Starker on 27/8/2025 at 17:24
Quote Posted by Azaran
Activists have also infamously vandalized old artworks, giving such reasons as art being less important than the cause:
Pouring soup on the glass that the artwork is behind is not the same as vandalizing the work. And it's in no way, shape, or form similar to China's cultural revolution.
SD on 27/8/2025 at 17:55
Posting a story about far left activists causing a pride march to be cancelled is not trolling so much as it is pointing out a thing that happened. I rather understood that to be the purpose of this topic.
It's also not a complex issue. They are rancid communist bullies forcing their rancid opinions on everyone else.
Starker on 28/8/2025 at 06:59
How a group of bigots funded by dark money made book bans great again in the US:
[video=youtube;jY4DwsKrCaI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY4DwsKrCaI[/video]
Nicker on 2/9/2025 at 05:00
Quote Posted by SD
Posting a story about far left activists causing a pride march to be cancelled is not trolling so much as it is pointing out a thing that happened.
Yeah. Trolling probably wasn't the best term to describe exporting a morally inconsistent, intellectually empty narrative, from one thread to another unrelated one, hoping it will grow legs and get a rise.
There's probably a German term to cover it.
And they were not communist bullies. Those have been cowering under my bed since 1970.
Nicker on 2/9/2025 at 05:05
Quote Posted by Starker
How a group of bigots funded by dark money made book bans great again in the US:
While many Canadians are boycotting US products, the province of Alberta (Canada's Texas) is embracing book-banning with a passion not available for public health and wellbeing.
Among the 200 or more books removed from school libraries, "The Handmaid's Tale" and (unironically) "1984".
demagogue on 2/9/2025 at 23:13
I gotta come to my home state Texas's defense just a little. Well let me just quote this directly to start. As of 2025 voter registration party affiliation breaks down as:
Democrats- 8,133,683 / 46% of registered voters
Republicans- 6,601,189 / 37% " " "
Unaffiliated- 2,750,830 / 16% " " "
Source: (
https://independentvoterproject.org/voter-stats/tx)
It's actually a plurality Democrat state, richer middle class, a lot of the population born elsewhere, cosmopolitan, higher than average education and salary, etc. That tells you how skewed things have gotten by the gerrymandering & state gov't clowns that have entrenched themselves after tweaking the system in their favor for so long. There's also a story to say about Latinos, traditionally voting D but they keep turning out for Trump & backing Trump's culty culture war, evidently linked to 2nd+ gen immigrant intolerance?
But in the public discourse, if you're talking to people in the street, it's a lot more liberal than it gets credit for.
Book banning & wacko religious lesson mandates in the US are more associated with Oklahoma and Kansas.
Don't get me wrong, I could see the state gov't voting for this kind of crap. The governor just (
https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/24/ten-commandments-texas-schools-senate-bill-10/) signed a bill into law that requires the 10 Commandments be posted in classrooms, and the story playing on local news right now is public schools (
https://www.kiiitv.com/article/news/local/texas/ban-on-dei-policies-in-schools/503-97f8a491-3153-46c9-b69f-5d99e7d87d49) doing away with DEI programs. Well a (
https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/29/texas-aclu-k-12-public-schools-dei-ban/) court decision just came down I think blocking the ban.
So I won't deny it has its fashy-wacky side. But the reputation also hides a lot of things happening & a lot of diversity under the surface. I don't think it's as bad as some other usual suspect states. The state gov't is just really and increasingly out of touch with the population.
Aja on 3/9/2025 at 03:06
Quote Posted by Nicker
While many Canadians are boycotting US products, the province of Alberta (Canada's Texas) is embracing book-banning with a passion not available for public health and wellbeing.
Among the 200 or more books removed from school libraries, "The Handmaid's Tale" and (unironically) "1984".
That's not precisely what's happening. The people are not embracing a book ban. The
government of Alberta asked the Edmonton public school board to remove sexually explicit books from their libraries in an attempt to rile up its base, and EPSB responded by creating a very deliberate list designed to make the news, which it did, as, lo and behold, Margaret Atwood is now tweeting about it. I think most regular people see
it for the political theatre it is, but since our last premier was ousted by the lunatic fringe, placating them is all our current premier seems to care about.
Starker on 3/9/2025 at 03:51
Is the Bible on the list, though? Cause I remember some pretty explicit things going on in the first part. The sequel also had some some feet stuff and a guy getting nailed literally.
heywood on 3/9/2025 at 14:16
Quote Posted by Aja
That's not precisely what's happening. The people are not embracing a book ban. The
government of Alberta asked the Edmonton public school board to remove sexually explicit books from their libraries in an attempt to rile up its base, and EPSB responded by creating a very deliberate list designed to make the news, which it did, as, lo and behold, Margaret Atwood is now tweeting about it. I think most regular people see
it for the political theatre it is, but since our last premier was ousted by the lunatic fringe, placating them is all our current premier seems to care about.
Don't underestimate how many people are embracing book bans and how serious they are about it.
It snuck up on us here. At first it was right wing activists like Moms for Liberty trying to take advantage of local opposition to COVID restrictions to gain influence over school boards. In our town, they got the local bogans to show up at some school board meetings and make fools of themselves. My wife and I laughed it off. After COVID restrictions were gone, they pivoted to culture wars. As they read passages from books with gay teen characters talking about sex, we rolled our eyes wondering what the fuss is about. Their attempts to place an agent of theirs on our town's school board fell well short.
This is New Hampshire, the "Live Free or Die" state, a swing state that voted for Biden where the Republican party was traditionally more socially liberal or libertarian-leaning, and where the model of government was designed to give cities and towns the most control. I wasn't worried.
But then the State's Education Commissioner started pursuing book bans, and he was willing to hold federal funds hostage. This year, they got the State legislature to pass a book ban, which the Governor thankfully vetoed. Unfortunately, the Governor signed another bill that imposes broad school curriculum restrictions on topics related to race, gender, and US history. So we didn't get a book ban, but we got something even worse imposed on us by a state that never interfered like this before.
demagogue on 3/9/2025 at 14:42
It reminds me a little that one of the starting points of mainstreaming this circus show was McCain picking Sarah Palin as his VP pick, and her entry into kooksville was joining the school board to get rid of books from school libraries. Along with trans bathrooms it's the gateway drug for the anti-woke.
