Don't Like the Facts? Declare Them Fiction
Snotnose writes:
This isn't really tech-centric but, sadly, it reflects on the times. A Texas board has declared a non-fiction book as fiction so it can be banned.
[...] this new twist belongs to one county in Texas, which has given certain people the power to unilaterally decide what is or isn't factual.
[A] decision made this month in a county near Houston left us stunned. The Montgomery County Commissioners Court ordered librarians there to reclassify the nonfiction children's book "Colonization and the Wampanoag Story" as fiction.
This reclassification decision is a consequence of a contentious policy change in March. Right-wing activists pressured the Montgomery County Commissioners Court to remove librarians from the review process for challenged children's, young adult and parenting books.
[...] Shortly thereafter, the newly formed Montgomery County "Citizens Review Committee" reclassified "Colonization and the Wampanoag Story" as fiction. The committee reviewed the book in a closed meeting - all its meetings are closed to the public - and it offered no explanation for its decision. The new policy does not allow decisions made by the Citizens Review Committee to be appealed.
That's how you start erasing your own history. You take the librarians out of the equation. Next, you remove the public from the conversation by making these discussions private. Then you give only the citizens you want to hear from - including any non-residents who want to challenge content they don't like - the only invitation to the discussion: the blanket permission to challenge books and/or their classifications. Then you seal it with a court order and pretend this is just citizens protecting each other, rather than the government engaging in censorship on behalf of people who love censorship as long as it only silences the people they don't like.
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