In case you missed it, last week was “Banned Books Week.” I actually saw some posts about it on social media, along with a few articles, but nobody ever mentioned the actual dates. I didn’t even realize that last week was the fateful occasion until I heard a podcaster mention it this week.
The idea behind “Banned Books Week” is that there are nefarious forces at work trying to keep people — especially impressionable young kids — from reading certain content. Naturally, these days, the left has daggers for parents who dare suggest that their kids shouldn’t have access to gender and race propaganda in school libraries.
“PEN America says 63% of all book bans tracked in their report took place in eight states with laws that directly influence book bans or have had a chilling effect on educators,” CNN reports. “Those states are Florida, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Oklahoma and West Virginia.”
It’s “chilling” because PEN America and left-wing librarians don’t like the fact that kids can’t access smut and propaganda for free. Anyone can access any books from the “banned books” list with just a few clicks of a mouse. As Albert Mohler reminded his listeners, “…here’s the little inconvenient fact if you want to actually make the claim that these books are banned. You can get next-day delivery on most of them from Amazon.”
The thing is that it’s not just about kids not being able to get their hands on these books without paying for them. After all, I’ve never heard anyone say, “I can’t make ends meet, so I’m worried that I can’t buy my kids books that tell them they can change genders.” No, leftists get upset that kids can’t see these books outside the purview of parents.
Flashback: Check Out the Classic Books School Librarians Want to Remove From Reading Lists
What’s downright laughable about the “banned books” narrative is that leftists always want to throw “To Kill a Mockingbird” in the mix — as if “The Hate U Give” and “Genderqueer” can hold Harper Lee’s water. But what’s truly funny is that the left is who tried to cancel “To Kill a Mockingbird” in the past.
Last year, School Library Journal and the National Council of Teachers of English asked school librarians what books should come off school reading lists. Those books included “Little House on the Prairie,” the works of Shakespeare, and — you guessed it — “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Leftists want you to think that conservatives are trying to “ban books” and other content, but remember, it’s the left that doesn’t want your kids reading “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.” The left doesn’t want you watching “Song of the South” and pushes for content warnings on things that run afoul of leftist sensibilities. It’s leftists who want to rewrite or censor authors like Roald Dahl, Ian Fleming, and Margaret Mitchell.
And it’s not just the kids who fall victim to the leftist gatekeepers. The left doesn’t want you to see content that doesn’t comport with its radical narrative, which is why the sentinels of free speech clamp down on some of the articles here at PJ Media.
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