With many states and smaller local governments in the U.S. banning or attempting to ban books, Illinois’ state government is doing the opposite, penalizing book bans by withdrawing funding from libraries that restrict or remove books due to “partisan or doctrinal” disapproval.
On one hand I absolutely agree. It’s depressing. The manufactured outrage and blatantly false information surrounding conservative book bans is terrifying, and is shadowed by the terrifying fact that people actually believe that kind of nonsense.
On the other, this is a good law and even in a less corrupt system it should exist.
This wouldn’t have been a discussion 30 or 40 years ago. Admittedly, that probably has more to do with the internet making manufactured outrage easier to spread. But it’s not like all conservatives suddenly decided “we need to ban things that make us think outside our conservative sandbox!” overnight. This has always been a problem, a mindset that these people hold, though maybe to a less extreme or binary degree.
If anything, the fact that we’re having this discussion means some progress forward is happening: at least in some places, people are finally saying no when conservatives make intolerant demands. We do need to put up common-sense laws that ban intolerant practices.