In Message-ID:<
kccd5d1i6lbs2tp9o...@4ax.com>,
Arthur T. <art...@munged.invalid> wrote:
>I'm proud it's banned book week.
Since I inadvertently started this brouhaha, I figured I ought
to give my reactions. I'll be replying to everything posted before
now, mostly not quoting and not noting who said what.
It still appears to me that BBW does work to publicize an
ongoing problem. But it seems to do nothing more. I don't see any
interventions on its site. As such, I'm less proud, but I'll stand
by my filk.
Some of the programs libraries build around BBW are better than
what BBW itself does. For instance, it was at one of those where I
first heard about the song Strange Fruit.
Some challenges are about whether a book is appropriate for the
grade level. But we don't get to see whether the book was merely in
the school library or if it was an assigned or suggested book for a
class. A book not appropriate for a 4th-grader might still be
appropriate for a K-6 (or especially an elhi) school library.
An organization which does seem to get its hands dirty is FIRE,
which I found out about from a genre-appropriate video you might
like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iAOtkpFGhc
The above video has a Neil Gaiman statement which I took into my
commonplace book:
There are people you do not want to upset in the world: the
politically disenfranchised who feel that they have nothing to lose,
those who feel that the time has come for revolution. Then out on the
edges, beyond any of those, are science fiction and fantasy fans
whose favorite show has been canceled in an untimely way.
And onto Citizens United....
For quite a while I was upset with the decision. I also felt
that it institutionalized "one dollar - one vote".
It took quite some time plus some conversations with others to
change my mind. I now agree that a ruling against CU would have been
a blow to the 1st amendment. This also, then, calls into question a
number of other views I had about money in elections.
Basically, I don't like what the CU decision led to. But I now
think that I'd like even less what ruling against CU would have
meant. I'm annoyed with myself for having let consequences so bias
me on a free speech / censorship issue.