i read banned books.
It’s exhausting keeping up with the red-hatters.
Always needing to be on the lookout for what outlandishness New Republicanism has up its kevlar-coated, army-surplus sleeve is like banging your head into a Very Red brick wall. It’s not easy trying to guess where and when the school board and city council yellers will next set sail on their seas of absurdity and to which tiny island they will inevitably land — and, where they will invariably commence broadcasting, but not with 5G, that the moon has nothing to do with the tides.
i know. It’s a major ugh-fest in the USofA, and most of us are ugh-ed out.
If you’re reading this, you’re on the same wave-length, mooning the other side while trying your best not to ass-out as much as them. Which means you’re holding on tightly as the most recent surge of 45quakes rock the foundation of the First Amendment (which contrary to their belief does not mean it won and all following amendments lose importance the higher their number gets) as they resort to tactics, tried and false, like the banning of books. Again.
(BTW: i see you 13th, 15th, and 19th.)
So, welcome to today’s episode of, As The Ridiculous World Turns, brought to you by White Washing: proven to get out history’s toughest stains. Now to be fair, book banning doesn’t always come from the conservative side of the spectrum. Books like Grapes of Wrath, To Kill a Mockingbird and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn seem to fall under the hazy gaze of many flavors of “well-meaning” illiterates. But more often than not, the Stop The Reading Award goes to conservative Karen and Ken dolls all across the damn nation.
What have they done now? Well, other than defining justice as not wearing a mask or getting a vaccine, or proving their liberty with family photos wherein everyone, even the toddler, is holding an AR-15, or equating freedom of speech with banning books, they are doing what every herder hopes for — posing for photographs that will Getty™️ them when they least expect it: in readily available books of the future.
It’s the same old routine. Out there in the open country, the wrangler lulls their herd into a false sense of security, stops splinter groups in their tracks, and then makes the flock feel special through racism, anti-semitism, misogyny and lgbtq-phobia, to name a few. It, unfortunately, is not rocket science.
Book banning has been around a long time. And yet, we haven’t figured out how to convince the masses that critical thinking is far more advantageous than subscribing to a fear-based ideology that creates inordinate power for a few: generally a handful of dudes of a certain demographic. It’s almost as though, every time a book closes a window to The Same Ol’ Shit opens.
Each time some new-fangled, hate-mongering, god-claiming group emerges that wants to save our children by banning books, or, worse, burning them, we are in for a helluva few years. Hold onto your hats, or, actually … please don’t. Hold onto your books: those who do have always been on the right side of history.
Alas, for now it seems as though we are indeed condemned to repeat it.
i’d write a book about all this, but you and i both know— it’s already been banned.
PS: Seriously though, what the hell is under those red hats? If you’ve seen Halloween III, you feel me. What was it called, again? Season of the Witch? Or was it Mitch?
Currently Reading:
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez
