Canadian schools burn thousands of books considered politically incorrect - General Discussion Discussion

[–] samoanjoes (58587) 3 years ago

Did they burn them because they were scared they might come to life? They could just remove them from the library instead of going the extra mile and burning them.

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[–] Bateman (607) 3 years ago

We're having literal book burnings now? Jesus wept.

Les gens paniquent avec le fait de brûler des livres

That would probably be, madame le kommissarin, because they have enough self-awareness to know in whose illustrious company that would squarely put them.

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[–] kukuxu (5409) 3 years ago

Not all of them have been burned. It seems that some schools buried them, some others threw them to the garbage, and some other ones burnt them: "Ils ont été jetés, certains brûlés et enterrés".

I think burning them is more poetic. It's a beautiful metaphor of our times, except it wasn't really a metaphor, it was real.

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[–] moviechatterer (16326) 3 years ago

way to not recycle and pollute the air at the same time!

well done commie lefties - who are usually the ones berated for giving a shit about the environment
I assume thats who we're blaming this on?

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[–] corey (774) 3 years ago

This is weird, I just finished reading "Fahrenheit 451", by Ray Bradbury. Thought is was fiction. Guess I was wrong.

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[–] corey (774) 3 years ago

This reminds me, there's an "F-Troop" marathon on TV this weekend.

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[–] sslssg (35179) 3 years ago

While I despise the idea of book burnings, I think some context is needed here. In the past few months they have found the bodies of over 1500 indigenous children at the sites of residential schools. Most of these schools were run by the Catholic church. It is this one Catholic school board that is banning these books. The also didn't burn all of the books. I believe it was supposed to be symbolic. They haven't come out and said it, but it appears that this is some sort of path to reconciliation with the indigenous people of Canada. Other churches in Canada have come out and issued apologies but there has been nothing from the Vatican. Nothing. So it seems that if they burn these books they can destroy all evidence that they have contributed to the events that have led to the negative stereotypes, and tried to wipe out an entire culture and people.

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[–] Furienna (3375) 3 years ago

However, I believe that keeping old books around is important for educational reasons.
If we burn them, how can we discuss them and talk about what was going on?

And by the way, "Tintin in America" was actually controversial for the opposite reason back in the day.
Yes, it is true that the Native Americans might seem like stereotypes today.
However, you have to remember that the story was originally written back in 1931!
So the fact that Hergé showed a tribe being forced off their land by greedy white people was radical for its time.
Furthermore, Tintin is portrayed as being more sympathetic towards the Natives than the other white characters.
And as for the "Asterix" book, Goscinny liked to make fun of ethnic stereotypes from all over the world.
They were not supposed to be taken seriously!
And if you know that Goscinny lost relatives in the Holocaust, it is hard to believe that he meant any harm by it.
It was only satirical humor to him.
However, someone jumped the gun here and made no research at all...

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[–] sslssg (35179) 3 years ago

I believe that as well. I think Disney + should show Song of the South and that we should discuss it. Same with books like Tintin in America.

I'm not condoning what they are doing. I was actually criticizing The Catholic Church as an institution, not Catholics themselves, from burying the past and pretending they didn't do anything wrong. I think it would be a perfect time for the Canadian Residential School system to be discussed in Catholic schools along with these books that they are burning. Some of the authors are still alive. Why not get them to come and have a discussion about why they wrote what the wrote and have an Indigenous community leader at the same discussion.

I don't like safe spaces and how we can't discuss touchy subjects anymore.

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[–] Furienna (3375) 3 years ago

Yeah, they shouldn't be that afraid of "Song of the South".
It is really ridiculous.

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[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

no problem on my side understanding the motivation.

i understand why there were catholic churches burning down earlier this year too.

it's all still openly wrong, surely. & only a recipe for deepening anger & hostility & escalation & stuff like that. at least that's what i think.

this feels to me like another instance where everyone is talking about things that have happened and not talking about what would actually help people who are pretty badly off. seems pointless and ultimately harmful.

not that i'm the final authority on such matters.

but it would be a lot better to spend more time thinking of things that would get indigenous guys out of poverty & out of jail.

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[–] sslssg (35179) 3 years ago

Like I said, I'm not condoning any of it. I just was seeing comments about how it's all just the crazy left, and it is really way more complicated than that, and not actually "the left" doing it.

As for the actual situation and not just the comments on here, I agree that this will increase hostility on both sides of the issue. It's been a powder keg for awhile. With the attacks on the Nova Scotia fisheries, to the churches, to the fact that the federal debates are still discussing clean water on reserves. I am struggling to see why there is so much anger everywhere now. We have an opportunity to help each other and instead we are poking holes in the hull and we will all go down.

I know that seems like a negative outlook, but I'm just not seeing much to be positive about these days.

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[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

i agree with almost everything you've said, except that i still think there are lots of things to feel good about. but otherwise...yes, i'm 100% with you.

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[–] JoeBlow88 (574) 3 years ago

The media was lying and reporting the discovery of mass graves. The graves were found at boarding school cemeteries and a lot of children died back in those days from diseases (TB decimated native populations). These cemeteries were filled up over 100+ years and the graves were marked with wooden crosses which degraded over time.

Training schools back in those days were very cruel to white kids too - look up serial killer Carl Panzram.

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[–] TimMC (9143) 3 years ago

The Left always projects onto the Right what it plans to do.

Example 23423098u429872539087234098234098

Book Burning 2021, Canada

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[–] sslssg (35179) 3 years ago

Why do you assume that this is the dreaded "left"?

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[–] trevorh321 (5495) 3 years ago

To me, the left is always trying to ban things such as words, movies, whole states. Why would it be such a stretch to think they would want to ban and burn books?

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[–] sslssg (35179) 3 years ago

Well, I don't think it was the left who burned Harry Potter books, and the nazis were right wing, so I think it's fair to say that the extremes on both sides of the spectrum are not opposed to banning things or burning books.

Also if you read the story, you would have seen that it's one Catholic school board, and again, I'm not sure I'd refer to the Catholic church as being left wing.

When it comes to 'whole states' comment, this happened in Canada. We have our own issues that led up to this which are very complex, and include burnings happening from both sides.

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[–] whoanelly (1592) 3 years ago

Most banned/challenged books are targeted by conservative religious types who want to overprotect children from sexual content, profanity, books in which teens use birth control, books with a protagonist who seeks an abortion, books that portray LGBTQ+ teens, etc. Also because a book contains a liberal slant, is anti-racist, or supposedly anti police.

https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10

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[–] sslssg (35179) 3 years ago

Agreed.

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[–] kukuxu (5409) 3 years ago

Most banned/challenged books are targeted by conservative religious types [...]
https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10

The difference is that conservative religious types (I guess you mean Christians) have barely any power left.

As an example: according to your own link, in 2020 they censored 270 books. And that in US, which is 10 times more populated than Canada.

That means that keeping the current trend, to reach the equivalent "book burning" that Wokes managed to score only in this case, those groups would need about 200 years.

I'm not saying that their censorship is fine. It's equally wrong, but it's mostly irrelevant right now. Christians are not the ones that call the shots nowadays.

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[–] sslssg (35179) 3 years ago

Yet it's a religious group burning these. I think it's irrelevant to which side is actually burning anything. Both sides have extreme groups, said extreme groups on both sides do not represent the majority of people. Stop with your blaming everything on being "woke". It's really tiresome and not accurate.

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[–] kukuxu (5409) 3 years ago

I think it's irrelevant to which side is actually burning anything. Both sides have extreme groups

Sure, but not all sides have the same chances of having extreme groups, neither they have the same chances of creating wealth and progress.

Right now we could say that Wokeness has been the dominant religion in Western countries for the last 10-20 years. And we already have economical decline, industrial decline, technological decline and scientific decline. That sounds like a Guinness record. But hey, at least we got book burning.

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[–] sslssg (35179) 3 years ago

What the hell is wokeness? Seriously?

If you mean the left, then say the left. Also, even in western countries where the left is on the spectrum is very, very different. It's not like there is just one leftist policy and one rightist policy. There are many, many factors as to why we have all these declines, and I'm pretty sure "wokeness" doesn't factor much into that. It's also really sad that you blame the push for equality as the fall of this civilization and not corporate greed.

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[–] moviechatterer (16326) 3 years ago

If you are going to attribute this purely to "the left" then logically that means:

"The Right do not mind shitting on Native Americans and other nationalities" ?

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[–] NitroHangover (1143) 3 years ago

No. It doesn't logically mean that, at all.

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[–] moviechatterer (16326) 3 years ago

Lets recap and paraphrase the conversation:

"Canada is getting rid of books that are offensive to native americans"
"oh the left do stuff like that"

ergo , by that second posters classification of anyone would stop offending indians as "left"

That mean , logically , that all the "right" do not care about offending Indians

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[–] BeaSouth (3563) 3 years ago

Your paraphrasing needs a hyperlink to Google translate

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[–] NitroHangover (1143) 3 years ago

No. That's not logically sound, and it's not even an accurate description of the situation at hand.

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[–] CKid (3842) 3 years ago

Since I saw and own the film, Fahrenheit 451 on DVD, I definitely knew what temperature a book burns at.
Thank you, Ray Bradbury.

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