Erik Haugen @ech@qoto.org

@jeffcliff @barney @freemo Your ableist privilege is showing...

@freemo @jeffcliff @barney yeah I guess I see your point, especially for that particular job.

@jeffcliff @barney @freemo they're kind of a problem; these are obviously facts about masks that make them somewhat if a problem. I'm not sure I approve of banning them anywhere, though.

For kind of the reasons outlined here I've sort of avoided wearing them as much as possible, But I'm happy to wear them in your store if you ask or whatever makes you comfortable.

@freemo @barney you suggest masks make things harder for deaf people therefore you are a fascist. 😂

@freemo @john I have this vague sense of discomfort about Mastodon because of the extensive culture of defederating/blocking/banning on some major instances. It will be interesting to see how/if it plays out. e.g. think how impoverished we'd be here on qoto without any sauropod updates. #patchyverse

@iDoobyLeaves@noagendasocial.com @freemo @mzan Yeah but like does that even happen at drag queen story hours or whatever? (I've never been to one.)

@olives @freemo when you're admonishing someone be careful not to do the exact thing the you're admonishing them not to do.

@olives @freemo indeed we do see that kind of thing a lot; it's good to be careful about that. I'm not sure why you are admonishing me here though? That book does actually have that kind of material in it.

@olives @freemo Was something I said misleading? What is "it" in your sentence "...it was someone's...." – are you talking about "The Bluest Eye"?

If so, please pardon me I did not mean to imply anything specific about that book, I can see how my post implies that.

I only mentioned it because it seems to be *the* canonical example of a book "banned" for mature content, so I thought it was interesting that the public library in ConservativeUtoptia-area Texas still carried it despite all the noise about alleged book bannings. I've never read it.

@freemo @olives yeah, you're going to have some wacko parents objecting to every book: and I think there are some real questions here about processes that need to be in place so that fringy objections don't carry the day.

@freemo @PBruce @olives in my defense I did say I'm not buying the struggle session story. As we discussed a while back also I'm not buying the rumors about male strippers for children either.

@freemo @olives Well I'll be the first to admit the right wing can go too far at times. Which is why I'm wondering if DeSantis has going too far in this respect.

Book bans, for example, is an adjacent issue. On one hand, for all I know pearl-clutching conservatives are in fact banning all books that give any kind of insight into what life is like as a person of color in America today. But moving a book that depicts child rape from the children's section to the adult section isn't a "ban", and it seems like every time I look into a specific ban, it's more like the latter, not the former.

For what it's worth, I checked my local library in conservative suburban Texas and it still carries Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye.

@freemo @PBruce @olives this is a Shiri's Scissor kind of a thing? I have no idea what in that post triggered that. Interesting🤔

@freemo @PBruce @olives I would love to be "corrected": are any school districts banning teaching Jim Crow anywhere in the US? (Or how else is this playing out in problematic ways? I don't know.)

Thinking back to my education decades ago, I think overall it could have been a lot better: I didn't learn about the Tulsa massacre until just a few years ago, for example. The Mexican–American War I think should be presented critically – US actions/motives were far from pure, and I don't I think our curricula back then was great in that regard. (Is it today? I don't know.) Those are just some examples.

@freemo @PBruce @olives did somebody block me for objecting to humiliating 6-year-olds?

@PBruce @freemo @olives I've read some of the laws from some states, and IANAL but it seems the things that are being banned specifically are e.g. teaching that white people are inherently racist by virtue of being white, or that some races have inherent moral superiority over others. etc.

There were rumors of struggle sessions where, for example, white 6yos were being humiliated in class for being evil white people. I am assuming such events are super rare or never happened (i.e. they are lies), but there's this hysterical reaction to the rumors, and I think the laws we're seeing are directed at that sort of thing.

Then, lefter-leaning media describes those laws as banning teaching Jim Crow, which is, as far as I have seen, also a lie.

I'm wondering what these regulations are doing *in practice*, if anything.

@freemo @PBruce @olives Bush & Obama built hundreds of miles of border walls, with bipartisan support. 🤷

I think you're right that it's idiotic; it doesn't really address today's immigration problems IIUC.

I'd rather the money was spent on "smart walls" i.e. drones to patrol the border areas to make sure e.g. nobody is stranded/etc. (It's a dangerous trek!)

@PBruce @freemo @olives But *how* exactly are they limited?

Is there a school that is literally not teaching about Jim Crow? (Honest question – sifting through the rhetoric has proven quite a challenge for me on this kind of issue.)

@PBruce @freemo @olives Similarly, "Banning history" means a certain thing that isn't banning history.

@freemo @PBruce @olives Can you tell me more about how Florida is not allowing people to tell others that they are gay? I thought "don't say gay" had more to do with education curriculum etc.