Dangerous Knowledge in the News

Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings

Heinrich Heine, Almansor 1821

To deny equal respect and dignity to any part of the citizenry is to place the entire country on the road to tiered citizenship and limited rights, to liberty for some and hierarchy for the rest.

Jamelle Bouie, New York Times (Feb 10, 2023)

News

The Intercept (February 14, 2023): DeSantis-Stacked Medical Boards Ramp Up Bans on Care for Trans Youth https://theintercept.com/2023/02/14/florida-trans-health-care

The worst thing that could happen is giving in to aspiring fascists. What was the College Board thinking? …Oh yeah. They want to make money!

Truthout (January 26, 2023): Students Plan to Sue DeSantis for Rejecting AP African American Studies Course

The Atlantic: (January 3, 2023): ‘IT’S MAKING US MORE IGNORANT’

Popular Information (December 12, 2022): How to ban 3600 books from school libraries “Friedman acknowledged that he filed challenges over the summer without reading the challenged books.”

Authoritarians like Ron DeSantis draw from a long and worldwide tradition in their wars against Dangerous Knowledge.

Washington Post: Teachers who mention sexuality are ‘grooming’ kids, conservatives say: April 5, 2022: From the Article, “Jesse Kelly, a conservative pundit with 400,000 Twitter followers, recently posted a long thread of messages arguing that “every Republican in America should be running ads” targeting Democrats who support early education on sexuality: “Call them groomers and pedophiles,” Kelly wrote. “Put THEM on the defensive. Make THEM afraid. … Stop worrying about what the media says. If they parrot Dem talking points, call them groomers too.”

Washington Post: Schools nationwide are quietly removing books from their libraries: March 22, 2022, Quoted from the article — “Every time she orders a book now, she sits down with her husband first, and the two of them attempt to answer the question: “Is this the book I want to end up on Fox News for?”

Associated Press: Youngkin looks to root out critical race theory in Virginia: February 15, 2022

Washington Post: In his fight against ‘woke’ schools, DeSantis tears at the seams of a diverse Florida: February 7, 2022

Tennessee Book Burning, February 2, 2022 [Click the image to go to the story]

VICE News: School Removes Student Project About Fascism After Cops Complain: November 21, 2021

Editorials

Washington Post (March 29, 2023): A new book-ban fiasco in Florida reveals the monster DeSantis created

A sentence by sentence takedown of DeSantis I’s excuses for banning AP African American History
This is absolutely brilliant!

…surprisingly large majorities oppose banning books on history or race — and importantly, this is partly because teaching about our racial past makes students more understanding of others’ historical experiences…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/23/cbs-poll-republicans-oppose-book-bans-woke/

The Plum Line: Washington Post, 2/24/2022