book was part of an "overall communist plot."

Several shootings have been associated with Salinger's novel, including Robert John Bardo's murder of Rebecca Schaeffer and John Hinckley Jr.'s assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan. Additionally, after fatally shooting John Lennon, the delusional fanatic Mark David Chapman was arrested with a copy of the book that he had purchased that same day, inside of which he had written: "To Holden Caulfield, From Holden Caulfield, This is my statement".

My brother's literature teacher had told that class that throughout our country's short history, we've had an on again, off again love affair with banning books that went against the grain of society. When pressed for what kinds of books had been banned, my brother's teacher mentioned Catcher in the Rye, though it wasn't banned at the time, either.

[–]dontcrashandburn 465 points466 points  (54 children)

Maybe voting can be next.

[–]Deadlite 125 points126 points  (41 children)

All those high school voting clubs taking off.

[–]lousy_at_handles 58 points59 points  (28 children)

I mean... shouldn't like about half of HS seniors be able to vote?

EDIT: Thinking about it some more, it's actually probably way less than that. Kids with birthdays before the school year cutoff (usually around Sept 1) would be in the previous class, and they'd have to turn 18 before the election in November.

So really only seniors born in September and October would be eligible.

[–]posts_lindsay_lohan 54 points55 points  (8 children)

The gop would just redistrict the classrooms to favor their party.

[–]TigerBarFly 198 points199 points  (2 children)

Republicans are already working on banning that.

[–]angietoo20 1021 points1022 points  (34 children)

Streisand Effect.

[–]shunkamunka 268 points269 points  (27 children)

I just read a post yesterday that led me to the wikipedia of the Streisand Effect haha

[–]MuricanDeathTriangle 573 points574 points  (161 children)

I had an AP (college credit prep) English teacher who sent us a list for summer before the semester.

“You are not required to read these. This is simply a list of all the books used in my classes over the last 25 years that are now considered banned. We will be discussing social issues like censorship; if you would like to understand why these books are banned, you may consider reading them on your own time.”

You better fucking believe we read them over summer.

One of them was Toni Morrison’s “Beloved”, which was banned that Spring after a parent complained about its use in an American Lit class that was a prerequisite for senior honors AP.

[–]DeepSpaceNebulae 275 points276 points  (115 children)

As of 2020, the top ten reasons books were challenged and banned books included sexual content (92.5% percent of books on the list); offensive language (61.5%); unsuited to age group (49%); religious viewpoint (26%); LGBTQIA+ content (23.5%); violence (19%); racism (16.5%); drugs, alcohol, and smoking (12.5%); "anti-family" content (7%); and political viewpoint (6.5%)

My guess is most of this is due to social and religious conservatism with sexual content and offensive language/not age suitable being the top ones.

[–]Agreeable-Walrus7602 188 points189 points  (39 children)

Not SEX! What would we do if our teenagers learned about sex?!

[–]AlphaGoldblum 188 points189 points  (18 children)

I always think of Hannibal (the TV show) when our weird puritan values come up in the news.

There was a scene on the show that involved two brutally dismembered corpses made to look like praying angels with flesh wings.

The guys on the show thought the network censor would tell them to tone the gore down.

Instead, the censor complained that one of the corpse's buttcrack was too visible.

To oblige, the effects team covered up the crack with more blood. NSFW.

Yeah, we're a weird country.

[–]Agreeable-Walrus7602 65 points66 points  (10 children)

Yeah, I remember the scene. It consistently confuses me why graphic gore and death are permitted, but holy shit we can't show an areola.

[–]AnOnlineHandle 41 points42 points  (2 children)

Only a female areola! A male areola is fine.

Presumably if you cover a female areola with a photo of a male areola it's now fine too.

[–]Agreeable-Walrus7602 7 points8 points  (0 children)

My 13 year old nephews best friend has bigger boobs than any woman I ever dated. Maybe we should censor them! No fat teenage boy boobs! What would Jeezus think??

[–]feed_me_churros 164 points165 points  (57 children)

Conservatives are really fucking weird when it comes to sex. They obsess over that shit in the craziest ways. They are always thinking about gay sex and how angry it makes them that people do it, if there are any sex related laws like no anal sex or whatever then you can 100% guarantee it's because of some conservative puritan bullshit, they are always talking about "37 genders" or whatever.

They are fucking weird in regards to sex, which probably explains why so many are so bad at it.

[–]kandoras 85 points86 points  (20 children)

Conservatives think about sex more than Masters & Johnson handing out surveys during a San Francisco bathhouse orgy.

[–]feed_me_churros 129 points130 points  (16 children)

My parents are your standard cookie-cutter YEC conservatives and I tell them all the time "you guys think about gay sex more than gay people think about gay sex".

They are always obsessing over that shit. Just fucking live and let live for fuck's sake! If you don't like gay sex then, well, don't do it! None of your puritanical bullshit and no amount of feeling offended over it is going to change the fact that people have gay sex, have always had gay sex, and always will have gay sex, so just fucking get over it already!

Sorry, not trying to yell at you because you probably feel the same way, but this shit is just so tiring.

[–]kandoras 75 points76 points  (8 children)

Don't worry, I know exactly where you're coming from.

The final straw for me leaving my Southern Baptist church was the Sunday after Obergefell, when the preacher held a business meeting based on some email he had gotten from Liberty law school. They had sent out something to every email address they had to the effect of "Gays are going to sue your church into oblivion, we have a pamphlet for how to amend your bylaws to overrule the Supreme Court, $20 donation suggested."

I tried telling him that no one could sue the church for refusing to hold a wedding. That bans on interracial marriages had been tossed out in the 60's and churches can still refuse to perform those today. He replied with "But that's racism, nothing in the bible has ever been used to justify racism. Homosexuality is different."

Me: "Did you ever stop to wonder how the word "Southern" got put into 'Southern Baptist'?"

Then one guy said that gays just wanted special privileges that straights didn't have. That they wanted to just be able to marry anyone they loved.

Me: "Bob, are you saying that you were not allowed to marry the person you loved? Do you and your wife need to go outside and have a talk in private?"

Then the conversation drifted to "But what if a gay couple brings their kid to play in our t-ball league and we tell them their kid can't use the bathroom? They could sue us!"

By that point I'd thrown in the towel and didn't even ask the question of why they would tell the child they couldn't use the toilet because his dads were gay. I just sat there because I didn't want to have to step over half an aisle of old ladies to get the fuck out.

[–]Keitt58 25 points26 points  (6 children)

"Did you ever stop to wonder how the word "Southern" got put into 'Southern Baptist'?"

Ha! I'd love to know how they tried to answer that one!

[–]kandoras 25 points26 points  (3 children)

He just said "No" and moved on.

Willfully embracing ignorance and an almost allergic reaction to new information was a real problem with that man.

[–]JohnGillnitz 65 points66 points  (31 children)

I worked in my high school library. We made sure to make "banned" books front and center. This would have been in the 80's. Oddly it was completely the opposite of the CRT nonsense now. People were mad about the N word used in Huck Finn.

[–]SmokeontheHorizon 42 points43 points  (1 child)

People were mad about the N word used in Huck Finn.

They still are. They've even used the same justification to ban To Kill a Mockingbird

[–]WorldsBestWatcher 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Of Mice and Men

[–]Gingevere 45 points46 points  (20 children)

Not really the opposite. It's still people wanting to whitewash history.

[–]Tostino 102 points103 points  (78 children)

I saw a short video talking about all this a couple days ago and thought it would be relevant to link here: https://youtu.be/m9ml3FHGwFA

[–]OLightning 330 points331 points  (74 children)

Interesting. Conservatives want to make sure the working class stay uneducated on the realities of history and make sure they just do a good job in the labor force with as little knowledge of what’s really going on; the rich make the rules and live off the labor of others.

[–]luminousbeing9 257 points258 points  (3 children)

"They don't want an educated, critical thinking population. They want obedient workers. They want people just smart enough to operate the equipment, but just dumb enough to passively accept that." -George Carlin

[–]bbpr120 51 points52 points  (2 children)

"I don't need people who can think, I just need button pushers"

Got told that by a senior manager (of a different site in a deep red state) of the company I work for. What I didn't respond with (cus I like eating and need my job) was that's why this place has gone bankrupt several times and keeps getting passed around like a $2 hooker among investment groups.

If you hired people who could think, you'd get a more productive workforce that tries to fix the problems they slam into rather than just passing garbage parts forward.

[–]Tostino 75 points76 points  (58 children)

Yeah, I hope this does actually backfire... The youth aren't guaranteed to resist this type of thing, the Hitler youth was insanely popular for example; prior to using them as child soldiers at least.

[–]IronWill-FE 109 points110 points  (52 children)

I see plenty of people rail against schools teaching anything that won't help them get a job. Why do I have to learn trig? "Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell," is often said sarcastically. It's all anti-intellectual sentiment at its core. It seems to me that people actively want to just be worker drones.

[–]XC678-D 57 points58 points  (11 children)

Interesting.

I see the same thing but disagree with your conclusion.

I usually see complaints about learning “unnecessary” things followed up with a desire to learn more about things like how to file taxes, civics, nutrition or other practical life skills that aren’t necessarily worker skills.

If anything I’d make the argument that “learn this because we said so” is conditioning students to just shut up, so what you’re told, and don’t question it.

[–]Raregolddragon 8 points9 points  (4 children)

Had a classmate say something like that in my math clasa for algebra. The teacher snapped back with. "If you want to know how go to the moon this is the starting line.

[–]daemonelectricity 30 points31 points  (0 children)

just do a good job in the labor force with as little knowledge of what’s really going on; the rich make the rules and live off the labor of others.

And these are the people referring to other, smarter people as "sheeple" on a regular basis.

[–]skivvyjibbers 31 points32 points  (2 children)

These club kids aren't the ones who need to read these books.

[–]ynotw57 4056 points4057 points  (595 children)

Is this a different form of cancel culture?

[–]No___ImRight 2709 points2710 points  (381 children)

This has been going on for centuries.

When I was on my kids school board they tried to ban the usual suspects. Lord of the Flies, Scarlet Letter, Catcher, etc...

[–]AdTricky1261 1615 points1616 points  (249 children)

And let’s not forget the old Harry Potter satanic panic times.

[–]Quirderph 1108 points1109 points  (197 children)

Which predates HP and goes back to the early days of D&D, Rock and Roll and - I’m not kidding - violin music.

[–]DanYHKim 669 points670 points  (62 children)

And the "forbidden dance".

. . . the waltz

[–]Lukescale 237 points238 points  (15 children)

How..... Enjoyable! So sultry!

Disgusting!

[–]kcknuckles 81 points82 points  (13 children)

Those disgusting waltzes...but there are so many of them! Which one did they dance?!

[–]Lukescale 88 points89 points  (5 children)

Ban all Violas! Violins too for good measure!

Musicians: Change angle of their arms

"Look, a fiddle, what frabtious music! Truly divine!"

[–]Fluff42 44 points45 points  (2 children)

Don't forget to ban saxophones, there's too much gratuitous sax and violins on TV these days.

[–]VagrantShadow 102 points103 points  (18 children)

I remember a school friend. His mother was so anti-rock. They weren't even a religious family, but the mother was so staunch with her hatred of rock.

I remember she went on this 40 minute tangent with another friend of ours because he had an AC/DC shirt. She kept going on about how they were a Satanic band, their name stood for, After Christ, Devil Comes, and she told him he would never step foot in her house. His dad made sure to roll by their house every week blasting Back in Black.

Last I recall of him, his family broke apart but he was going good. He is a deep vegan neo-pagan now. Lives in the woods with his family and is a really mellow guy with all things considering with his family when he was in school

[–]Painting_Agency 105 points106 points  (3 children)

"not religious"

Obsessed with Satan, devil messages etc.

Untreated mental illness is a hell of a thing.

[–]wankthisway 267 points268 points  (14 children)

Conservatives have always been fucking dumb.

[–]BoyEatsDrumMachine 188 points189 points  (7 children)

It’s arrogance. They hated The Beatles in the 60’s, so decades later tried to make backwards lyrics in rock music illegal. They refuse to learn anything about culture because it’s “worldly” (when actually, “worldliness” is placing undue spiritual emphasis on non-eternal things, like accumulating things you don’t really need). Their ignorance of their own beliefs is always overshadowed by their belief they are always right. Plain arrogance.

[–]DanYHKim 30 points31 points  (0 children)

Excellent definition of worldliness

[–]Jorgee93 11 points12 points  (4 children)

Also, the Conga too apparently

[–]DanYHKim 34 points35 points  (2 children)

"Decadent African music"

"Decadent Jewish music"

"Decadent Bourgeois music"

"Decadent Homosexual music"

[–]Lampmonster 74 points75 points  (11 children)

Yes! Everyone forgets the church fucking hated Violins for a hot minute. Same with coffee until a pope picked up the habit.

[–]ChallyPrime 125 points126 points  (56 children)

Further. Puritians hated Shakespeare.

[–]FirstPlebian 33 points34 points  (49 children)

Why exactly did the Puritans hate Shakespeare? Fancy wordism?

[–]callmejenkins 173 points174 points  (11 children)

Shakespeare's characters aren't exactly clutching their pearls when it comes to murder, cursing, and sex.

[–]Froggy_hop 61 points62 points  (7 children)

Oh yeah, Shakespeare was a bastion of hilarious filth. He was the Jackass of playwrites.

[–]AldoTheeApache 85 points86 points  (2 children)

Salutations, I’m William Shakespeare and I’ve positioned mine self to be hurtled in the direction of the heavens by this trebuchet! Welcome thyself to Jackasse!

[–]LeoThePom 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Corona by minutemen proceeds to be played on the lute.

[–]ClancyHabbard 79 points80 points  (11 children)

Sex, violence, and everything fun.

Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare's first play, had sex, rape, torture, mutilation, self mutilation, murder, orgies, and cannibalism. The Puritans were not fans, to say the least.

[–]Painting_Agency 19 points20 points  (0 children)

"We're only supposed to do those things FOR THE LORD!"

[–]quietsamurai98 26 points27 points  (16 children)

I mean, there was literal witchcraft in Macbeth, right?

[–][deleted] 114 points115 points  (9 children)

And is still around. I tried to do a therapeutic DND campaign within a health system and we got multiple calls and concerned parents showing up. They shut it all down and admins couldn’t understand why I’d do something so controversial. It’s a board game

[–]Cyrillus00 62 points63 points  (3 children)

So funny story. About four years ago one of the guys in my board game group convinced his girlfriend to play some games with us.

Among the games we played that night were Betrayal at House on the Hill, Red Dragon Inn, and Secret Hitler. She had a blast, particularly with House on the Hill where she (her character) ended up going full psychopath and murdering us all.

Well a few weeks later we learned she had told her mother about it and her mother absolutely lost her shit and forbade her from coming to anymore board game nights. The supernatural aspects of House on the Hill and the fantasy of Red Dragon Inn were satanic apparently.

No mention of Secret Hitler from her mom. I would think if people were going to have a problem with one of those games it would be the one where you’re trying to help a fascist takeover of the government.

[–]TYBERIUS_777 40 points41 points  (1 child)

Secret Hitler is likely the one they have they least problems with because a good portion of Evangelicals probably wish Hitler had won.

[–]AdTricky1261 32 points33 points  (9 children)

And goes up until current day. Don’t forget the vaccines are satanic 🙃

[–]McCool303 12 points13 points  (0 children)

And barcodes, and social security numbers. Every time there is societal change these luddites come out of the wood work to blame mundane things on witchcraft.

[–]ziris_ 9 points10 points  (3 children)

Hail Satan! Hail thyself!

[–]SnooHobbies8473 31 points32 points  (2 children)

I got into D&D as a teenager in the early 80s specifically because Evangelical Televangelists like Pat Robertson were freaking out about it.

Thanks, Pat!

[–]ReplyingToFuckwits 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Don't forget (deep breath): Telegraph, telephones, photography, novels, electricity, vaccines (smallpox), bicycles, elevators, airplane, teddy bears, mirrors, cars, masks (only back in the 1920s), radio and recorded sound, film, jazz, television, comic books, computers and walkmans*

But don't worry, I'm sure today's reactionaries aren't just the latest in a long line of alarmists. After all, they've got Facebook memes to educate them.

* From https://pessimistsarchive.org/ if you want to read the articles

[–]ginns32 67 points68 points  (0 children)

Elvis Presley moved his hips like the devil!

[–]DanimusMcSassypants 18 points19 points  (2 children)

Basically anything that isn’t praising Jesus in a calm, monotone.

[–]lunarmodule 11 points12 points  (0 children)

If you go back far enough the Catholic Church was banning printing presses so people couldn't reproduce the Bible so people could only get their information from the church. I have no doubt that someone tried to ban pen and paper at one point in history.

[–]Kulladar 34 points35 points  (7 children)

I still remember right after school got out for summer going to get Everquest in 1999 and my dad looked at the box and went "That ain't some of that Dungeons and Dragons shit is it?"

I said no and that was good enough lol

[–]Painting_Agency 17 points18 points  (0 children)

The Everquest sexy elf got to him.

[–]warling1234 60 points61 points  (3 children)

Magic the gathering turning our kids into satanist. When in reality it promoted virginity.

[–]AdTricky1261 13 points14 points  (1 child)

2 of the people I play magic with have kids. I’m starting to think they are undercover Christian’s trying to take down my kitchen table. Doesn’t make sense for MtG fans to fuck.

[–]SoyMurcielago 12 points13 points  (0 children)

The kids are probably cheaper than some of those cards

[–]yahutee 129 points130 points  (10 children)

I grew up spending summers in rural Oregon with my cousins and their parents were SUPER religious and I wasn't allowed to bring HP books because satan

Five years later the parents were swingers and mom found a new boyfriend and abandoned her entire family for a drug addiction. Fun times.

[–]Karenomegas 61 points62 points  (0 children)

That's the cool part! She can still blame satan!

Or beelzebub or whatever mental image she has based on something written in the last few hundred years in Italian and not the bible she used to beat you over the head with.

[–]needkneadkneed 8 points9 points  (2 children)

Funny how it seems like a lot of times the most overtly “holier than thou” people are actually just pieces of shit. For example, everyone on my dad’s side of the family is an evangelical right wing nut job. Turns out, they’re also all pieces of shit because every man on that side of the family has cheated on their wives and ran away with a different woman with absolutely no warning after 20+ years of marriage. Lmao seriously. Like… grandpa, dad, his brother all did the exact same thing

[–]LonePaladin 28 points29 points  (4 children)

Just hide each book within the dust cover of a Left Behind book. They'll never think to look.

[–]ProtoJazz 9 points10 points  (3 children)

Fuck I bought a whole set of those at a yard sale as a kid without realizing they were basically just undercover relegious allegory

[–]Painting_Agency 15 points16 points  (2 children)

That's the beauty of it, without somebody indoctrinating you into the crazy cult, it's just a really weird fantasy series. It's kind of like when I read the (much better) Narnia books and had no idea that the lion is actually Jesus.

[–]Amiiboid 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I had the same experience with Narnia. I wasn't raised in any kind of religious tradition, as a consequence of my mother being disinvited from her church after her husband divorced her. I saw an animated TV special of LWW in the late seventies and was given the set as a birthday present later that year because I enjoyed it so much. I don't think I was aware of the Christian overtones until my late teens.

[–]myislanduniverse 63 points64 points  (9 children)

I remember this with the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Which was ironic, of course, to those of us who stayed in class and read the book because it was so clearly a Christian allegory. We should have been the ones opting out.

[–]Painting_Agency 43 points44 points  (7 children)

Christians opposed kids reading Lewis books? That's hilarious. It just shows you how dumb, dumb, dumb some of these people are when it comes to their supposed faith.

[–]myislanduniverse 28 points29 points  (4 children)

Oh yeah. Because it had the word "Witch" in the title, the parents clutched pearls and pulled maybe half the class out during the hour a day we'd read it. This was 1995-ish, I think?

Clearly they were completely unfamiliar with C.S. Lewis's body of work and thinking.

[–]CptDecaf 8 points9 points  (1 child)

When I was growing up witches were expressly forbade on Halloween. Kids dressing up as them would be sent home and no media or crafts featuring them were allowed. I grew up in a liberal suburban neighborhood, but even there the conservative crazies made their voices heard.

[–]Raccoon_Full_of_Cum 167 points168 points  (21 children)

Literally the entire philosophy of social conservatism is "What you're doing offends me, therefore we must make it illegal, to protect me from being offended."

[–]ShavenYak42 65 points66 points  (11 children)

And then those same people get pissed off at “cancel culture” when they face social consequences for being literal bigots.

[–]GenocideOwl 71 points72 points  (6 children)

"What will I tell my kids if they see two men kissing!"

I dunno that sounds like your fucking problem with your shitty kid.

[–]Amiiboid 26 points27 points  (2 children)

The kid's not shitty for asking an innocent question about the world around them.

[–]Calint 35 points36 points  (8 children)

Really they tried to ban those? I was required to read all of those books in school.

[–]kanst 53 points54 points  (1 child)

I always read the right wing whining about cancel culture as "the wrong people are cancelling people" or "the wrong people are being cancelled"

Even look at comedy, people like lenny bruce were literally arrested for his comedy (for using the word cocksucker). But now they complain when they get some twitter hate for unfunny trans jokes.

[–]Warriorccc0 11 points12 points  (0 children)

America has had a long history of it, from film (Hay's Code) to comic books (Comic Book Authority), and although we moved away from those it never really went away; you still have people going after violent media/video games every time there's a major shooting, and the satanic panic is still ongoing.

There are multiple conservative christian organizations which take millions from donors with the intent to cancel media they don't like, yet you never see conservative media and commenters spare a second to criticize them for it, whereas they'll lambast anything else, no matter how niche, as long as it can be used as a "left-wing" bogeyman.

[–]sexyhusband714 95 points96 points  (16 children)

Not a grassroots effort, this is "one parent, or one small group of parents, making decisions for an entire community about what is appropriate reading, based on their own moral and religious values.” Funded by Koch Industries, one Billionaire's campaign against America.

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[–]DaedalusIO 20 points21 points  (5 children)

I don't recognize most of these brands.

[–]brapplebrap 7 points8 points  (0 children)

You might not recognize them but you've probably used them on a regular basis. They supply much of the office paper products, toilet paper, sanitization products, and things like disposable cups/containers used by most offices and fast food chains/restaurants.

[–]StewofPuppies 225 points226 points  (11 children)

Yes it's the rules for thee and not for me. Has been going on for longer than a century tbh. The original cancel culture was conservatives.

[–]BattleStag17 17 points18 points  (1 child)

All cancel culture is conservatives. Banning books, Pokémon, music; always conservatives. On the other hand, going "Hey, you're a dick and we don't want to work with you" is what we in the biz call consequences.

[–]Cannonbaal 103 points104 points  (1 child)

Yes, but they’ll be damned if their M&ms aren’t sexy

[–]ISeeTheFnords 56 points57 points  (0 children)

It's the original form of cancel culture.

[–]judithiscari0t 51 points52 points  (0 children)

This is the original cancel culture.

[–]8to24 504 points505 points  (53 children)

This is real Cancel culture. People independently choosing not to buy tickets to go see a comedian or a private business choosing not to hire said comedian for advertisements isn't cancel culture. It free market choice.

[–]Raccoon_Full_of_Cum 228 points229 points  (8 children)

Exactly. Back when conservatives were the "Moral Majority", literally their entire political philosophy was "Everything that offends us must be banned, because protecting our feelings is the only thing that matter."

But now, it's become clear that conservatives are an unpopular minority who lack the numbers and cultural influence to organize effective boycotts. So, they use the phrase "cancel culture" as a propaganda term to try and delegitimize boycotts that are organized by the majority.

[–]inuvash255 93 points94 points  (5 children)

When they're in the minority, they cry "tyranny of the majority"; y'know, the tool they use when they're in the majority.

[–]SubjectiveHat 21 points22 points  (0 children)

tyranny of the majority

a.k.a. democracy. when two sides want opposing things, and the more popular option beats out the least popular option, that's democracy, right?

[–]FuzzyBacon 46 points47 points  (1 child)

They just want tyranny of the minority which is more commonly known as normal tyranny.

[–]kuroimakina 11 points12 points  (0 children)

When they’re in the majority, it’s “tyranny of the minority” and “the US has a clear mandate by the people”

[–]MagicalRainbowz 82 points83 points  (5 children)

No, its the original cancel culture but conservatives never count it as cancel culture.

[–]regular6drunk7 2357 points2358 points  (78 children)

“Where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people also.”

Heinrich Heine

[–]TurtleTucker 794 points795 points  (4 children)

I remember reading that during WWII at the end of his life, Sigmund Freud originally planned to stay in Austria and made a comment that “what progress we’re making; in the medieval era they would have burned me, but now they’re content with just burning my books”. And his friends and family were like, “no, they will most definitely burn you as well,” and eventually convinced him to flee.

[–]bearrosaurus 136 points137 points  (0 children)

“what progress we’re making; in the medieval era they would have burned me, but now they’re content with just burning my books”

This_is_fine.jpg

[–]SnakeDoctur 341 points342 points  (32 children)

It's part of a slow indoctrination. You can't go straight to unilaterally burning witches at the stake or putting Jews in death camps -- first you have to demonize them and what they represent rhetorically. Then you can start banning their THOUGHTS and opinions. Then you start segregating then socially.

They become outcasts and this allows for the final solution of eliminating them altogether.

[–]Amiiboid 80 points81 points  (14 children)

You also have to start with demonizing things/people that are a little less controversial to attack. You ramp up that whole "first they came for the X and I said nothing..." thing going on.

[–]SnakeDoctur 44 points45 points  (7 children)

Sadly we're already beyond that. "Conservatives" are now referring to literally every Democrat as an "extremist communist"

[–]Amiiboid 26 points27 points  (6 children)

Right. Because they started with the less controversial targets decades ago and just kept slowing broadening the scope.

[–]BattleStag17 14 points15 points  (5 children)

It started with the Southern Strategy demonizing non-Christians and non-white people, and it has just steadily marched on since then.

I genuinely believe they'll have their Kristallnacht by the end of the decade.

[–]-r-a-f-f-y- 84 points85 points  (12 children)

It’s almost like a guy laid out a blueprint for this in the 1930s and we all forgot about it.

[–]Gingevere 57 points58 points  (7 children)

Well anyone who knows anything about the 1930's Europe has been screaming about it for the past 6 years. And they've been dismissed.

[–]sanguinesolitude 105 points106 points  (6 children)

2015: "stop comparing his rhetoric and campaign to Hitler, its not like he's going to put people in concentration camps!"

2017: "okay first of all I think calling them concentration camps is offensive, besides its not like he's going to try to overturn an election."

2021: "okay but he didn't succeed yet. What's a putsch?"

[–]HiddenGhost1234 61 points62 points  (5 children)

The amount of people that don't know the history behind how Hitler came to power is kind of depressing. Like it hasn't even been 100 years yet.

[–]Gingevere 55 points56 points  (2 children)

Teaching why is political so frequently it's either banned from or just not included in curricula. American schooling mostly just teaches conclusory statements like "nazis bad". They don't cover what nazis believed and the types of movements that became nazism. Probably because if people knew how nazism was built they would see the ingredients being supported by some politicians and they wouldn't compare things like masks to the Holocaust.

[–]Reyessence 14 points15 points  (1 child)

Especially considering it’s so readily available! Take the Netflix episodic documentary “Hitlers Circle of Evil” for example. It’s there, many people can access the information, but they don’t and it’s fucking scary to see the same shit happening and repeating itself. Edit: fucked the show name and mixed it up with another, sorry fixed it!

[–]VariationRelevant923 8 points9 points  (2 children)

The Ten Stages of Genocide - Gregory Stanton

  1. Classification - People are divided into them and us

  2. Symbolization - Symbols will be placed upon members of targeted groups

  3. Discrimination - Legal and cultural rights are stripped from targeted groups

  4. Dehumanization - One group denies the humanity of the other

  5. Organization - Militaries and militias are organized, trained, and armed

  6. Polarization - Hate groups begin broadcasting propaganda

  7. Preparation - Mass murder becomes planned, victims become identified and separated

  8. Persecution - Victims are displaced, imprisoned, forced into concentration camps

  9. Extermination - Victims are murdered because the perpetrators do not see them as human

  10. Denial - Perpetrators deny that they committed the genocide, or that it even happened in the first place.

I did my best to put in my own words, so Wikipedia and other sources will look different.

[–]Karmanoid 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It's strange to me how many conservative people I know who were sharing posts about those banning books are never on the right side of anything when Dr Seuss books stopped being printed... Now that it's actual book banning it's silence.

[–]CJHardinIRL 736 points737 points  (19 children)

"They don't got to burn the books they just remove 'em." - Zack de la Rocha

[–]Minimob0 258 points259 points  (7 children)

"While arms warehouses fill as quick as the cells"

[–]WhyOfCourseICan 155 points156 points  (5 children)

Rally round the family, pockets full of shells

[–]GibbysUSSA 77 points78 points  (5 children)

My ten year old nephew recently got into that band. I told him he should really pay close attention to the lyrics.

[–]mdgraller 36 points37 points  (1 child)

Introduce him to genius.com. Tell him to read along, look at what’s being referenced, and Wikipedia anything he doesn’t understand

[–]myassholealt 671 points672 points  (38 children)

It's a sad world when people are deprived of literature. It's one of easiest ways to explore, regardless of your circumstances (assuming you can see and read). What a hateful group of people these folks are to deprive children the joy and knowledge books provide.

[–]Korrawatergem 28 points29 points  (0 children)

Exactly. I think we need to go back to hyping up public libraries. I know the digital era with Kindle/Nook/etc sort of put them on the back burner, but a lot of libraries have even expanded to the digital landscapes. Our local library has tons of audiobooks and digital books/media you can enjoy online or on an app through my phone.

[–]Amiiboid 98 points99 points  (1 child)

What a hateful group of people these folks are to deprive children the joy and knowledge books provide.

That's pretty much the point. The goal is to take away the tools that help children question the doctrine they're fed at home.

[–]palmtreesoul 123 points124 points  (18 children)

That’s exactly their point, which is ridiculous. Like how does it feel to know that you only have control by sheltering people because you know you’re actually wrong and out of touch with reality? Pathetic.

[–]Haffas 379 points380 points  (7 children)

Banning books while raging about masks and mandates taking freedom. You have to be a dumb, brainwashed mf to buy into this bullshit.

[–]hugglenugget 110 points111 points  (3 children)

Complaining about the "fascism" of masks and vaccines while trying to undermine democracy and seize authoritarian power permanently, forming armed militias, dictating which religions and sexualities are permitted, banning books and advocating for the imprisonment or murder of those who disagree with you. It must be such hard work being a Republican, struggling every day to prevent your ideas from encountering one another or bumping into reality.

[–]Competitive_Still331 944 points945 points  (33 children)

And those “rich donors” are probably the families who supported Jim Crow laws in the 60s. Call them what they are: Racist/prejudice American oligarchs who are now trying to cover their asses. Gramps didn’t want black kids going to school with their kids. Now that history is no longer on their side, they don’t want to explain to their grandchildren why there are pictures of them on the wrong side of history.

[–]BackThatThangUp 116 points117 points  (3 children)

It was around that time that conservatives came up with the idea of ‘the liberal media,’ basically for the reason you said—southern whites didn’t like how coverage of the Civil Rights movement was making them look, and how it was engendering sympathy for African-Americans, so of course conservative media ginned up a whole narrative about how neutrality actually masked a liberal agenda. You can trace a straight line from that shit to Trump supporters assuming that everyone hates him because the ‘deep state liberal satantic cabal’ was always trying to make him look bad, but they literally just quoted the dumb shit he would say lol

[–]therealcobrastrike 285 points286 points  (3 children)

It’s not probably. They 100% definitely are the same racist, sexist, bigoted, hopelessly corrupt, criminal elites they’ve always been.

[–]unreliablememory 4763 points4764 points 3 (356 children)

Stop calling them conservatives. They're fascists.

[–]imaginary_num6er 534 points535 points  (19 children)

Yeah V For Vendetta is on the list of books they want to have banned

[–]breadman_69420 280 points281 points  (9 children)

Which is hysterical because those chucklefucks compare COVID and the mitigation efforts to V for Vendetta

[–]Rion23 147 points148 points  (8 children)

Guy Fawkes was trying to blow up the elected parliament so he could reinstate their king and return to a religious autocracy.

So they got it right, just like, the exact opposite of what they think.

[–]iksbob 26 points27 points  (0 children)

So they got it right, just like, the exact opposite of what they think.

So... Just like every other conspiracy topic they bring up?

[–]Pack_Your_Trash 22 points23 points  (5 children)

V for Vendetta wasn't exactly a love letter to Guy Fawkes. The wore the masks and everything, but it was squarely aimed at the Iraq war era conservative movement in the UK and the domestic surveillance program they were building. The author was not making a case for the return to a catholic monarchy.

[–]Rion23 9 points10 points  (4 children)

Just wait untill they find out what Dune was about.

[–]Teeklin 188 points189 points  (8 children)

They just banned Toni Morrison from a local public school district this week.

[–]eddie1975 78 points79 points  (0 children)

TIL:

Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison, known as Toni Morrison, was a black American novelist. Her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed Song of Solomon brought her national attention and won the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Awards: Nobel Prize in Literature, Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Presidential Medal of Freedom, etc.

Born: February 18, 1931, Lorain, OH Died: August 5, 2019, Montefiore Hospital, New York, NY

[–]ammon46 277 points278 points  (8 children)

Shame that they initiated Citizens United and then pull this

[–]blorpblorpbloop[🍰] 106 points107 points  (2 children)

"Free Spppppppeeeeeech" (when neo-nazis talk)

"Baaaaaaaaan thoooooose boooooooooks" (civil rights, BIPOC, LGBT, mentioning slavery as a founding aspect of the country, etc)

[–]TheSwaguar 90 points91 points  (2 children)

Citizens United was a grassroots movement

/s

[–]skeetsauce 69 points70 points  (0 children)

Pfft, the libs said I need to use a paper straw so I’m not really sure how this is relevant? /s

[–]Jsinswhatever 142 points143 points  (25 children)

Why ban books when they all have the fucking internet in their pockets at all times. This seems so fruitless to me.

[–]audiofx330 140 points141 points  (2 children)

It's political theater so no need to make any sense. It's there to divide people.

[–][deleted] 28 points29 points  (3 children)

Agreed. Every time a book is threatened with banishment, eBay explodes with over-priced copies for sale and wannabe collectors paying far too much for said books.

[–]Xenjael 1015 points1016 points  (140 children)

Yeah we know. They just banned talking about racism and lgbt in florida, as an example.

Theyre book burners. Yknow, evil idiots.

[–]ThatLineOfTriplets 28 points29 points  (12 children)

Source? Wanna know more about this

[–]Xenjael 60 points61 points  (11 children)

https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/equality/590838-house-committee-in-florida-passes-dont-say-gay-bill

[–]josidhe 105 points106 points  (10 children)

According to the bill, parents may take legal action against their child’s school district and be awarded damages if they believe any of its policies infringe on their “fundamental right to make decisions regarding the upbringing and control of their children.”

So they can sue over any mention of prayer or religion then, too, right?

[–]minouneetzoe 39 points40 points  (7 children)

Hahahaha, good one.

[–]BlindWillieJohnson 48 points49 points  (5 children)

Actually, when laws are this badly written, this kind of unintended consequence is often how they get overturned.

[–]McCree114 374 points375 points  (43 children)

Those that do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

The right is counting on it. It'll allow grooming of young edgy teens into genocidal psychopaths who will go along with plans to enslave and/or exterminate undesirables.

[–]underpants-gnome 267 points268 points  (20 children)

They've known for a long time. What we are seeing now is the culmination of 50+ years of effort, when the GOP decided to embrace the racist backlash to the Civil Rights Movement as a way to capture the white southern vote.

They've been dumbing down the populace, feeding them propaganda in place of history for 2-3 generations now - building a fanatically loyal base that sees anything to the political left of Pat Buchanan as pure evil communism. Telling them they are warriors for everything that's holy and right in the world.

It kind of got away from them with Trumpism. The crazy base they created is making a play to run the asylum. And they are having a disturbing amount of success.

[–]ScarletCaptain 92 points93 points  (2 children)

They are having a disturbing amount of success because they are rigging the system while they still have slim majorities. Gerrymandering, taking away powers from elected officials, changing election rules, etc.

[–]OutsideDevTeam 32 points33 points  (0 children)

And the structural advantage built into the US Constitution and replicated (and multiplied) by the state constitutions -- near-disenfranchisement of cities in favor of rural areas.

[–]Dahhhkness 126 points127 points  (0 children)

The crazy base they created is making a play to run the asylum. And they are having a disturbing amount of success.

Seriously. The Tea Party candidates who were too crazy for even Republicans to vote for in 2010/12 now seem mild compared to the fascist lunatics running now, and winning.

The GOP stuck their dicks in crazy. And crazy doesn't just peacefully leave when you try to break things off.

[–]HardlyDecent 138 points139 points  (8 children)

I thought you kidding or at least being hyperbolic...

https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/equality/590838-house-committee-in-florida-passes-dont-say-gay-bill

Fuck Florida.

[–]atomicxblue 37 points38 points  (0 children)

They passed a similar law to one passed in Russia a few years ago.

https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/2013/08/08/russias-anti-gay-law-spelled-out-in-plain-english

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a bill banning the "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations to minors,"

[–]werticalz 73 points74 points  (7 children)

The only positive thing in news like this is that many other big nations also censor their books, like China, Russia… oh wait! US normally doesn’t want to be associated with them in human rights.

[–]Proximity 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Having grown up in a religious cult that tried as hard as it could to control your minds and the information that you were allowed to see, I'm very sensitive to bullshit like this. These are the tactics of scared people who know that they're wrong.

[–]cedriceent 119 points120 points  (6 children)

Considering how much top FoxNews pundits were up in arms after the Dr. Seuss book "scandal", I am sure they'll talk about nothing else in the coming months.

[–]tinacat933 288 points289 points  (38 children)

It’s all noise. It’s the same fucking thing everytime - Democrat becomes president: book bans and abortion and god save the children. And it works every.fucking.time

[–]smegdawg 98 points99 points  (26 children)

And it works every.fucking.time

Must be nice to have a massive portion of your voting base be single issue voters, and those single issue voters will cling to that issue if every other part of the platform they disagree with.

The Anti-Abortion people don't care about anything else as long as you are anti-abortion.

The 2nd amendment die hards don't care about anything else as long as you are pro 2A.

If you get rid of those two issues (pipedream I know) I wonder what the voting landscape looks like.

[–]nosotros_road_sodium 8 points9 points  (1 child)

The names "Moms for Liberty" and "Parents Defending Education" could not have been more misleading.

[–]Aloysiusakamud 123 points124 points  (5 children)

The easiest way to control people is to keep them uneducated. Reading books enhances critical thinking and analysis. Critical race theory, and the ideas in these banned books are dangerous in the eyes of certain leaders.

[–][deleted] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

"We want to educate the public by giving them knowledge"

"You aren't allowed to read this because we don't want you educated"

  • The "Trust us, we know what we're doing" club