Armed MAGA types are showing up at libraries now.
Of course when CNN shows up, the zealots didn’t.
If you are familiar with the role Northern Idaho and eastern Washington and parts of Oregon plays in white supremacy, American Nazism, and anti-American movements, that they are showing up forcefully demanding libraries to ban one-hundred books that they do not presently carry, isn’t that much of a surprise. The region is full of white supremacist separatists groups such as the Base, that train as an armed militia now for years. Here is an old headline of one such group targeting the region.
Another group, Patriot Front which openly recruits here in my own area, also has a substantial following in the Northern Idaho region.
Back to the book banning.
Some of what happens during the culture wars is mind-boggling stupid. The cyclical and cynical nature of Fox News pivoting from a “found” issue to then twist it to attack the left is as nonsensical as much of the stuff one reads in the fun and educational Dr. Seuss books. Back in early 2021 when publishers opted to cut many of the lesser purchased Dr. Seuss materials that generally sold less than three hundred copies of books yearly, Fox was all over the “cancelation” of the left.
This was a major distraction from other things that were coming out, based on a lie. No one was canceling or banning books on the left as the books being rotated out of active publication would eventually rotate back in when the book stocks and demand justified additional print runs. Because of the traction and increased fund raising rightwing politicos got out of this lie, the next iteration of this particular culture war naturally flowed towards the present one, that being of actual banning of books to control the cultural narrative.
In Texas, Florida and other states where Republicans still control most of the state legislatures, the culture wars took aim at teachers. My favorite casualty thus far was the one above, merely for the choice of book used. I personally find that many picture books that I enjoy reading, especially Dr. Seuss, open up a variety of topics that someone, somewhere will take offense to when none is intended. Same with my myriad of cartoons I once drew on education.
Someone will always find something offensive. That is what makes these newer laws severely restricting the first amendment rights of those who work with kids to where we have become a Big Brother/Russian style society where one worries about being thrown from a window for speaking up.
Books, especially personal ones, being restricted by government will just result in all books disappearing in schools or libraries. The absence of diverse books leads to an easier pipeline of fed disinformation and a weakness in personal education, which is the authoritarian goal.