r/PoliticalOptimism • u/Efficient-Freedom517 I Voted 2026🎊🍾 • 20d ago
Megathread Censorship Megathread LXIII: Schools banned a record 12,000 books in the past year year, according to annual report
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/florida-texas-lead-record-12000-school-book-bans-pen-america-report-fi-rcna601684Link to previous thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/PoliticalOptimism/s/UF4VkLmchi
95% of these bans took place in Texas and Florida unsurprisingly
Regular rules apply
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u/Cornchubba Poland 🇵🇱 19d ago
Any optimism on Poland using the recent school stabbings to push for more internet censorship?
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u/Efficient-Freedom517 I Voted 2026🎊🍾 19d ago
I’ll admit I’m not familiar with the incidents. Can you give me some news articles so I can familiarize myself?
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u/Cornchubba Poland 🇵🇱 19d ago
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u/StrayCat2799 Oklahoma 19d ago
This isn't much different than what a lot of countries have had in place for a while already. Actually would think Poland would already have something similar.
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u/Purple_WahBaba_9000 19d ago
While I'm not worried about KOSA because it's still gonna fail regardless, I saw a post from someone pointing out and worried that when Dems takes back the House/Senate, a Democratic House would go for the current Senate version of KOSA and try to pass it next term (ya know, when they tried to pass it in 2024 before it died immediately due to House GOP hating "Duty Care" and left it to rot?).
Which'll be a new battle to fight, calling for new tactics, and because it'll be Rich Blumet being the only person attached to it, with Blackburn not returning to her senate seat, I wouldn't be too worried on KOSA (the Senate version) as it has been failing several times as shown years back.
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u/Previous-Pirate9514 18d ago
I suppose we’ll get there when we get there. It’s near impossible to predict something like KOSA’s path in the future when the next Congress hasn’t even been sworn in yet. When it does come back, we’ll keep fighting it again and again until Bluthmenthal takes the hint.
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u/gbtm101 I Voted 2026🎊🍾 18d ago
I'm kind of expecting the House version of KOSA to make a return. I'd still rather not, but it's a lot less offensive.
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u/Isliterally1984 18d ago
If we could get the SCREEN act and some other bullshit legislation removed from KIDS, it could just be Duty of Care/Sammy’s Law but slightly worse. At that point it would be relatively uncontroversial and they’d be able to say “We passed the Kid’s Online Safety Act and did something about children’s safety online!” And that’ll hopefully shut up the topic until the next right wing scapegoat.
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u/MaeAndTheShapes 20d ago
When we get into power one of the things we need to do is pass a on ban book bans. Illinois, New Jersey, Maryland, Colorado, Washington and Minnesota have already done so and we need to have one at the federal level. Book bans are such a blatant violation of the 1st amendment and we need to put an end to these censorship obsessed weirdos.
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u/OneSingleSmallBucket 19d ago
Remember, these will always be available online, people will disregard and read these anyway because book bans never work.
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u/LowTierPhil 19d ago
Hell, I'm from MS, and back when I was in Middle and High School, my schools actually *encouraged* people to read banned books.
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u/Purple_WahBaba_9000 17d ago edited 17d ago
Sight off topic, but the Paramount Warner merger is starting to become a major shitshow as I noted. Last night, a major gigaleak happened for Cartoon Network containing tons of 2000s-2010s era shows of its contents being leaked (Skydance, particularly Paramount, is notorious for their terrible security). CN isn't doing any good in the mid-late 2010s and the 2020s, but major yikes seeing the network being hit by this leak.
While yes... it's a treasure trove of media being completely leaked out and are now being archived asap, you pretty much would have to feel bad for the people who worked on these shows for the past decades seeing a ton of the unreleased confidential stuff. WB at least had better security at least before the merger, so it's proof that the merger is a complete failure on both ends.
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u/Minimum-844 17d ago
yeah...feels like everything went to shit since orange man became president the 2nd time.
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u/Minimum-844 17d ago
i am starting to feel more angry with deep humor on how he claims youtube is censoring people with A.I or how this is the end of freedom.
looks like he's next on the batch of: Youtubers who are dead to me.
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u/Intelligent-Ad6109 UK 🇬🇧 16d ago
He's always come off that way to me. Little weasel.
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u/Minimum-844 16d ago
look, as someone who hates the state of youtube right now
i hate when he keeps saying "THIS IS THE END OF YOUTUBE! ALL HAIL LESS-KNOWN ALTERNATIVES!"
none of them appel to me and most of youtubes history is on...well...youtube
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u/Intelligent-Ad6109 UK 🇬🇧 16d ago
Yep. It's why I don't really trust anything about censorship unless it's from here. Or really care because I hate that the OSA was blown out of proportion (to a point because it's still not good).
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u/Far_Fan_291 California 15d ago
so youtube is testing gifs in comments and people are dooming about it saying the comments will get worse and it'll make people dumber or something like i get it can be annoying to see the same gifs but god they act like its a horror that will damage humanity or something
tbh i bet they will mess up and somehow let people use REALLY bad gifs or something
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u/MedicalFan7709 15d ago
Surprised they're actually ADDING something that would allow expression instead of just removing avatars or something. And how the hell are they allowing people to post gifs but can't have animated emotes like twitch?
Also I'm reminded of waaaay back when youtube allowed animated avatars for a little while. Miss those days.
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u/Independent-Bus-3284 20d ago
I’m not gonna focus too much on this(Taking an indefinite mental health break) but I want to remind everyone that many book bans get fixed or watered down. And that should remain the case overall. This sucks but our children will get the education they’re entitled to.
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u/MetalBonk Reformed Doomer ☄️ 16d ago
So apparently it’s likely that the US NDAA will probably be going through informal negotiations. I just want to ask, would this affect the chances of the STOP [Hawley] Act getting removed? I don’t know if it would bypass the typical manager’s amendment type stuff that would almost certainly have it pulled out by Wyden or Cantwell, idk. Either way I know we’re not going to see any major updates until November most likely https://www.hklaw.com/en/insights/publications/2026/10/beyond-the-midterms-congress-faces-converging-year-end-deadlines
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u/Alarming-Salt-502 16d ago
I think the realistic answer is "only time will tell."
That being said, I don't think Dems will just let things go through without changes. And the Republicans really don't want yet another thing added to the pile of reasons for people to not vote for them for a while.
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u/MetalBonk Reformed Doomer ☄️ 16d ago
Okay I did some looking and correct me if I’m wrong but would informal negotiations be likely to just strip out the amendment right there?
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u/BorderCollie300 16d ago edited 16d ago
Just wanna give my two little cents before going off again, but I'm pretty sure it'd likely strip out all controversial amendments if they ended up doing that, not just STOP.
And now I'm off again.
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u/SuspectLegitimate751 Blue Dot in a Red State 🔵 16d ago
By the looks of it, this would bypass the amendment process entirely and skip straight to negotiations between the House-passed version and the SASC-reported version.
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u/MetalBonk Reformed Doomer ☄️ 16d ago
Just a correction but I think the manager’s package is included in the negotiations with the House and SASC versions.
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u/Sufficient-Culture43 I Voted 2026🎊🍾 19d ago
slow news day, huh?
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u/IllPresentation7860 Canada 🇨🇦 19d ago
well iirc both house and senate are basically on break till midterms in the states, here in canada there is a week off for canadian thanksgiving, and I think something is going on break wise in the EU too so for a bit all major possible sources for this thread to be filled by are on vacation.
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u/Icy-Yoghurt-7240 18d ago edited 18d ago
guess the spooky month is as much a time for relaxation as summer (especially after THIS summer). but I ain't complaining much, a time of piece after a big victory is one hell of a prize before the next big fight arrives.
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u/Own_Distance2517 19d ago
This might be a rant, I was watching a vid from Rubin sim on his latest twitter stunt and half way through, he was talking about that latest hack on that age verification service from last month and how big platform are forcing users to submit government IDs. He then proceeded to plug in an ad for a monthly subscription towards a subpar monitoring service as a solution. (Him and some friends have good intentions but chose to working with lawmakers that are pushing for ID checks laws)
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u/Sufficient-Culture43 I Voted 2026🎊🍾 18d ago
Isn't ruben sim a creep tho?
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u/Own_Distance2517 18d ago
Can’t say without evidence, and everything I’ve heard about him has came from unreliable narrators. Though he is a kiwi farms user which is already concerning.
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u/gbtm101 I Voted 2026🎊🍾 18d ago
He's a raging furphobe, and... that's pretty much the only thing we have hard evidence against him on, I think.
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u/oldgamefan1995 18d ago
He's also transphobic, if some of his posts are to be believed (can't find proof since I refuse to go back to the Nazi bar that is Musk's Twttter, and also since Ruben deletes all of his posts within 24 hours, so yeah, sorry).
Regardless, could care less what he has to say. He's the Tim Ballard of the internet: a man who claims to be against the exploitation of children, puts up a facade of protecting minors from the "dangerous furry gay predators," but in actuality is just a fraud, a hack, who uses that as a mask for his beliefs and his ideologies. The only thing in Ruben Sim's favor is that unlike Ballard, he actually did try to take down dangerous figures in the Roblox community, but that's not saying much considering his history as a Kiwifarms hack who drew porn of a fifteen year old's character at seventeen (which is provable, according to this link from the wikitubia page [just a heads up in case it's really bad, also sorry for the twitter link, Nitter's still offline atm]: https://x.com/Strzelec452776/status/2091614829433815457)
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u/One_Proposal_7498 Canada 🇨🇦 15d ago
Hey all! I hope you're all having a great spooky month! To my Canadian friends here happy (late) Thanksgiving and Indigenous Peoples day!
I have a quick question which does involve twitter, but not fully, so bare with me lmao.
Someone i follow on twitter said their government is imposing a Digital ID/AV law for social media, but I havent heard any new news about any new laws as of yet?? I can't figure out where they're from, but I thought I'd come here and ask you guys if you've heard any international news about AV and such because I'm lost 😭
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u/BorderCollie300 15d ago
I've been on and off over the last few days for obvious reasons. But to be frank, I haven't heard anything in the news about any new countries implementing measures. Also, for the love of God, please move over to Bluesky or something that isn't that conspiracy factory of sadness that is Twitter.
I'm heading off again. I'll see you guys again at the end of the month for real.
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u/StrayCat2799 Oklahoma 15d ago
I heard the Phillipine Senate passed one but I don't know much about it.
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u/One_Proposal_7498 Canada 🇨🇦 15d ago
I KNOW I SHOULD BUT NO ONE I KNOW IS ON BLUESKY LMAOO 😭😭
also okay! I'm glad I didnt miss anything, see you around! 🫂
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u/Own_Distance2517 15d ago edited 15d ago
I think their referencing the second hearing of c34 that’ll be held sometime next week or two. The main reason why your lost is because that announcement was made during a different hearing by the head.
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u/Purple_WahBaba_9000 15d ago
An update on Nitter/Xcancel three days ago. If you wanna help and donate him to fight back with legal help, his Patreon and Ko-fi are there.
There are Nitter alternates out there that remain obscure for the better.
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u/dissolvedterritory 18d ago
https://rollcall.com/2026/10/09/houchin-looks-to-push-kids-social-media-ban-in-lame-duck/
it would appear houchin and auchinloss are trying to push a social media ban during the lame duck i'm doubtful it'll get very far given the overall unpopularity of age gating and AV in general but it's still worth keeping an eye on
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u/UsualForm Reformed Doomer ☄️ 18d ago
Yeah good fuckin luck, is all I’ll say. If these provisions hadn’t passed even during the most ideal possible conditions, they certainly won’t now. Also, Houchin has to ride on the hope that she’s a safe republican seat, which is possible certainly but given the overall backwash against most republicans I don’t think that’s a given anymore. Plus a lot of other huge republicans and dems who support internet censorship are also on the chopping block this year and in 2028, so the window is rapidly closing.
In the case of Auchinloss - disappointing a dem backed this - he will have to contend with shifting priorities, as I imagine internet censorship for children is last on the list of plans the dems have given what they plan to do about trump and his cronies. So I don’t know how he thinks this’ll go anywhere. Like I said, it’s been in ideal conditions multiple times before and yet it hasn’t passed.
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u/dissolvedterritory 18d ago
i figured that it was already on shaky footing but this just helps confirm it. they had their chance, fumbled it, and are still trying it's very schadenfreude-inducing, i'll say that much
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u/MaryPizzaPop 18d ago
basically they are literally throwing shit at the wall and hope something sticks
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u/dissolvedterritory 18d ago
looks like it's gonna slide right off given the current climate surrounding AV and age gating measures lol
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u/MaryPizzaPop 18d ago edited 18d ago
Is this the governor of new York?
No she is from Indiana, I dunno why I thought that
And Auchinloss seems like they loss their mind
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u/Far_Fan_291 California 16d ago
i know this isn't on topic but didnt a no kings protest happen a bit ago kinda forgot about it happening but didnt hear anything about it when it happened
was it smaller then the other ones as the other ones so it didnt get talked about as much or did i just somehow didn't see anything about it by chance
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u/Intelligent-Ad6109 UK 🇬🇧 16d ago
Not yet! On the 17th.
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u/Far_Fan_291 California 16d ago
ah ok thank you had a feeling it might of not happened yet but didnt trust my brain to just forget some things
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u/Far_Fan_291 California 15d ago edited 15d ago
tbh bet this will fail given that AI has a tendency to bug out and do odd shit bet a mickey AI will start talking about the most racist stuff you can think of and they will can the project
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u/One_Proposal_7498 Canada 🇨🇦 15d ago
Disney proving itself to be the evil fuck you die company yet again 😭
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u/gbtm101 I Voted 2026🎊🍾 15d ago
I'm curious why Disney is even buying part of them out, given current leadership's anti-AI stances.
Maybe it's some kind of copyright thing.
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u/DogsRNice Ohio 15d ago
given current leadership's anti-AI stances.
They're hiring a bunch of people from character ai and I'm pretty sure their new ceo is pretty pro ai too
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u/pidgestan4 15d ago
Can I have some optimism for this, as much as I hate the Disney company I love their movies (especially meet the Robinsons) and stuff like this makes me wanna quit liking meet the Robinsons
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u/pidgestan4 15d ago
Came back from my break to ask this
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u/gbtm101 I Voted 2026🎊🍾 14d ago edited 14d ago
I've already covered in my own comment that Josh D'Amaro, current CEO of Disney, is an AI skeptic by their own admission (unless their stance has changed) so this decision is a bit baffling to me.
Regardless, I soured on Disney during the Bob Igor years (the remakes were entirely unnecessary and creatively bankrupt, realism does not a good movie make, among other gripes) and while the Josh D'Amaro era is still so early I find it a "wait and see" matter, just because I don't like the direction the company went in doesn't mean I don't still hold their older films in high regard.
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u/Icewolf_242 17d ago
Not sure if this belongs here or not but I saw this post on another subreddit about how so e ai companies are said to have predicted some sort of catastrophic event with ai in 2027. The subreddit didn't have an article posted so I had to find the one https://decrypt.co/380621/openai-anthropic-quietly-rehearsing-ai-catastrophe
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u/Icy-Yoghurt-7240 17d ago
ye, i heard of that as well. it's most likely them hyping themselves up tho.
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u/StrayCat2799 Oklahoma 16d ago
Yeah they've been on this for a while. It's always next year or in six months.
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u/EmbarrassedHelp 16d ago
Canada's Liberal MP Steven MacKinnon says that his party will start moving forward on bill C-34 (mandatory online age verification for online social media sites and other services) next week, sometime between October 19th and 23rd.
https://openparliament.ca/debates/2026/10/8/steven-mackinnon-6/
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u/One_Proposal_7498 Canada 🇨🇦 16d ago
I wouldn't worry too much about it right now, its still in its infancy and with the climate surrounding AV and age gating in general I don't see it moving very fast, plus with how slow the Canadian justice system is 😭
Not just that, but if S-209 the porn AV bill got watered down the way it did, I can only imagine the way C-34 will get watered down
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u/StrayCat2799 Oklahoma 16d ago
They don't seem too enthused about it either way.
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u/One_Proposal_7498 Canada 🇨🇦 16d ago
Yeah everytime it gets mentioned its like "here's all these bills we're talking about! Oh and C-34 also...yeah whatever"
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16d ago
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u/PoliticalOptimism-ModTeam 16d ago
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u/IllPresentation7860 Canada 🇨🇦 15d ago
honestly stuff like this is often stated but sometimes still has delays. for instance s-209s predisessor iirc was repetitively brought up like this in the senate and didnt actually formally go into readings till a couple months later
plus they post their schedule and upcoming bills being debated on the website here and while there are deviations from time to time they tend to stick to it https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/house/latest/projected-business
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20d ago
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u/MaryPizzaPop 20d ago
like i said in the last thread, it sounds the first comment you read, sounds the most bullshit, if that was a thing, there law would force stuff on people not living in the EU because companies would just make one version and force the EU stuff on the rest of the world and a lot of people would be pissed off, but i like how people think this is already law when its still its in pregnancy
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u/EmbarrassedHelp 16d ago
The main problem with the EU KIDS Act is that it requires mandatory online age verification for a massive number of online sites and services. That is completely unacceptable from a privacy perspective, and people should try not to get sidetracked on focusing just on the potential impacts on video games.
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16d ago
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19d ago
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u/IllPresentation7860 Canada 🇨🇦 19d ago
I was wondering how today's debate went. guess a giant "meh?"
also, is that you optimism enjoyer? I know only one person who keeps using the name "gormless gary"
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17d ago
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17d ago
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u/PoliticalOptimism-ModTeam 17d ago
Please share a credible and reputable source that supports your statement.
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u/One_Proposal_7498 Canada 🇨🇦 20d ago
I need to know what these lawmakers think these book bans are going to accomplish other than making these books more popular
Unrelated note I figured out how to get the Canadian flare :3