Utah outlaws books by Judy Blume and Sarah J Maas in first statewide ban | State has ordered 13 books by seven authors, six of them women, to be removed from every public school classroom and library

Free speech in USA is a joke, it's both poorly protected and poorly regulated at the same time. Worst of both worlds!

So. I have this... Stance. Humanity has at no point evolved past tribalism. We all live in tribes. The tribe with the most power waxes poetic about the importance of free speech, but the truth is, they only allow as much free speech as allows their tribe to maintain their position. All the rest of our tribes can squabble over whatever remaining scraps of power are left after the controlling tribe is full up.
- That's certainly true for some people.
  But I don't see the Democrats out there banning books.

Implementation guidelines say that banned materials must be “legally disposed of” and “may not be sold or distributed”.

So, a book burning. Got it.

Sounds like those author's free speech is being tread on.
- For Republicans it only counts when it's their own free speech. After all, their psychology is "I get to tell you what to do but you don't get to tell me what to do."
What about abandoning them in a heavy traffic area?
- The book burners?
They love the original Nazi book burning. They destroyed decades of research into human sexuality, homosexuality, and transgenderism.

WHAT.THE.FUCK.

Motherfuckin' can't read 'Superfudge' in Utah anymore? This is truly the darkest timeline.

Really? I assumed it would be Are You There God it's Me Margaret. What could they possibly find offensive about Superfudge?
- What could they be against a book that mentions God in the title?
It's listed in the article. It's "Forever" by Judy Blume. Not sure that I'm familiar with it.

"so, any progress on the school shooting problem?"

"nah, we needed to fix the superfudge problem. now we're going to work on the pokemon problem. it doesn't glorify god!"

Pokemon don't evolve! They become more intelligently designed!

Why can't we ever get rid of fascists? Every generation they try the same crap and get away with it.

Because the same people taking away the rights are the ones saying that we can't retaliate for taking away our rights.
I suspect it’s just a personality type. Maybe we could use eugenics to get rid of this undesirable trait. Oh wait. Dammit
Why can't we ever get rid of fascists?
I believe this is where the second amendment comes in.
- 100%
Because they call themselves "conservatives" and insist they are legitimate, normal people with legitimate, normal viewpoints. This fools the normal people into a false sense of safety.
It’s the paradox of tolerance.
Leftists want to be tolerant of different beliefs and fascists use that against them.
We need to stop tolerating the intolerable.

Fake news!

You’re allowed to read them, it just has to be inside a dark bag with only magical stones for illumination.

with only magical stones for illumination.
Well, yeah. So they can identify and burn the witches.
- That’s how Joseph Smith “translated” the Book of Mormon.
Prescription reading hat

My Catholic junior high school library is where I discovered Judy Blume. I probably read every single book of hers that they had, and there were a lot!

So…calm down, Utah. It’s okay.

Shithole 3rd world country

It'd be funny if people who owned properties beside the schools just set up one of those take one leave one community street libraries filled with all the banned boom

They'd just ban those for operating without a license.
- It's not a library, we just have extra books! We can't give away books now!?
- What license? They wouldn’t be a business.

First they came for the books, and I did not speak out, because I am an illiterate Republican.

Wow, as a "privileged white cis man", I loved JB's books. Fuck any dumbasses against JB.

Conservatives are the ultimate fragile snowflakes. Always were, always will be.

FFS Utah, your lucky you have pretty rocks, but you got to knock this shit off.

Can we nuke the Moron theocracy yet or is that ffowned apon?

In a few years, all the toxic chemicals at the bottom of the great salt lake will take care of that after it dries up.
- I'm pretty sure these weirdo losers have already succumbed to the toxic chemicals.
- Yeah but then theyll roll back the Arizona and destroy any potential Idaho has, I want shadows not refugees.
Can you swoop into SLC and pick me up before the drop? I don’t want to go down with these disgusting fascist pig Mormons.

That list is 13 books by 7 authors.

Not good, but the summary is wrong.

Edit: the article needs some proof reading

Yeah. An editor checking the headline would help.
They've updated the subhead, and I've updated my post to match the current headline.

Fucking imbeciles.

Yes. Banning fairy porn will fix all of society's ills.

Its not even very spicy fairy porn, if I am remembering right. Been a few years since I read the series.
- My memory is lots of "wells" that go deeper and bonds that are stronger and orgasms that are brighter than she previously thought possible every single time and SOOO much my mate stuff. I find sex scenes boring so I skim through them. Absolutely nothing that was in anyway kinky though beyond maybe being pinned to the wall lol

While I hate this, I'm left wondering why we even mention the authors gender.

Is it to indicate that lawmakers go against women's freedoms?

Yes. A lot of book bans have been focused on books written by women and minorities.
- I didn't know that, my god it's so stupid.

Outlaw Utah. Call it a day.

Progressive districts need to get the bible and book of mormon banned

Sigh. Way to guarantee all the young adults are going to read the Twilight of shitty vanilla fairy melodramas.

Reading is something for everyone and anyone to enjoy. while a piece of art could have technical flaws and shortcomings, if someone enjoys it GREAT. We all like liking things. Don't shame them for liking something just because it makes you feel more well read.
- Its also OK to point out when a piece of literature is badly written and, subjectively, not very good. The person you responded to was shitting on the work, you inferred the shame on the reader. One should not feel that a criticism of a work (however well founded the criticism is) is an attack or attempt to shame someone just because they happen to like it.
  There are plenty of works that are popular but written like shit. Its fine to like them, and its fine to point out how the writing style is bad. As another example, Ready player one is somehow a popular story even though the writing is terrible. I would never shame someone for reading it, but I'm also not going to pretend like its a good book or not full of lazy references to popular media properties.
- Maas is over-saturated and sucking the oxygen out of the room for people writing better things in the same genre. l will* die on that molehill. Any day of the week. Twice on Saturdays.
  And as a side note, I like trashy novels? But its disingenuous to throw Court of Mist and Fury up against Anna Karenina and say these are equal works. Like whatever you like—it's fun to read self indulgent stuff, but also remember it is good to challenge yourself a bit from time to time.
Hey, I like that fairy melodrama.
- I also like terrible things. It doesn't make them less bad.

Advocates of open debate and free speech everyone!

/s in case anyone didn't catch the sarcasm.

Gd inbreds.

Media Bias Fact Check | bot support

I'm not for banning books by any measure. I also don't have kids, so I don't really have a dog in this fight.

However, I've read all the Court of Thorns and Roses series and it does contain some pretty explicit sexual scenes and themes. I probably wouldn't want a child reading them until they were old enough to understand the use of sex in stories like this, and how you can tell the difference between healthy and unhealthy relationships. The books in my opinion are very fun reads, but I feel that they were written primarily for an adult audience.

No idea when a kid should start reading ACOTAR, as again I don't have kids. I'm not the right person to ask, but I'd argue that readers should be at least high school age for that series.

I haven't read any of the other books on that list, so I can't speak to those. It's very evident that whoever assembled that list isn't well read, because there's oodles more books with much worse content than ACOTAR that aren't banned. Off the top from books I read back in high school: American Psycho, Clockwork Orange, Blood Meridian, the list goes on...

I also don’t have kids, so I don’t really have a dog in this fight.
not really how it works.
you may never be going to school again, but it is still in your best interest to have good schools funded. they generate engineers that will invent new things you use and doctors who will one day take care of your heart attack.
and it is in your best interest not to be surrounded by idiots, to which reading books is part of the process.
I probably wouldn’t want a child reading them until they were old enough
Aren't that the republicans who spout nonsense like "i ain't co-parenting with the government"?
So maybe leave what books to read and when up to specific schools/parents/kids.
- I mean. That's what I was saying? I'm not in favor of book bans, I'm in favor of parents being aware of the content their kids are consuming. If you as a parent want your kids to read ACOTAR, then that's your call. I'm not in favor of book bans or the government telling you what you can or can't read. Not sure where all this hostility is coming from.
Kids really start with relationships in middle school and by high school they are sexually active. There's nothing in ACOTAR that would surprise an American high school kid.
- I did say that high school is where I could see this book being read. It may even be beneficial to read them in order to learn about abusive relationships.
I also don’t have kids, so I don’t really have a dog in this fight.
"I don't mind living in a dystopian shithole" vibes
- Bit of a leap there, but hey, if you've got kids and you want them to read those books then I don't think anyone should be able to stop you. Your kid, your choice.
  My only point is that I'd want to make sure my kid, if I had one, was able to understand the themes in the book before reading.
  I was also making a point about other books with more violent or pornographic content not being on this reactionary banned book list, but everyone seems to have overlooked that. Oh well.
Edit: misread your initial point. Sorry! I think the main thing is talking to kids, giving them context and content warnings, knowing their maturity level and and letting them in most cases lead the way about what they’re okay with reading within reason, while answering their questions about sex, violence, relationships, etc. Kids tend to put back books they’re not ready for.
So, it's not like these are part of any curriculum. No one is making, suggesting, recommending, or encouraging kids to read these books. So the ban is just simply censorship. (Except the list of banned books is sort of a recommendation in its own way.)
No matter what they say, this isn't about kids in any way. It's not about protecting them from things they aren't mature enough for. It's not restricting them to a certain grade level. It's outright censorship and it's fucking bullshit.