What's the purpose of banning books anyway?

[smahala1991]

Why are schools and libraries trying to ban books?

[WhiteSteve]

It’s to restrict people’s access to learning truths that would disrupt carefully constructed worldviews. Take a Christian Fundamentalist, for example. They love their lives on strict adherence to the Bible. If their kids go to school and start learning about dinosaurs, that creates inconsistencies in what the child has been raised to believe by their family and church. Some folks are able to navigate that, but to others, that’s just opening cans of worms they don’t want opened, and ultimately they probably fear the child’s faith will be diminished. Whether that’s a good, bad, or neutral thing is up for opinion, but many parents will not like their child being exposed to outside information, so they try to stifle it through book bans.

This can also apply to matters of history. Right now there’s a concerted effort to continue the whitewashing of America’s history. Like we’re now even trying to argue slavery was BENEFICIAL to slaves, because they learned blacksmithing or some kind of marketable skill…. because apparently you can’t do that as a free man🤦‍♂️ Many white people are EXTREMELY uncomfortable with the sins of the past being touched upon any longer than Civil War history lessons last. They want to act like it was a long time ago, it’s over, “it wasn’t just white people doing it”, and everything has been just fine ever since, and anyone saying otherwise is some “woke” lunatic. This assertion is ridiculous on its face, but many people still shamelessly hold this opinion. These are people who think making room for anyone else is going to cost THEM something, ultimately. They view life in America as a zero-sum game, so they just will not give up an inch to allow anyone else a fair shake. That’s a tale as old as society itself. The people who can effect positive universal change are usually the ones currently benefitting from the status quo, so they selfishly change nothing for fear of having to take a step back themselves to help anyone else. Most of this is motivated by intense religious influence or political power, so there’s not much sense to the whole thing, but it’s still rampant.

[abc3643]

To foster anti-intellectualism.

Look, you are still young, but something you should have learned by now is that people are selfish. And, often, for good reason because it means their survival. Now, if their method of survival is threatened by truths about the universe, this is a tad problematic. So, you have two choices in the world:
1. Find a new means of survival OR
2. Continue your existing means of survival and just lie, spread disinformation, or suppress it or whatever, as long as you possibly can until the truth rears its ugly head so profoundly that there's no denying it anymore and you have to give up and change.

Fortunately, the liars/deceivers often have decades or even a few generations to continue their disinformation actions until they no longer work.

That's what happened in the tobacco industry and, eventually, the oil industry.

Now, I've bitched implicitly about the GOP here, but there's also another form of this information/truth suppression and that primarily (but not always) comes from the far left. They are all hell-bent about protecting everyone's feelings and self-esteem that they are going bonkers not so much with book banning, but book-altering.

For instance, a 2011 edition of Huckleberry Finn replaced the word "n**" (watch, I bet that's replaced by a fucking liberal-themed autocensor) so it doesn't appear. That word again is:

N

I

G

G

E

R

just in case the robots censure it...

So much remastering and altering removes the truth and distorts historical accuracy.

To give another example - one that has nothing to do with politics...

You think you've seen "Star Wars", the 1977 movie, right?

Almost certainly, if you are younger than 30, you haven't. "Star Wars" is now "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope" and it says that on the scroll at the beginning. That's not "Star Wars". "Star Wars" didn't have any of that shit. "Star Wars" wasn't altered so Han doesn't shoot first. And, in "Return of the Jedi" (originally promoted as "Revenge of the Jedi"), the Anakin Skywalker force ghost isn't fucking Hayden Christiansen, but the elder actor who played the dying Darth Vader.

So, in other words, you aren't seeing/hearing/EXPERIENCING information as it originally was. It is historically inaccurate to serve the purposes of the present day.

Another example of this is in the movie "Interstellar" in which the authorities claim that the moon landing never really happened. It's deliberate bullshit to get the people then to focus on farming because Earth was dying.

This is always going to happen... Various factions of people in the present day will always try to manipulate, present, repress, disinform, raise doubt, or censor information for the sole purpose of achieving that faction's personal gain. This will happen as long as humans exist. Book banning is just a symptom of it.

[abc3643]

I see the liberal autocensor did its job...

[CupcakeTheDestroyer]

It goes back to religious fundamentalism and trying to get ahead of specific influences as they believe they’ll hold negative influences on their children. Catcher in the Rye was one such book for a long time, mainly banned for its use of the word “fuck” bc parents didn’t want their kids saying that at 10. Now it’s used mainly as an argument against any kind of queer literature because they’re afraid it’s making their kids gay or trans, which really just delays them figuring out if they are or not. There’s also people banning books like To Kill a Mockingbird because of its use of the n-word, not realizing that the entire point of the book is to help kids gain critical thinking skills by having conversations about racism and what it used to be and comparing it to what it is now. It’s done with the best of intentions but ultimately it’s not always the best move.

[jennifer_bloom]

I believe a lot of laws are created to prevent riots and not because they are ethical or reasonable. Some books should not be banned but are cause society would riot if they were not banned. For example, I took a course on Islam while studying world religions in University and you could not find a copy of the Quran in the school library but they had dozens if not hundreds of bible scrolls or bible copies.

[GoodGuyBreakingBad]

Because they are snowflakes and don't want to hurt anyone.

[NaultD]

Short and sweet. Burn and restart again and again as much as you need to. That is what fashist dictatorship want.

We all can shout and scream into the void but no one needs to hear it. Reading and writing and the ability to do so pushes humanity forward and cements it to reality.

The greatest humanity lost of knowledge was the great library of Alexandria. we of democracy and true to humanity dare not repeat. All first world governments have and maintain endless archives.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/mlO6rakr2XAhttps://www.youtube.com/embed/ce-QHeZnVu4

[NaultD]

I'm still struggling to truly answer your question but still passionate why we need to preserve fpr the sake of preserving.

https://youtu.be/YbgnlkJPga4?si=ERm5XuQz1NtOeTaP

[Astarlessnightsky]

Schools and libaries aren't banning books, its politicians making laws and outlawing books.

Its generally the first step when brainwashing kids, into believing whatever lies said politicians are going to tell them.

[Lliam]

On one hand, many parents don't want their children indoctrinated by pornographic LGBT material.

On the other hand, "woke" liberals want to ban classic literature like Tom Sawyer that does not fit today's politically correct ideology.

[Miristheiss]

You gloss over the key word in your premise.

SCHOOLS

Books aren't being restricted at the public library or bookstores or Amazon/Barnes & Noble.

It is in SCHOOL.

That is where children and the more innocent youth are. Parents want AGE APPROPRIATE books, not sexual books and controversial, political topic books.

[BootsLover94]

Because they are snowflakes and snowflakes can't handle the truth

[DaBiggestBird]

Because they’re ran by a horde of unreliable little twats who suck off everyone they offend in the slightest and can’t handle the gift of being better.

[DextroShade]

By "books" do you mean pornographic material directed at children that is meant to teach them how to suck dick?

[exitseven]

Schools and libraries have committees to decide what materials will be on their shelves/ This is not banning books.

[jb2622]

To not expose kids to whats in the books while is school obviously. Regardless of political view, right or wrong that's why.

[AngryCarl2]

Books may contradict government propaganda. We wouldn't want people to get confused, would we?

[zagor]

Because they're worried about people (usually kids) being exposed to ideas that they find offensive.

[Anonymous]

The only books I want to ban are ones that is pornographic material that are meant to be shown to children, especially if it shows an adult raping a child.

[CaptainSmartass]

Because they're regressive snowflakes trying to tap in to the whole Hitler/Putin thing.

Simples...

[_no_one_]

To feel powerful

[Christoff92]

Because of the ebook generation. Assuming.

[jahaims]

To manipulate society

[Briscole]

Groomers would agree with you.

[Tomisworthless]

To prevent the destruction of innocence

[Anonymous]

They aren’t. Turn off CNN.

[YAsQuen]

Because they contain straight up porn

[Nifrayu]

Censorship.