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It's quite amazing to watch propaganda in action. It poses as something positive and unifying as it actively seeks to deceive and manipulate. And it is unifying. It unifies a group of people in obedience and ignorance. Its goal is to rally support (or hate) with as little real information as possible.
It's difficult to accept that most human opinions and behaviors are influenced by propaganda. The idea is so offensive and large-scale that it's generally dismissed to protect the mind from cognitive dissonance. Thus, many people reject the idea that they are controlled by the media they consume; that's only true for the people we disagree with. (I've written a brief history of propaganda in the U.S. here for a more in-depth explanation.)
Cue the new Buy Banned Books movement--a relatively small movement that is successfully using propaganda through photos and memes. It is propaganda in a microcosm, and it presents a great opportunity to examine how propaganda works.
Supporters of the Buy Banned Books movement share memes that speak of the dangers of banning books and encourage people to buy books that have been banned or challenged by parents. These memes seem pretty straight forward. Banning books is bad. The messaging evokes a collective memory of 1940s Germany-style book burnings and totalitarian suppression of ideas. I generally agree, and I am against banning books. I'm willing to bet I've read more of the traditional banned book list than most, and they tend to be some of my favorite reads. This is precisely why I do not participate in the book challenges happening in schools right now. However, I do have many friends who are actively seeking to remove specific books from school libraries, and I understand their motivation. Let me explain what is really happening so you understand the information that the Buy Banned Books memes leave out.
The Buy Banned Books memes depict previously banned books--1984, Catch-22, The Glass Castle, Beloved, and other important classics that teach universal truths and overcoming hardship. Scattered among them are mild examples of today's challenged books such as The Hate U Give. This is highly manipulative. It implies that today's parents are just as frivolous as those in Strongsville, OH, who had Catch-22 banned for indecent language in 1972. This has resulted in deep schisms within communities, as most successful propaganda does. (Note that the people perpetuating this meme movement are some of the same people who celebrated when Dr. Suess books they deemed offensive were canceled, so is this really about the evils of banning books?)
Are today's challenged books just the next To Kill a Mockingbird? That book depicts rape, after all. What's so different? I will let you decide for yourself with just a few examples from the libraries of Rockwood School District.
I'm not sure I need to add much explanation to these examples. It would be hard to argue that these should be read to children without being successfully propagandized. With increased physical and sexual violence in schools, the parents who are challenging books like these have legitimate concerns.
Check out this book passage that a concerned parent provided to a group related to the Buy Banned Books scheme. Self-proclaimed teachers challenged the mother to "put it in context," explained that she wasn't interpreting the passage correctly, and eventually the admin deleted her comments completely. Why? Because examples like this are a damper to their successful ad campaign, which relies on nostalgia (not reality) to keep the average parent believing that questioning teachers or the content of a book is always bad.
So while I'm still not a book banning convert, I will challenge these teachers to "put it in context." Are these books age-appropriate? What educational value do they have? Because to me, the "context" is that providing these materials to minors is nothing more than pedophilic grooming. It's time to stop making excused for predatory behavior and get back to educating.
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