You know what? I just realized what irritates me about holier-than-thou types

[conuly]

Consider amazon.com book reviews. If a book dares show a possibly gay couple, or witchcraft (Harry Potter, anyone?) or a morally ambiguous situation, they're right there insulting it, giving it 1-star ratings, saying that they "threw the filth out" and that nobody should buy it.

There are a number of books I wouldn't buy for Ana or Seth because of my religious beliefs. I'm uncomfortable with the two board books Ana got from her grandmother, just because I think she's too young for that sort of preaching. So I read through books, and decide whether or not I want to buy them based on my beliefs. Jenn doesn't want any books that promote bottlefeeding. This means *show* bottlefeeding, which is sometimes a tough sell, but that's fair. She reads through books before she buys them. And you know what? Neither of us is going to go and whine that "OMG! THIS BOOK DID SOMETHING I DIDN'T LIKE!!!!" on amazon. That's stupid. The only way I would even come close is if I thought a book was misleading (say, it professed to be about God's love, and it turned out to be a front for creationism), and even then I wouldn't insult it. I'd give it rating based on the writing and pictures and say "Not what we were looking for, great if this *is* what you are looking for". I wouldn't accuse the Christian Right of having an agenda (though they certainly do), or of trying to warp children's minds, and I certainly wouldn't have histrionics about "having to check out kids books before buying". If you want to filter what your children are exposed to, you have to actually do this. Stupid, stupid!

/pissed off

Edit: You know what's interesting? I quoted something I've seen very often, about how "that filth went right in the trash", and two commentors immediately jumped to "book burners". Oddly, I didn't mention book burning (either for a political reason, or because even throwing it out isn't safe) at all.

Comments

[leora.livejournal.com]

I've only burned written matter once. I don't like book burning. But they looked like Archie comics and I didn't look closely enough to see that they were Christian material using Archie characters. Plus, they were stupid. But on the up side, if you live in a really tall house, and you only burn very small fragments of paper, you can safely drop burning paper out the window, and it will burn up before it hits anything, so it won't start any fires. This is quite cool. But most of it we just burned inside. I felt very cheated. Then I checked my comics more carefully before buying them after that.

[rainbow-goddess.livejournal.com]

The thing is, in order to burn the books, they have to buy them first. So the publisher and the author are still getting their money, regardless of what happens to the books after they're bought and paid for.

It's like all those people who bought expensive French wines just for the purpose of pouring them down the sewers. The wineries still got the money.

Personally, I don't believe in burning reading material, no matter how offensive it is to me or my principles. It's censorship. It has a right to exist, whether I like it or not. If I don't like religious people burning books about witchcraft or gay people, I'm not any better than they are if I burn their religious material.

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of mixed -- people will give good reviews if it meshes with their beliefs, maybe stars are a bad idea? Should be able to say, hey, if you are Christian or an attachment parent or hate violence, stay away from this book.

[conuly]

There's a difference - a big difference - between saying "if this thing *insert random thing* doesn't mesh with your values, you should know about it" and saying "OMG! THIS IS EVIL! IT SUCKS! IT SHOULD BE BANNED!"

And the first one? You can't even say that with a straight face if whatever "evil" thing it is is obvious from the book. No fair going to give Harry Potter books a low rating for containing witchcraft.

[lizziey.livejournal.com]

because, you know, the child won't EVER see a bottle-fed infant in public, and should be led to believe that if you were bottle fed your parents sucked as humans.

[leora.livejournal.com]

I've only burned written matter once. I don't like book burning. But they looked like Archie comics and I didn't look closely enough to see that they were Christian material using Archie characters. Plus, they were stupid. But on the up side, if you live in a really tall house, and you only burn very small fragments of paper, you can safely drop burning paper out the window, and it will burn up before it hits anything, so it won't start any fires. This is quite cool. But most of it we just burned inside. I felt very cheated. Then I checked my comics more carefully before buying them after that.

[rainbow-goddess.livejournal.com]

The thing is, in order to burn the books, they have to buy them first. So the publisher and the author are still getting their money, regardless of what happens to the books after they're bought and paid for.

It's like all those people who bought expensive French wines just for the purpose of pouring them down the sewers. The wineries still got the money.

Personally, I don't believe in burning reading material, no matter how offensive it is to me or my principles. It's censorship. It has a right to exist, whether I like it or not. If I don't like religious people burning books about witchcraft or gay people, I'm not any better than they are if I burn their religious material.

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of mixed -- people will give good reviews if it meshes with their beliefs, maybe stars are a bad idea? Should be able to say, hey, if you are Christian or an attachment parent or hate violence, stay away from this book.

[conuly]

There's a difference - a big difference - between saying "if this thing *insert random thing* doesn't mesh with your values, you should know about it" and saying "OMG! THIS IS EVIL! IT SUCKS! IT SHOULD BE BANNED!"

And the first one? You can't even say that with a straight face if whatever "evil" thing it is is obvious from the book. No fair going to give Harry Potter books a low rating for containing witchcraft.

[lizziey.livejournal.com]

because, you know, the child won't EVER see a bottle-fed infant in public, and should be led to believe that if you were bottle fed your parents sucked as humans.