MAGA laws against libraries under fire

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Several large book publishers, a tiny public library and others are suing Idaho officials over a law that forces libraries to keep some books in an adults-only section if community members believe they are “harmful to minors.”
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/20 ... estrictin/

Book banning efforts have soared recent years, according to the American Library Association. Public and school-based libraries have been flooded with complaints about allegedly inappropriate books, and the efforts often organized by conservative groups such as Moms for Liberty.

In some Republican-led states, lawmakers have responded by passing laws creating new punishments - including lawsuits, fines and even imprisonment - for libraries or individuals that distribute books deemed unsuitable. Some Democratic-led states including Washington and Illinois have responded by banning book bans.

Idaho’s law took effect last year, requiring schools and public libraries to move material deemed “harmful to minors” to an adults-only section or face lawsuits. If a community member complains that a book is harmful to minors, the library has 60 days to address it or children or their parents can sue for $250 in damages. The law relies on Idaho’s legal definition of obscene materials, which includes “any act of homosexuality.”

Two students also joined in the lawsuit, including a 17-year-old from Lewiston who noted that even though he is taking college-level courses through his school’s dual-credit program, he is restricted from accessing books that he feels he needs to foster his learning. An 18-year-old student from Meridian said in the lawsuit that even though she is now old enough to check out the restricted books from her school library, it’s unclear how she can gain that access.

In these red states, this is what you get when you put uneducated narcissists power.

I am amazed in 2025 you can be jailed for simply having a public library with published books that have deemed to be banned by right wing mothers??

I've wondered how far this will go myself. I've learned very quickly that we are in a new era in The United States, and I am a little more careful about saying certain things in public or writing things online. Some of it is my own paranoia but let's just say I don't want trouble or getting taken in for questioning.

As of late, I have been reading about dictatorships and how things tend to work in one. Such as the former east Germany, Chile under Pinochet, and a couple others. In a nutshell watch your back and follow the rules.

Seems to be an ever changing landscape from the last MAGA presidency. Musk/trump seem to be promoting various medieval punishments for anyone daring to advocate civil rights through the education system. Or so it appears.

@KingKat1: People can't follow the rules if they want change. They have to rise up and fight. Strength in numbers.

Why couldn't the GOP stick with its Bush-era platform? Why their fixation on populism?

Even conservatives can see through the GOP's old platform, so pivoting from neo-conservatism to a paleo-conservative and populist platform is an attempt to respond to their concerns without addressing the root issue that causes those concerns.

One theory is that hardcore republicans were looking for a messiah to overthrow the ascendent and populist Barak Obama. Obama was the first populist democratic leader since JFK and nothing the republicans were throwing at him was sticking. Resentment over Obama was deep and many couldn't handle seeing both him and his popular first lady who were riding the wave of the new social media era which was taking off exactly when Obama's star was on the rise.

Within republican ranks arose populist movements opposing both Obama's presidency and Obama's new legislation in his second term (like Obamacare) who were taking off, most noticeably the tea party movement. the tea party would be the incubator for the later MAGA movement. they bore a strong resemblance, seething resentment against the Obamas manifesting in racist tropes, outlandish conspiracy theories and claims of an elite who installed a muslim (Obama) ran pedophile rings and were working to destroy America and replace "real Americans" with illegals.

One concerned citizen was a man called Steve Bannon, a right wing editor of Breitbart, he has his finger on the pulse of the rising right wing popularist tea party, but where to find an antidote to Obama who could be as easily popular.
It's my theory he approached trump as a possible candidate to both shake things up in the republican party and absorb rising popularity of reactionary right wing ideas being plastered over the internet.

Neither the republican congress nor the democrats could have dreamed in 2015 trump would be a serious candidate. But Bannon got trump to follow a simple formula. Appeal to the average republican with slogans, they came up with Make America great again to "remedy" the fear over false claims on the internet of Obama's taxing people to pay for welfare, health care and illegals. Make outlandish claims and say stupid slogans that become internet memes. Nobody could predict that this was exactly what most republicans were looking for. A new popularist leader they could cheer for. they opted for popularism > social/economic responsibility. As Bannon predicted, trump absorbed the old tea Party slogans and conspiracies and re-branded them as MAGA, and the rest is history.

I think trump 1.0 (2016-2020) was a test to see how far he could go. trump 2.0 (2025-2029) is virtually a mandate to use the supreme court he stacked earlier to know pass bills that feed his ego and appeal to the now thoroughly brainwashed masses who continue to vote for him. trump has effectively used social media like Obama, but while Obama was a left wing popularist, trump is getting to live out his fantasies of being a right wing popularist.

In conclusion trump is a product (or consequence) of right wing reaction to 8 years of Obama,

The Dumbericans want to ban books they think will harm children, but they refuse to ban guns. How typical.

I was watching an old interview by Conan O'Brien interviewing Julia Louse Dreyfus (Elaine from Seinfeld). Dreyfus is actually highly intelligent as well as funny and I was looking forward to the interview. Half way through the discussion came to travel and Dreyfus mentioned places I myself have also visited including the Seychelles, Mauritius and Sri Lanka. What happened next kind of blew me away. Dreyfus, suddenly acted like an ignorant teenager and cracking jokes that she had no idea about the names of these islands in the Indian ocean or who the people were, just made some gross generalisation about the people and culture and laughed and the audience joined in. I cringed deeply and lost my respect for her. She is curious, has a brain, why was she pretending she didn't know anything about these places she visited?

But after reflecting I understood what she was doing. I've seen it before in Australian media celebrities. Its called feigned ignorance. Firstly its not popular to be too intellectual in front of an audience, especially when it comes to culture, history or geography, people learn to "dumb down" to seem relatable to others who don't care about these subjects. the penny dropped. Popular people don't want to sound like "know it alls". the education system is only valuable to get a job. Not to be a geek. Because nobody likes a geek or pointdexter (unless you are rich like Elon Musk).

I think in the west, education is only really valued as a means to an end. "High culture" or literature is something else but its pursued as a labour of love in your own time and discussed over a glass of wine with like minded friends (not in front of a camera). Knowledge and critical thinking isn't actually cool.

So in a roundabout way I think the anti-intellectualism promoted by trump/Musk against American education is striking a chord because the common folk don't want to think too deep. they don't have to....imporant thing is, they don't want to. So restricting library collections and book burning doesn't phase a lot of people.