Teacher Melissa Barnett takes to Twitter and praises the dumping of classic books — including works by Orwell, Steinbeck and Vonnegut — to replace them with “relevant and culturally-diverse literature.” Meanwhile, a website called The Conversation bans ideas from so-called “climate change deniers”. Is this how progressives argue their case, or merely the prelude to the death knell of western civilization?
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Ban Classic Books and Climate-Change Deniers: How Progressives Argue Their Case
Teacher Melissa Barnett takes to Twitter and praises the dumping of classic books — including works by Orwell, Steinbeck and Vonnegut — to replace them with “relevant and culturally-diverse literature.”
18 replies on “Ban Classic Books and Climate-Change Deniers: How Progressives Argue Their Case”
I have a fairly good library and I likely have many of the books that ended up in that dumpster…. In fact, I generally go out of my way to find and purchase books that would drive SJWs insane !!! Just sayin’ PS: silly me, they’re already insane..oh well..JS
When I was in high school, I had to do a book report on one of Jane Austen’s books. I panned it, because it was the most dull, boring thing I had ever read. However, I didn’t dare turn the report in like that, because the teacher would have made me regret it. It was, after all, literature, and so there had to be something positive I could say. So I read it again, this time looking for positive things – and fell in love with the book. Have all of her books now, and I restrict myself to reading them no oftener than every 5 years so I don’t get them memorized. Bless that narrow-minded high school dragon of an English teacher.
I wonder how many copies of Fahrenheit 451 were in those bins.
It has been my experience, that at least in middle school, they don’t read books anymore. They read excerpts. Excerpts are easier to select, and therefore, manipulate. Also, since today’s kids are trained not to have an attention span longer than 3 minutes, excerpts are digestible. There is also an emphasis on non-fiction so we can train the little bots to fill out their McDonald employment applications.
That woman applauding the books being thrown away, leaves me with one quote from one of my favorite movies.
“It tells me, that goose-stepping morons like yourself should try *reading* books instead of *burning* them!”
-Professor Henry Jones
Throw out Jane Austen? What a loon.
Read “Usher 2” from The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury 🙂 a delightful story of what can happen when people destroy good literature for no good reason.
Thanks, I’ll look it up…
A few years ago, I decided to read one of the books [I won’t give the title and author) that appears on one of the modern “best 100 books”. It was written by a suitably diverse author — a woman of color. The book even got a Pulitzer.
The book didn’t grab me right away, but I pushed on — telling myself that it would probably get better by page 50. At 50 pages, it still didn’t inspire me, so I told myself, “Give it 100 pages.” I made it to 100 pages, and was coming to the conclusion that it is one of the worst books I’d ever read. But, I kept going — more out of stubbornness about not giving up than anything else.
In the end, I made it about two-thirds of the way through the 300-odd pages and I simply could not take it anymore. At that point of my excruciating endeavor, I still couldn’t tell where the book was going.
My idea of Hell would be to be stranded on a desert isle with only one book and it would be this one.
I told you I’m not allowed to argue unless you pay.
Back when I was in high school (when dinosaurs roamed the earth😉) my English teacher have us a choice of 2 books to read. – The fall of the house of Usher or The Hobbit. I had already read The fall of the house of Usher in jr high, along with Murder in the Rue Morgue, the Gold Bug, Telltale heart, pit and the pendulum and any Poe i could get my hands on. So I read The Hobbit. And thus began my journey into Middle Earth. Read The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings at least 23 time. Read Simarillion and other Tolkien books more than once. “In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit.” Done from memory.Love reading.
Bill, this isn’t an argument! It’s just contradiction!
Conundrum , if we point out that Zinn’s history shouldn’t be used in schools we would be accused of banning books.
I’m curious if anyone else has experienced anything differently, but *every* political debate with Leftists ends with them employing one of these tactics: 1) Ignore the point that defeats their argument, 2) Change topic, 3) Personal attack, or 4) Some combination of the above three.
I’ve given up trying to show reason to Leftists. When they try to engage I’ll be as respectful as I can and present facts until they get frustrated and lose it. At which point I thank them for conceding that they’re wrong.
The four tactics you list are not exclusive to Leftists. They are, in fact, common human behaviors exhibited by mentally-lazy individuals. The Leftists of the world have just perfected these traits to the level of unconscious habit. Hmmmm … Leftist, mentally-lazy, habitual … those words appear redundant.
I would have no problem with the burning of books if the people who want books burned would burn themselves with the books they burn. The problem would be self limiting.
Agreed. Burn all the books they want. We’ll just print more. Unfortunately, your solution will not prevent the production of more Leftists. Cancers always return. Sigh.
Gotta love my home state – Jersey represent!