Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 07/03/2024First of all it's not a "distraction" that state governments are banning books. Second, the people banning books are *also* gutting public education! It's the same fucking problem! www.nytimes.com/2024/03/06/o... 601918471
Matt @mattferrel.bsky.social · 07/03/2024I remember this tool thinking he could show up in Oregon and coast into the governorship 010
Meredith Beredith @merrieberrie.bsky.social · 07/03/2024Literally what the FUCK is wrong with that man. UGH. 000
Zabé Ellor @zrellor.bsky.social · 07/03/2024The movement to create diverse children’s books was spearheaded by teachers who wanted to interest kids in reading by giving them books about their own experiences! The right made a movement about promoting childhood literacy into a “culture war” 030
Joe Vukovich @coolhandvuk.bsky.social · 07/03/2024Kristof Don't Be A Fucking Asshole Challenge (Impossible Difficulty) 000
Tim @tlatshaw.bsky.social · 07/03/2024And they're the same folks that will tell you the "libs" are trying to control education. 000
Jarod Johnson @jarodjohnson.bsky.social · 07/03/2024I think it is a distraction, but it's the book banners causing the distraction. School boards spending their time dealing with "parental rights" groups, admins spending their time responding to frivolous FOIA requests, teachers exhausted by defending themselves against accusations of "grooming" 040
Friendly Pumpkin @pumpkinpal.bsky.social · 07/03/2024there is EXACTLY ONE argument a columnist should be able make with a straight face that "we're getting distracted by distractions" when we talk about education and that's "right wingers claiming they have legitimate concerns" 1302
Dan Houston @johnbrownwasright.bsky.social · 07/03/2024I mean, this guy just assumed he was entitled to be Governor of a state he has a summer home in..so yeah..... 000
Roxy @redrawnoxen.bsky.social · 07/03/2024Teachers in FL now have to get forms and check a spreadsheet every day to see what parent-approved nicknames they are allowed to use (for everyone, like even Joshuas that want to go by Josh) 020
Bradford Vivian @bradvivian.bsky.social · 07/03/2024Kristoff, entirely unaware that having students read about timely and challenging topics as conscious pedagogy is precisely the source of so much book-banning fervor now. 080
(VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve @braak.bsky.social · 07/03/2024lolol "we need to focus on why kids aren't proficient at reading, not on how schools keep taking away the books they want to read" 0301
easyez2.bsky.social @easyez2.bsky.social · 07/03/2024When y’all romanticize the Amish, what you’re doing is approving the worship of ignorance,… now you want to act surprised that it’s starting to apply to you? 000
Gavin Gruesome @dingokayfabe.bsky.social · 07/03/2024Wow, impressive turn on a dime re: the importance of free speech in education 000
BlepBork @blepbork.bsky.social · 07/03/2024Does NYT *want* fascism or do they think these both sides bs takes will save newspapers under fascism? 041
Christopher Bird @mightygodking.com · 08/03/2024you know what would solve this problem? Nicholas Kristof being the governor of Oregon! somehow 000
Cubes Fan @cubesfan.bsky.social · 07/03/2024Weird argument to make. 1/3 of our 4th graders are PROFICIENT in reading. That means 1/3 of those kids are really really good at reading. 120
More like I-ACK @mumbly-joe.bsky.social · 07/03/2024how the hell does Kristof see schools being forced to pull books off classroom and library shelves and impose onerous restrictions on self-directed reading -particularly above-grade-level reading- and conclude that's somehow completely incidental to any trends in child literacy? 081
Dwight Williams 🇨🇦 @dewline.bsky.social · 07/03/2024Does Kristof want to be part of that problem? Because, by running this kind of interference, it seems he's showing symptoms of such ambitions. 000
Fergus Murray @oolong.co.uk · 07/03/2024I appreciate that around half of what I hear about the NYT is you calling out their bullshit. 020
r @recombobulating.bsky.social · 07/03/2024The idea that the problem is people talking about the problem and it would go away if they all shut up is a massive driver of the problem 040
Roland Muts @rhcmuts.bsky.social · 07/03/2024"Why do we need books? Kids can't read anyways." "Why do we need polio or measles vaccines? Kids no longer die of polio or measles anyways." 000
Kim @kimoco.bsky.social · 07/03/2024Kristoff knows damned well that BOTH of these things are issues that are bad. It is bad to ban books and it is really bad kids cannot read. But if we ignore the book banning crowd, they will escalate and do what you say, destroy free public education in this nation. 120
Nick Dixon @ndixon.bsky.social · 08/03/2024It's interesting that Nick Kristof has reported many times on literacy rates in other "less developed" nations, sometimes in great depth to explore the root causes, but seems to have glossed over the same in the US. 000
ninjamonkky.bsky.social @ninjamonkky.bsky.social · 07/03/2024The same people who ruined our schools with no child left behind, are once again regurgitating cherry picked statistics that generally leave out how we have universal education. You want better numbers, add Universal Food & Universal Housing; well fed, well housed kids read better. 000
Twanald @doodoobrain.bsky.social · 07/03/2024The book bans are designed to push more kids out of public schools so they’ll use (state funded) vouchers to attend for-profit charter schools…further hollowing-out public education funding. 000
costrike @costrike.bsky.social · 07/03/2024We might say that Kristof has his head so far up his ass that he's unable to see the forest for the trees. 000
Accountabilabuddy🔻 @accountabilabuddy.bsky.social · 07/03/2024These fucking people, I swear. They've been cranking out this mealymouthed garbage for decades. But when the monster they're helping to build comes for them, they'll still want everyone else to come and rescue them. 010
Iysha @iamiysha.bsky.social · 07/03/2024It’s another way of getting kids to read less if books they are interested in are banned. Censorship is not going to encourage kids to read more. 130
Rick does Math and Stuff @mathandstuff.bsky.social · 07/03/2024"We need to stop getting distracted by gunshot wounds while cancer is still the nations #1 killer!" 000
Lizard @lizardky.bsky.social · 07/03/2024"Nothing will encourage kids to learn to read more than removing any books that have stories relevant to their lives and personalities!" 030
Matt @mtblah.bsky.social · 07/03/2024Total distraction as I’m sure watering down, restricting, and politicizing their access to books has been tremendously encouraging young kids to read. 0140
Jen in Motion @jeninmotion.bsky.social · 07/03/2024Also the same people are banning abortion and gutting child labor laws and preventing gun laws! Unless Lars is saying "most American problems could be stopped if we voted out every last Republican" his angle is trash 1301
Ashley Hankins Illustration 🌙 @ashleydoesartstuff.com · 07/03/2024Ding ding ding, this right here!!!!! 000
Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 07/03/2024Meanwhile, our schools are being held to strangely arbitrary standards that won't help. Like, my kinder kiddo is supposedly playing catch-up to reading standards from day one of k after having been "above grade level" in prek. Was he supposed to absorb reading by osmosis? 040
uosdwis r dewoh @thulcandrian.bsky.social · 07/03/2024The pandemic started when these kids were in kindergarten and 1st grade. It was a massive disruption for their learning, especially reading. if he wanted to really focus on those outcomes he probably should have considered that data point. 020
rainmanbun @rainmanbun.bsky.social · 07/03/2024i suppose they won't mind someone banning the NYT from schools/libraries 040
Alex Freidus @alexfreidus.bsky.social · 07/03/2024I couldn't even make myself open this one because I really didn't want to hear it. 000
Flazlo @fleezlow.bsky.social · 07/03/2024Nothing more to add except thank you as one of the people that helps me stay sane, and that this type of rhetoric is so dispiriting and scary. There seems to be no horror or violation that people like Kristoff won't hand wave away. 061
annaluna 🏳️🌈❌👑 @annaluna.bsky.social · 08/03/2024“Culture war”= trying to take away fundamental rights, usually related to women and LGBTQ people 000
Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 07/03/2024if "culture war" describes a battle over whether entire groups of people enjoy diminished rights as citizens and human beings, then it's not a "distraction" from politics, it is politics. 314514
cjweinland.bsky.social @cjweinland.bsky.social · 07/03/2024If only we could solve more than one problem at a time 000
soOolient 🎃 @solient.bsky.social · 07/03/2024Framing "culture wars" as a "distraction" is just the media and centrists admitting that they're fascists. 131
maraleia @maraleia.bsky.social · 07/03/2024If kids aren't allowed to read whatever strikes their fancy as people used to say then they won't have proper reading proficiency in fourth grade. These school systems are making learning NOT FUN in the early grades. 062
Jade Cargill stan account 🍉🇺🇦🇺🇸 @adaytaramember.bsky.social · 07/03/2024Classic NYT article: “authoritarianism? How about worrying about [something caused directly or indirectly by authoritarianism] instead” 000
🏳️🌈Maxy Makes 🦘 @91vaults.bsky.social · 07/03/2024yea trying to make entire groups of people invisible is just a silly little distraction….what books do they think are being banned?? 040
Home away from the dumpXer fire @rechan.bsky.social · 07/03/2024Almost as if there's a concerted effort to destroy public education entirely, to both keep the populace ignorant and to funnel money towards private education. It's not a "distraction", it's one front of a multi-pronged assault on education. 000
Mr. Chimpanzy @cyanescens.bsky.social · 07/03/2024Kristof is an embarrassment to Yamhill County & the state of Oregon 041
Follow the Minnesota 1st @smullins3000.bsky.social · 07/03/2024What moral depravity do you have to experience in your life in order to be able to write that subhead? 000
J.Crants @jimcrants.bsky.social · 07/03/2024The culture wars are a distraction. They distract 90% of Republican voters from the fact that the GOP delivers absolutely nothing of value to them and, indeed, actively makes life harder for them and their children. 141
