#Library bill of rights

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Mike Hixenbaugh at NBC News:

METROPOLIS, Ill. — The pastor began his sermon with a warning. Satan was winning territory across America, and now he was coming for their small town on the banks of the Ohio River in southern Illinois. “Evil is moving and motivated,” Brian Anderson told his congregation at Eastland Life Church on the evening of Jan. 13. “And the church is asleep.” But there was still time to fight back, Anderson said. He called on the God-fearing people of Metropolis to meet the enemy where Satan was planning his assault: at their town’s library. A public meeting was scheduled there that Tuesday, and Christians needed to make their voices heard. Otherwise, Anderson said, the library would soon resemble a scene “straight out of Sodom and Gomorrah.” The pastor’s call to action three months ago helped ignite a bitter fight that some locals have described as “a battle for the soul” of Metropolis.

The dispute has pitted the city’s mayor, a member of Eastland Life Church, against his own library board of trustees. It led to the abrupt dismissal of the library director, who accused the board of punishing her for her faith. And last month, it drew scrutiny from the state’s Democratic secretary of state, who said the events in Metropolis “should frighten and insult all Americans who believe in the freedom of speech and in our democracy.” Similar conflicts have rocked towns and suburbs across the country, as some conservatives — convinced that Democrats want to "sexualize" and indoctrinate children — have sought to purge libraries of books featuring LGBTQ characters and storylines. Republican state legislatures have taken up a wave of bills making it easier to remove books and threatening librarians with criminal charges if they allow minors to access titles that include depictions of sex.

To counter this movement, Illinois Democrats last year adopted the first state law in the nation aimed at preventing book bans— which ended up feeding the unrest in Metropolis. Under the law, public libraries can receive state grant funding only if they adhere to the Library Bill of Rights, a set of policies long promoted by the American Library Association to prevent censorship.

Many longtime residents were stunned when these national fissures erupted in Metropolis, a quirky, conservative city of about 6,000 people that has a reputation for welcoming outsiders. Because of its shared name with the fictional city from DC Comics, Metropolis has for the past half century marketed itself as “Superman's hometown.” Tens of thousands of tourists stop off Interstate 24 each year to pose beneath a 15-foot Superman statue at the center of town, to attend the summertime Superman Celebration, or to browse one of the world’s largest collections of Superman paraphernalia at the Super Museum.

“Where heroes and history meet on the shores of the majestic Ohio River,” the visitor’s bureau beckons, “Metropolis offers the best small-town America has to offer.” But lately, the pages of the Metropolis Planet — yes, even the masthead of the local newspaper pays homage to Clark Kent — have been filled with strife. Unlike in comic books and the Bible, the fight in Metropolis doesn’t break along simple ideological lines. Virtually everyone on either side of the conflict identifies as a Christian, and most folks here vote Republican. The real divide is between residents who believe the public library should adhere to their personal religious convictions, and those who argue that it should instead reflect a wide range of ideas and identities.

During his sermon in January and in the months since, Anderson has cast his congregation and their God as righteous defenders of Metropolis — and the Library Bill of Rights and its supporters as forces of evil. If Christians didn’t take a stand, Anderson warned, there would soon be an entire children’s section at the library “dedicated to sexual immorality and perversion.” And before long, he said, the town would be hosting “story hour with some guy that thinks he’s a girl.”

[...] A week later, the board went into a closed session and presented Baxter with an ultimatum: If she wanted to keep her job, she needed to sign a performance improvement plan. It stipulated that she would abide by the Library Bill of Rights, seek state grant funding and discontinue praying aloud with children and other religious activities at the library. Baxter refused to sign and began to criticize the board. Voices were raised, according to three members. After a few minutes, James, the board president, slammed her fist on the table. “This is not up for debate, Rosemary,” she said. “Either sign it, or don’t.” Baxter stood up and left. Minutes later, the board came out of closed session. By a vote of 5-3, they terminated Baxter’s employment. Baxter’s departure left the library in turmoil. Four employees resigned soon after, and the board got to work picking up the pieces.  They brought on a former library employee to serve as interim director and embarked on top-to-bottom reviews of the library’s catalog and finances. “Our focus,” James said, “is making sure our library is strong and healthy and there to serve everyone.” Then, on March 19, the story of Baxter’s firing was picked up by Blaze Media, a national conservative outlet. In a column titled, “A librarian’s faithful service is silenced by a secularist takeover,” conservative talk radio host Steve Deace interviewed Baxter and Anderson and reported that both had come under fire for their Christian beliefs.

Deace presented the local saga as a warning that evil forces were now coming for small-town America and blamed the problems in Metropolis, in part, on “a California transplant who is living with another man,” referring to Loverin, the library board member. Three days later, Metropolis Mayor Don Canada — who in 2021 had appointed Anderson, his pastor, to an open seat on the City Council — took a stand of his own. In letters addressed to James and two other board members, Canada announced that he’d “lost faith in the Board in its current state.” As a result, he was removing James and two others who’d voted to terminate Baxter. 

In Superman's alleged hometown of Metropolis, Illinois, the town has been engulfed with strife over conflicts on the direction of the town's public library, with Eastland Life Church Pastor Brian Anderson leading a war against the library as part of the faux moral panic about LGBTQ+ books that right-wingers falsely claim such books "sexualize" children.

#Metropolis Illinois #Illinois #Libraries #Book Bans #Book Banning #Public Libraries #Anti LGBTQ+ Extremism #Eastland Life Church #Brian Anderson #Alexi Giannoulias #Illinois HB2789 #American Library Association #Metropolis Public Library #Rhonda James #Rosemary Baxter #Library Bill of Rights #Culture Wars #Steve Deace #Don Canada #Library Boards

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

I. Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.

II. Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.

III. Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.

IV. Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas.

V. A person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views.

VI. Libraries which make exhibit spaces and meeting rooms available to the public they serve should make such facilities available on an equitable basis, regardless of the beliefs or affiliations of individuals or groups requesting their use.

VII. All people, regardless of origin, age, background, or views, possess a right to privacy and confidentiality in their library use. Libraries should advocate for, educate about, and protect people’s privacy, safeguarding all library use data, including personally identifiable information.

"Library Bill of Rights", American Library Association, June 30, 2006.

http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill (Accessed May 10, 2023)

#american library association #Library bill of rights #right to information #right to privacy #civil liberties

[archivlibrarianist]

The layout on the page makes me uneasy, so full text of the article under the jump.

Published: 12:09 PM MDT May 20, 2024

Updated: 3:26 PM MDT May 20, 2024

"BOISE, Idaho — The Donnelly Public Library announced it will become an adults-only library and says House Bill 710 is responsible.

"'Donnelly Public Library was deeply saddened by the passing of HB710,' a new release stated. 'Unfortunately, the ambiguous language in the legislation leaves us no options but to make some very drastic changes.'

"Sherry Scheline, the library director, told KTVB that the building will become an adult-only library, but children will be allowed in if they are accompanied by a 'signing adult.'

"In a statement, officials with the library said because of its size, it can't comply with the new law and create an adult section out of children's range. The library is 1024 square feet, a tenth of the size of the state's average library, which is 10,552 square feet.

"'This change is painful and not what we had hoped for at all,' officials stated. 'We desire to comply with state and federal legislation, but because of size, we have to protect our staff, our library, and our taxpayer money.'

"Library officials said that despite the 'saddened news,' they will continue their after-school programming and summer learning. 

"'After-school programming has become an essential part of the Library,' officials stated. 'It is our primary source of funding through both grants as well as tuition monies paid by participants.  It is imperative we continue to grow our programming offerings.'

"Officials said students participating in their programming will be able to sign a waiver allowing librarians to curate learning material for them. 

"The Donnelly Public Library encouraged the public to donate to the Donnelly Public Library Building Fund, a multi-year effort to expand the building. Without the expansion, the building will remain an adult-only library."

#libraries #public libraries #American libraries #Idaho libraries #Donnelly Public Library #tumblarians #librarians #library workers #banned books #censorship #Idaho House Bill 710 #groomer discourse bullshit #in which people who don't read books are triggered that other people might read books about things they don't like #like LGBTQIA+ people existing #or BIPOC demanding justice and human rights #fascism

[random-dragon-exe]

Maybe it's just me, but the song that the greens sing here comes off as almost purposely annoying. 

Like I feel that Cricket made up the song and had to sing it while Chip was there, just to get on his nerves and so that he could distract himself so that he doesn't end up bored from farming.

I love the follow-up joke where the song actually does get under Chip’s skin and he actually full on hallucinates about it via a Cricket carrot.

Also, I love their faces here. 

#this show is taking up half my brain right now #let's call this bcg brainrot #so #bcg brainrot #also I swear this entire episode is the funniest besides the library episode #and i'm here for it #bcg #big city greens #random fandom stuff #cricket green #bill green #tilly green #the green family #chip whistler

[kleyamarki]

hashtag depressed about the library again. i really love my job and my branch and the people i work with. even if i don’t get laid off i’ll probably get moved and put in a different position and i won’t get to do programming. this is all so fucked

#just #i am literally doing all i can #i am literally helping to mobilize the public #the [redacted] is [redacted] [redacted] #i don’t have faith in library admin or the board #and i don’t want to be moved to a different branch #and i really REALLY don’t want to and like. CANNOT get laid off right now #i don’t make enough to live as it is (with medical bills) #just. #fuck dude.

[freshydip]

Gravity Falls watchers: what is your most rewatched episode of Gravity Falls and why?

#mine is sock opera. it’s got everything #mystery. intrigue. ​light body horror. the ave Maria scene. #‘wow Gabe. you look pretty sweaty. you should really take your shirt off. right. aren’t we all thinkin that’ #AMAZING sound design. and that shot where you see the shadow of bill following the twins in the library #has been my desktop background for like a decade now #i believe my second most is either scaryoke or land before swine. for obvious Stan related reasons #and also: ‘so me and this raccoon were fightin for the same piece of meat when our mouth got real close and we kissed accidentally’ #tfw no gf #gravity falls #mp

[hurgablurg]

Pinned

* Update Aug. 2023: Damn, existential conflict has hands. Jesus Christ. Search the “right wing degeneracy” tag on this here blog to see more of this shit, if you can stomach it for the sake of education and fuelling your rage. It’s called what it is because right wingers have degenerated so far from the human condition and it’s most basic tenets of empathy and compassion that they barely qualify as human. And that is an objective fact.

- - - - -

There’s so much shit going on, it can be impossible to focus on and be angry about it all. Hopefully this personal archive/list of previous pinned stuff can help feed fuel to the fire. If you can, take action.

“Actionable” and “Complainable” are within the context of the sphere of influence of an average North American. Awareness is merely step one.

Actionable:

Petition e-4286 - Canadian proposal to give asylum to transgender people threatened by violence in their country of residence. Canada, for all it’s own cruelties, has previously been a comparatively safe-haven for marginalized people, and can be once again. So called “western democracies” fall to the degeneracy of fascism and right-wing politics, and there are vulnerable people to evacuate. The petition is accepting signatures until May 26, 2023, at 9:33 a.m. (EDT). The form won’t accept my email for some ungodly reason, so the best I can do is share and promote it before the deadline.

https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-4268

Oklahoma Antitrans Bills - Oklahoma is putting forward a bill that would force anyone under age 26 to “medically detransition” as well as banning and felonizing the act of providing gender affirming medical care, along with a back-up bill calling for the same, but targettign anyone under the age of 21 . This is not for any observable purpose beyond causing pain and suffering. The people responsible for this bill and others like it have names and home addresses.

https://legiscan.com/OK/bill/SB129/2023 | https://legiscan.com/OK/bill/HB1011/2023

Other US States are also trying this bullshit, Texas is just going full hog on banning care for anyone.

https://legiscan.com/TX/bill/HB1029/2023 

https://19thnews.org/2023/01/trans-health-care-bills-2023-legislative-session-lgbtq/

PLUS the distilled shit in Florida - https://www.tumblr.com/socialistexan/710890023939096576/i-feel-like-us-conservatives-went-from-a-34-to-7?source=share

AND Texas’s proposed Bill to classify anyone with a Y chromosome as “male”, which takes biological existentialism past even it’s own already-insane limits. https://www.tumblr.com/spacelazarwolf/709351697217175552/reminder-that-the-sex-on-your-birth-certificate?source=share

AND Florida is just trying to straight up let the state kidnap your children. I don’t know what they’ll do with them, but considering that a LOT of Floridan politicians were good friends with Epstein...

https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2023/254

Stop Cop City - Pigs and a bunch of corporate allies are trying to build a city-sized training facility for cops with the explicit intention of teaching them how to wage urban warfare against protesters and, I predict, “undesirables”, destroying an entire forest to do so, like some kind of cartoon villain. They’ve already killed someone, a forest defender named Tortuguita, claiming he shot one of the officers despite evidence contradicting that narrative, showing that it was friendly fire, and the buddyfuckers have refused to publish secondary body cam footage of what happened (not that it’s ever led to consequences for them before), let alone punish themselves. While the best and most effective action is to paint the streets with their blood until they acquiesce and turn tail, one not far behind that more people would be comfortable with is too scare their corporate cocksuckers enough that they pull out of the project, inflicting financial damage. Cowardly maybe, but I’d like activists be alive rather than not, though we all might not have any choice soon.

https://www.tumblr.com/effectiveresistance/709715348803452928

Update: Scratch the peaceful part - brick a cop, save lives.

https://www.tumblr.com/effectiveresistance/711200228209049600?source=share

And if you can, and if they try to bulldoze it, make some noise.

Don’t Say Gay Bill and Successor Attempts - You know it, you hate it, it’s the right wing trying to erase even the VERBIAGE of non-cishet people existing, this time in Indiana!

https://www.tumblr.com/pinelo/709805436447129600/reblog-if-you-see-this?source=share | https://action.aclu.org/send-message/in-dont-say-gay

If you can’t sign the petition, look for one more local! Or throw a brick into the back of the head of a rightoid. Every little bit helps.

Arizona Hotline Counterattack - Arizona has recently set up a hotline and email where “concerned parents” can report “critical race theory” and “gender expression” in the classroom. Makes them suffer! It’s free and easy to do!

Libraries at risk! Digital archivism is in danger. The Internet Archive is being sued by digital publishers to set a standard for digital rights and the avilability of knowledge. Digital publishers are baby-rage levels of mad at local, physical libraries for digitizing their already-paid-for collections and bypassing rental fees from said digital publishers, but know that suing a public library would be a PR nightmare, so they have instead joined together to sue an “acceptable” target - the Internet Archive in this case - intending to use the case to establish laws that affect all libraries and public institutions of the archival sort. The courts have decided, but the internet Archive has submitted an appeal to a higher court, and with support and enough noise, can have that ruling overturned in favour of the public. Give the petition a sign!

Jackson Mississippi is being held hostage. The city MUST be liberated, water restored, and the state’s control of them usurped.

Iowa and Mississippi Propose Bills to Ban Gay Marriage. It’s painful to remember that some leftists really thought the conservatives would only stop at “one kind” of “degenerate”, and that they were somehow safe from further persecution, as if the Maginot Line could ever fail once it was built, as if battle lines could only ever move forward or stay still.

Iowa and Mississippi (<- links to the individual bills and their authors) have both had republican politicians cosign and propose bills that would take human rights in their states back by years, citing “nature’s god” and other tin-foil-wearing hokery as their justification. Protest them, bombard them, threaten them, beat them, end them, whatever needs to be done to keep these rightoid, regressive degenerates from doing more harm.

Mi’kmaq Land Claim - The Mi’kmaq people of the east coast have put forth a land claim to a large chunk of New Brunswick, not to assert dominion or supplant current residents or governments (no change like that can even happen these days) but to secure the sanctity and security of both their unceded land (which currently sits in the hands of the government as crown land) and the ways in which that land is to be used. Show them some support!

Texas Is No Longer Trying to Hide the Swastikas - https://legiscan.com/TX/bill/HB20/2023 . Texas republicans are aligning to make it legal for “citizen militias” to police the border for “immigrants”, with the secret inclusion of also allowing them to police POLLING STATIONS. They aren’t even being subtle about it, they are just having armed brownshirt degenerates waving guns in peoples faces to keep them from voting. Americans, if you can, either bomb these senator’s phones, or bomb their houses. They have names and addresses.

Do Not Let The Evangelicals Win. Do Not Give Them An Inch

29/04/23 The fucking Earn It Act is back, and once again we need to beat this hydra’s head with a burning club.

Complainable:

Iran Protests - Human rights and freedom of expression are at risk in Iran, and people are sick of it! The people rise up and protest, first back in September, and intermittently since, most recently from writing, this February 19th weekend. As heroes clash with fascist and theocrats, the “government” still holds tens of thousands captive, suffering rape and torture, and at threat of execution. There are 227 politicians to “hold accountable” for this abuse.

https://www.tumblr.com/hurgablurg/700422628522049536/what-does-it-fucking-matter-if-my-finances-are-a?source=share

- - -

The war on humanity is one of attrition, a war upon the soul, seeking to break spirit and inspire hopelessly, waged against us by ghoulish old men and sycophantic hypocrites. Only through action can we break their stranglehold and put an end to their abuse. Showing these fiends mercy is tolerating intolerance itself.

Rip Tortuguita.

RIP Brianna Ghey

RIP Ajike Owens

Health to Ralph Yarl.

RIP Nahel

#right wing degeneracy #human rights #trans rights #jina amini #cop city #tortuguita #iran #canada #united states #atlanta georgia #indiana #dont say gay bill #texas #intersex rights #florida #florida wants to abduct children #libraries #digitalrightsforlibraries #jackson mississippi #iowa #mississippi #mi'kmaq #evangelicals #new brunswick #earn it act #lgbtqa+ rights #digital privacy #war on humanity

[lycanthian]

hey gang! what the fuck

#hi i just fucking saw the. news abt texas's senate passing bills that would ban all drag for any reason on public property #and in front of minors #meaning that if you held a totally clean safe show at a public library they would still defund the place #and if you had a show on private property and somehow a minor got in you could be charged with thousands of dollars #and it makes me so fucking mad. #the government is trying to regulate how we express ourselves under the guise of protecting youth. #but thats literally a violation of the first amendment right to free expression? #and. yknow. if the government starts regulating how we express ourselves this place is about to get a whole lot worse #sometjing something. please god let us have a revolution we need it now. strikes. protests. etc. this is so fucked up #gamey rambles

[halfwaybyaccident]

I need help!

NC just passed one of those "parental bill of rights" shit things, and I'm a teacher.

I'm reading through it, and I can't figure out what this part means:

"...schools may not provide verifiable consent related to the use of certain educational technologies without providing parents proper notice and a chance to object to the use of those technologies."

What are "certain educational technologies?"

#fuck trump #fuck republicans #eat the rich #boring dystopia #a boring dystopia #fuck conservatives #parents bill of rights #fuck desantis #book banning #books & libraries #book ban #public school #english teacher #teaching

[pettyprocrastination]

trying to figure out if grad school is truly worth putting myself into debt for ruhroh girlies

#tj talks #its talks like this that I realize my friends and I live very different lives cause so many of them have their parents pay their tuition- #in full so they didn't have to like. think about this stuff #but im not sure man #i want to work at a library before so i have next semester to get a job at a library #i also think its super important right now #with all the book bans going on #and the local school board proposed getting rid of school libraries for budget cuts which is. fucking insane #but man. idk #i know that fidning a 'dream job' isnt like. a thing for most people #that really i just need to find a job that will pay the bills and not make me want to fling myself into traffic #and im. genuinely hoping this is that #because I have no clue what to do and I feel like im the only one lmao

[pinkflashlight]

#giphy #ed #archivesgif #national archives #we the people #bill of rights #civic education #fdr library #us constituion #werule civics

[girderednerve]

one of my professors has assigned us all to do video introductions which will be uploaded to a third-party tool & then graded for, among other things, 'grammar and enunciation.' i am uselessly furious about it, which is deeply pointless; i just think, like, what's the fucking point of having a whole class session on the ethics of reference librarianship if you're going to make me use sketchy ed tech & grade people on their fucking enunciation? for an assignment which has no visible educational outcome? am i supposed to take this seriously??

#had a great experience loudly saying Are You Fucking Kidding Me over and over again while muted #i am just an angry sort of person i guess but the library bill of rights is pretty clear on privacy and this stupid tool is uh. not. lmao #irredeemable whining #technically i'm a grad student #i know this is objectively a very small complaint but i do not like it i do not LIKE it #once more writing ''this class is morally bankrupt'' on the course review #like to be clear she Already made everyone do introductions in class????

[minnesotafollower]

President Biden’s Inspiring Praise of John McCain and Criticism of Donald Trump  and MAGA 

On September 28, 2023, President Joe Biden was in Tempe, Arizona to  announce a major federal grant to the state of Arizona to help design and build a new McCain National Library at Arizona State University. The President’s remarks on that occasion honored his deceased friend, John McCain, followed by the President’s blistering attack on Donald Trump and his Make America Great Again (MAGA)…

View On WordPress

#American cemetery near Paris (France) #Arizona State University (ASU) #Donald J. Trump #Hanoi (Vietnam) #John McCaine #Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement #Mark Milley (former Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff) #McCain National Library #President Joe Biden #Republican Party #retribution #U.S. Bill of Rights #U.S. CivilService (Schedule F) #U.S. Constitution #U.S. Declaration of Independence

[fantastic-artemis]

How to find a job that doesn't make me despair to live

#I LOVE the library but i've been part time for two years and i am not making enough to support myself lmao #i am very fortunate to have a lot of savings but i live alone in an apartment i signed for when i had two jobs and now that my income is #cut in half things are rough #and i have interviewed a dozen times or more for a promotion to full time and they aren't budging #and then yesterday one of the managers was micromanaging me and my shitty coworker was mocking my menial tasks lol #bc he is info staff and i am just lowly circulation so i have to keep my head down and shelve the books i guess?? even tho he doesn't do #jack shit and gets paid double what i do and is full time #like i got scolded and told to stop preparing for my presentation that is tonight bc i should have been making sure the books were in the #right order on the shelves lmao #meanwhile this guy has been booking vacation flights all morning #and even if i get full time and even though i work at a comparatively VERY well paying library #im still not going to make much #i have a degree in journalism and communications that im not using bc that shit made me feel dead inside #and i wanted to do something that mattered #but the things that mattered are not paying my bills or buying me a new winter coat or allowing me to do things like get a haircut or buy #clothes that i like or go out with friends or start new hobbies #and im just like is it worth it??? is this worth it??? #like im not desolate or anything but i deny myself things every day bc im fine now #but i dont know how much longer i have to make the money stretch #and im tired #i just wanted to do something real that helped people #every day i get to work around books and talk about books and help people access social services #i helped a kid with homework and an elderly lady access job resources and showed a kid his favorite book series that he got so excited #about that he yelled all in the same day and it was fantastic #it mattered #but #is it worth it??? #this was the dream i worked so hard for and now im looking at all that hope and effort like. this didn't save you either #idk yall its rough out here #me

[itgetsbetterproject]

📚 QUEERBOOK 2024 is hereee! We made a book by and for LGBTQ+ youth! 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

Last year, we asked LGBTQ+ youth: what's your idea of a "queer utopia?"

Not gonna lie - with more than 150 bills introduced in 35 states in 2023 that aimed to restrict student access to inclusive and diverse books and other library materials, the theme felt pretty radical.

And you DELIVERED. With the help of our Youth Voices (amazing queer youth activists from across the country), we compiled your amazing submissions of poetry, short essays and letters, visual art, photography, and more into Queerbook 2024. Like a yearbook, it captures what queer youth are feeling, going through, and hoping for - right here, right now across the U.S.

It's also no accident that it's the perfect small-ish size to stash in your locker or backpack so you can crack it open any time you're looking for some queer connection. :3

Read some more about the book and grab your own limited-run copy of Queerbook 2024 now here.

#itgetsbetter #queerbook #lgbtq youth #queer youth #trans youth #queer lit #lgbtq books #studyblr #lgbtqia

[wilwheaton]

The GOP wonders why young people (and others) don't want to vote for them. Some wise scribe assembled this list.

1.) Your Reagan-era “trickle-down economics” strategy of tax breaks for billionaires that you continue to employ to this day has widened the gap between rich and poor so much that most of them will never be able to own a home, much less earn a living wage.

2.) You refuse to increase the federal minimum wage, which is still $7.25 an hour (since 2009). Even if it had just kept up with inflation, it would be $27 now. You’re forcing people of all ages but especially young people to work multiple jobs just to afford basic necessities.

3.) You fundamentally oppose and want to kill democracy; have done everything in your power to restrict access to the ballot box, particularly in areas with demographics that tend to vote Democratic (like young people and POC). You staged a fucking coup the last time you lost.

4.) You have abused your disproportionate senate control over the last three decades to pack the courts with religious extremists and idealogues, including SCOTUS—which has rolled back rights for women in ways that do nothing but kill more women and children and expand poverty.

5.) You refuse to enact common sense gun control laws to curb mass shootings like universal background checks and banning assault weapons; subjecting their entire generation to school shootings and drills that are traumatizing in and of themselves. You are owned by the NRA.

6.) You are unequivocally against combatting climate change to the extent that it’s as if you’ve made it your personal mission to ensure they inherit a planet that is beyond the point of no return in terms of remaining habitable for the human race beyond the next few generations.

7.) You oppose all programs that provide assistance to those who need it most. Your governors refused to expand Medicaid even during A PANDEMIC. You are against free school lunches, despite it being the only meal that millions of children can count on to actually receive each day

8.) You are banning books, defunding libraries, barring subject matter, and whitewashing history even more in a fascistic attempt to keep them ignorant of the systemic racism that this nation was literally founded upon and continues to this day in every action your party takes.

9.) You oppose universal healthcare and are still trying to repeal the ACA and rip healthcare from tens of millions of Americans and replace it with nothing. You are against lowering the cost of insulin and prescription drugs that millions need simply to LIVE/FUNCTION in society.

10.) You embrace white nationalists, Neo-Nazis, and other groups that are defined by their intractable racism, xenophobia, bigotry, and intolerance. You conspired with these groups on January 6th to try to overthrow the U.S. government via domestic terrorism that KILLED PEOPLE.

11.) You oppose every bill aimed at making life better for our nation’s youth; from education to extracurricular and financial/nutritional assistance programs. You say you want to “protect the children” while you elect/nominate pedophiles and attack trans youth and drag queens.

12.) You pretend to be offended by “anti-semitism” while literally supporting, electing, and speaking at events organized by Nazis. You pretend to hate “cancel culture” despite the fact that you invented it and it’s basically all you do.

13.) Every word you utter is a lie. You are the party of treason, hypocrisy, crime, and authoritarianism. You want to entrench rule by your aging minority because you know that you have nothing to offer young voters and they will never support you for all these reasons and more.

14.) You’re so hostile to even the notion of helping us overcome the mountain of debt that millions of us are forced to take on just to pay for our post K-12 education that you are suing to try to prevent a small fraction of us from getting even $10,000 in loan forgiveness.

15.) You opened the floodgates of money into politics via Citizens United; allowing our entire system of government to become a cesspool of corruption, crime, and greed. You are supposed to represent the American people whose taxes pay your salary but instead cater to rich donors.

16.) You respond to elected representatives standing in solidarity with their constituents to protest the ONGOING SLAUGHTER of children in schools via shootings by EXPELLING THEM FROM OFFICE & respond to your lack of popularity among young people by trying to raise the voting age.

17.) You impeach Democratic presidents over lying about a BJ but refuse to impeach (then vote twice to acquit) a guy whose entire “administration” was an international crime syndicate being run out of the WH who incited an insurrection to have you killed.

18.) You steal Supreme Court seats from democrats to prevent the only black POTUS we’ve ever had from appointing one and invent fake precedents that you later ignore all to take fundamental rights from Americans; and even your “legitimate” appointments consist of people like THIS (sub-thread refuting CJ Roberts criticisms of people attacking SCOTUS' legitimacy).

19.) You support mass incarceration even for innocuous offenses or execution by cop for POC while doing nothing but protect rich white criminals who engage in such things as tax fraud, money laundering, sex trafficking, rape/sexual assault, falsifying business records, etc.

20.) You are the reason we can’t pass:—Universal background checks—An assault weapons ban—The ‘For the People/Freedom to vote’ Act or John Lewis Voting Rights Act—The ERA & Equality Act—The Climate Action Now Act—The (Stopping) Violence Against Women Act—SCOTUS expansion.

21.) You do not seek office to govern, represent, or serve the American people. You seek power solely for its own sake so you can impose your narrow-minded puritanical will on others at the expense of their most fundamental rights and freedoms like voting and bodily autonomy.

22.) Ok, last one. You are trying to eliminate social security and Medicare that tens of millions of our parents rely on and paid into their entire lives. And you did everything to maximize preventable deaths from COVID leaving millions of us in mourning.

Source: https://imgur.com/gallery/e8DBZLH

#republicans are garbage #uspol