Republicans Moving on From Book Banning to Jailing Librarians
Someone once said, “A truly great library contains something in it to offend everyone.”
The Washington Post reports that while Republicans claim they only want to keep “harmful” material away from children, new state laws are quickly being passed in Red States that will permit criminal prosecution of school and library personnel. So far, at least seven states have passed such laws, with 12 more considering similar “Thought Police” crackdowns where librarians could face years of imprisonment and tens of thousands in fines for simply having books someone considered to be “obscene” or “harmful” to children on their shelves.
Of course, when Repubs say they “want to keep ‘harmful’ material away from children,” that wouldn’t include guns. Let us not forget that in this country — school children have a “God-Given Right” to die in a mass shooting. Why in 2022 alone, we had approximately 650 mass shootings, with more than 44,000 people dying from gun violence overall. Well, Republicans aren’t dumb and immediately concluded that means they had better start passing laws to protect children from librarians, history books, and Drag Queens. Because nothing says “freedom” like being able to jail librarians over books that you’ve probably never even read.
