It’s National Library Week, so I’ve been thinking a lot about knowledge and the idea that knowledge should be readily available – for all. An informed populace is crucial to the health of the nation and a bulwark of democracy. The ability to think, to reason, to avoid being fooled, all these notions are tied to reading and easy access to the wisdom of the ages.
And this is exactly why libraries – and their contents – are under siege these days.
HuffPost’s Jennifer Bendery recently told readers:
“Librarians are living in constant fear. They have become the targets
of Republican politicians and far-right groups like Moms for Liberty
Liberty that are hellbent on burning books about LGBTQ+ people,
people of color and racism. Some librarians are quitting their jobs
because of constant harassment; others are getting fired for
refusing to clear shelves of books that conservatives don’t like.”
If that’s not bad enough – and it is – Bendery informs us there’s another evil twist in the tale: “The GOP’s censorship campaign has shifted from book bans to legislation threatening librarians with jail time.” Idaho’s tried several times to enact such legislation; this February, West Virginia passed a bill “making librarians criminally liable if a minor comes across content that some might consider obscene.” Idaho, Iowa, Alabama, and Georgia are also considering various means of keeping books they don’t like off the shelves...and they’re not alone.
The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom shared some frightening statistics: “The number of titles targeted for censorship at public libraries increased by 92% over the previous year, accounting for about 46% of all book challenges in 2023; school libraries saw an 11% increase over 2022 numbers.”
Given these ever-more-frequent, ever-more-strident attacks, what can a concerned reader do to stem the tide of book-banning?
PEN America, an organization whose mission “is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible,” offers a number of ways to make one’s voice heard. Whether you’re a student, a parent, an author, or a librarian, PEN America provides advice, assistance, and resources to keep you informed and ready to push back.
The need to support the nation’s libraries is more urgent than ever. In Bendery’s HuffPost piece, American Library Association President Emily Drabinski draws a chilling conclusion: “What gets lost in conversations about book banning is that it’s really about eliminating the institution of the library, period. It’s not about the books. Well, it is about the books, but the books are the way in to gut one of the last public institutions that serves everyone.”
“You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture,” Ray Bradbury once said. “Just get people to stop reading them.”
Bradbury was one of the 20th century’s finest fabulists, the author of The Martian Chronicles, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and the worldwide blockbuster Fahrenheit 451. Published in 1952, the novel Fahrenheit 451 is set in a future where books are illegal and firemen don’t put out fires – they start them. Printed matter is what they burn.
Bradbury was writing in the tense, paranoid early years of the McCarthy era. But he might as well have penned those words last Thursday.
Support your local library. Speak up for the voices the hate-mongers would shut down. Before – as history’s proven again and again – they try to shut down yours.
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Students fight a book ban by giving away free banned bookswww.youtube.com
The New York Public Library has also weighed in on the matter, you can find its suggestions here.
Firearms enthusiasts are leaving Youtube in search of greener pastures
Following Youtube's recent restrictions, many content creators are moving away from the platform.
A little over a month ago, Youtube changed its policies regarding videos that include firearms.
While Youtubers can still give shooting demonstrations or display their weapons, users are no longer permitted to post videos intended to sell firearms to prospective buyers. Youtube has also put a ban on all videos "providing instructions on manufacturing a firearm, ammunition, high capacity magazine, homemade silencers/suppressors, or certain firearms accessories as those listed above." On the one hand, this move prevents illegal gun sales from taking place on Youtube's site, certainly making their lawyers happy. On the other, it's the absolute least they could do in the wake of the Parkland School Shooting.
If one were to assume that Youtube's core demographic is comprised of sane, relatively rational folks, then the logic follows that this move should have been a slam dunk, both from a legal and public relations perspective. Still, some of the more ardent gun enthusiasts are taking their content elsewhere in order to protest Youtube's decision. As if a group of people being upset that Youtube–a site famous for cat videos and Charlie Bit My Finger–won't broker their firearms deals isn't surreal enough, the first place they turned following the ban was Pornhub.
Yes, that Pornhub.
Unlike Youtube, Pornhub's restrictions for what goes up on its site are, um, pretty lax, and firearm aficionados are flocking. While Youtube certainly has more daily active users, Pornhub is still one of the most popular sites in the world, and would probably be a good alternative save for one simple fact; as its name implies, Pornhub specializes in a very specific type of video. For example, if you type the word 'gun' into the Pornhub search engine, the first video that comes up is of two men in tactical gear titled 'Glock 19 vs Hudson H9,' the second video is called 'Crazy girl ***** her ***** with a gun.' . The sociological implications of so literally blending sex and violence aside, the second video, as well as the rest of the page, certainly makes it difficult for content creators to gain mainstream appeal using the adult entertainment site.
Firearms information courtesy of Pornhub
Possibly with Pornhub's limitations in mind, the founders of Full30.com recently created an all new platform for firearms enthusiasts to share the content that they love. The site is broken up into three sections: video, blog, and forum. The video section contains the same types of videos that Youtube recently banned, namely men, mostly middle-aged and white, loudly explaining how their weapons work. Most of the videos are posted by accounts with names like God, Family, and Guns or Big Shooterist, and unlike Youtube–where videos can get millions of views in a matter of hours–posts on Full30 only tend to get around 500-1000 views a piece. The videos range from weapons tutorials and roundups, to Internet philosophers waxing poetic on their interpretations of the second amendment. While the comments sections are lacking in volume, they aren't lacking in enthusiasm or vitriol.
You'd be hard pressed to find a video on Full30 in which the comment section doesn't feature some iteration of "dumbass liberals are scared of guns."
Exuding a similar spirit, the Full30 blog is a section of the site dedicated to the discussion of gun policies that looks like it could have its own tab on Breitbart. On top of this, every article seems to be written by someone named Matt, and it's pretty safe to assume he's the only person churning out content for this portion of the site. Aside from various articles offering a conservative stance on gun control, the section also features thinly-veiled native advertisements for AR-15s and other assault rifles. Regardless of one's stance on gun control, seeing an ad for an AR-15 next to an article about the Parkland School Shooting can feel a little jarring.
Still, the most active part of Full30 is its forum, a sprawling list of comments where pictures of assault rifles captioned "A socialist judge killed more children than my AR15s" without any context compete with posts about the death of democracy.
Outliers aside, the forum reads a bit like a carefully curated Facebook wall. Specific questions about guns are answered swiftly and carefully, while social issues discussed there are usually approached with an attempt at nuance in lieu of expertise. It's worth noting however, that the threads on Full30's forum do fall into a similar trap that Facebook and Twitter feeds do; namely, they're echo chambers, resonating a relatively universal worldview and not putting much of a premium on diversity of thought.
Screenshot of Full30's Forum
Many of the posts in the forum also call for the creation of safe spaces for conservatives and gun lovers, and Full30 might be giving us a glimpse into what a conservative safe space might actually look like. While questioning American democracy may not seem like a proportionate response to Youtube telling a few content creators to stop selling weapons on their (Youtube's) platform, it's important to remember how insular and partisan online communities can be.
When a tight-knit group, online or otherwise, perceives a threat to their way of life, they tend to retreat inward.
As the world changes and gun policy gets (somewhat) stricter, it's a virtual guarantee that more sites like this will start popping up. Full30 is still pretty small, but inasmuch as a community's hobbies and entertainment are indicative of its worldview, the site is an interesting glimpse into the collective psyche of the American gun lobby's most diehard supporters.