Debunking the lie about book bans once and for all

Today, I was reading an article about Mark Zuckerberg’s bombshell admission that he and his company, Meta, caved to inappropriate government censorship when I came across the line, “Republicans… have been on a book-banning spree at schools nationwide.” I am so sick of this lie. Of course, it’s election season, and I’m used to politicians lying about each other. But this lie in particular is so outrageously inaccurate, so brazenly deceptive, I can hardly believe it has become this ubiquitous. So, allow me to set the record straight, once and for all:

Would you show an R-rated movie in the classroom?

You know where I’m going with this. We all understand that certain movies and books do not belong in the classroom. Even the left knows this. For example, we have been removing “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” from many schools for several years now. Why? Because the book’s use of the N-word is considered inappropriate and insensitive, especially for younger audiences. This is totally understandable (even though most consider Mark Twain’s classic novel an anti-racist text). And as far as I can tell, no one on the left cried foul when Twain fell prey to their “book-banning sprees.” That’s because there’s a massive difference between banning books and disallowing minors from reading them at school.

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We do not — or, at least, should not — show R-rated movies at school. Yet, no one says these are “banned” movies because of it. No one says it because we know it’s not true. R-rated movies are not banned, they are simply age-inappropriate. The same is true of books that parents oppose due to controversial content. Instead of playing dumb and claiming “right-wing extremists are banning books,” as if context is irrelevant, the media should instead more truthfully write, “parents and guardians objected to certain explicit materials.”

The argument against so-called book bans is very one-sided.

Imagine if I tried to teach a class about Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount at my local public school or assigned readings from the ancient biblical book of Proverbs. Imagine if I added Brave Books — kids’ books that teach conservative Christian values — to my school library. I would probably get shut down. But by the left’s definition, this would constitute a book ban.

It isn’t a perfect example, I understand. But my point is this: at the same time that the educational system and media want to protest parents who push to exclude explicit books from school, they themselves exclude many books, which, often, are not even graphic or inappropriate. It’s not disallowing kids from reading certain books that bothers them (they do that all the time!); it’s protecting kids from reading sexually explicit books that seems to provoke their ire.

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The takeaway is clear: “educational standards” that promote left-wing viewpoints are legitimate and proper, whereas standards that support traditional values are impermissible.

Moreover, we must not forget that, just last year, a major woke publisher edited the classic works of Roald Dahl, including “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “James and the Giant Peach,” and “The BFG,” removing offensive words like “fat,” redacting gendered language, and cutting entire sentences about toy guns. That kind of censorship is O.K. But dare you try to remove a book containing incest, pedophilia, sexual intercourse, and obscene language from your school library, and you’re a radical, right-wing extremist.

Ultimately, this is an attack against the family, targeting childhood innocence and parents who protect their kids. At Convention of States, we believe that parental rights take precedence over what woke educators and the media say about banned books. It’s time to put their lies to rest once and for all.

To support Convention of States, sign the COS petition below.