What does it remind you of? 1984? Fahrenheit 451? I don’t mean that people want to ban those particular books (though I’m sure they do); I mean that both of them are cautionary tales that remind you of the dangers of book banning.

Ron DeSantis, of course, says that he’s not banning books. He’s merely removing them from schools and libraries. If just one parent complains about a book, it should obviously be banned. Oh, not “banned”—I mean “removed.” Reading is dangerous, after all; it gives people ideas. And ideas lead to questioning authority, and probably to voting for Democrats. But the issue doesn’t just affect states like Florida and Texas. Let’s look in on the central Massachusetts town of Ludlow, where School Committee member João Dias wants to institute a “book removal policy”:

This policy is not a book ban by any definition. If anyone claims it is, they are lying

In contrast, “fellow School Committee member Sarah Bowler said the district’s librarians have the expertise to determine what books should be available to students”:

We don’t possess the educational background that a librarian does to make the educational decision to properly choose what is appropriate for our students in a library environment. Nor do probably the majority of the town.

On the other hand, town resident Bella Soares claims:

This has nothing to do with LGBTQ, get this all through your heads. It has to do with pornographic books in our school; pornographic, drugs, rape, obscenity books. That’s what we’re trying to eliminate here.

It’s very odd how those who are loudest about claiming “freedom” are the first to remove other people’s freedoms to read, to learn, to control their own bodies, to control their own thoughts. Actually, of course, it’s not really odd if you happen to be a hypocritical authoritarian.

Categories: Books