Trump’s Dept. Of Education Rolls Back Anti-Book Ban Guidance, Says Bring On The Censorship!
Because we’re all just riding Mr. Trump’s wild ride down the greased slope towards fascism, the nation just has to keep getting worse day by day until the rot has set in permanently.
Trump’s first term in office unleashed a lot of latent censorial desire in like-minded Republicans, who soon started assaulting constituents’ sensibilities and rights in quick succession. Book bans were suddenly acceptable again. Openly hating women, minorities, immigrants, LGBTQ+ individuals was now just part of day-to-day business.
Some of this went on the back burner, mostly due to courts recognizing the inherent unconstitutionality of these laws and acts. Some of it got shelved temporarily after the government was in the hands of a regular type of president, rather than a dead-eyed despot with delusions of grandeur.
Unfortunately, someone who was considered an aberrational embarrassment on the presidential timeline, has made a return to the nation’s top office. And he’s brought all of his bad ideas and terrible people with him, along with four years of burning resentment.
This, as reported by ABC News, is just another one of things that are going to be commonplace for at least the next four years, if not longer so long as enough members of the American public prefer the warm touch of a boot heel on their neck, rather than be forced to treat other human beings like… human beings.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has announced that it is rescinding all past guidance issued against the removal of books and will no longer employ a coordinator to investigate instances of unlawful book removals.
The department also announced that it has dismissed 11 book ban complaints and six pending complaints. According to the DOE, the complaints alleged that the removal of these books “created a hostile environment for students.”
We like to think federal departments and agencies serve the people. But, ultimately, they don’t. They serve whoever’s currently in charge. Most incoming presidents won’t drastically re-design federal entities in their own image, at least not immediately. Others will do it just because they can’t stomach the notion of anything but abject fealty.
This is what Trump, his cabinet, and his supporters want: a heckler’s veto they can deploy at will to silence people they don’t believe should be treated as equals. It has nothing to do with “protecting” children from content. It definitely doesn’t have anything to do with this, either.
The Trump administration’s Department of Education states that the books were targeted because school districts and parents “have established commonsense processes by which to evaluate and remove age-inappropriate materials.”
The statement continued, “Because this is a question of parental and community judgment, not civil rights, OCR has no role in these matters.”
Trump wouldn’t be handing this over to parents if he didn’t believe only the parents who think like he thinks will do everything they can to restrict the content everyone has access to, not just their own kids. And the only word with any meaning in the phrase “parental and community judgment” is “judgment.” Whatever this small, but very active, minority decides to judge as unworthy of public access will be banished from public libraries under the guise of saving kids from “age-inappropriate” content.
This is an insult to true American values, as well as an insult to the communities that are going to suffer from the Dept. of Education’s decision to let neighborhood fascists decide what content is publicly-accessible. Not only will they suffer from the loss of access, but they’ll have to open their wallets to fund defense of unconstitutional laws and book removals — acts performed against their best interests by the people they’ve elected and appointed to serve their interests.
It’s ugliness all the way and all the way down. Those of you celebrating Trump’s return to office and the steady escalation of hatred across the nation are no better than the fascists you continually pretend you’re insulted to be compared to. Just don’t ask for any sympathy when the bloodlust you’ve stoked finally results in your faces being torn off by the leopards you’ve invited into your hearts and homes.