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Graylight I mostly agree with your points, but you are going off of a knee-jerk, emotional reaction, rather than informed basis. PLEASE read about what happened. You might be surprised.
That's what happened because of the mandates. If not for the horrible legislation, the action would not occur. Therefore, responsibility lays with those curtailing freedom and learning.
What legislation? For a very long time, local taxes have supported local institutions, like libraries.
This was a local vote where 62% of voters rejected the millage.'Mostly' doesn't need apply to, as I'm referring to the cumulative opinion of the people on a subject. And those statements above are correct. A preponderance of citizens poll as wanting the things listed. This is not new and shocking information.
Yes, "mostly" applies, but you are really foolish if you think the average opinion holds in detail in every location.
The country is, on average, mostly Democratic-voting. How could we ever get Republicans in the Senate or as Governors? Because the AVERAGE doesn't hold locally (in fact, it's quite unlikely).
Think of your own body. The
average density of your body is
• *more* than the density of the air in your lungs, and
• *less* than the density ofbyour bones.
There are no inappropriate books in a library.
That's a naïve view. Appropriateness depends upon the reader.
That's why we have classified information, etc.
Some judgments of appropriateness are age-related. Should small children see the piled up dead of Nazi concentration camps? Autopsies? Torturing of people or animals? Killings/murders?
You are arguing about adults in good mental health. Like your misunderstanding of averages, you are applying your notions of adult freedoms to non-adults.
Books are books.
Trivially true, a tautology;
x = xfor all
x.
The meaning is imposed upon them by those looking at them with their own particular lens.
Not for all books.
You are thinking about literature, where people argue for what a piece "means" and cite quotations.
That isn't the case for a terrorist textbook about building bombs, most math & science & engineering texts...
And even some children's literature has a clear message which one can see from the title.
If you don't like a book, don't read it, don't let your child read it.
lol Yes. So how do you maintain that control until your child is a full-fledged adult?
But don't tell me what I, as an adult, educated US citizen may read.
See? It's as I said; you are applying your notions of what an adult, presumably in his or her right mind, to ALL readers.
There are no "little steps" here. This is censorship and it's been deemed wrong for 270 years. Until recently.
I agree about "little steps" but censorship HAS been a part of the US for a long time (via classified information & info banned for legitimate national security reasons).
And your 270 years is another narrow view. Censorship has been viewed with well-earned distrust for a bit longer than that.