As you may have heard, it's Banned Books Week.
I've been writing for years about how vicious and well-funded political operatives like Moms for Liberty have been waging war on the basic First Amendment rights of parents and students.
It's a war in which aggressive, defamatory tactics have endangered teachers and librarians across the country — and contributed to the dumbing down of American kids to such a degree that, according to Lesley Muldoon, executive director of the National Assessment Governing Board:
"Students are taking their next steps in life with fewer skills and less knowledge in core academics than their predecessors a decade ago."
Things have gotten so ridiculous that, in 2026, not only are book bans surging in American schools (PEN America counted nearly 12,000 book bans in the most recent school year), but China is finding a new way to make the land of Trump a laughingstock.
As The New York Times reported on 29 September (gift link):
"Nearly two centuries after “Jane Eyre” first defied the conventions of Victorian England... ninth-grade students across (China) are being required to read the novel in full."
Taken in isolation, this news itself isn't shocking.
After all, why wouldn't any government want 14 and 15 year olds to read a novel that, according to Chinese state media, offers an alternative to "superficial love stories" and which could help children “establish a more balanced value system.”
Welcome to Texas, where free speech comes to die
The shocking part of the story isn't that Jane Eyre is being read nationwide in China by 14-year-olds. It's that Jane Eyre is now being banned in some Texas high schools because Republicans in the state have gone absolutely bonkers.
According to PEN America's report, Texas banned nearly 8,200 books during the 2025-26 school year, more than any other state.
MAGA Republicans like the Lt Gov. Dan Patrick claim they are targeting books "so filthy, so dirty, so vulgar, so pornographic" that schools will be docked an entire letter grade if even one of these books is found anywhere at any time, for example behind a bookshelf during one of the state's mandatory active shooter drills.
And don't try to tell me books aren't banned or they just want to protect the children.
Texas is waging war on free speech at grown-up colleges, too. The state was just graded "F" in FIRE's latest college free-speech rankings.
OK, they hate free speech in Texas. But Jane Eyre? Did Elon Musk have anything to do with this?
Of course he did.
Elon Musk, Bill Maher's favorite "free-speech absolutist" and the man who streams more hardcore pornography to kids in Texas than any other social media owner, set the stage for Jane Eyre to be banned in Texas through his embrace and amplification of the infamous Libs of TikTok account.
Musk's personal nurturing of the Chaya Raichik-run account ensured that Libs of TikTok could both make money and exert enormous influence in MAGA world despite multiple pre-Musk suspensions on Twitter — and despite being permanently banned from TikTok for hate speech, bullying and harassment in 2022.
As San Antonio Express-News reported on 3 November 2025, when the New Braunfels ISD school board made the controversial (and soon-reversed) decision to close the district’s middle and high school libraries to review all of the 195,000 books it owned to ensure compliance with SB 13, a new Texas book-banning law, it may have been feeling some external pressure:
The decision came days after Libs of TikTok, a right-wing account on X with more than four million followers, posted a screenshot of the district’s online library database and criticized the presence of books about LGBTQ experiences and racism.
The ridiculous decision to close these libraries was not required by law. But the pressure from Libs of TikTok was real.
And Jane Eyre wasn't simply collateral damage.
As part of its review, as reported by Texas Freedom to Read Project, New Braunfels ISD removed more than 600 books from its high school libraries.
It was forced to retain Jane Eyre as a "Restricted" title only because it's on AP-Lit list.
Today, unlike in China, where Jane Eyre is mandatory reading for 14-15 year-old school kids, a 14 or 15 year-old American at an NBISD school in Texas can no longer check it out of the school library to read it just for fun.
Those American teenagers can't even read Jane Eyre to help them, to quote the Chinese government, “establish a more balanced value system.”
All my content is free to read and share. No ads. No paywall. Thanks for reading. Support through "Buy Me a Coffee" if you ever get the urge.
Subscribe to Unprecedented
Subscribe to the newsletter and unlock access to member-only content.