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You are here: Home / Books / Dangerous Knowledge Open Thread: Maus & Company

Dangerous Knowledge Open Thread: Maus & Company

by Anne Laurie|  February 2, 20229:02 pm| 68 Comments

This post is in: Books, Education, GOP Death Cult, Open Threads

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Maus & Company - STOCKPILE

(Lalo Alcaraz via GoComics.com)

pic.twitter.com/rEycP1UsbE

— medit8now (@medit8now) January 30, 2022

Thanks for making us an international embarrassment, Minn County!

Graphic novel Maus tops Amazon best-sellers after school ban https://t.co/dQIur4UGgI

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) January 31, 2022

Dangerous Knowlege Open Thread: Maus & Company

(Drew Sheneman via GoComics.com)

This has gone beyond "traditional values" or rube ignorance or "Moral Majority" stuff, which all sounds quaint now. This is just *panic* by white people who will destroy their children's libraries because they're hopped up on cortisol and don't know how to stop it being 2022. https://t.co/ODVmJf3OKF

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) February 1, 2022

Wise commentor Kay:

When you read about the book bannings and state laws banning discussions of civil rights, be aware that this is the context:

@RonBrownstein ·17h
Kids of color now 55% of all public K-12 students nationwide & a majority in 23 states and 93/100 largest school districts. No coincidence this push to ban books & control what schools can teach about historic & current racial inequity is unfolding now.

It’s white people directing what is taught in majority non-white public schools. The majority of the public school population is non-white now. Makes sense that the schools that serve mostly non-white kids and families would move toward incorporating civil rights history and discussions of diversity, right? Seems less like an attempt to indoctrinate/shame white kids and more like an attempt to serve the kids who are actually in these schools?

i'd say the single biggest reason that people believe white supremacism is deeply embedded in american society is probably all of the evidence https://t.co/y370N0hlF5

— World Famous Art Thief (@CalmSporting) February 1, 2022

Moms for Liberty co-founder Tina Descovich claims her group doesn’t want to ban an MLK book, but does want to ban schools from teaching that Ruby Bridges encountered the N-word.

Tina says, “parents need to have that conversation” about the N-word, not “the school district.” pic.twitter.com/YzFhhalpf0

— PatriotTakes ???? (@patriottakes) January 31, 2022

Dangerous Knowlege Open Thread: Maus & Company 1

(Clay Jones via GoComics.com)

Simply unreal: A GOP bill in New Hampshire targets "negative" depictions of US history. Its explicit goal: To ensure teachers retain "loyalty" and don't push "subversive doctrines."

This McCarthyite effort could be a model for more to come.

My latest:https://t.co/8aVf9cY2cb

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) January 31, 2022

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Reader Interactions

68Comments

  1. 1.

    dexwood

    February 2, 2022 at 9:13 pm

    These proudly ignorant bigots never learn that banning books always makes people want to buy them, read them, know them.

  2. 2.

    dm

    February 2, 2022 at 9:18 pm

    Art Cullen, Pulitzer winning columnist of the Storm Lake, Iowa Weekly Times writes of Iowa’s Republican legislature: “Bridges are failing in Iowa, but the legislature wants to ban books”:

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/01/what-book-banning-tells-us-about-politics-in-iowa/

  3. 3.

    Percysowner

    February 2, 2022 at 9:20 pm

    @dexwood: True, but once the hoopla is over, the books are less available, or no longer available and people move on and forget. It’s great that people are buying the books, but it’s short term gain, long term loss.

  4. 4.

    RSA

    February 2, 2022 at 9:22 pm

    Somehow the people who vilify participation trophies for children also argue that presenting the good and bad of U.S. history will be deeply harmful to children.

  5. 5.

    debbie

    February 2, 2022 at 9:24 pm

    Are there any reports of kids pushing back against the parents?

  6. 6.

    japa21

    February 2, 2022 at 9:24 pm

    @Percysowner:  Not sure that is correct. Specially since these are not universal bannings. Books banned in the past are readily available now.

  7. 7.

    debbie

    February 2, 2022 at 9:25 pm

    @RSA:

    Isn’t protecting their delicate children the ultimate participation trophy?

  8. 8.

    Mathguy

    February 2, 2022 at 9:26 pm

    “Deplorables.” Hillary had it right.

  9. 9.

    Sure Lurkalot

    February 2, 2022 at 9:27 pm

    @debbie: Yet they are not concerned about active shooter drills?

  10. 10.

    dexwood

    February 2, 2022 at 9:27 pm

    @Percysowner:  People move on about everything these days. Books endure. Book lovers are hard core.

  11. 11.

    Kay

    February 2, 2022 at 9:28 pm

    No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen
    @NoLieWithBTC
    ·4h
    NEW: Iowa Republicans have introduced a bill that would put government-installed cameras in every single classroom to livestream school activities for parents to spy on teachers and children at all times of the day

    Here’s the New Hampshire ‘loyalty’ bill, backed by their “libertarians”:

    The bill, HB1255 “relative to teachers’ loyalty,” seeks to ban New Hampshire public school teachers from promoting any “negative account or representation of the founding and history of the U.S.,” including the idea that the country was founded on racism. The bill updates a piece of Cold War-era law that bans educators from advocating for communism in schools, and adds additional bans on advocating for socialism and Marxism.

    They updated a Cold War-era law by adding some additional speech bans.

  12. 12.

    japa21

    February 2, 2022 at 9:29 pm

    I would like to think that the GOP is going too far. Apparently some OK Republicans have introduced a bill where parents can sue a teacher for teaching something that goes against deep seated religious beliefs. I doubt it will pass, but the mere thought they think this way should doom the party for all time.

    But the GOP is crafty. They will hit all sort of hot buttons, be it sex education, CRT, religion, etc. A person might think most of the buttons are ridiculous but that one item on the GOP agenda makes sense to them. A biggie is trans bathroom rights. Sure, to us it is ridiculous, but a sizable part of the country is concerned about it and will make it the one issue they will vote on. Same with every other item on the GOP hit list.

    That is what makes this whole process so insidious and potentially successful for the GOP.

  13. 13.

    NotMax

    February 2, 2022 at 9:30 pm

    Minn County

    McMinn County.

  14. 14.

    laura

    February 2, 2022 at 9:30 pm

    I want to know who’s funding this American apartheid movement and until I hear different, I’ll presume the usual domestic suspects and a couple few foreign interests. Hope Adam Silverman weighs in.

  15. 15.

    bbleh

    February 2, 2022 at 9:31 pm

    Anyone want to bet against some form of updated Un-American Activities Committee if the Reps take the House in the midterms?

  16. 16.

    Kay

    February 2, 2022 at 9:31 pm

    any “negative account or representation of the founding and history of the U.S.

    Any. Nothing negative in the whole history. Every historical event was fabulous.

  17. 17.

    dm

    February 2, 2022 at 9:31 pm

    @debbie: Kids are starting “Banned Book Clubs”:

    https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/how-some-students-are-responding-to-book-bans-in-their-schools/3529622/

    Book bans “make reading cool again”:

    https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/dec/23/us-book-bans-conservative-parents-reading

  18. 18.

    laura

    February 2, 2022 at 9:33 pm

    @bbleh: wwouldn’t be me…

  19. 19.

    Sure Lurkalot

    February 2, 2022 at 9:35 pm

    @laura: I believe the Koch sucker still alive and the DeVos family are funding a lot of the moral panic about books and CRT. Dismantling the public education system has been their goal for decades.

  20. 20.

    Anne Laurie

    February 2, 2022 at 9:35 pm

    @Percysowner: True, but once the hoopla is over, the books are less available, or no longer available and people move on and forget. It’s great that people are buying the books, but it’s short term gain, long term loss.

    Yes, the worry is (has always been) that a ‘banned’ book simply becomes invisible to kids ten years or a generation from now. They can’t know what to look for, because they don’t know it exists!

    Honestly, I see this as one advantage to our New! Ever-Connected! Social Media Age.  Today’s kids don’t have to try sneaking a banned book out of the public library — or reading a copy of Playboy at the drug store — they can access links to EVERYTHING on their phones.  (Or their school-sponsored laptops, probably, since I have more faith in kids’ control-hacking skillz than I do in the public schools’.)

    Even when the kids don’t read the whole book — most won’t — they can scan tweets / instagram / tiktok / whatevs and see the ‘controversial’ bits for themselves.   It won’t make them respect their elders any more than they already do, which of course is NOT VERY MUCH…

  21. 21.

    Omnes Omnibus

    February 2, 2022 at 9:37 pm

    @dexwood: ​
      Weren’t there bands who wanted to get the Parental Warning label because it boosted sales? Hoist petard etc.

  22. 22.

    Kay

    February 2, 2022 at 9:37 pm

    Margaret Thornton, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
    @MaggieEThornton
    · 9h
    Turns out that @GovernorVA is claiming all the emails sent to [email protected] are his own correspondence

    The same people who want to put cameras in every room and record every interaction are fighting public records requests on the snitch lines they set up.
    The governor’s claim is the snitches are writing to him personally, so no one may view the allegations.

  23. 23.

    NotMax

    February 2, 2022 at 9:40 pm

    History interlude.

    “Banned in Boston” is a phrase that was employed from the late 19th century through the mid-20th century, to describe a literary work, song, motion picture, or play which had been prohibited from distribution or exhibition in Boston, Massachusetts. During this period, Boston officials had wide authority to ban works featuring “objectionable” content, and often banned works with sexual content or foul language. This even extended to the $5 bill from the 1896 “Educational” series of banknotes featuring allegorical figures that were partially nude.
    [snip]
    This movement had several unintended consequences. One was that Boston, a cultural center since its founding, was perceived as less sophisticated than other cities without stringent censorship practices. Another was that the phrase “banned in Boston” became associated, in the popular mind, with something lurid, sexy, and naughty. Commercial distributors were often pleased when their works were banned in Boston—it gave them more appeal elsewhere.
    [snip]
    The Warren Court (1953–69) expanded civil liberties and in Memoirs v. Massachusetts and other cases curtailed the ability of municipalities to regulate the content of literature, plays, and movies. The last major literary censorship battle in the U.S. was fought over Naked Lunch, which was banned in Boston in 1965. Eventually the Watch and Ward Society changed its name to the New England Citizens Crime Commission, and made its main emphasis against gambling and drugs and far less on media. Source

  24. 24.

    dexwood

    February 2, 2022 at 9:43 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Probably. I went out of my way to buy warning label CDs. And Zappa refuted Tipper Gore’s desire for censorship pretty effectively.

  25. 25.

    Baud

    February 2, 2022 at 9:44 pm

    Do any BJ authors want us to get their books banned? Maybe a special Authors in our midst thread to coordinate?

  26. 26.

    Baud

    February 2, 2022 at 9:45 pm

    @Kay:

    My dog’s day care has a live stream.  I like spying on them.

  27. 27.

    Omnes Omnibus

    February 2, 2022 at 9:46 pm

    @Baud: I don’t want to kink shame, but damn!

  28. 28.

    dexwood

    February 2, 2022 at 9:47 pm

    @Baud: Everyone needs a hobby.

  29. 29.

    NotMax

    February 2, 2022 at 9:47 pm

    Tennessee, also home to the Scopes trial, lest we forget.

  30. 30.

    Baud

    February 2, 2022 at 9:49 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    @dexwood:

    You jest, but now it occurs to me that I doubt parents would like the idea that videos of their kids in school are being broadcast over the internet.

  31. 31.

    Raven

    February 2, 2022 at 9:49 pm

    @RSA: thank you

  32. 32.

    Kay

    February 2, 2022 at 9:51 pm

    @Baud:

    I would have so hated it as a child. This is their thing! Can they leave them alone for a second?

    I would protest this. Turn it around on them. “I’ll need a room apart from the monitoring for my child. Police states make her cry – she said that the other night ‘mommy, the veritable police state atmosphere at my school makes me cry’.

  33. 33.

    VOR

    February 2, 2022 at 9:53 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: years ago I saw a presentation by someone involved in the early days of Red Bull. Some government demanded they put a warning label on the cans. They asked if there was a size limit for the warning label – the bigger, the better it worked for their target market.

  34. 34.

    dexwood

    February 2, 2022 at 9:55 pm

    @Baud: It was bad enough for me as a student when all the nuns kept reminding me that God was watching. Cameras, too!

  35. 35.

    Sure Lurkalot

    February 2, 2022 at 9:56 pm

    @Baud: The kids would hate it too. A lot of kids wouldn’t turn the video on their Zoom classrooms.

  36. 36.

    StringOnAStick

    February 2, 2022 at 10:00 pm

    My oldest sister is a hard core southern Baptist and would not let her kids attend the local college (now U) because “they teach evolution!!!!!” .  All 3 kids moved on to other religions after being forced to get their undergraduate degrees at Bob Jones U, and one came out and married his partner last year.

  37. 37.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    February 2, 2022 at 10:01 pm

    I miss the old days when Karens would freak out over Judy Blume’s books​ and Judas Priest albums

  38. 38.

    NotMax

    February 2, 2022 at 10:02 pm

    @dexwood

    kept reminding me that God was watching

    Cosmic voyeur.

    //

  39. 39.

    mrmoshpotato

    February 2, 2022 at 10:05 pm

    Someone with a Twitter account should inform Tommy about his Rethuglican party over the past 40 years.

  40. 40.

    James E Powell

    February 2, 2022 at 10:05 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Not sure about the bands, some might have considered it a joke more than an insult, but record companies liked the sticker to promote sales.

    NWA had a song “Parental Discretioon Iz Advised.”

  41. 41.

    mrmoshpotato

    February 2, 2022 at 10:06 pm

    @Kay: Creepers.

  42. 42.

    GregMulka

    February 2, 2022 at 10:08 pm

    An always on livestream of children is an abusive parent’s wet-dream. Your wife left and took out the protective order against you? Went through all the hoops to make sure you never know where she or the kids you abused are? Now you can just scan the live feeds until you find the kids again and do whatever you were going to do.

    Or, in our country that bans books but not guns, a shooter is streaming the classroom to his phone to make damn sure he got everyone.

  43. 43.

    Mallard Filmore

    February 2, 2022 at 10:10 pm

    @Kay: 

    Any. Nothing negative in the whole history. Every historical event was fabulous.

    When I was in grade school, learning about the history of Virginia, the day the first slaves arrived was called a “Red Letter Day”. Is this day still considered a positive? Did it change to negative? Up in the air and dangerous to teach?

  44. 44.

    Kay

    February 2, 2022 at 10:16 pm

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Agree. They are creepy. I also never want to hear another word about “helicopter parents” or “raising independent and self sufficient kids” from these people.

    Covid was tough on public schools. They’re attacking them now with renewed vigor because they know they’re weakened and they think they can reach their lifetime ideological goal of taking them out. I guess we’ll see which side wins. I’m betting they overreach and there’s a backlash.

  45. 45.

    Kay

    February 2, 2022 at 10:22 pm

    @Mallard Filmore:

    I also think it’s weird that all of their kids (allegedly) immediately identify exclusively with the historical bad guys. When you saw a picture of a Klan rally as a kid were you “yup- that’s where I’d be, with them”.

  46. 46.

    WaterGirl

    February 2, 2022 at 10:31 pm

    @Baud: Does that mean you have a dog again now?

  47. 47.

    Gvg

    February 2, 2022 at 10:31 pm

    @debbie: there is a comic book store owner that heard about the ban and knew it would increase demand in kids in that county. He thought that was one of the greatest graphic novels ever and always had it on sale. Anyway he ordered a 100 and offered it free to any kid with an address in that county who wanted one. When I read about it about 60 were claimed. In many cases, the parents were telling him it was ok with them. He was paying postage too.

    I have never read them and checked to see if I could get some. There is a weeks long back order so I haven’t. My nephew is 14, dyslexic, and prefers graphic novels anyway. I wanted to pass it on to him.

  48. 48.

    Subsole

    February 2, 2022 at 10:38 pm

    @dexwood:

    “What does the diary tell you that it doesn’t tell us?”

    “It tells me that goose-stepping morons like yourself should try reading books, instead of burning them.”

  49. 49.

    danielx

    February 2, 2022 at 10:39 pm

    Yep. Joe Hill never existed, the Ludlow Massacre never happened, Henry Ford was a humanitarian who never would have dreamed of having Harry Bennett in charge of beating and shooting strikers, and the list of negative history to be wiped from memory could go on forever.

  50. 50.

    Bill Arnold

    February 2, 2022 at 10:39 pm

    @Baud:

    You jest, but now it occurs to me that I doubt parents would like the idea that videos of their kids in school are being broadcast over the internet.

    Oh yes, absolutely. Dark(hidden/anonymous) markets of hackers selling video feed credentials for cameras pointed at children to pedophiles (or other interested adults) would quickly develop, as would markets for recordings of the same. (With imperfect countermeasures like blocking known proxies/tor exit nodes, ensuring unending outrage and scandal, and providing a continuous income stream for surveillance vendors and  for the public officials that they bribe.)
    These bills could probably be killed by propagating plausible scare scenarios like this.

  51. 51.

    Subsole

    February 2, 2022 at 10:40 pm

    @Mathguy:

    No. She was too kind.

    I would call these people white trash, but they are far, FAR beneath any white trash I ever knew.

  52. 52.

    Scout211

    February 2, 2022 at 10:41 pm

    When our youngest was in grade school, the school district chose a literature series that included stories that had themes with fantasy and magic. The local evangelical churches went nuts and protested all over the media. It was shocking to me, actually. This is California and these evangelical leaders could not fathom that school age children could read a story with fantasy and magic without becoming blasphemous heathens.

    One of my colleagues in the mental health field was actually filmed for a television segment supporting the claims that fantasy and magic are harmful to a child’s mental health. That really disappointed me.

    It finally blew over and the district finished out the year with the snowflake parents being allowed to remove their children from the reading program. But I often wondered if these people will ever see the forest for the trees.

    But I’m sure they took their kids to every new Disney movie release. No fantasy or magic there.  Sigh.

  53. 53.

    Leto

    February 2, 2022 at 10:43 pm

    The Imgur community has been wonderful in this regard, showing tons of support not just for Maus but shedding light on what state legislatures are doing wrt trying to ban books. One of the posts a user put up was a series of tweets about the specific importance of Maus within the Jewish community, and also the broader message that Maus was Jewish centered first and foremost. It wasn’t designed to have a happy ending, or to make people feel good about themselves at the end of the story. I believe that some of the BJ community have spoken about this previously, but I thought these series of tweets were invaluable. (For those that don’t use Imgur, it’s a site designed to share images. So it’s not taking you to Twitter, it’s essentially screen shots of the Tweet thread.)

    Why Maus Matters

    This Twitter thread reflects a lot of the conversation I’ve heard in the Jewish community lately about why books like Maus matter and why books like The Boy in the Striped Pajamas don’t quite cut it. It’s worth reading, but TL:DR: Boy in the Striped Pajamas is written to make people feel comfortable about the Holocaust being a General Sad Thing with neat lessons to learn about bigotry. It’s a non Jewish perspective, with non of the sense of the Jewish world that was lost. Maus is a real story, with real implications.

  54. 54.

    Subsole

    February 2, 2022 at 10:47 pm

     

     

    @David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:

    Oh, I’m sure they’re still ass-fractured over those, too.

     

    I truly cannot imagine living like them. Such a miserable, empty, narrow little husk of an existence. Just darkness ahead and whips behind, as Mr Pratchett once observed.

  55. 55.

    Redshift

    February 2, 2022 at 10:47 pm

    @japa21:

    Not sure that is correct. Specially since these are not universal bannings. Books banned in the past are readily available now.

    Readily available doesn’t solve the problem of kids being introduced to them and made aware so they know to look for them. There’s a reason books are taught in class and we have school libraries.

    It’ll be harder than it used to be to keep “objectionable” materials away from kids who want to find them. But it won’t help the kids who don’t yet know what they’re missing.

  56. 56.

    debbie

    February 2, 2022 at 10:54 pm

    @Gvg:

    The Maus books are great.

  57. 57.

    SFAW

    February 2, 2022 at 11:04 pm

    @japa21:

    Not sure that is correct. Specially since these are not universal bannings. Books banned in the past are readily available now.

    Yes, it’s really a doubleplusgood situation to ban various concepts and ideas (and the artifacts/objects which address/discuss them), because that shit will never take hold. Just like Citizens United, etc.

  58. 58.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    February 2, 2022 at 11:04 pm

    @Subsole:

    My old college friend from Missouri has the word for them: shitbirds. Pithy yet encompassing.

  59. 59.

    Redshift

    February 2, 2022 at 11:13 pm

    @Kay: Our Gov/Lt gov/AG in Virginia are such assholes. The AG has a spokeswoman who’s reminiscent of the foxbot spokespersons Betty talks about with DeSantis’ people.

    The AG fired the counsels for UVA (which everyone has heard about) and also George Mason University. The spokeswoman insisted it wasn’t political, insisted the two had been “controversial appointments” (they weren’t) and said the AG “wants the university counsel to return to giving legal advice based on law, and not the philosophy of a university” while providing no examples. (One is probably advising the university they could mandate vaccines, which is based on law, just not on wingnut doctrine.) Then for GMU, he appointed a replacement who’s the wife of a major GOP donor who works for the Koch brothers. Yeah, totally non-political.

  60. 60.

    Subsole

    February 2, 2022 at 11:23 pm

     

    @Scout211: Y’know what this kiiind of reminds me of, just a little?

    Me and my friends used to play D&D growing up. We all got to endure a couple of ridiculous moral panics in the 80s and 90s. Somehow, people got it into their heads that this role playing game was a Satanic programming manual.

    Like, grown-ass people genuinely thought these were some sort of devil-flavored MKULTRA trigger program for their kids. Preachers were preaching against it and there were stupid daytime made for tv specials about teens murdering their parents because ‘they thought the game was real’. It was like the inbred bastard clubfoot offspring of the death metal panics from back in the 70s.

    For all their hyperventilating, our habits changed not a whit. We snuck books to each other (or got grandma to take us to the comics store and just bought them direct! :) ).

    All because our folks were afraid we were gonna fail our roll vs Satan and go try and be necromancers, or some shit, I guess.

    Exasperating did not begin to cover it.

    I mean, we knew they were worried because they loved us. And that was kind of sweet. But on the other hand, it was REALLY insulting that they thought we couldn’t tell the difference between playing pretend and, y’know, actual physical reality.

    These folks – whether they realize it or not – are basically telling their children that they are too weak to handle the honest truth. Which is…um…probably not going to produce the attitude they are aiming for in young Mopsy and Flopsy.

  61. 61.

    Subsole

    February 2, 2022 at 11:25 pm

    @Steeplejack (phone): A fine descriptor.

    The committee would also have accepted the term ‘peckerwoods’.

  62. 62.

    SFAW

    February 2, 2022 at 11:38 pm

    @Subsole:

    the term ‘peckerwoods’.

    Can’t see that term without thinking of this

  63. 63.

    Leto

    February 2, 2022 at 11:38 pm

    @laura: You’re not wrong:

    US conservatives linked to rich donors wage campaign to ban books from schools

    Conservative groups across the US, often linked to deep-pocketed rightwing donors, are carrying out a campaign to ban books from school libraries, often focused on works that address race, LGBTQ issues or marginalized communities.

    *this took me way too long to find again

  64. 64.

    Juju

    February 3, 2022 at 12:28 am

    @Percysowner: When I did my teaching internship, my mentor teacher used “Maus” and “Number the Stars” when we covered WWII in social studies and linked that subject matter with those two books in her language arts class. Number the Stars” was the primary book and “Maus” was a bonus read. If you actually read either of those books, you will not forget them.  I don’t see how the sale of the graphic novel “Maus” could have a downside like you described.  It is an unforgettable novel.  It’s not a loss.

  65. 65.

    Sebastian

    February 3, 2022 at 12:50 am

    Every banned booked becomes mandatory for college admission, military service, federal contracts.

  66. 66.

    Sebastian

    February 3, 2022 at 12:56 am

    @Sebastian:

    College degree requires having read all banned books.

    Eligibility for federal office requires passing of test for banned books.

    Man, I could go on.

    Ambassadorships require passing test for banned books.

    One or more Presidential debates, or any election for Federal office, is solely about banned books.

    Holding any public office or function, say election worker, requires having read (and tested) on x# of banned books.

  67. 67.

    Sebastian

    February 3, 2022 at 12:58 am

    @Sebastian:

    Every fucking judge in this great country of ours must read all banned books.

  68. 68.

    Anne Laurie

    February 3, 2022 at 6:26 am

    @Subsole: Me and my friends used to play D&D growing up. We all got to endure a couple of ridiculous moral panics in the 80s and 90s. Somehow, people got it into their heads that this role playing game was a Satanic programming manual.

    And now I have acquaintances in their 20s reminiscing about how much fun it was when their dad — or grandad — taught them  to play D&D as a wholesome family activity!

    First time this happened, I was delighted to come home & share the news with my OG, hex-paper dungeon-master Spousal Unit.  He forgave me… eventually.

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