Ron DeSantis's book ban mania targets Jodi Picoult -- and she hits back

[Nevilledog]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/10/ron-desantis-book-bans-martin-county-jodi-picoult/

No paywall
https://archive.is/4kipr

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants you to know he’d never dream of engaging in mass censorship. He held a recent event challenging criticism of his classroom book restrictions as a “hoax,” releasing a video suggesting only “porn” and “hate” are targeted for removal.

There’s a big problem with DeSantis’s claims: The people deciding which books to remove from classrooms and school libraries didn’t get the memo. In many cases, the notion that banned books meet the highly objectionable criteria he detailed is an enormous stretch.

This week, Florida’s Martin County released a list of dozens of books targeted for removal from school libraries, as officials struggle to interpret a bill DeSantis signed in the name of “transparency” in school materials. The episode suggests his decrees are increasingly encouraging local officials to adopt censoring decisions with disturbingly vague rationales and absurdly sweeping scope.

Numerous titles by well-known authors such as Jodi Picoult, Toni Morrison and James Patterson have been pulled from library shelves. The removal list includes Picoult’s novel “The Storyteller” about the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor who meets an elderly former SS officer. It contains some violent scenes told in flashbacks from World War II and an assisted suicide.

*snip*

[mercuryblues]

1. As soon as I read she was on the "List"

I knew exactly what book it was. I guess high school kids really don't need to learn about the atrocities of the Nazi regime. Or even think about such horrendous acts.

The way when Ron DeNazi starts his camps, they will be primed to think gas chambers are for the greater good.

[Ilsa]

21. Shit, my mother made me go see a movie about

a Holocaust experience and survivor when I was a teenager. My parents wanted us to know about the horrors of hate, war, nazis, etc.

[Faux pas]

2. I

think that blue states should ban desatan's book. Eff his free speech.

[halfulglas]

3. As an old lady I'm really pissed with politicians gaining power

By catering to parents who don't want their darlings exposed to facts or ideas that may make them uncomfortable or raise questions. Education is supposed to make one uncomfortable. They should want their kids to question while the parents are around to discuss these in the context of their values rather than when they are adults and wonder why they were allowed such a limited view of reality growing up.

[LoisB]

7. You are making too much sense. I don't understand it either. How do they expect their kids to

function in the real world if they have only been "educated" in a fantasyland that doesn't exist.

[Xoan]

9. Their kids won't be asking any hard questions.

Cause stupid people always get the answer wrong.

[llmart]

19. I agree.

I've known a couple of families that home school their kids and live out in a somewhat rural area. I've seen how the mothers interact with their kids and how the older kids, seem so out of touch with the real world. I often wonder how those kids are going to handle it when they're old enough to actually be out in the real world and on their own?

I never sugar coated anything for my kids but was always aware of what was age-appropriate to tell them.

[halfulglas]

30. Yeah, home schooling can be such a mixed bag.

It takes parents, especially moms, really working with the kids to make it education, instead of just an alternative to public school. I've known it to work especially if the kids are also willing, but also have friends outside the family. But it works best if the parent or parents are willing to expand their own horizons during the teaching, because if it's different than what you were taught when growing up doesn't mean it shouldn't be taught. I know a family being homeschooled in which all the kids are ahead of their grade, but they also work in art classes and field trips. The boys play football in the community youth programs. The kids are great kids. In this case it was undertaken because one of the kids was so far ahead of her class, but the teacher was not very accommodating, regular public school was just not working out.

My biggest concern with homeschooling parents is the ones who undertake it to control all the information that the kids are exposed to, which means the ones who do it mainly for religious reasons, not distance from the school.

[drmeow]

35. It is about control

To these people, their children are objects they own which they have the right to control - fully control. Father is top, he sets the rules, mother is a distance second, and children are to be seen, not heard. The books don't make kids uncomfortable. The books make parents angry and scared. Angry because it violates their control and scared because they know that control skates on mighty thin ice (that kind of control always does as it is illegitimate). They won't admit the fear, they might admit the anger but not the real reason for the anger, except that the control is "God given" so the books go against God.

[republianmushroom]

4. Ron DeSantis lies, and lies a lot.

[AncientOfDays]

5. Strike back

Flood the Red states with the names and descriptions of these books and where to obtain them.

One right-winger I talked to claimed a book is not "banned" if it's available somewhere. Well, that requires the possible audience to know about the book and how to obtain it.

[Takket]

6. here's the criteria they use to ban books......

desantis thinks it is "woke". it portrays any value/viewpoint other than white christian nationalism.

The ALCU should sue on 1A violations....... but that goes for just about every law passed in FL these days

[MayReasonRule]

22. Dead on point y'all

[Magoo48]

8. I haven't seen any surveys, do Floridians really like this little shit?

[Initech]

11. No, he's very unpopular, and his policies aren't polling well.

Fuck him and fuck Fox News. This is basically a test market to see how far they can go in terms of installing a neo-fascist government within the guidelines of the Constitution.

[babylonsister]

14. Funny, because I think he's

extremely popular judging from FB comments I've read.

[Initech]

16. Pretty sure Facebook polls don't equal actual votes.

[babylonsister]

33. That's all I've got since

I don't hang out with 'em.

[Initech]

34. Yeah I'm very glad that I don't do Facebook right now.

[Hekate]

17. I don't trust FB and their algorhithms, though

[maxsolomon]

12. They Re-elected him last year.

the majority of Flordans probably don't, but not enough to have done anything about it - like vote for a Centrist Dem.

[Hekate]

18. How's his New Jim Crow coming along? I worry about that.

[maxsolomon]

23. Well, he's got a solid GQP legislature

so, pretty well?

I'm in the opposite corner of the US so I don't follow Florduh that closely.

[Hekate]

32. Not so well for everybody who's not a white straight male. If you can stop a lot of people from...

…voting in the first place, your minority racist/sexist/homophobic/fascist viewpoint can carry a lot of weight. Just sayin’ there’s more going on in Florida than just DeSactimonious’ insane followers.

For one thing, a law that finally allowed ex-felons to vote was promptly gutted, and people are frankly afraid to try to vote. Some have been arrested for trying.

Article is from 10-2020, but shows a small slice of what people have to deal with:

https://www.propublica.org/article/in-florida-the-gutting-of-a-landmark-law-leaves-few-felons-likely-to-vote

[carpetbagger]

25. No, but...

Authoritarian white guys do well in Florida after hurricanes. Crist hit perennial-candidate status and was no longer viable. Floridians are racist AF, and the boomers who retire there are more conservative and white than boomers in general.

[Initech]

10. Desantis is a fucking mad man. He needs to be locked away in prison.

Or at the very least a maximum security mental institution. But really fuck that guy and all of his enablers.

[slightlv]

13. This madman is so much more dangerous than

Rump could ever have dreamed of being. No matter what it takes, we can't let him anywhere near the presidency. If we do, the country we know is gone for good. We will become Russia 2.0. and Putin will seem the milder of the two tyrants. I'm deadly serious... DeSantis is the real deal of evil. The only thing we have on our side is he is such an uncharismatic chump but to these idiotic repuglican voters the more evil he spouts the more they'll probably trip over themselves to worship him. I've just never seen a people more devoted to the depths of depravity. My mind can't grasp their thought processes, except to chalk it up to a total mental collapse in need of involuntary commitment.

[Botany]

15. DeSantis went after this wonderful book, "Big Mooncake for Little Star." So I bought a copy for ...

... grand daughter. It is a wonderful book and outside of the 2 main characters being Asian
(mother and daughter) I can't see what any normal person would have a problem with it.

[maxsolomon]

24. Does it make White People have emotions?

That's against the law now.

[robbob]

27. Unbelievable!

The cover looked so innocuous that I had to do a search. A fanciful tale in celebration of the Chinese moon festival it pictures the waxing and waning of the moon as a moon cake made by a mother figure (Big Star) whose infant daughter (Little Star) can’t resist nibbling away at, which come to resembles the moon’s phases. That’s it. That’s the story.

Apparently some genius thought the book was teaching “critical race theory”. I guess because it has non-white characters in it?

[Botany]

31. My granddaughter loves the book and is using it to ...

....learn to read. And she likes to snuggle too.

[Ford_Prefect]

20. It seems to me he is accusing the authors of the books of saying things which are free speech.

Not to mention that his definitions hardly constitute legal terms under which suit could be brought against anyone who didn't adhere to his proclamations.

IMO this is that bridge too far he's been headed across.

[keithbvadu2]

26. DeSantis' Nazis are uncomfortable that their history is exposed.

DeSantis' Nazis are uncomfortable that their history is exposed.

[Warpy]

28. That's the problem with censorship

The bluenoses, most of whom have only read the short review of a book to ascertain its content, are the first ones to jump up to become the local censors.

Do I want porn in schools? Nah, the kiddies can get it from Dad's stash or the internet, no problem. However, if it's the printed word, let them have it. Most of them will be like me, quickly bored with the formulaic and perfunctory writing style. Those interested in porn will find Dad's stash or stuff on the net. Those uninterested will just move on.

Removing books because bluenosed adults find them tough to read never works out well. The kids will save up and get them online or find them in the bookshelf of some other kid's parents. Good books will continue to be read and making them forbidden fruit only increases their popularity.

Young adult fiction and good literature are both often difficult to read. Not every kid grows up on the set of "Leave it to Beaver," I sure as hell didn't. Reading tough stuff in fiction lets kids know they're not alone, and trust me, that is a very big deal to a kid. It removes a lot of the shame they feel over not having perfect little lives.

Every vicious, grandstanding asshole the world has seen has, at one time or another, hidden behind the mask of protecting the young.

I'm just waiting to see where this ends, where normal people rebel and kick these jerks back to the cesspit churches that spat them out into the world. After all, Bambi's mother got killed, the Charlotee's Web spider died. What's left? Illiteracy.

[Cha]

29. TY & Jodi Picoult!

[sheshe2]

36. Don't mess with Jodi Picoult.