Conservative parents take aim at library apps meant to expand access to books

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: NBC News

TECH NEWS

Conservative parents take aim at library apps meant to expand access to books

Campaigns that started with criticizing school board members and librarians have now turned their attention to tech companies such as OverDrive and Epic that have operated for years without drawing much controversy.

May 12, 2022, 9:00 AM EDT
By David Ingram

E-reader apps that became a lifeline for students during the pandemic are now in the crossfire of a culture war raging over books in schools and public libraries. ... In several states, apps and the companies that run them have been targeted by conservative parents who have pushed schools and public libraries to shut down their digital programs, which let users download and read books on their smartphones, tablets or laptops. ... Some parents want the apps banned for their children, or even for all students. And they’re getting results.

A school superintendent in a suburb of Nashville, Tennessee, pulled his system’s e-reader offline for a week last month, cutting access for 40,000 students, after a parent searched the Epic library available on her kindergartener’s laptop and found books supporting gay pride.

In a rural county northwest of Austin, Texas, county officials cut off access to the OverDrive digital library that local residents had used for a decade to find books to read for pleasure, prompting a federal lawsuit against the county.

And on the east coast of Florida, the Brevard County school system removed the Epic app from its computer system, saying it didn’t want kids to have access to material that their own school librarians had not vetted.

{snip}

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/library-apps-book-ban-schools-conservative-parents-rcna26103

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FreshMouthHat Retweeted

https://twitter.com/Popehat

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[Magoo48]

1. Disgusting.

Perhaps they’ve evolved in Christofascists and social terrorists. There is certainly nothing conservative about them.

[33taw]

2. Any reason these folks need laws in place of guiding their own children?

[GenThePerservering]

22. This right here

is the heart of it.

Parents abdicating their responsibility to raise informed children who make good decisions. Guess they want the gummint to do it - I thought right wingers were all about freedom?

[jmowreader]

28. It's not about their own children, but yours

Their goal is to control everyone.

[33taw]

29. I know.

[PittBlue]

3. We are doomed.

[Chipper Chat]

4. How long will it be before they ban the alphabet

Because the letter A looks like a woman's a-line jumper. The letter B looks like 2 tits.
. The letter I looks like a penis. The letter o looks like a vagina. The letter Q looks like a sperm. However the letter X can be kept because it is a Christian symbol.

[kiri]

20. God forfend 6 & 9, and they are Arabic, too.

God forfend 6 & 9, and they are Arabic, too.

There is something about 8....... I'll have to ask Q-anon.

[ArizonaLib]

5. Stay tuned for book burnings

Likely to be lit by tiki torches by individuals wearing Brooks Brothers clothes.

[OnDoutside]

9. I'm waiting for the e-book burnings myself....

[turbinetree]

6. Fahrenheit 451 is alive and well with these fascist......

fuck them.....

[Demovictory9]

34. It is

[BlueIdaho]

7. Welcome to the new dark ages

But here’s a news flash - they can’t really put the genie back in the bottle. Not when kids are carrying smartphones.

[tenderfoot]

8. "Conservative Parents" Corporate funded fuckery

eom

[OldBaldy1701E]

12. Yep! (n/t)

[bucolic_frolic]

10. These people need to be straight-armed and told to get out of everyone's business!

They are borderline obsessive-compulsive narcissists with emotional problems.

[AZLD4Candidate]

11. As a teacher, I've always said that the worst thing some students could have are parents

No one stymies a child's education or screws up a child more than some parents.

When I was in middle school, I watched a sex education video called "Parental Licenses," which put up a world where parents needed a license to have a child and could be rejected, showing why those who are not ready to be parents shouldn't have sex. It made an impact on me to the point that I believed that.

As a teacher, I have to go through so much in order to teach a child.

To be a parent, all you need is to have sex without a condom in any circumstance (marriage, rape, one night stand, affair) and then wait nine months . .not required training, not continuing education, no background check, not degree requirement, nothing.

[keithbvadu2]

13. Many of our right wing brethren want to control everyone.

Many of our right wing brethren want to control everyone.

They have no qualms about using the gov't to foist their own religious beliefs on the children in public schools without letting the parents decide how they want their children raised.

-----------------------------------

The Bible should be banned for all the immorality it shows.

[PatrickforB]

14. Ah, just FEEL the dominionist 'christian' HATE!!! Wow. These jerks will

burn you at the stake if you don't believe their specific dogma if you let them take power.

[AngryOldDem]

15. I have a Ray Bradbury quote in my cubicle that says this:

“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture, just get people to stop reading them.”

This is on a bookmark I got this past winter when I saw a stage production of “Fahrenheit 451”.

Next to it is another bookmark — “Words have power. Read a banned book.”

[sakabatou]

16. I'm not surprised.

Of course they'd pull this type of stunt.

[pandr32]

17. Good grief!

These fools are ruining everything. Thomas Jefferson advocated for access to libraries and information and these Christo-fascists want to shut it down. They don't want an informed population.

[Lonestarblue]

18. The media needs to stop using the word "conservative" to describe these people.

There is nothing conservative about them. They are right-wing religious radicals bent on tearing our democratic principles into shreds to support their backward Christian beliefs.

[ZonkerHarris]

19. The Christian Taliban strikes again. Christian Ayatollas.

[zebrastripe]

21. Lazy Parents

As these parents are incapable of saying "NO" to their children they abdicate their responsibility to the " STATE;" thus denying everyone access to these apps.

[Magoo48]

23. That's not conservatism, it's fascism. It's authoritarian censorship. It's what dick-taters do.

[BumRushDaShow]

24. I remember articles awhile ago when it was revealed about how the Kochs' "Americans for Prosperity"

was funding races in small school districts for School Boards. One of the earliest attempts in 2011 in NC. They were also funneling money into school systems to infiltrate the curriculum in 2012 in places like Ks, as well as attempting to influence the School Board elections in Colorado in 2015.

The "remaining active" Koch (Charles) is still at it behind the scenes.

It's all astroturf just like the teabaggers they created.

[praxEs]

25. Wonder what these 'parents' will do next

to prevent their children from using the free Brooklyn Public Library initiative made digital books available to everyone between the ages of 13 and 21 with access to the net all over 'Merica.

[Grins]

26. Oh! Oh! Let me guess who got pissed!

Ah!

The usual suspects. Republicans and crackpot evangelicals.

[SpankMe]

27. Conservative asshole

They think they're protecting their precious little snowflakes. In reality, the kids have ready access to all kinds of blistering porn from their computers and phones. This includes gay porn, which I guarantee every gay male teen looks at.

But a responsible, curated app for access to great books (you know...words instead of pictures) gets banned because of the presence of a very few healthy, non-porn LGBTQ+ titles.

America is finished. The dream is dead. It isn't worth the fight. We need a nationwide commission to explore an administrative break-up of red and blue America. In the UK they called it "devolution", where Scotland obtained a great deal of autonomy and independence and is practically its own country. They have their own parliament and are even working on their own constitution.

These animals (Republicans/conservatives) are picking apart America one chunk at a time. Now they're infiltrating the minds of children by depriving them of rights and information they need to grow up as healthy adults. A new generations of totalitarian right wingers is being developed.

Liberals: move to the coasts and elect supermajorities of Democratic lawmakers, executives and judges. One party rule is risky. But I'd rather deal with that than live under the totalitarian state of minority rule.

[Greybnk48]

30. They're not conservatives. They're radical Christo-fascists.

The "conservative" label needs to be challenged, NOW.

[andym]

31. "Professor, she advocates dirty books: Chaucer, Rabalais, Balzac!"

lyrics from the "Music Man's" song Pick a little talk a little"
In this song, the town's conservative women are busy slandering the town's educated/liberal librarian.
That this play was set in a pre-WWI Iowa small town, shows that things haven't changed much. Many conservatives do not support freedom of speech, no matter their statements to the contrary.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

32. You'll find plenty of disdain for freedom of speech right here at DU.

Many conservatives do not support freedom of speech, no matter their statements to the contrary.

Thu May 12, 2022: "Congress shall make no law ..." Perhaps it's time to revisit this DU thread:

If Side A gets to protest, so does Side Not-A. It works both ways.

Thu Jun 3, 2021: Homeowner Refusing to Remove 'F*** Biden,' Pro-Trump Flags Faces $500-a-Day Fine

[andym]

33. Perhaps, but prominent liberal Democratic politicians have traditionally supported freedom of speech

Mike Dukakis comes to mind. He was a strong supporter of the ACLU at a time when the ACLU supported the even the rights of neo-Nazis to march in Skokie, Ill. For his efforts he got called a "card-carrying member of the ACLU" by George HW Bush in the 1988 election campaign.

DU members have a wide range of opinions that often are in conflict. To say that conservatives tend to be against freedom of speech is not to say that all liberals are supporters of freedom of speech, but at least in the last hundred years or so. liberals (whose political beliefs have evolved during that time) have been more supportive than conservatives.) That is not to say that all liberals or even DU members, who btw are not all liberal-- there are conservative Democrats-- are guiltless of advocating against freedom of speech, as you point out. For example, the right has been using "cancel culture" as a cudgel, partly based on their perception that progressives are denying them freedom of speech. And those conservatives who continue to use particularly offensive phrases are definitely held in low regard by the majority, especially by those more liberal. However, what the right doesn't realize is there a big difference for asking that certain words/phrases be used less, and laws be passed or bans created to enforce such preferences. People can still state what they want.
That said, some progressives do go too far IMO. For example, I do believe more recent efforts to ban such books as "Huckleberry Finn" for its use of potentially offensive language are misguided.

[Herx]

35. Book content isn't neatly classified as "constitutional" or "unconstitutional"

Whether a book can be banned depends on its content. You mention of freedom of speech is too broad in this case.
There are plenty of resources on freedom of speech that you may find very useful.