If you have spent any time listening to crazed astroturfers Moms for Liberty or watching bonkers Fox News presenters, you might think:
a) That kindergartners are being forced to read a picture book about two male penguins raising a baby penguin for one reason only: to turn them gay;
b) That when Drag Queens read books aloud in a public space, kids are in more danger than when they get into stranger’s van on the promise of free candy;
Or even:
c) That every shelf in the school library is filled with graphic pornography carefully selected by a teacher dedicated to “grooming” children for deviant sexual purposes.
In reality, there are three much easier ways for your kids to access “pornography” or meet sex-obsessed weirdos:
- Attend a meeting of school board being targeted by Moms for Liberty.
- Follow a “Christian” book banner on Twitter and watch him tweet pictures of the porn he thinks should be banned.
- Go to a public event in defense of the First Amendment and get the porn handed to you and your kids directly.
Before I go on, here’s a brief reminder of what “astroturf” groups are:
Astroturf parent groups are supported by billionaires, and they usually have a sizable staff of well-paid people. They exist to carry out the goals of their funders.
Like the Tea Party before them, most of today’s “astroturf” groups are “deluded and inspired” by shady billionaires who know how easy it is to inflame and then steer their bovine hoards using simplistic, easy-to-repeat talking points.
In the case of “Moms for Liberty,” we are talking about a group that:
Incorporated as an Internal Revenue Code 501(c)(4) organization, a form that lends itself to dark money political shenanigans… exploded on the scene with its leaders being guests on Fox News and breaking into the Washington Post… has a well-developed website and extensive social media reach… three federal and one state political action committees, one of which is a SuperPAC able to accept unlimited donations…. (its) press is being handled by Calvary Strategies whose CEO is a former campaign manager and chief of staff to Sen. (then-Gov.) Rick Scott… (its) third founder, Bridget Ziegler…. (is the wife of) Christian Ziegler, vice chairman of the Florida Republican Party and the owner of a political marketing firm… (who) boasts that Moms for Liberty will provide crucial ground support for DeSantis’ re-election.
Egged on by Steve Bannon and Patriot Mobile, Moms for Liberty and others like them have turned school board meetings into hate-filled angerfests in which school librarians are vilified as the “arm of satan.”
They read the “dirty parts” of books (not including the rape, bestiality and incest-filled Bible) aloud at these public meetings.
To prove their points, they and their “dad” allies post sexual images from graphic novels on social media.
Note: One of the most popular images they have thrust in front of millions of kids of all ages is a drawing from the graphic novel Gender Queer showing a fake blowjob involving a strap-on dildo which occurs somewhere in the 240-page book, originally published in 2019. I think it’s safe to say more people have seen this picture thanks to “anti-porn,” “anti-groomer” activists—and the Fox News hosts that love to give it screen time—than would have seen it by self-selecting to read the book by themselves.
Partly because of the outrage stoked by a drawing of someone putting an inanimate object that is clearly established as not an actual penis into their mouth, Florida teachers are now being told to remove all unvetted books from classrooms or risk felony prosecution…. and North Dakota Republicans are actually looking to imprison public librarians for the crime of stocking books “depicting sexual or gender identity.”
Meanwhile, creepy guys are handing out material they call “obscene” to young kids.
As bestselling children’s book author Shannon Hale explained in a Twitter thread on January 29, the anti-porn brigade has even started showing up at public events to directly hand out what they insist is pornography to children, only “with no context, no warning, no discussion.”
That’s right. A creepy guy showed up at a family-friendly, book-loving “Let Utah Read” event at the Utah State Capitol on 25 January to hand out pamphlets to all the kids in attendance.
The pamphlets contained the “greatest hits” of sexual content that Moms for Liberty and the right-wing outrage machine want to make sure your unprepared kids are forced to look at.
As Shannon Hale tweeted:
This is the stuff they are saying is pornography—stuff kids should be protected from—and then they went and gave it to EVERY SINGLE KID there. If you truly believe it’s porn, then why are you directly handing it to kids, with no context, no warning, no discussion?
As PEN America points out:
Obscene material is not protected under the First Amendment, but a finding of obscenity requires satisfaction of a tripartite test, which requires, among other aspects, a holistic consideration of the material at issue. Simply declaring a book “obscene” does not make it so.
Using the accepted standards, as adjudicated by the Supreme Court, it would be easier to declare a pamphlet that contains a selection of random sexual images or written passages assembled merely to shock—like the pamphlet given to kids in Utah—to be “obscence” or “pornographic” than it would to say the same about a book-length novel or graphic novel.
And that’s not all.
The pervert who handed out the “porn” pamphlets to the kids in attendance also stuck around to stare at preteen girls in the audience—and then to verbally abuse Shannon Hale in front of her kids.
“My 12yo was shaking and crying for an hour after.”
Ironically, in the speech that Hale gave at the “Let Utah Read” event, she spoke about the ways in which books help kids empathize with others and noted that:
When kids aren’t allowed to even talk about sex, “predators flourish,” and treating books as pornography prevents them from accessing “a gentle form of storytelling that offer context to complex problems and help readers examine them in quiet, slow, thoughtful ways.”
Seemingly, one of the passages in the pamphlet Hale’s kids were given was a scene that appears more than 100 pages into the novel Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. As Hale noted on Twitter: “my 12yo wouldn’t have gotten… to this part in the first place because she’s not ready for it.”
A single complaint can now get a book banned or an author canceled
The current outrage about books—with school book bans predominantly targeting topics related to Black history or the LGBTQ experience—comes at a time when white students are becoming a minority in many states, including Florida.
Despite—or because of—that, MAGA Governors like Ron DeSantis are prioritizing the needs of white Christian parents and the “comfort” of their delicate children over everyone else.
As Anne Lutz Fernandez wrote here on Substack on 28 January in an article headlined: “Book banning is getting worse”:
Book banning has a long history in America, but it’s a mistake to hope that this too shall pass. The minority rule that allowed the Dobbs decision, the rise of right-wing extremism and political violence, and the proliferation and power of sources of mis- and disinformation make this an especially dangerous moment. It’s not going to pass if we don’t recognize the seriousness of the threat.
When it comes to banning books in schools, “Christian” parents are working from lists circulated within their astroturf groups—and are being fed graphic, out-of-context images and words from one or two books to justify demands to ban dozens of books at a time.
We’ve reached the point where one person has the power to deprive an entire student body of dozens or books that many students would value…
… and where one parent has the power to cancel the visit of a popular author on the eve of Black History Month.
In the words of Lisa Superina, as quoted by the Florida Freedom to Read Project:
Fascism isn’t just going to show up one day and say, ‘I’m here,’ and take all your rights away. It’s creeping in, in increments, and this is the start … right now it’s blatant, in our face, and they’re starting with the books.
It should go without saying that in a public school system, one parent or one teacher should not be allowed to dictate what all children are allowed to read.
But it’s also important to note that “parent’s rights” aren’t the only thing at stake.
Children are not possessions. They are autonomous people who can think for themselves—and who have their own rights.
Including the right to read.
This newsletter is always free to read and share—there’s never a paywall. So subscribe free and never miss an issue. Or, if you’d like to contribute and support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber…
Further reading from my archives:
OK, Groomer (January 8, 2023)
Censorship Is Unamerican (September 10, 2022)
Use Your Words (August 13, 2022)
1939 All Over Again (May 14, 2022)
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