Velshi Banned Book Club: The Concerted Effort To Ban Books

Book banning is much more than just the removal of books from school libraries. It has become a rallying cry for the Christian Right, and a wedge issue for these upcoming midterm elections. So how do you speak to religious fundamentalists about an issue like book banning? Reza Aslan, author of “Beyond Fundamentalism” has an answer, “The way that you defeat religiously-inspired hate is with religiously-inspired love. The way you defeat religiously-inspired violence is with religiously-inspired peace.”



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#Velshi #BannedBooks #Books

[ianreed]

"The secret to freedom is in educating the people, whereas the secret to tyranny is keeping them ignorant."

Robespierre

[mnemon]

Throughout history those who have banned books have never been remembered as "the good guys".

[Ngamotu]

"That which is denied becomes that which is most desired, and that which is hidden becomes that which is most interesting. Consequently, a great deal of time and energy is spent trying to get at what is being kept from you. Our children, our people, our society and the world cannot afford this waste." - John Denver.

[ianreed]

"Since it is obviously inconceivable that all religions can be right, the most reasonable conclusion is that they are all wrong."

Christopher Hitchens

[philoctetes_wordsworth]

I cannot believe this is still happening. Reza Aslan is a gift. His book Zealot is a revelation. Every follower of an Abrahamic religion should read it.

[SeekerOfTruth-bi]

The world is aghast that Americans support the Republicans that are not out for their interest for 45 years; or the betterment of all people and not just the wealthy 1%., Corporations, and elite.

[sircasm]

Ohh brother.. Jeff Bozo has been tossing conservative books off of Amazon for a while.

[brendatenorio]

Professor Eddie needs to attend more parent meetings to make his arguments personally so we can model our own responses based on his successes.

[kcobley]

The only books I want banned are Trump grift books, it's time we asked Woodward, Cohen and the rest of the Trump bookist grift gang, What they knew and when they knew it?

[kimo]

Removing a book from educational curriculum doesn’t mean it’s banned.

[fredgonzalez]

“ IT’S ECONOMY STUPID.” James Carville.

[Dadd]

People of faith don't so much derive their values from scripture as they insert their values from their scriptures." Great observation Reza.

[UnionCameraDude]

Not letting children have inappropriate adult content turned into banning books. Keep it up democrats. After you lose the next several elections you might figure it out.

[brendatenorio]

Reza also needs to commit time to personally attend parent meetings to make these winning arguments.

[pinkpaprika]

You can’t claim to defend freedom of speech if you ban books.

[annaglover]

You know, if 10th graders (15-16 years old) are reading The Things They Carried and watching To Be Of Service and learning about the gruesome nature of war and what it does to soldiers who survive it (let alone those who died in them), there's not much they're incapable of learning about. It's all in the presentation. When the subject matter is presented with no judgments and the students are allowed to discuss the topics, why are parents feeling squeamish? These are almost-adults who will need to face the adult world in another couple of years. if they're not already doing so (so many 14 and 15 year olds and even 12 and 13 year olds are working and supporting their families).
We are doing these kids a huge disservice if we ban books just because some adults disagree with their topics. Curate them for age appropriateness, but we can't shield our children forever. If we can let them learn about these "controversial" topics with learned and trained educators, we stand less of a chance that they'll be scarred by these books and can gain the immense benefit of this new generation already having been exposed to the issues we struggle with and hopefully come up with solutions or learn how to make things better for all of us.
What I'm getting at is that the morality of books is a pretext for those who want to promote and enforce their theocratic, racist, or otherwise exclusionary viewpoint.

[francynelane]

VOTE against authoritarian fascism. GO VOTE BLUE AMERICA 🇺🇸 so the United States can stay free as a bird 🐦💦

[josephsonora]

msnbc and velshi get 2 thumbs down 👎 👎

[juliabillman]

Maybe these banning folk should watch Footloose

[tracevicente]

Thank you all, this was a great discussion.