jun26

Roughly Half the United States Scares the Crap out of Me

Posted by Scalzi 10 months ago | Permalink | Comments (2)

Well, first the good news: The public sentiment for banning books in public school libraries is as low as it’s been in 20 years, according to the Pew Research Group. The bad news, as I see it: 46% of folks still think it’s a good idea, which is only a shade shy of half of the US adult population. As they kids say (or type, anyway): WTF? Seems like about 46% of the US adult population wants to keep their kids mentally penned like veal, or something.

Maybe I have a skewed perspective on these things; I was reading some very adult stuff when I was rather young (no, not that kind of adult stuff, the stuff without pictures), so by the time anyone would have thought to ban me from reading any particular bit, it was too late for me anyway. But I do remember fairly vividly that the best way to get a kid to read something was to tell him or her they couldn’t. And I would suspect that 46% of the US adult population forgets just how resourceful kids can be in getting what they want.

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Comments

  1. Saint Chuck's Buddy IconSaint Chuck

    Posted 10 months ago

    I agree, banning books will only make them want to read them more. People were trying to ban Harry Potter…and you can’t read a Bible in public schools. What kind of a country is this that refuses their children Harry Potter and Jesus?

  2. Bloodink and Featherpens' Buddy IconBloodink and Featherpens

    Posted 10 months ago

    Human beings are entitled to whatever the hell they want.
    This is why the world was created. I don’t find a God to be significant, and I don’t think that there was some big-ass explosion that made the universe what it is, today.
    It’s just there. There’s not much else to say. We were put into the world so we could be lovers, haters, dreamers, achievers, thinkers, writers, painters, drawers, givers, and, above all, people with feelings and lives to live.
    I know that anyone reading this has fallen in love with it, by the way.
    I write that kind of stuff, by the way.
    Oh, no, not NEARLY that graphic. It’s just…uhm…strange for a thirteen-year-old to be writing romance-fiction, or fiction involving two men—

    - Kaketsu.