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The New Pornographers

thedailyedge.substack.com

The New Pornographers

Book-banning GOP "Christians" are now printing and handing out "obscene" pamphlets to the children they say they want to protect

Richard Hine
Jan 30
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The New Pornographers

thedailyedge.substack.com
Twitter avatar for @chron
Chron @chron
So why are some books that address LGBTQ issues being called pornographic? We asked Abbott, Patterson and several other GOP members who signed his letter to offer their definition of the term.
chron.comWe asked Texas Republicans banning books to define pornography. Here’s what they told us.‘Pornography’ has a long, complicated history in public discourse. We asked Texas...
5:16 PM ∙ Mar 14, 2022
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If you have spent any time listening to crazed astroturfers Moms for Liberty or watching bonkers Fox News presenters, you might think:

a) That kindergartners are being forced to read a picture book about two male penguins raising a baby penguin for one reason only: to turn them gay;

b) That when Drag Queens read books aloud in a public space, kids are in more danger than when they get into stranger’s van on the promise of free candy;

Or even:

c) That every shelf in the school library is filled with graphic pornography carefully selected by a teacher dedicated to “grooming” children for deviant sexual purposes.

In reality, there are three much easier ways for your kids to access “pornography” or meet sex-obsessed weirdos:

  1. Attend a meeting of school board being targeted by Moms for Liberty.

  2. Follow a “Christian” book banner on Twitter and watch him tweet pictures of the porn he thinks should be banned.

  3. Go to a public event in defense of the First Amendment and get the porn handed to you and your kids directly.

Before I go on, here’s a brief reminder of what “astroturf” groups are:

Astroturf parent groups are supported by billionaires, and they usually have a sizable staff of well-paid people. They exist to carry out the goals of their funders.

Like the Tea Party before them, most of today’s “astroturf” groups are “deluded and inspired” by shady billionaires who know how easy it is to inflame and then steer their bovine hoards using simplistic, easy-to-repeat talking points.

In the case of “Moms for Liberty,” we are talking about a group that:

Incorporated as an Internal Revenue Code 501(c)(4) organization, a form that lends itself to dark money political shenanigans… exploded on the scene with its leaders being guests on Fox News and breaking into the Washington Post… has a well-developed website and extensive social media reach… three federal and one state political action committees, one of which is a SuperPAC able to accept unlimited donations…. (its) press is being handled by Calvary Strategies whose CEO is a former campaign manager and chief of staff to Sen. (then-Gov.) Rick Scott… (its) third founder, Bridget Ziegler…. (is the wife of) Christian Ziegler, vice chairman of the Florida Republican Party and the owner of a political marketing firm… (who) boasts that Moms for Liberty will provide crucial ground support for DeSantis’ re-election.

Egged on by Steve Bannon and Patriot Mobile, Moms for Liberty and others like them have turned school board meetings into hate-filled angerfests in which school librarians are vilified as the “arm of satan.”

They read the “dirty parts” of books (not including the rape, bestiality and incest-filled Bible) aloud at these public meetings.

To prove their points, they and their “dad” allies post sexual images from graphic novels on social media.

Note: One of the most popular images they have thrust in front of millions of kids of all ages is a drawing from the graphic novel Gender Queer showing a fake blowjob involving a strap-on dildo which occurs somewhere in the 240-page book, originally published in 2019. I think it’s safe to say more people have seen this picture thanks to “anti-porn,” “anti-groomer” activists—and the Fox News hosts that love to give it screen time—than would have seen it by self-selecting to read the book by themselves.

Partly because of the outrage stoked by a drawing of someone putting an inanimate object that is clearly established as not an actual penis into their mouth, Florida teachers are now being told to remove all unvetted books from classrooms or risk felony prosecution…. and North Dakota Republicans are actually looking to imprison public librarians for the crime of stocking books “depicting sexual or gender identity.”

Meanwhile, creepy guys are handing out material they call “obscene” to young kids.

As bestselling children’s book author Shannon Hale explained in a Twitter thread on January 29, the anti-porn brigade has even started showing up at public events to directly hand out what they insist is pornography to children, only “with no context, no warning, no discussion.”

Twitter avatar for @haleshannon
Shannon Hale @haleshannon
This week I spoke at the Let Utah Read event at the state capital. I brought my 16yo and 12yo. As we waited for the speeches to begin, one volunteer passed out bookmarks. When another man passed out pamphlets, we assumed he was part of the event too. 1/
5:12 PM ∙ Jan 28, 2023
1,239Likes236Retweets

That’s right. A creepy guy showed up at a family-friendly, book-loving “Let Utah Read” event at the Utah State Capitol on 25 January to hand out pamphlets to all the kids in attendance.

The pamphlets contained the “greatest hits” of sexual content that Moms for Liberty and the right-wing outrage machine want to make sure your unprepared kids are forced to look at.

As Shannon Hale tweeted:

This is the stuff they are saying is pornography—stuff kids should be protected from—and then they went and gave it to EVERY SINGLE KID there. If you truly believe it’s porn, then why are you directly handing it to kids, with no context, no warning, no discussion?

As PEN America points out:

Obscene material is not protected under the First Amendment, but a finding of obscenity requires satisfaction of a tripartite test, which requires, among other aspects, a holistic consideration of the material at issue. Simply declaring a book “obscene” does not make it so.

Using the accepted standards, as adjudicated by the Supreme Court, it would be easier to declare a pamphlet that contains a selection of random sexual images or written passages assembled merely to shock—like the pamphlet given to kids in Utah—to be “obscence” or “pornographic” than it would to say the same about a book-length novel or graphic novel.

And that’s not all.

Twitter avatar for @haleshannon
Shannon Hale @haleshannon
After my talk, that man hung around while I spoke to people. My 12yo whispered that he kept staring at her. She was scared. We tried to go. He came up to me, verbally aggressive, to publicly shame me for being there and wish me ill. My 12yo clung to me. 4/
5:14 PM ∙ Jan 28, 2023
670Likes24Retweets

The pervert who handed out the “porn” pamphlets to the kids in attendance also stuck around to stare at preteen girls in the audience—and then to verbally abuse Shannon Hale in front of her kids.

“My 12yo was shaking and crying for an hour after.”

Twitter avatar for @haleshannon
Shannon Hale @haleshannon
My 12yo was shaking and crying for an hour after. Maybe those protestors and anti-book-and-information activists truly believe what they preach. I don’t know. But I do know that there is entirely a lack of love, compassion, and care for actual kids. And it breaks my heart. 5/
5:15 PM ∙ Jan 28, 2023
1,671Likes79Retweets

Ironically, in the speech that Hale gave at the “Let Utah Read” event, she spoke about the ways in which books help kids empathize with others and noted that:

When kids aren’t allowed to even talk about sex, “predators flourish,” and treating books as pornography prevents them from accessing “a gentle form of storytelling that offer context to complex problems and help readers examine them in quiet, slow, thoughtful ways.”

Seemingly, one of the passages in the pamphlet Hale’s kids were given was a scene that appears more than 100 pages into the novel Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. As Hale noted on Twitter: “my 12yo wouldn’t have gotten… to this part in the first place because she’s not ready for it.”

A single complaint can now get a book banned or an author canceled

The current outrage about books—with school book bans predominantly targeting topics related to Black history or the LGBTQ experience—comes at a time when white students are becoming a minority in many states, including Florida.

Despite—or because of—that, MAGA Governors like Ron DeSantis are prioritizing the needs of white Christian parents and the “comfort” of their delicate children over everyone else.

As Anne Lutz Fernandez wrote here on Substack on 28 January in an article headlined: “Book banning is getting worse”:

Book banning has a long history in America, but it’s a mistake to hope that this too shall pass. The minority rule that allowed the Dobbs decision, the rise of right-wing extremism and political violence, and the proliferation and power of sources of mis- and disinformation make this an especially dangerous moment. It’s not going to pass if we don’t recognize the seriousness of the threat.

When it comes to banning books in schools, “Christian” parents are working from lists circulated within their astroturf groups—and are being fed graphic, out-of-context images and words from one or two books to justify demands to ban dozens of books at a time.

We’ve reached the point where one person has the power to deprive an entire student body of dozens or books that many students would value…

Twitter avatar for @PENamerica
PEN America @PENamerica
Florida teacher Vicki Baggett is pushing her school district to remove nearly 150 books, including titles like When Wilma Rudolph Played Basketball. Her former and current students claim Baggett openly promoted racist and homophobic beliefs in class.
popular.infoFlorida English teacher pushing book bans is openly racist and homophobic, students allegeVicki Baggett, an English teacher at Northview High School in Florida, is pushing for the Escambia County School District to remove nearly 150 books from school libraries. In an interview last month, Baggett told Popular Information that she is challenging books like
3:24 PM ∙ Jan 9, 2023
461Likes320Retweets

… and where one parent has the power to cancel the visit of a popular author on the eve of Black History Month.

Twitter avatar for @jonfreadom
Jonathan Friedman 📚 @jonfreadom
Authors are being disinvited from school visits. It's happening all over, not always publicly. Seems to frequently be b/c of a single parent's complaint, controlling what all kids and families can learn. A shame for both the authors and students alike.
al.comHoover schools cancel Black History Month author visit after parent complaint“This has got to stop,” author Derrick Barnes said after the school district canceled his visits.
8:52 PM ∙ Jan 28, 2023
514Likes262Retweets

In the words of Lisa Superina, as quoted by the Florida Freedom to Read Project:

Fascism isn’t just going to show up one day and say, ‘I’m here,’ and take all your rights away. It’s creeping in, in increments, and this is the start … right now it’s blatant, in our face, and they’re starting with the books.

It should go without saying that in a public school system, one parent or one teacher should not be allowed to dictate what all children are allowed to read.

But it’s also important to note that “parent’s rights” aren’t the only thing at stake.

Children are not possessions. They are autonomous people who can think for themselves—and who have their own rights.

Including the right to read.


This newsletter is always free to read and share—there’s never a paywall. So subscribe free and never miss an issue. Or, if you’d like to contribute and support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber…

Further reading from my archives:

OK, Groomer (January 8, 2023)

Censorship Is Unamerican (September 10, 2022)

Use Your Words (August 13, 2022)

1939 All Over Again (May 14, 2022)

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The New Pornographers

thedailyedge.substack.com
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Craig Rockwell
Writes Craig’s Newsletter
Feb 1Liked by Richard Hine

Thank you Richard, great article , the religious right wing Christian’s and evangelicals are so far of base on the real issue at hand.You have hopefully made some people open they’re eyes, something must be done to help the children .

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Okeke
Jan 30·edited Jan 30

"They read the “dirty parts” of books (not including the rape, bestiality and incest-filled Bible)"

Your ignorance about what the bible actually says about this things, is proof that you've never opened the bible.

The Bible is not full of any of the things you mentioned.

Yes, there were incidences of incest, rape, murder told in the bible, but they're few and far between. And in all the places in the bible were it was mentioned, it was used as a reference to sin, something to be shunned and avoided, being just a small part of a larger story whose theme focused mainly on God's relationship with his creation.

In other words even though the bible talks about this vices, it did not glorify it. Neither did it present it in colorful, explicit details as your post seems to suggest. There were no disturbing scenes of rape, incest, bestiality, or murder.

True christians do not hate the so called LGBTQ community. They respect the rights of this people to live the kind of life they want. That doesn't mean that christians approve of such a lifestyle. According to the christian beliefs, homosexuality is a sin. And one of the goals of Christianity is to persuade people in the LGBTQ community to change their lifestyle and turn to God. Notice I used the word, "persuade". In other words, true christians do not use force, blackmail, or coercion to get sinners like homosexuals to change.

One of the main callings of christians is to preach the word of God not only to people in the LGBTQ community, but to all sinners. Simply put, christians love the sinner, but hate the sin.

And you might not agree with them, but christian parents are justified to be concerned about the kind of books being recommended to their kids in school to read. The child of a true christian has no business reading books that seem to present things like homosexuality, transgenderism, in a favorable light.

Christian parents are worried and rightfully so, that their kids are being indoctrinated in schools, and without their knowledge.

That doesn't mean christians support book banning. Like I said before, true christians respect the rights of the people of the LGBTQ community, and that includes their right to publish books that promote such a lifestyle.

But christians have rights too, and that includes preventing their kids from reading books that promote such a decadent lifestyle.

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