Connecticut Senators Bob Duff and Ceci Maher recently introduced a bill prohibiting school book bans. Their desire to protect students’ access to books was instantly attacked online as they were accused of being “desperate” to give children “porn.”
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There used to be a time when book bans and burnings were rare and considered quite harmful. They were most commonly associated with the Nazi book burnings or Ray Bradbury’s dystopian Fahrenheit 451 novel. In recent years, though, they’ve become commonplace in the United States as conservatives work to ban, censor, and challenge thousands of books per year. These book bans are extremely costly to the school districts and give conservatives the power to waste school labor and resources and file as many as 900 book complaints per person. Hence, many states, like California and New Jersey, are trying to get ahead of the rising book-banning movement and passing bills restricting or banning book bans.
Unfortunately, fighting book bans has become an increasingly difficult job. To get their way, conservatives frequently levy false and insidious lies against book ban opposers, including accusing them of being predators and pedophiles who are trying to fill school libraries with stacks of pornography. That is precisely what happened when two Connecticut lawmakers tried to prevent people from being able to ban any book they simply disliked.
Senators accused of wanting to give children “porn”
Sen. Duff never thought that trying to prevent people from banning books without cause would be considered “controversial.” He stated to CT Insider, “It’s really incredulous to me, because growing up reading about book bans or book burnings, I never thought we would be back in that same place again, where there’s this kind of culture war over people’s ability to freely read what they choose.” Hence, he didn’t expect much backlash when he and Maher introduced their bill. The bill would provide librarians with legal protections to allow them to do their jobs without fear of lawfare. It also would prohibit certain book bans, including those instigated “because of the origin, background or views of the material or of its authors, or solely because a person finds such books offensive.”
However, the bill apparently triggered Libs of TikTok, a far-right account known for posting misinformation to make right-wing trolls hysterical and encourage them to harass and threaten Democrats. The account instantly posted the pictures and full names of Duff and Maher and gave a rundown of their bill, writing, “This is how desperate they are to give your kids p**n in schools!” The post received thousands of shares and hundreds of comments accusing the senators of being “perverse,” “perverts,” “groomers,” and having child pornography on their computers. However, Duff didn’t give in to the misinformation and harassment, writing a measured response to defend his bill.
He wrote, “Apparently, I really hit a nerve with the Libs of TikTok. They don’t like the fact that I’ve introduced legislation with Senator Maher.” Duff went on to explain that the bill simply doesn’t allow people to ban books they don’t like and prevents conservative “crazies” from pressing charges against librarians for doing their job. Considering that conservatives have called the cops on school teachers and librarians and accused librarians of committing felonies for helping a student check out a book, these protections are necessary.
Of course, Libs of TikTok responded by making daily posts, laughing that Duff wasn’t “coping well” because he dared to respond to them. However, Duff stated that he refuses to buy into “the big lie that there are all these books that are somehow sitting in libraries that are harming kids.” He also explained that his bill was about giving parents back the right to decide what their children read. Duff pointed out that a parent can always go to a library and “say a child is not going to take a book out,” and the decision would be respected. If another parent is fine with their child reading that same book, this bill ensures the library also respects that parent’s decision. Additionally, the bill doesn’t make librarians immune from consequences if they break the law. It simply prevents them from facing frivolous lawsuits for doing their job in “good faith.”
Despite the online attack, Duff and Maher have expressed optimism for the potential passage of their bill. Even so, it’s quite disturbing that we’ve reached the point where people wanting to give children access to books is considered so “controversial” that it results in social media hysteria and dangerous misinformation campaigns.
This post was originally published on here
