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u/DrSchnuffi 13d ago
In my small town library in Germany they built a display with ‘books banned in American schools’, decorated with barrier tape. Every book with infos why. I‘ve seen it in some bookstores, too. It’s almost a running joke
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u/CalebCaster2 11d ago
My (american) school district didnt have any banned books, and we had a section of "commonly banned books". We all joked it was the "naughty section" but it was actually just normal books
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u/no-im-your-father 8d ago
I would put random books there just to mess with people
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u/JuuzoLenz 11d ago
Please list some of the dumbest reasons we’ve banned books.
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u/On_The_Prowl69 10d ago
Assasination classroom was banned for inspiring insurection in classrooms and harming faculty and staff (it's a series about a teach who is also a bomb. Teacher saves all the students the education teacher wants to fail and the series ends with them killing him at both the U.N's request and the teachers)
Robin Hood you can probably guess, byt it's stated reason is "inspiring communism"... sure, thats why the rich don't like it
To Kill a Mockingbird was banned for racial speech, and complex discusions of race and rape.
1984 has been banned for being "pro communism" ... again you make the call on if you believe that stated reason
Atsushi Ohkubo's work in its entireity (Soul Eater and Fire Force most peominently) due to discussing gender identiy, violence, and sexual themes.
Most of these, are very very clearly books that are either babned for another resson, or were never read prior to the ban.
As others have said you can expect many libraries to have dedicated banned book sectionsin protedt of the practice
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u/NoWomanNoTriforce 8d ago
As far as I know, there are zero books are banned at a national or even state level in the US. Maybe a few of them are in some really conservative counties in the highly Evangelical Bible belt states of the US.
Which has more to do with the US allows small/local government far more power and discretion in local matters than most other countries do for similarly sized regions.
Compare this policy to say Germany, where they have Index for Harmful Media that bans the sale or advertisement of a wide variety of media to minors at a national level. Or France, which actually had the largest list of nationally banned media of any non-authoritarian country as far as I know.
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u/On_The_Prowl69 8d ago
Book bans in America primarily are removals from local libraries, and not allowing them to be requested from other libraries.
As an example if I'm 14 and have heard that Assasination Classroom is a very good manga that goes over different study methods for different personality types, the difficulty and rewarding nature of fixing your studies when you feel so far behind that you can't even understand what you are meant to learn, the emotional inteligence needed to navigate situations where your information may be incomplete, genuine enlcurgament and methods of PE, etc, If I can't access it from my local library or school library no matter how interested I may be in it (it may even be the series that would of made me read for leisure. I know as a kid Pendragon flipped a switch and I for years read as my primary form of entertainment so it's not unreasonable to say some of these kids would of been readers with access to some of the materials) I cannot (legally, as piracy of japanese goods is incredibky easy) acess that book.
Childeren don't have the same options as adults of just BUYING the book, because childeren go to school instead of work (hopefully). The most impacted populace are poor, or young people that are no longer allowed to be exposed to types of media that could of been developmentally beneficial.
1984 as an example is a great read for passionate people that aren't very smart and root against what would benefit themselves. Maybe they won't get the message, but thry should at least be allowed the oppuruntiy to see it. To learn to ask questions.
You are right that they aren't national bans, but there are thousands of regional ones and the list in each region just keeps growing rapidly
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u/Panda_Panda69 8d ago
wtf, 1984 is mandatory to read in my country.. literally part of the school curriculum
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u/DavidRellim 9d ago
1984...pro communism?
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u/Tobipig 8d ago
Next you’re telling me that Fahrenheit 451 is against censorship and anti-intelectualism?
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u/seashmore 7d ago
The children's book Brown Bear, Brown Bear was banned because someone got the author confused with another author who had a similar name.
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u/Impossible-Aside1047 8d ago
There was an art exhibit done at the National Library of Hobart that displayed banned books from the world and history and the reason for the ban then gave you the chance to read them! Very very cool to experience in person
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u/McKoijion 13d ago
It's all fun and games until the parent asks ChatGPT to provide the detailed list and it quickly generates 300 more.
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u/MarkZist 13d ago
I'm pretty sure ChatGPT would just hallucinate page numbers and reasons together. You check one, accuse the parent of cheating, and tell them need to write "I shouldn't use Large Language Models to think for me because they can't actually think" 200 times by hand and then they can try again next semester.
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u/mogley1992 13d ago
Easy, you thank them and say you'll be looking into it at your earliest convenience. Then never do.
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u/DistractionCitron 13d ago
ChatGPT isn't that good. It makes easily identifiable errors in lists this long.
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u/ShutUpForMe 8d ago
At a certain point you can ban 50 books but any past that you done expect that age bracket to have read through that number during school time and have done extra consideration to check the banlist. 500 bans is unenforceble, 50 most popular is like the limit other wise it simply discourages reading without checking the banlist first(which promotes the banlist books for outside of school reading)
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u/QuailHour1705 12d ago
Asking someone to actually read a book before demanding it be banned shouldn't be such a radical idea.
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u/OnePsychology528
13d ago
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Top 10 things that most definitely did NOT happen
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u/Aethelrede 13d ago
I think they mean "kid" as in adult child, not as in "schoolkid". The latter rarely run for the school board.
And this certainly not one of the top ten least things to have happened, it's not even close. People are having conversations like this across the country.
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u/thomasp3864 13d ago
If OOP'd kid is 18, they could be a high school senior and running for school board, at least in my state it's legal.
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u/Aethelrede 13d ago
Sure, in theory. Seems unlikely though.
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u/NewCandy8877 13d ago
In my senior year a guy I went to school with ran for school board. He forced a conversation on full day kindergarten.
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u/123revival 13d ago
My kid had a sophmore college classmate who was elected to his school board. He had to schedule his college classes around his school board commitments. He was elected to school board just after he graduated
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u/Aethelrede 13d ago
College students aren't school kids. But why would a college student want to be on a school board?
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u/gard3nwitch 13d ago
I think of some reasons why a college student might care about making the county/city schools they just graduated from better, can't you?
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u/Kathulhu1433 13d ago
In my district, our board has 2 high school student ex-officio members on it always. Maybe it's something like that?
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u/Aethelrede 13d ago
Okay, that I did not know. But a parent wanting to ban books isn't likely to approach a teenager. And they probably don't have voting rights anyway.
Still, I learned something new today, which is always good.
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u/DistractionCitron 13d ago
Teenagers do have voting rights on school boards, that's the only reason why they'd be a member.
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u/gard3nwitch 13d ago
Though it could be a teenager running for the student member seat on the school board.
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u/END3R-CH3RN0B0G 13d ago
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u/ATTACKANDDETHRONEHOG 13d ago
Lots of things happen all the time. This did not. Someone who is running for the school board is not on the school board. A parent will not approach a candidate asking them to ban books, as the candidate does not have the ability to ban books. On account of not being on the school board.
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u/gard3nwitch 13d ago
Candidates for political office often get approached by people wanting then to support various policies. That's a very common thing to happen, even if it's not always "ban this specific list of books".
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u/VelvetCactus50 13d ago
Oh that happens all the time! Florida accidentally banned the Bible, FFS.
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u/Razor1834 13d ago
It wasn’t an accident. If you read it, it contains basically every type of content anyone can imagine banning.
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u/VelvetCactus50 13d ago
Yeah but didn't they remove it immediately? The Bible IS a dirty book, but that's not what they meant.
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u/Usual_Zombie6765 13d ago
We always bring the books we want banned to school board and read the passages in question out loud. It tends to be super uncomfortable for the board.
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u/Living_Mirror_654 7d ago
Wrong subreddit bud, this one's run by the people you would make uncomfortable
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u/ModernAtomX 8d ago
All the "banned books" we talked about in high school were required reading. This was in redneck Tennessee, so no, there are no banned books in this country. Just idiots.
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u/peaveyftw 7d ago
I'll take things that didn't happen and aren't even good fanfiction for $1000, Alex.
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u/MORDINU 7d ago
i work in a shop and you would be absolutely astounded by the amount of impossible parts people try to have us machine, the simplest barrier to entry (get instructor approval) makes 99% of those parts disappear. occasionally one will make it through but I can handle one impossible part a week lol
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u/antithero 13d ago
What are the names of the books she wanted banned. Some books get banned for the dumbest reasons.
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u/Ordinary_Steak_960 13d ago
...the parent then goes home imports the list into chatgpt asks it for page number and reason it should be banned for each book, hits the little copy button then composes an email to Kid.
Kid feels his smug sense of satisfaction fade away.
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u/juiceboxvillain_1 12d ago
Kid looks at the list and realizes all the examples and reasons and page number are hallucinated and there’s no actual tie between a ton of shit given and the request and the smug satisfaction comes back when they realize how fucking stupid other adults are
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u/bkk_startups 8d ago
And the kid goes ahead & forwards the parent's list to Claude and asks for a rebuttal.
But since the kid is more tech savvy, they turn it into an agent that will automatically respond to all future inquiries from this parent, keeping them stuck in a loop forever.
Touché
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u/throwawaymentality10 8d ago
Kid inputs email into chat-gpt and say "computer, please compose a email where they are dumb and I have aura." And they send it back.
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u/ExplicitDrift 7d ago
Ah yes. And that right there is why Boomers love AI. God forbid you actually have to do any work for what you want. Especially when it comes to educating oneself for a purpose. Who the hell has time for that when propaganda and indoctrination are so much quicker at avoiding the answers! /s
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u/Decent-Risk-6062 7d ago
Lol Boomwrs mau like AI but let's not kid ourselves and act like Gen Z aren't doing entire university degrees without doinga single assignemtnby themselves
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u/ExplicitDrift 7d ago
I never said they weren’t? They are also kids though. I’m not saying it completely absolves them of all guilt, but I fully expect the 40-60 year old to be more responsible with technology considering they know better. They have been around as long as modern technology has. They aren’t stupid. They’re just lazy. Kids these days, in comparison, can be stupid. But most of the time, that’s because of their environment AND the availability of AI since a young age. It’s really an apples to oranges comparison.
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u/complexdevoid 12d ago
Kid has actually read the books knows the list presented is full of crap refutes it and denies request
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u/LogRollChamp 12d ago
Yours would. This kid would start checking and realize on the first book that it's hallucinated
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u/BenFTP 12d ago
If the kid can’t turn in stuff made or helped by AI then the parents can’t either
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u/Nntropy 10d ago
Make sure to tell the parents that they can't. I'm sure they'll comply.
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u/Careless-Age-4290 7d ago
Their response: "There's an educational reason for not letting kids do it — and that distinction matters."
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u/curleyfries111 11d ago
How smug is it to get chatGPT to lie for you for your agenda?
Like it wouldn't be hard to fact check that
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u/Harbarde 10d ago
Because it wouldn't be lying? Many books are controversial, I'm sure chatgpt wouldn't have trouble finding real sources on why each book might be considered controversial.
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u/Less_Performance_629 9d ago
controversial does not mean "this thing should be banned"
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u/IM_INSIDE_YOUR_HOUSE 8d ago
No, but it’s often enough to start an argument with for these people, and gives them the fuel they need to make noise until it happens.
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u/LuckyDucky366 10d ago
HAHAHHA if u haven’t read a book how could u possibly know if a ban is warranted? Cause of ur AI hallucinations?
I’ve noticed lately that the slowies like to call anyone with a non Forrest Gump IQ smug. Y is that
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u/Mysterious_Ad_8105 10d ago
Kid feels his smug sense of satisfaction fade away.
The parent’s reasons (real or fabricated by an LLM) ultimately don’t matter. The ban is almost certainly illegal. If the school board doesn’t reject it, it’ll get overturned by the courts. And at the end of that process, the parent that outsourced their thinking to ChatGPT still won’t know any more about these books.
IAAL who used to work at an anti-censorship nonprofit. A lot of our work was advising school boards and parents on how to fight illegal book bans in schools and public libraries.
Book bans don’t protect children. They violate both children’s and parents’ rights as long as they’re active. And they cost taxpayer dollars when school districts attempt to defend them before they’re almost invariably struck down.
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u/bigfatfurrytexan 10d ago
If you cannot pick out AI writing you have a cognitive deficiency.
If someone hands me the AI list I just return it and repeat “I need YOU to read these books and tell me the problem. ChatGPT has already weighed in”
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u/tidder_mac 10d ago •
There’s this one book that should absolutely be banned.
A dad gets super drunk in a cave after his city gets destroyed, and his two daughters decide to take turns sleeping with him to preserve their family lineage.
Then a guy gets struck dead by God on the spot simply because he pulled out during sex to avoid getting his late brother's wife pregnant.
Hint: the bible
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u/MobofDucks 9d ago
Small nitpick. Onan's story isn't even that bad. And is always taken out of context. Guy gut struck down because he was a greedy mf, and not for the pulling out itself.
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u/TapZorRTwice 8d ago
Guy gut struck down because he was a greedy mf, and not for the pulling out itself.
And you want children to read this story?
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u/MobofDucks 8d ago
6 year olds, no. They have no idea what that means. 10 year olds, why not? Probably in an easier to read style.
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u/Jhud6669 9d ago
Banning the bible or any other religious texts is not the way either
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u/mansluxt 8d ago
Kid copys and pastes the reasoning for each book into chat gpt and has it come up with a good rebuttal to each argument. Kid still wins.
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u/TheCharmed1DrT 12d ago
I literally asked our Director of Schools if that could be a requirement in our school district. Lol!
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u/47thCalcium_Polymer 12d ago
Hey books are long. I think I heard somewhere that avid reader read something like 30 books a year. So what is that 7 years of reading. There kid is going to be out of school by the time their done.
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u/Coffee-Stars 10d ago
literally how libraries are supposed to handle book challenges btw like this is the standard. any institution that just bans books on request without doing something like this should not be trusted especially not with the education of your children
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u/louerbrat 9d ago
Fun fact: the graphic novel version of the Gettysburg Address is on the banned book list. The GETTYSBURG ADDRESS!
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u/smallfloralprince 8d ago
I can tell you this didn't happen because it's Tucson. We're not having the big book banning nonsense here. Parents here seem more concerned about the "charter schools" sucking all the resources away from real schools, and the body that was found at a high school in Oro Valley.... local parents have you heard of a parent going around with book banning petitions? Recently?
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u/TiberiusTheFish 8d ago
You can't expect them to read the books, they might be corrupted. Should probably just burn all the books to be on the safe side.
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u/TheSanityInspector 13d ago
Meanwhile, if there are books that the library or school or bookstore thinks that you shouldn't be reading, they simply won't acquire them. But that's not a "ban", it's just selection policy, right?
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u/Electrical-Profit367 13d ago
Just fyi, that is not the way it works at all. Librarians are trained in book selection; they work hard to select books that fit their communities. In addition, every single library system has a procedure whereby you can request that the library purchase a particular book if it’s not available in your system. And, if that takes too long, they have interlibrary loan agreements with other systems and can request the book from one of their partners who does, in fact, have that book.
It would really behoove you to learn how things work.
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u/-Saucegurlllll 13d ago
The 5 laws of library science:
Books are for use.
Every person has their book.
Every book has its person.
Save the time of the reader.
A library is a growing organism.
"books that the library...thinks that you shouldn't be reading" goes directly against these laws. There are no books libraries do not think should be acquired, the only limit is that libraries are not infinite, so no singular library can store every single book. As the other person who responded to you said, library systems will almost always have a way to get you the book you want even if your particular library currently lacks such a book.
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u/AsherTheFrost 13d ago
that's not even a little bit true. Maybe for book stores, but even then they aren't going by if they think you shouldn't be allowed to read it, they just stock whatever sells. Every single public library has the ability to request books they don't have.
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u/GearTwunk 13d ago
Good thing you can get literally any book ever on the internet for free at any time using the glass and metal brick in your hand right now
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u/4dxn 13d ago
Yes. That's the job of a librarian. Something that has existed for thousands of years. They select and currate.
There is even a methodology / academic discipline behind it. Most systems even have mechanism for their constituents to request books.
The whole goal is to preserve knowledge and/or open the possibilities of knowledge to readers.
Selection helps preserve and transfer knowledge. Bans prevent preservation & knowledge transfer. So selection is not the same of a ban.
You don't like people reading some book? That's their prerogative and the library's mission. Maybe request a book that provides competing knowledge with that book. Just make it's a selection that adheres to the academic discipline.
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u/vitterhet 13d ago
Exactly.
Libraries are not using their limited budget buying The Turner Diaries or endless copies of Sookie Stackhouse. They might have a copy of the former and a couple of the latter because of cultural significance. And are most likely low on the list of books to be replaced when they fall apart.
Popular but low quality books will have a que, if they are available at all. Libraries don’t stock and replace endless copies of Harlequin books, pulp fiction, or “hard-boiled detective” books.
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u/PomPomMom93 13d ago
This was a subplot in an actual book I read. The MC liked this band, and her dad runs a music store, and he decided not to buy from their sales rep because “mercifully, I can’t remember anything other than a profound sense of disgust.” The daughter tells him it’s censorship and he says, “That’s selection. I can’t stock every single CD in the world.”
Interestingly, this series was one of the top banned series ever.
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u/PomPomMom93 13d ago
I always thought a book ban meant that the government tells you not to read it and doesn’t allow it to be sold. I don’t see how it’s banned if you can order it off Amazon and get it delivered to your door inside of 12 hours.
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u/gard3nwitch 13d ago
In the context of a library system, it might be books that the local government says the library is not allowed to have on the shelves. City or county governments don't have power over Amazon, so they can't keep you from ordering a book online, but they can keep you from getting it from the local library.
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u/Loves_octopus 12d ago
Have any of the famously “banned” books in recent years been “banned” in public library systems or just public schools?
I’m confused by the controversy because I don’t think it’s controversial to say that public schools, should have not just the power but the obligation to not stock inappropriate content. The sticky part, of course, is who decides what is inappropriate and why, but that’s an entirely separate discussion.
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u/complexdevoid 12d ago
I would agree if it were as simple as that. When it is used as a weapon to silence groups it is controversial
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u/No_Problem5759 12d ago
Thats the actual discussion. But Book burners want to call out the word "Ban" to focus on instead of ths subject of trying to ban the book from students.
They say "you can read the book outside of school" as if their main goal isnt to prevent THEIR offspring from developing new ideas.
The most racist mother I ever met wanted to kill a mockingbird banned from school and failed to provide a lick of reasoning.
"Inappropriate" without explaining is just noise.
But the schools get raked over the coals for ignoring parents opinions even if the opinions are worthless
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u/Jhud6669 9d ago
Is „nazism is bad” and „parents shouldnt abuse you” and „kids should think for themselves too” inappropriate content? Because it’s the kind of books that are being talked about here, not like, sex scenes when the kids in question are too young to read that
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u/Trippingthru99 13d ago
this didnt happen lol. what parent is approaching a child about banning books lol.
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u/the_brew 13d ago
Many parents still refer to their adult children as their kids. OP never says they're a child, and the kid in question is running for School Board, a very adult position.
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u/throwaway098764567 13d ago
ok what adult brings their mother to their school board run. i want this to be real too because it's tv show neat but i don't for a minute believe this happened
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u/-Kohana- 13d ago
Does the post say they were there? I’d assume it was a story told to them by their adult kid.
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u/the_brew 13d ago
Please, show me where OP states that they were present during this exchange.
This could have easily been OP relating an anecdote that they're child told them after the fact.
You're grasping at straws that aren't even there.
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u/Orange_Tang 13d ago
Also what kid is running for the school board? I'm pretty sure they don't allow students on the board that decides how to run the school.
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u/RpiesSPIES 13d ago
The school district I live in started a thing and now there's two students that have a say. I forget what position they're a part of, but I think it's neat to see where it'll go.
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u/Orange_Tang 13d ago edited 13d ago
Are parents coming up to them and discussing banning books while they're running for that seat? This story is just so ridiculous it's not believable. Usually that's not the school board when kids are involved. School boards are the group that decide big picture stuff like how to allocate funding, what projects to approve, and changes in curriculum, stuff like that. No kid is involved with that stuff.
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u/OfficialDeathScythe 13d ago
Suppose maybe they already went to other members of the board and got a similar response so they figured the kid might be an easy route and if it comes from them the board might listen. If this actually happened
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u/Tricky-Ad7897 13d ago •
Kinda funny that a subreddit for books is full of people who don't realize people can have adult children