I’ve been seeing a lot of posts regarding politics on Facebook. Groups who are repeating their rules that disallow political discussions, admins who have to repeat the rules and justify the removal of posts and comments, members who question the grey areas of discussion. I appreciate that our group does not censor our conversations (and the extra effort that must be involved in enabling and monitoring passionate discussions), even though I rarely participate in political discussions. I appreciate that there is a need for dialogue and a safe place where this can happen.
I remember a recent post in our group about banned books and draw similarities between the banning of books and the banning of political discussion in book clubs, or the banning of any topic of discussion in a book club. Some book clubs even ban certain books from being presented for discussion, which, in my mind is an unusual stance for a general book club (I’ve seen this happen in book club groups with no particular affiliation or some that are like an Oprah’s or Reece’s book club type organization).
Here is an excerpt from that post on banned books:
“Banned books week used to be a fun thing for librarians, when there were maybe fifty books we had that were banned for a variety of reasons.”
“Now, it’s more like fifteen hundred books. And as I go through the list, I realize they are all books about belonging.”
“This is not about language, or content. This is not about different ideas of what is appropriate. These bans are targeting books about belonging, about families, culture and identity.”
And here is the link to the post, thankfully still available as there were many comments under the post: https://www.facebook.com/groups/louisepenny/posts/1616093005609652/
Thank you to everyone who voices their thoughts and engages in thoughtful discussion. Beyond those who you chat with in the comments, there are many others who are “read only” and learn and grow from your participation.