It is Starting in Idaho Believe It or Not!
“Over a week ago [August 2022] the Legislature cut more than $3.8 million from the tiny $11 million budget Gov. Brad Little had proposed for the state’s smallest agency, the Idaho Commission for Libraries. Why? The library agency was being punished because a private library-lobby group had opposed an anti-education, anti-library bill passed by the House earlier this year.” 1
“Once Republicans started to falsely accuse educators and librarians of “grooming” children for sexual abuse, it was just a matter of time before the talk of imprisoning them began. Sure enough, in a clip collected by Tennessee Holler, a recently-elected district attorney in Hamilton County, Tennessee, did just that during a meet-and-greet between her, the pro-censorship group Moms for Liberty (whose name would do George Orwell proud) and the local sheriff. In the video, recorded in May, you can hear an anti-liberty “Mom” ask, “Do you feel like there should be some kind of prosecution for these librarians?”” 2
📚WATCH: “Do you feel like there should be some kind of prosecution for these librarians?”
— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) August 10, 2022
In May, Coty Wamp made it clear prosecuting librarians is on the table, and said she brought Moms for Liberty to meet the sheriff.
She was just elected Hamilton County DA. @NoogaHoller pic.twitter.com/HBjE907axP
“Until very recently, “book bans” seemed like a term out of the past, or a phenomenon that erupted sporadically in a small school or library district in the most conservative areas of the country. But over the last several years, parents’ groups aggrieved by the left’s alleged influence in K-12 education have been working tirelessly to bring them back. All kinds of books have been exiled from library shelves or school curricula in the latest book-ban frenzy, although there’s no question that books about slavery, racism and the civil rights movement, along with books about growing up LGBTQ and that community’s struggle for equality, are center stage.” 3
“For those unaware of the historical precedents, book burnings have a long and dark history tied to censorship and oppressive regimes, most famously the one in Nazi Germany led by Adolf Hitler. In 1933, Nazis burned thousands of books deemed “un-German,” including the works of Jewish authors like Albert Einstein and those of “corrupting foreign influences” like Ernest Hemingway.” 4
- Idaho State Journal, Dave Finkelnburg, April 1, 2022 – Now Republicans are defunding libraries
- Salon.com, Amanda Marcotte, August 11, 2022 – Republican war on books: They don’t just want to control your body — next up, your mind – Gutting public schools, targeting booksellers, shutting down libraries: Every censorship tactic is on the table
- Salon.com, Jon Skolnik, February 8m 2022 – What’s behind the right-wing book-ban frenzy? Big money, and a long-term plan – The campaign to get LGBTQ-friendly books and authors of color off the shelves isn’t “grassroots” or spontaneous
- Vanity Fair, Bess Levin, November 11, 2021 – Conservatives are Just Openly Endorsing Book Burning Now – Book burning, as in the thing Nazis were into.
