[jnovek]

It is censorship if those books are not included for a specific reason.

“We aren’t including this book in the library because we don’t have space for every book.” <—— not censorship

“We aren’t including this book because we don’t think it’s appropriate for kids to learn about trans people.” <—- censorship

[bluescrn]

> “We aren’t including this book because we don’t think it’s appropriate for kids to learn about trans people.” <—- censorship

Removing books from public libraries (not just schools) because we find criticism of certain ideas around gender to be offensive <-- definitely censorship

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-66441947

[buellerbueller]

Yes, book bans are bad no matter who does it. See how simple that is?

[logifail]

Playboy was never in school libraries either, basically because children aren't adults.

Isn't this basic curation and child protection, not censorship?

[buellerbueller]

Since there are no libraries with space for every book (ever), then there is no censorship?

[7bit]

That's a childish argument.

[buellerbueller]

My point was to highlight the ridiculousness of the comment to which I was responding; glad it worked!

[7bit]

It didn't work. The comment wasn't ridiculous. Your reply was. But yes, if you want to flip thing around so you feel validated, be my guest.

[buellerbueller]

Of course it worked. Any authoritarian intent on banning a book just could give the spurious reason that "the library does not have enough room" and then there is no censorship ever, according to the original post. See how childish that reasoning is?

[7bit]

You're right

[mcphage]

> Since there are no libraries with space for every book (ever), then there is no censorship?

When people ban books because they don't want others to learn about trans people, they're usually pretty vocal about their motivations.

[buellerbueller]

>When people ban books because they don't want others to learn about trans people, they're usually pretty vocal about their motivations.

You assume they are vocal about their motivations, because how could you possibly know, if they claim it under cover of "not enough shelf space"?

[mcphage]

Well, maybe a lot of people do keep it secret… that’s true. But plenty of people do not keep it secret.

[buellerbueller]

I largely agree with you for the time being; I think right now we are in the "dumb authoritarian" phase because Trump, Musk, Thiel can't keep their mouths shut about their true motivations. I fear that there are probably a smarter generation of authoritarians who are more clever (Russel Vought, for example), and not in the spotlight, waiting for their time to ascend.

The loud ones come first, because they have to corrupt the minds of the youth and the mentally weak so they can have a movement.