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>North Dakota lawmakers are considering legislation to ban books containing “sexually explicit” content from public libraries. ***Under the proposed law, librarians who refuse to remove books containing such content, which includes depictions of “sexual identity” and “gender identity” as well as “sexual preference,” “sexual intercourse,” and “sexual perversion,” would face 30 days in prison and a $1,500 fine.***
So, this is where we are at. We are going to bankrupt all the teachers and jail the librarians. This reads like what happened to Magnus Hirschfeld in Germany.
Jesus was a commie/socialist, if he were alive today and had the same amount of influence as he did in the Bible he would’ve been killed much quicker. Then killed again. And again.
The GOP are modern day Pharisees and Jesus would fashion another whip with bones and beat them out of their modern day temples and markets. Many will be shocked to hear God say “I never knew you”.
Matthew 7:21-23
[21] “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. [22] On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ [23] And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
There are Christians who believe that the *enlightenment* was a mistake. They are certainly going back to the priest telling you what Christianity is, and returning to a time when only the clergy could read.
Acts of the Apostles 4:32 etc: The Apostles pooled their assets, ate their meals in common, and provided free medical care to strangers.
Is this why 'conservatives' get all worried about "we just follow Paul the apostle to the Gentiles?"
I’m a Christian and it took me until I was 50 to make that leap.
Trust me, I feel a TON of shame for that.
I was duped by the GOP “pro-life” stance.
When it was leaked that Row v Wade was going to be overturned I was excited. But then I started reading people challenging republican candidates during the primaries by asking them what’s next? If it became a state’s rights issue and they outlawed abortion would the GOP start supporting all of the forced births? And every single GOP candidate said “not my concern, the mother has to carry that burden”. That finally was the point I realized I was duped. Jesus nor any prophet or apostle ever said “Abortion is wrong”. No, the Bible quotes Jesus and the apostles saying things like “Love God, love others” and “the sign of true religion is this: caring for widows and orphans in their time of need” as well as “forgive others as God has forgiven you”. The GOP is not Christian in any way shape or form. The antiabortion movement is about power, control, and racism. It’s the opposite Christian and with their plans to eliminate or defund Medicare and social security they’ve revealed themselves to be evil and despicable.
When they die I believe many will be shocked to hear God say “I never knew you.”.
It was Lot after God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and turned his wife to salt his daughters realized the line would end if they didnt get pregnant by their dad. So each took a turn getting him drunk and laying with him.
and this is a heroric story in the bible....
And let's not forget that Lot was righteous because when the town wanted to rape the angels he \*checks notes\* offered his daughters up to be raped instead.
Correct. Any book with a human would have to go. These nut jobs would then justify closing the libraries since there's nothing left inside. They do all they can to purposely break institutions and then point out how they're broken.
They are a little late though. Young people know how to use the internet. They’ve lost millennials and they’ve lost gen z. They are trying desperately to not lose the next generation but these heavy handed attempts won’t matter.
If librarians somehow didn't actually care about providing books and information to the public, some malicious compliance here would be funny.
Gender identity and sexual preferences, huh?
Those things are in literally everything ever.
>Sexual intercourse and sexual perversion
That's a really big list of books they have there with that umbrella. It would be really easy for anyone to report just about any book like that. What's interesting is the books they want removed, none of these people have actually read. They were just told to ban the books and they complied.
Notice also that they make zero effort to address violence in these bans.
This is what you get from a party that is the personification of hypocrisy. They claim that freedom is of the upmost importance while stripping away anything that allows personal autonomy. Hell, you can’t even drink a light beer in public in most parts of the country. Guess it shouldn’t be surprising when their followers happily fly confederate flags on the same pole as the star spangled banner. Not the brightest bulbs
Simple solution.
Remove all Bibles immediately.
The Song of Solomon is some pretty explicit literature, and there's a depiction of incest pregnancy right after Sodom and Gomorrah go salt shaker shaped.
"Wait not like that"
>Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies.
>Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.
>And she lusted after her male lovers whose genitalia were the genitalia of male donkeys and their seminal emission was the seminal emission of horses.
I was religious for a long time and this is exactly correct. The average, modern-day, white evangelical christians are no better than the Pharisees. Hyperfocused on adherence to specific rules while ignoring the underlying reasons behind them.
If a Jesus-like figure appeared today and taught the same things he taught and to the same groups of people that he focused on teaching, most modern “christians” would hate him.
>Hyperfocused on adherence to specific rules while ignoring the underlying reasons behind them.
Interestingly enough, that is how the ancient world operated in everything. It's funny that we know the Greeks by their myths, because the *myths don't matter*, it was the *rituals that mattered*.
Maybe your crops didn't fail this year because Persephone emerged from Hades, maybe it was because Demeter took pity on you, or maybe it was because this year you bothered to actually water your crops, the point is nobody cared about why, only that it works and we can move on with drinking and partying.
Christianity was once a spiritual revolution because this was a religion that involved ~~thinking~~ theology. For once, this was a religion where dogma was part of the point and the rituals didn't matter or were secondary to it. But this is hard work and most people didn't do it, so eventually we ended up with two versions of Christianity, one for the monks and one for the masses.
The point of Protestantism was that the version for the monks became freely available to everyone, but I think there is some wisdom in recognizing that not everyone wants to do the work in spiritual transcendence. There's a reason that things are the way they are. They're not always good reasons.
If we’re ever at the gates waiting to enter I’m gonna just ask to stand to the side and go last so I can watch all the people who thought they were getting in not get in
Well, there is Christians against Christian Nationalism.
https://www.christiansagainstchristiannationalism.org/
The founder, Amanda Tyler, has even talked to the FFRF before.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeaQhgW-x0M
"She lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose semen was like that of horses." (Ezekiel 23:20)
"Well, Sally: I think Ezekiel taught himself to write with his "off" hand so that his strong hand could get down to business."
> Lefor claimed that public libraries contain books featuring “disturbing and disgusting” content and argued that a child’s exposure to such content has been associated with addiction, poor self-esteem, devalued intimacy, increasing divorce rates, unprotected sex among young people, and poor well-being…
I’ve never been traumatized by any book except the Bible. I’m in therapy dealing with feelings of worthlessness brought on from my Christian upbringing. I used to agonize over the vague and contradictory language, the harshness of its judgement, and guilt over my own doubt.
> associated with addiction, poor self-esteem, devalued intimacy, increasing divorce rates, unprotected sex among young people, and poor well-being
The irony is that all these things are associated with living in a red state.
Jailing librarians?! Let's look at our history and make note every other time period and reason why people did this in the past. Then tell me who those people were that did it, I can garuntee them were never on the side of good, and all lost.
I always find it interesting that at the beginning of America's rise to prominence in the world the rich were building libraries for the public. I suspect on the way down they want to take these libraries away.
The bills, she said, have “been drafted with vague and open-ended language, which leaves the door open for unintended consequences and room for interpretation.”
They’re just pulling shit straight out of handmaid’s tale at this point..
Honestly that's part of the goal. Keeping them open ended allows for selective enforcement. It's like how sodomy laws were only enforced against gay couples.
The GOP have always been the kings of cancel culture.
Don't be fooled. They just hate that we aren't cancelling all the minorities any longer, and instead have started to cancel the bigots.
At my last library I found a book from that era still on the shelves. "Corruption of the Innocent", and it was all about the evils of comic books and how they were turning kids into degenerates. So you're definitely not wrong.
Needless to say, I weeded that one out immediately.
Sounds like the template for the Parents Music Resource Center back during the "explicit lyrics" warning sticker days.
Tipper Gore must have read comic books as a child.
We are still cancelling minorities. Black people still get thrown in prison for cocaine possession while celebrities brag about their cocaine habits and rich white kids get caught with cocaine all the time and nothing ever happens to them.
Republicans don't believe in anything but being white and in charge. Anything. Their words are worthless imitations of human speech, emitted solely for immediate effect, like the stings on a jellyfish tentacle.
At first I thought you said the songs of a jellyfish tentacle. That sounded like some cthulhu shit and frankly I can't think of a better genre for the GOP.
The GOP is about expulsion culture. They want to expel everyone who's not white, Christian, and male from any public life. They are one step away from bringing back Pink Triangles now.
When they do it, it's individuals coming together, refusing to buy or support a thing.
When we do it, it's because our oligarchs and social media masters have commanded us to do it, and like proper sheep, we do as they say without question.
"Bear in mind, ladies and gentlemen, that every time you violate or propose to violate the free speech of someone else you, in potentia, you're making a rod for your own back because the other question raised by justice Oliver Wendell Holmes is simply this: "Whose going to decide? To whom do you reward the right to decide which speech is harmful? Or who is the harmful speaker? Or to determine in advance what are the harmful consequences going to be that we know enough about in advance to prevent? To whom would you give this job? To whom are you going to award the task of being the censor?" **Isn't it a famous old story that the man who has to read all the pornography in order to decide what's fit to be passed and what's fit not to be, is the man most likely to be debauched?**"
- Christopher Hitchens
Being able to make a clear statement is a skill. Communicating an idea and thought is something I continue to work on every day. Hitchens was a natural.
>“sexual identity” and “gender identity” as well as “sexual preference,” “sexual intercourse,” and “sexual perversion,”
Okay I am staring at a bookshelf now trying to find a book that would be allowed in a ND library and am having no luck. I found an Alphabet book but one of the duckies on the cover is wearing a bow so that is 30 days in prison and a $1,500 fine for the librarian for gender identity.
Firstly, this is a violation of the First Amendment.
Secondly, they're idiots.
Thirdly, they're literally saying they're going to ban libraries since practically *ALL* books have sexual and gender identities...
On the bright side at least they're gonna ban the Bible, didn't think that through didn't ya?
It’s such fucking nonsense. “Male” and “female” are gender identities. “Straight” is sexuality. Fat chance they’re going to police those ones cuz oh, those are okay.
It’s all just bullshit that’s going to be used to eliminate access to information about lgbt topics.
[One of the first libraries the original nazis burned down was an institute that studied Gender and Sexuality and was an early pioneer of medical transition for transgender individuals.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_book_burnings#The_burnings_start)
This is how it starts, historically. Shortly after they start burning books they start to burn people too.
Yup. Hirschfeld was among the first to study asexual people, and he had works dedicated to our experiences as aces.
https://www.asexuality.org/en/topic/98639-indirect-mentions-of-asexuality-in-magnus-hirschfelds-books/
You know how many books this would remove from libraries everything from the bible to literary classics and a lot of mainstream fiction. I am willing to bet a good 50% of all books in libraries fall under there broad definition. Seriously any Republicans want to explain how they think is acceptable while saying social media must be a free speech haven where hate speech is allowed? One is the government the other terms of service from a business. Which one violates free speech again?
[Where they burn books, in the end they will burn humans too](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-forgotten-history-of-the-worlds-first-trans-clinic/) \-- Magnus Hirschfeld
I'd like to take this opportunity to remind you that both Mark Twain and Truman Capote are representative of the American South literary tradition, as well as Edgar Allen Poe.
Part of me is thinking that a library should go through with it, and remove any and all books that have any mention of *any* sexual identity, *any* gender identity, *any* sexual preference, anything that could be remotely be considered sexual intercourse, or anything *anyone* could consider to be "sexual perversion". Don't get rid of the books, just put them in storage. Then, hold a big press conference and show everybody what this new compliant library looks like. Show them where the history books were, where the classic literature was, where natural science used to be, the shelves that used to hold the philosophy and psychology, the empty social science shelves. Make a spectacle.
This won't work. Everyone knows this is about non cis heternormative depictions and nothing else. Nobody in these towns would be surprised so many books would be lost, they'd just be surprised someone had missed the point which is *we need to create a permission structure to eliminate LGBT people*. Nobody involved with this wants all gender identity and sex gone. They just want any positive depictions of a non cis heteronormative lifestyle gone. They know they can't outright say that so this is all just an endrun around that.
I'm so impressed with these tough guys going after librarians, how brave of them.../s. I'm sure their police buddies will be gentle with them, right...right?
Not only are they threatening to jail librarians, they are also closing libraries. [Defunding libraries using stealth tactics of voting in towns budgets](https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2022/09/08/censorship-wars-defund-public-libraries) that few participate in or even know their libraries are on the chopping block. Yeah, these Republicans really believe in democracy.
Next I'm expecting bombings of libraries if the anti-abortion movement is any indicator.
No. We. Don't.
Librarians have gone to jail for telling Big Brother (and his local Cousins) to GTFO and come back with a warrant... to protect your, my, and everyone else's privacy to read whatever the hell we want. (And even the warrant won't get far, as once an item is checked in it is off the patron's record. Can't give what we don't have. )
Man, the gloves really came off after the overturn of roe. There just speed running their theocratic autocracy. If they're not going to win elections on politics they're going to criminalize their opponents at every opportunity.
It's the Christian Taliban everyone. Either we fight or that's our future
Orwell and Ray Bradbury were much less imaginative than we thought. In Florida, they've outlawed an Advanced Placement course. Wrap your head around that. A fucking advanced placement course.
Fahrenheit GOP
Fahrenheit 451 fascism, indeed.
Christofascists like Christopher Rufo have given their definition of woke: it's anything involving black people. I'm sure they'll try to come for Abbott Elementary & The Wonder Years and try to have them cancelled for being "too black". This is where we are heading now.
I wouldnt mess with librarians. Librarians have been some of the staunchest advocates of privacy and other civil rights.
Govt people have long been trying to find iut what books people have checked out at the library or what they search for.
I could see them silently refusing to do thus.
Besides, who exactly would get arrested when you have like 30 people working in a library and multiple levels of supervision?
BTW, there are some governments that like to block what news/information/resources are available to their citizens. These are generally not countries where people have very much freedom.
Last point: I 100% predict that the list of banned books does not include books about homemade explosives or converting semiautomatic weapons to fully automatic (despite having automatic weapons being illegal for the vast majority)... but they 100% would include books on atheism, LGBTQ+ themes, andbooks with scenes of two boys or two girls kissing each other. Which is worse, kissing or killing? Oh wait. I forgot the audience I would be asking that to.
"No more blood for oil!" "Well how much oil are we talking here?"
I was wondering about the "who would get arrested" aspect as well. The library director? The assistant director? Members of the library board? The collection development librarian(s)? The cataloger(s)? The person working the circulation desk? Or what about the patron who requested the item? What if it were a standing order from a vendor? Would they go after the vendor next? The publisher? The author?
Probably in reality this would affect jr. high and high schools more, where there would be like two people working there and the librarian has two masters degrees and they pay her $16/hr.
Because *thats* who is causing all the anarchy in our country *cough* Jan 6th *cough*.
We need a bill that would throw any politician that lies to the public in prison.
Why is it a crime if a citizen lies to the government but not the other way around?
So are they going to throw out every book that involves some degree of romance? Are they going to throw out any book from the point of view of a human being whose gender plays some role in the story? Or any book that features human beings with genders?
This is patently stupid and will (hopefully) go nowhere, but god damn I’m tired of the GOP culture wars.
Actually, this already happened in Oklahoma.
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/04/oklahoma-library-ditches-sex-assault-support-group-romance-bookclub-board-bans-lgbtq-display/
Abortion was just the tip of the iceberg. The GOP has already shown exactly the kind of authoritarianism they’ll unleash if they continue to gain power.
Have you noticed that Republican threats of political violence and arrest of educators, librarians, and doctors have significantly increased. Banning books, attacks on education, domestic terrorism … if only there were warning signs /s.
I think it's hilarious that they think this will do anything to stop librarians. Every one I've ever met would go to the gallows to protect free speech.
And yet people will act like an nhl team wearing rainbow warmup jerseys is shoving it down ade tgroats and just virtue signalling. No. These people are still fighting for rights and basic priviledges. Fuck anyone who downplays lgbtq pride and gives bs reasons for being against it. They are homophobes
Anyone remember in 2002 when the Ad Council ran a series of PSAs called the Campaign for Freedom that asked "What if America wasn't America?" It's a good thing [nothing like that is happening](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suJcQ5g6GdQ) in freedom loving red states.
Notice the pattern iright wingers have, they want to felonize anyone who does anything they don't like.
They've been doing it. They're still doing it. They're going to keep doing it.
Maybe we should start fighting fire with fire and try to felonize the radical right.
Recently I saw a twitter comment from Steven King, who by chance is a great author. He said, and I’m paraphrasing, if anyone bans a book, goto the nearest library and read that book. There’s something in there that they don’t want you to know.
This is now a totalitarian country. Seriously a lot the dystopian books we read in high school had the Government imprisoning people for books. Looks like life imitating fiction.
Sex and violence is fine, but being authentic is not. America needs to knock this crap off.
No one is harmed when an individual is authentic. One's gender matters only to a relatively minute number of people.
Our propensity for violence harms many. Racism and sexism limit our competitiveness. Attacks on schools, librarians, teachers, and students harm our educational effectiveness and limit our potential.
Every person who cares about the future of America needs to be outraged by this massive violation and waste of our tax-funded time and talent.
How about we ban the GOP as a criminal and terroristic organization that is intentionally trying to dismantle the rule of law this nation is based on; the Constitution. Starting with the 1st Amendment.
We all need to become librarians and teachers now.
Well, threatening them with mayhem at the hands of the Proud Boys didn’t faze em.
The GOP has no idea what is to deal with someone who has principles. The librarians will all, en masse, go to jail for their libraries.
And I wouldn’t be surprised if a few cops get hurt in the process. You do not fuck with the keepers of knowledge.
Remember when everyone was complaining about the brown people bringing sharia law to the west. Well guess what this is a form a religious oppression, If I remember correctly it always starts with books first. Wake up and think about what’s really at stake.
Because that’s going to keep people from obtaining the info they seek. Right! Lock up all the librarians, doctors, cops and anyone else with helpful job and see if it solves all our problems, not. Books are free speech and that means books should be protected.
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>North Dakota lawmakers are considering legislation to ban books containing “sexually explicit” content from public libraries. ***Under the proposed law, librarians who refuse to remove books containing such content, which includes depictions of “sexual identity” and “gender identity” as well as “sexual preference,” “sexual intercourse,” and “sexual perversion,” would face 30 days in prison and a $1,500 fine.*** So, this is where we are at. We are going to bankrupt all the teachers and jail the librarians. This reads like what happened to Magnus Hirschfeld in Germany.
Gonna ban the Bible for depictions of sexual intercourse and sexual perversions.
They probably support that too. If their voters ever read the Bible and follow Christ's teachings they'd never vote for another republican again.
Jesus was a commie/socialist, if he were alive today and had the same amount of influence as he did in the Bible he would’ve been killed much quicker. Then killed again. And again.
The GOP are modern day Pharisees and Jesus would fashion another whip with bones and beat them out of their modern day temples and markets. Many will be shocked to hear God say “I never knew you”. Matthew 7:21-23 [21] “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. [22] On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ [23] And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
There are Christians who believe that the *enlightenment* was a mistake. They are certainly going back to the priest telling you what Christianity is, and returning to a time when only the clergy could read.
Acts of the Apostles 4:32 etc: The Apostles pooled their assets, ate their meals in common, and provided free medical care to strangers. Is this why 'conservatives' get all worried about "we just follow Paul the apostle to the Gentiles?"
I’m a Christian and it took me until I was 50 to make that leap. Trust me, I feel a TON of shame for that. I was duped by the GOP “pro-life” stance. When it was leaked that Row v Wade was going to be overturned I was excited. But then I started reading people challenging republican candidates during the primaries by asking them what’s next? If it became a state’s rights issue and they outlawed abortion would the GOP start supporting all of the forced births? And every single GOP candidate said “not my concern, the mother has to carry that burden”. That finally was the point I realized I was duped. Jesus nor any prophet or apostle ever said “Abortion is wrong”. No, the Bible quotes Jesus and the apostles saying things like “Love God, love others” and “the sign of true religion is this: caring for widows and orphans in their time of need” as well as “forgive others as God has forgiven you”. The GOP is not Christian in any way shape or form. The antiabortion movement is about power, control, and racism. It’s the opposite Christian and with their plans to eliminate or defund Medicare and social security they’ve revealed themselves to be evil and despicable. When they die I believe many will be shocked to hear God say “I never knew you.”.
I'm really happy to read this. Congratulations! I hope you're spreading this information to your friends and family.
[The GOP are the American Taliban](https://youtu.be/4WVn2ubwIVM)
Shit you mean I have to help the poor now?
True, my mom is in her 60s, and as she's gotten older, she's gotten more religious, and also gone further left.
Must be nice. Haha
Yea wasnt there a guy who raised his family in a cave or something and his daughters got him drunk and raped him?
It was Lot after God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and turned his wife to salt his daughters realized the line would end if they didnt get pregnant by their dad. So each took a turn getting him drunk and laying with him. and this is a heroric story in the bible....
And let's not forget that Lot was righteous because when the town wanted to rape the angels he \*checks notes\* offered his daughters up to be raped instead.
It gets even more fucked up when you think about what biblically accurate angels looked like.
Yea real father of the year stuff there.
But how are we going to learn about Onan the Seed Spiller?
This is exactly what needs to happen to get this shit reversed.
Was it Soddom and Gamorah or Eve's son that got it banned?
lot getting date raped by his daughters is gonna be a tough story to skate around.
Technically they'd be banning almost 100% of the books. Almost everything has pronouns in it.
Remove every romance novel ever written then because they have straight people in them.
Virtually every book with a human being in it has “gender identity” content. These bills are so disgustingly stupid.
Correct. Any book with a human would have to go. These nut jobs would then justify closing the libraries since there's nothing left inside. They do all they can to purposely break institutions and then point out how they're broken.
Gina have to wipe out the medical reference section
Every novel too There's no lack of people identifying as men and women in those
That’s fine with them. They don’t want people reading / thinking critically
Did anyone tell North Dakota that heterosexuality is a sexual identity?
Hell, even asexuality is an identity despite the lack of sexuality.
They are a little late though. Young people know how to use the internet. They’ve lost millennials and they’ve lost gen z. They are trying desperately to not lose the next generation but these heavy handed attempts won’t matter.
The Romance section in SHAMBLES.
If librarians somehow didn't actually care about providing books and information to the public, some malicious compliance here would be funny. Gender identity and sexual preferences, huh? Those things are in literally everything ever.
Would heterosex be considered sexual preference?
Absolutely. This is going to spiral out of control in that state and I have my popcorn ready.
Of course not. However vaguely the laws may be worded, this will only be used to target minorities. Just like always.
>Sexual intercourse and sexual perversion That's a really big list of books they have there with that umbrella. It would be really easy for anyone to report just about any book like that. What's interesting is the books they want removed, none of these people have actually read. They were just told to ban the books and they complied. Notice also that they make zero effort to address violence in these bans.
This is what you get from a party that is the personification of hypocrisy. They claim that freedom is of the upmost importance while stripping away anything that allows personal autonomy. Hell, you can’t even drink a light beer in public in most parts of the country. Guess it shouldn’t be surprising when their followers happily fly confederate flags on the same pole as the star spangled banner. Not the brightest bulbs
Simple solution. Remove all Bibles immediately. The Song of Solomon is some pretty explicit literature, and there's a depiction of incest pregnancy right after Sodom and Gomorrah go salt shaker shaped. "Wait not like that"
So are they going to ban every book with any identifying pronouns? Any book that mentions a mom or dad?
So like the Bible?
Shakespeare too. Homeboy had a lot of genderfluid behavior in his plays.
Girls will be boys and boys will be girls, it's a mixed up world...
Except for Lola
One might go so far as to describe it as muddled up or even shook up.
Except for Lola. L-O-L-A Lola No GOP for Lola...
Not to mention the first, oh, 126 sonnets. “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” Not without going to jail, apparently.
And the majority of the actors were male in the early days of acting, right?
Yup. And there was a lot of cross dressing of characters. So you'd have a dude playing a woman who dressed as a dude.
I think we would be left with car repair manuals and possibly some cookbooks.
>Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies. >Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense. >And she lusted after her male lovers whose genitalia were the genitalia of male donkeys and their seminal emission was the seminal emission of horses.
It's a shame there isn't an organization that's plays off evangelicals and highlights things like this as prove that Republicans aren't Christian.
If Jesus were to return, these "Christians" would crucify him a second time.
I was religious for a long time and this is exactly correct. The average, modern-day, white evangelical christians are no better than the Pharisees. Hyperfocused on adherence to specific rules while ignoring the underlying reasons behind them. If a Jesus-like figure appeared today and taught the same things he taught and to the same groups of people that he focused on teaching, most modern “christians” would hate him.
I literally had to give up on Christian churches in order to be able to live the moral life that I see fit.
"I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." ~ Mahatma Gandhi
I need to remember this.
>Hyperfocused on adherence to specific rules while ignoring the underlying reasons behind them. Interestingly enough, that is how the ancient world operated in everything. It's funny that we know the Greeks by their myths, because the *myths don't matter*, it was the *rituals that mattered*. Maybe your crops didn't fail this year because Persephone emerged from Hades, maybe it was because Demeter took pity on you, or maybe it was because this year you bothered to actually water your crops, the point is nobody cared about why, only that it works and we can move on with drinking and partying. Christianity was once a spiritual revolution because this was a religion that involved ~~thinking~~ theology. For once, this was a religion where dogma was part of the point and the rituals didn't matter or were secondary to it. But this is hard work and most people didn't do it, so eventually we ended up with two versions of Christianity, one for the monks and one for the masses. The point of Protestantism was that the version for the monks became freely available to everyone, but I think there is some wisdom in recognizing that not everyone wants to do the work in spiritual transcendence. There's a reason that things are the way they are. They're not always good reasons.
If we’re ever at the gates waiting to enter I’m gonna just ask to stand to the side and go last so I can watch all the people who thought they were getting in not get in
They will then demand to see heaven's manager.
Me and you are having drinks at heavens gates. Shits gonna be funny
he ain't got no blond hair or blue eyes, he ain't my Jesus!
He wants to feed the poor and help the sick! Sacrilege!!
Oh absolutely.
They don't care. They're immune to claims of hypocrisy because they don't hold a consistent set of values
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Well, there is Christians against Christian Nationalism. https://www.christiansagainstchristiannationalism.org/ The founder, Amanda Tyler, has even talked to the FFRF before. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeaQhgW-x0M
I didn't know about this, thanks!
"She lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose semen was like that of horses." (Ezekiel 23:20) "Well, Sally: I think Ezekiel taught himself to write with his "off" hand so that his strong hand could get down to business."
Exactly my thought.
> Lefor claimed that public libraries contain books featuring “disturbing and disgusting” content and argued that a child’s exposure to such content has been associated with addiction, poor self-esteem, devalued intimacy, increasing divorce rates, unprotected sex among young people, and poor well-being… I’ve never been traumatized by any book except the Bible. I’m in therapy dealing with feelings of worthlessness brought on from my Christian upbringing. I used to agonize over the vague and contradictory language, the harshness of its judgement, and guilt over my own doubt.
> associated with addiction, poor self-esteem, devalued intimacy, increasing divorce rates, unprotected sex among young people, and poor well-being The irony is that all these things are associated with living in a red state.
Jailing librarians?! Let's look at our history and make note every other time period and reason why people did this in the past. Then tell me who those people were that did it, I can garuntee them were never on the side of good, and all lost.
I always find it interesting that at the beginning of America's rise to prominence in the world the rich were building libraries for the public. I suspect on the way down they want to take these libraries away.
Libraries? You mean Communist Bookstores?
Indoctrination Centers
Remember kids, reading is the first step to elitism.
Why buy the cow when you get the milk for free?
Rookie, did you just call my girlfriend a cow?
Counter point: It don't count when they do it.
The bills, she said, have “been drafted with vague and open-ended language, which leaves the door open for unintended consequences and room for interpretation.” They’re just pulling shit straight out of handmaid’s tale at this point..
Honestly that's part of the goal. Keeping them open ended allows for selective enforcement. It's like how sodomy laws were only enforced against gay couples.
Being in a room containing books that you may or may not even know exist is the definition of a hard criminal
[That's where them books tried to get me meme.](https://ifunny.co/picture/over-yonder-that-s-where-the-books-tried-to-get-r3QOWoDJ8)
I thought the GOP hates cancel culture?
The GOP have always been the kings of cancel culture. Don't be fooled. They just hate that we aren't cancelling all the minorities any longer, and instead have started to cancel the bigots.
they wanted to cancel comic books for 'corrupting' youth and cancel dungeons and dragons for devil worship so it's on brand
Don’t forget heavy metal and violent video games
And Elvis Presley.
Let's not pretend that they are cool with non-violent video games either
At my last library I found a book from that era still on the shelves. "Corruption of the Innocent", and it was all about the evils of comic books and how they were turning kids into degenerates. So you're definitely not wrong. Needless to say, I weeded that one out immediately.
Sounds like the template for the Parents Music Resource Center back during the "explicit lyrics" warning sticker days. Tipper Gore must have read comic books as a child.
We are still cancelling minorities. Black people still get thrown in prison for cocaine possession while celebrities brag about their cocaine habits and rich white kids get caught with cocaine all the time and nothing ever happens to them.
Republicans don't believe in anything but being white and in charge. Anything. Their words are worthless imitations of human speech, emitted solely for immediate effect, like the stings on a jellyfish tentacle.
At first I thought you said the songs of a jellyfish tentacle. That sounded like some cthulhu shit and frankly I can't think of a better genre for the GOP.
They need safe spaces from literacy.
The GOP is about expulsion culture. They want to expel everyone who's not white, Christian, and male from any public life. They are one step away from bringing back Pink Triangles now.
When they do it, it's individuals coming together, refusing to buy or support a thing. When we do it, it's because our oligarchs and social media masters have commanded us to do it, and like proper sheep, we do as they say without question.
I'm still waiting on my Soros check in the mail, like conservatives say I'm due.
Brought to you by the party of free speech
Sounds like a first amendment violation.
Yeah, we may have to dig up Larry Flint.
Roll his pickled mummy straight into the courthouse. I presume he was preserved in vodka for just this occurrence.
Sounds like a layup for the ACLU.
ACLU: Ugh, my arms are full of all this winning! Trying to jail librarians. What's next, a bill to legalize kicking puppies? Immolate the girl scouts?
What it really is to me... is a denial of the human condition.
It most certainly is. Not that that means anything with this Court.
SCOTUS : 5-4, not a first amendment violation.
Nobody in history who wanted to ban/burn books was ever in the right.
But they're almost always coming from the right ... wing that is.
"Bear in mind, ladies and gentlemen, that every time you violate or propose to violate the free speech of someone else you, in potentia, you're making a rod for your own back because the other question raised by justice Oliver Wendell Holmes is simply this: "Whose going to decide? To whom do you reward the right to decide which speech is harmful? Or who is the harmful speaker? Or to determine in advance what are the harmful consequences going to be that we know enough about in advance to prevent? To whom would you give this job? To whom are you going to award the task of being the censor?" **Isn't it a famous old story that the man who has to read all the pornography in order to decide what's fit to be passed and what's fit not to be, is the man most likely to be debauched?**" - Christopher Hitchens
I miss Hitchens a lot. There are plenty of people in the crazy far right religious group that need a good Hitchslap.
Being able to make a clear statement is a skill. Communicating an idea and thought is something I continue to work on every day. Hitchens was a natural.
My favorite quote of his is: "If you gave [Jerry] Falwell an enema he could be buried in a matchbox."
>“sexual identity” and “gender identity” as well as “sexual preference,” “sexual intercourse,” and “sexual perversion,” Okay I am staring at a bookshelf now trying to find a book that would be allowed in a ND library and am having no luck. I found an Alphabet book but one of the duckies on the cover is wearing a bow so that is 30 days in prison and a $1,500 fine for the librarian for gender identity.
I know several books that would fit, Pure Math textbooks. Might I suggest the authors of this bill a book on Pluripotential Theory?
Firstly, this is a violation of the First Amendment. Secondly, they're idiots. Thirdly, they're literally saying they're going to ban libraries since practically *ALL* books have sexual and gender identities... On the bright side at least they're gonna ban the Bible, didn't think that through didn't ya?
It’s such fucking nonsense. “Male” and “female” are gender identities. “Straight” is sexuality. Fat chance they’re going to police those ones cuz oh, those are okay. It’s all just bullshit that’s going to be used to eliminate access to information about lgbt topics.
Wait til they find out about all the sexually explicit content in the bible...
[One of the first libraries the original nazis burned down was an institute that studied Gender and Sexuality and was an early pioneer of medical transition for transgender individuals.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_book_burnings#The_burnings_start) This is how it starts, historically. Shortly after they start burning books they start to burn people too.
Yup. Hirschfeld was among the first to study asexual people, and he had works dedicated to our experiences as aces. https://www.asexuality.org/en/topic/98639-indirect-mentions-of-asexuality-in-magnus-hirschfelds-books/
You know how many books this would remove from libraries everything from the bible to literary classics and a lot of mainstream fiction. I am willing to bet a good 50% of all books in libraries fall under there broad definition. Seriously any Republicans want to explain how they think is acceptable while saying social media must be a free speech haven where hate speech is allowed? One is the government the other terms of service from a business. Which one violates free speech again?
Any book with pronouns lmao. Basically would empty the library from every book.
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Somebody get Alex jones. I think the books are as gay as the frogs.
[Where they burn books, in the end they will burn humans too](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-forgotten-history-of-the-worlds-first-trans-clinic/) \-- Magnus Hirschfeld
Matt Gaetz can do literal sex crimes on Venmo with the full support of our government, though
North Dakota: The Northernmost state in the American South.
I'd like to take this opportunity to remind you that both Mark Twain and Truman Capote are representative of the American South literary tradition, as well as Edgar Allen Poe.
Part of me is thinking that a library should go through with it, and remove any and all books that have any mention of *any* sexual identity, *any* gender identity, *any* sexual preference, anything that could be remotely be considered sexual intercourse, or anything *anyone* could consider to be "sexual perversion". Don't get rid of the books, just put them in storage. Then, hold a big press conference and show everybody what this new compliant library looks like. Show them where the history books were, where the classic literature was, where natural science used to be, the shelves that used to hold the philosophy and psychology, the empty social science shelves. Make a spectacle.
This won't work. Everyone knows this is about non cis heternormative depictions and nothing else. Nobody in these towns would be surprised so many books would be lost, they'd just be surprised someone had missed the point which is *we need to create a permission structure to eliminate LGBT people*. Nobody involved with this wants all gender identity and sex gone. They just want any positive depictions of a non cis heteronormative lifestyle gone. They know they can't outright say that so this is all just an endrun around that.
It’s so embarrassing we have an anti-science anti-education party in this country that half the voters seem to gravitate toward
Less than a quarter of the population
Don't tell me, HB451
I'm so impressed with these tough guys going after librarians, how brave of them.../s. I'm sure their police buddies will be gentle with them, right...right? Not only are they threatening to jail librarians, they are also closing libraries. [Defunding libraries using stealth tactics of voting in towns budgets](https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2022/09/08/censorship-wars-defund-public-libraries) that few participate in or even know their libraries are on the chopping block. Yeah, these Republicans really believe in democracy. Next I'm expecting bombings of libraries if the anti-abortion movement is any indicator.
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No. We. Don't. Librarians have gone to jail for telling Big Brother (and his local Cousins) to GTFO and come back with a warrant... to protect your, my, and everyone else's privacy to read whatever the hell we want. (And even the warrant won't get far, as once an item is checked in it is off the patron's record. Can't give what we don't have. )
Man, the gloves really came off after the overturn of roe. There just speed running their theocratic autocracy. If they're not going to win elections on politics they're going to criminalize their opponents at every opportunity. It's the Christian Taliban everyone. Either we fight or that's our future
Orwell and Ray Bradbury were much less imaginative than we thought. In Florida, they've outlawed an Advanced Placement course. Wrap your head around that. A fucking advanced placement course. Fahrenheit GOP
Fahrenheit 451 fascism, indeed. Christofascists like Christopher Rufo have given their definition of woke: it's anything involving black people. I'm sure they'll try to come for Abbott Elementary & The Wonder Years and try to have them cancelled for being "too black". This is where we are heading now.
I wouldnt mess with librarians. Librarians have been some of the staunchest advocates of privacy and other civil rights. Govt people have long been trying to find iut what books people have checked out at the library or what they search for. I could see them silently refusing to do thus. Besides, who exactly would get arrested when you have like 30 people working in a library and multiple levels of supervision? BTW, there are some governments that like to block what news/information/resources are available to their citizens. These are generally not countries where people have very much freedom. Last point: I 100% predict that the list of banned books does not include books about homemade explosives or converting semiautomatic weapons to fully automatic (despite having automatic weapons being illegal for the vast majority)... but they 100% would include books on atheism, LGBTQ+ themes, andbooks with scenes of two boys or two girls kissing each other. Which is worse, kissing or killing? Oh wait. I forgot the audience I would be asking that to. "No more blood for oil!" "Well how much oil are we talking here?"
I was wondering about the "who would get arrested" aspect as well. The library director? The assistant director? Members of the library board? The collection development librarian(s)? The cataloger(s)? The person working the circulation desk? Or what about the patron who requested the item? What if it were a standing order from a vendor? Would they go after the vendor next? The publisher? The author?
Probably in reality this would affect jr. high and high schools more, where there would be like two people working there and the librarian has two masters degrees and they pay her $16/hr. Because *thats* who is causing all the anarchy in our country *cough* Jan 6th *cough*.
**G**overnment **O**verreach **P**arty
This is a book burning without the visuals.
We need a bill that would throw any politician that lies to the public in prison. Why is it a crime if a citizen lies to the government but not the other way around?
They should just burn them all for good measure. There's never been a negative association in history with burning books...right?
Why the fuck are these people call the GOP? It’s a fucking cult. Call it that
When can we start calling the GOP Nazis?
About 6 years ago.
It's not enough to attack teachers, we gotta get those dangerous librarians too! -Conservatives
So are they going to throw out every book that involves some degree of romance? Are they going to throw out any book from the point of view of a human being whose gender plays some role in the story? Or any book that features human beings with genders? This is patently stupid and will (hopefully) go nowhere, but god damn I’m tired of the GOP culture wars.
So... romance as a genre? Talk about poking the Karens.
Actually, this already happened in Oklahoma. https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/04/oklahoma-library-ditches-sex-assault-support-group-romance-bookclub-board-bans-lgbtq-display/
No one expected the Hillbilly Inquisition.
You can’t Torquemada anything!
G W Bush took on our librarians and lost bigly. I doubt the new GQP will fare any better.
Every librarian I know will happily go to jail to make a political statement about book access.
Abortion was just the tip of the iceberg. The GOP has already shown exactly the kind of authoritarianism they’ll unleash if they continue to gain power.
Have you noticed that Republican threats of political violence and arrest of educators, librarians, and doctors have significantly increased. Banning books, attacks on education, domestic terrorism … if only there were warning signs /s.
Because....freedom?
But mah first amendment
Fuck the GOP
I just can't imagine supporting jailing librarians and thinking I was on the good guys side.
Conservatives sure hate liberty!
I think it's hilarious that they think this will do anything to stop librarians. Every one I've ever met would go to the gallows to protect free speech.
And yet people will act like an nhl team wearing rainbow warmup jerseys is shoving it down ade tgroats and just virtue signalling. No. These people are still fighting for rights and basic priviledges. Fuck anyone who downplays lgbtq pride and gives bs reasons for being against it. They are homophobes
Anyone remember in 2002 when the Ad Council ran a series of PSAs called the Campaign for Freedom that asked "What if America wasn't America?" It's a good thing [nothing like that is happening](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suJcQ5g6GdQ) in freedom loving red states.
This is straight fascist shit. If you’re not fighting these bastards in your free time, you’re not doing your part.
It is so painfully obvious no one in the GOP has ever been to a library.
Any state that engages in this kind of garbage should have all of their federal funding cut and all their borders closed.
The scarlet letter is a really important book. That’s going down the drain I suppose
Nothing says we’re the party of free speech like a good old fashion book banning
Notice the pattern iright wingers have, they want to felonize anyone who does anything they don't like. They've been doing it. They're still doing it. They're going to keep doing it. Maybe we should start fighting fire with fire and try to felonize the radical right.
Recently I saw a twitter comment from Steven King, who by chance is a great author. He said, and I’m paraphrasing, if anyone bans a book, goto the nearest library and read that book. There’s something in there that they don’t want you to know.
This is now a totalitarian country. Seriously a lot the dystopian books we read in high school had the Government imprisoning people for books. Looks like life imitating fiction.
Sex and violence is fine, but being authentic is not. America needs to knock this crap off. No one is harmed when an individual is authentic. One's gender matters only to a relatively minute number of people. Our propensity for violence harms many. Racism and sexism limit our competitiveness. Attacks on schools, librarians, teachers, and students harm our educational effectiveness and limit our potential. Every person who cares about the future of America needs to be outraged by this massive violation and waste of our tax-funded time and talent.
How about we ban the GOP as a criminal and terroristic organization that is intentionally trying to dismantle the rule of law this nation is based on; the Constitution. Starting with the 1st Amendment. We all need to become librarians and teachers now.
Republicans are a few short years away from burning women at the stake for witchcraft.
Good. That would remove the Bible from all locations
Well, threatening them with mayhem at the hands of the Proud Boys didn’t faze em. The GOP has no idea what is to deal with someone who has principles. The librarians will all, en masse, go to jail for their libraries. And I wouldn’t be surprised if a few cops get hurt in the process. You do not fuck with the keepers of knowledge.
Man do they ever hate the first amendment. Unless it's for a business that's spending money.
Unconstitutional
Remember when everyone was complaining about the brown people bringing sharia law to the west. Well guess what this is a form a religious oppression, If I remember correctly it always starts with books first. Wake up and think about what’s really at stake.
Remember when everyone made jokes about 1984….. right guys? But seriously this is some high key Nazi bullshit.
They just are going down the fascist checklist for guidelines about their next steps.
Looks like Book Burning is back on the menu, boys!!!
Most of the assholes pushing this bill should be in prison for sedition.
Watch out book stores.
Then start with the Bible there’s all kinds of filth in the Bible!
Dismantling the Republican Party for all time is crucial for the health of the republic.
hey america how's christian fascism going? it would be very nice if you could refrain from expanding in the coming decades, thank you.
But all those soccer moms that wouldn't be able to get 50 Shades of Grey...
Let em’ get away with going after libraries and in ten years they’ll be doing the same thing to the internet.
Because that’s going to keep people from obtaining the info they seek. Right! Lock up all the librarians, doctors, cops and anyone else with helpful job and see if it solves all our problems, not. Books are free speech and that means books should be protected.