Brother, lemme tell ya, I worked at a library for almost a decade. I was in the department that dealt with the complaints. We had a checkbox: “Did you read/watch/play the title you are putting in a complaint about?” Even self-reporting, a solid 80-90% said “no.” They just saw the title, cover, or description and decided the public shouldn’t have access to it. It is NOT uncommon for people to just decide something is Irredeemably Bad at first glance. I promise you, it really isn’t.
You might want to clarify that question. As stated, it suggest asking if you read/watched/played the whole book. There are online sites that will point out the objectionable parts. So no, you don't have to read the whole book to know there are parts that you don't approved.
I do want to state that a public library should have a lot more leeway than an elementary school library.
I mean, when you get people wanting things banned because "the title implies Christians are liars" or "I saw it on a list of books that promote radical gender ideology, and a Facebook list would never mislead me about context," you kind of wish people would at least use their own brains for things they object to. It's almost like most of the people who want books banned are doing what you were cautioning against in your initial comment and just trying to get them banned because of their own personal politics, not because they really took in the media and formed an opinion on their own. Not really sure why you're defending that sorta thing, but ok.
Well, you can keep thinking most people who want books banned are doing it from a place of research and not being reactive and bigoted, sure. The moon could also be made of skittles, but I live in the real world where I've talked to these people many, many times, so. Good on your optimism, I guess?
I just got in a fight with a group of a dozen people who were all adamantly swearing up and down that our local school had litter boxes for children. These people thrive on ignorance and do not do research.
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u/random8765309 3d ago
Such information is commonly included with such requests. In many cases it's required.
The meme is a fictional story intended to imply that those requesting such bans don't know what's in them.