Conservative activists, led by a local pastor and outspoken Israel advocate, pushed the district, Mission CISD, to excise books mostly about gender, sexuality and race. Their demands represented an extreme version of a nationwide culture war over books that has played out in recent years — and ensnared a number of books with Jewish themes.

In Mission, the long list of books on the chopping block includes a recent illustrated adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary; both volumes of Art Spiegelman’s Holocaust graphic memoir “Maus”; “The Fixer,” Bernard Malamud’s novel about a historical instance of antisemitic blood libel; and “Kasher in the Rye,” a ribald memoir by Jewish comedian Moshe Kasher.

  • Tattorack@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    7 days ago

    It’s very difficult to avoid comparing right wing America to fascists when they have this much of a problem with Maus.

  • paddirn@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    7 days ago

    Wouldn’t want people learning from history, now would we? How else are we supposed to repeat it?

  • NotAnonymousAtAll@feddit.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    edit-2
    9 days ago

    An “outspoken Israel advocate” wants to get rid of books about the Holocaust and antisemitism in general? I am very confused. Usually right wing extremist demands make some kind of sense from within their twisted world view, but how does that fit together at all, in any world view?

      • BuckFigotstheThird@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        8 days ago

        Sounds straight up delusional and seems like people who believe that sort of stuff and then act on it should be institutionalized for the safety of our fellow citizens.

        Aren’t most people who believe in invisible people and talk to thin air considered crazy?

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      edit-2
      9 days ago

      “Outspoken Israel advocates” who are evangelical Christians don’t love Jews. Quite the opposite. They need Israel to exist so all Jews in the world can be forcibly deported to it, and then made to rebuild the Great Temple, so Jesus can come back and throw them all into Hell.

      And a red cow comes into the picture as well.

      None of that is sarcasm. That is really what they think.

    • buttfarts@lemy.lol
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      9 days ago

      Hard right folks don’t like teaching the history of the consequences of hard right political movements. Those histories never end with a country full of happy economically secure people just living their lives because the only thing fascists can do is destroy everything.

  • Cosmonauticus@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    9 days ago

    The conservative groups are led by Pastor Luis Cabrera, who is active in Latino conservative circles in the state and whose Instagram profile picture is currently an upraised fist outlined with the Israeli flag. Originally from Guatemala, Cabrera is a member of several right-wing Christian activist organizations and has also posted numerous pieces of pro-Israel social media content.

    The thing about Uncle Tom’s are they come in all shapes, races, ethnicities, and backgrounds. Ironically the things they all hate and fight against

    • IHeartBadCode@kbin.run
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      9 days ago

      Another thing is that Uncle Tom was eventually flogged to death by the people whose admiration he so desperately sought to win.

      Fundamentalist only see things in measures of what helps them obtain what they want. Once the utility of someone is over, they have zero compunction with turning on the person that helped them and riving them to nothingness as demonstration.

      • Volkditty@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        9 days ago

        Man, that’s horrible…better make sure “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” is on the list to get removed.

  • mista_wick@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    9 days ago

    I’m still proud of the copy of “Maus” that I donated to the library of my shitty little Texas town before I moved out of that hell-hole a few years back. I still check the online catalog from time to time to make sure it’s still in circulation.

  • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    9 days ago

    local pastor and outspoken Israel advocate

    Anne Frank’s diary

    Art Spiegelman’s Holocaust graphic memoir

    Israel advocate

    Anne Frank’s diary

    Israel advocate

    Anne Frank’s diary

    You fucking disgrace

    Get out of my country

    For some reason this made me way more irrationally angry than just killing Palestinians. It’s killing Palestinians and running cover for the people who killed Anne Frank and Spiegelman’s brother, and doing it all at the exact same time with no sense of shame or embarrassment but, I’m sure, a smug sense of superiority like everyone else is the monster in this

    This guy better really hope that there isn’t a hell

      • Aceticon@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        8 days ago

        It’s only wild if you believe their fable that their nation represents all Jews.

        If however you see them as just another bunch of ethno-Fascists, it actually makes sense that many of the victims of the other large ethno-Fascist group in the last century wouldn’t get along with them simply because they recognize many of the same signs.

        • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          8 days ago

          I didn’t think that would happen in Armenia, but since it does - the way some Armenians act towards refugees from Artsakh is similar, I think.

          It’s easier for Israelis (especially when being fascists) to think that they themselves are strong, and those survivors are not like them, they are weak. It’s as they wanted to identify with Nazis more.

          With such Armenians too - it’s the worse part of them thinking they can be just like Turks if they suck up to Turks, and also because Artsakhtsis lost their homeland for being weak, and they are not weak.

          A bit like ignorant and cowardly people abandon relatives with chronic diseases, when there’s no evidence of those diseases being transferable.

          It’s just cowardice. Humans do it under pressure or when presented with dark events for their interpretation and self-identification. While good upbringing may reduce the risk of someone growing up a coward, it’s very human.

      • gedaliyah@lemmy.worldOPM
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        8 days ago

        No, quite the contrary.

        You’ve probably read that in the early days of the State there was a lot of resentment towards Holocaust survivors. They were counter to the national narrative of the “New Jew” who was strong, hard-working, and living off the land. Shoah survivors represented Jews as victims, who did not fight back against the Nazis, instead going like “lambs to the slaughter.”

        This all changed after the Eichmann trial (1961), which is when most of the world first came to understand the true nature of how the Nazis operated. Many people did fight back, and many couldn’t.

        Holocaust survivors are revered and honored in Israel, although the country suffers from poor social services with a lot of gaps. Shoah survivors often fall through those gaps, along with other elders.

    • Commiunism@lemmy.wtf
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      8 days ago

      It’s not really surprising - historically, the creation Israel state was helped massively by antisemitists, who wanted to get rid of jews in their own country and having them a place to immigrate to would be the easiest option (the phenomena is often referred to as Zionist antisemitism).

      So yeah, it does make sense - they can hate the jews, but also support Israel at the same time.

    • Deceptichum@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      9 days ago

      But an Israel advocate would try to hide the holocaust least someone relate it to what Israel is doing to Palestine.

      Maybe you’re thinking of a Jewish advocate and not an Israel advocate?

      • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        9 days ago

        In-Israel Israel advocacy, and American Judaism, are absolutely chock full of people who are disgusted with Netanyahu’s government and his “war,” in part because of how much he is doing to destroy Israel on the world stage and get Israelis killed for more or less no purpose, as well as the unfolding horror of the apartheid state and genocide he’s enacting in their name.

        Zionist advocates and Israel advocates and Jewish advocates and human rights advocates are four sometimes overlapping but distinct categories.

        • Deceptichum@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          edit-2
          9 days ago

          A Zionist advocate and an Israel advocate are the same thing.

          Human rights advocates never overlap with those.

          • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            9 days ago

            I sense the morass of an ever widening pointless argument opening up beneath me.

            I’ll say my feeling on it and be done, and you’re free to disagree: No one should be hated for where they were born, or for wanting a home or a safe place to be. Not a Palestinian, or a Russian, or an Israeli citizen, or someone who was born and grew up in Nazi Germany. If you got born in Israel and managed to penetrate through a significant haze of propaganda and groupthink to realize that what your country is doing on the world stage is a monstrous crime, what should you do?

            Advocate for the destruction of your home?

            Move away, never to return, renounce your citizenship and want nothing to do with your evil of a country? Yeah, maybe.

            But I can also see someone who sees it as their duty to resist Netanyahu’s government, tries to set their country back on the right course, advocates for the ICC, and turns out for protests against the government and gets brutalized and arrested for it. That stuff happens too. “Pro Israel” isn’t really the right word for those people, no. I actually don’t fully disagree with what you’re saying, that in the modern world if you are “pro Israel” you’re probably a piece of shit (or just totally propagandized / misinformed about what’s actually going on, which there’s a lot of also). So maybe I shouldn’t have phrased it in those terms. But definitely, I think there is a type of Israeli person who is trying to support their home, the only place they’ve ever known to live, by resisting the Netanyahu government, and is ashamed of Israel but not like “against” them in the sense of, I hate my home and all the people here. You can love the town you grew up in, you can have friends and allies (hopefully, ones who are also horrified by the death and destruction in Gaza) there. You can be “pro” that part of it while still hoping that Netanyahu somehow gets what’s coming for him, soon, and all of the killing that’s being done in your name stops.

            Like I say, I don’t think anyone should be hated for where they were born.

            (Oh, and also the far ends of the scale have 0 overlap, yes. You cannot be a Zionist and a human rights advocate, if my way of saying it made it sound like I thought you could.)

            • Deceptichum@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              0
              ·
              9 days ago

              No one in Israel is out there protesting the genocide.

              All the protests have been because not enough was done to rescue hostages or some other dislike of Netanyahu.

              Overall polling shows Israel supports what is happening to Palestine or thinks not enough has been done.

              • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                0
                ·
                9 days ago

                Yes they are. It’s the same groups that have been campaigning to end the occupation since before October 7th. It’s not a majority or even close to - two-thirds of Israelis support the continuation of the war. But saying “no one” is an absolute falsehood. And, I think propaganda and misunderstanding of the situation on the ground is also a large part (in addition to, yes, some large amount of pure racism and violent vindictiveness that says it’s okay if Palestinians are dying because they are bad.)

                The wheel you’re currently cranking on, is the same wheel that was turning right at the beginning of Israel, and managed to turn its way from “all the Nazis are wrong and evil” around to “the Jews are always the victims about everything” and has now arrived itself at “Israel can do anything it decides to and will still be the victim” and now, on the other side, “all the Israelis are always wrong and evil” is emerging into view coming in the other direction. I am telling you that no matter how hard you crank that wheel, on whichever side, your activity will never crank you around to arrive at a world that is peaceful or just.

                (I know I said I’d stop after saying my bit; I just wanted to say a little more on it and shoot down the absolutely false idea that no one in Israel opposes the war on humanitarian grounds.)

                • Deceptichum@sh.itjust.works
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  0
                  ·
                  9 days ago

                  That whole article talks more about protestors pushing for returning hostages and other dislikes of Netanyahu far more than it does generic ‘anti-war’ protestors.

                  So thanks for that really, just further solidifies my point.

                  Likewise life is not a fucking wheel, it doesn’t travel in some predetermined path you’ve created. Let me tell you something, no matter how hard you centrist “don’t do anything at all” approach it, you will never arrive at a world that is peaceful or just.

        • porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          9 days ago

          Netanyahu is an evil fuck, but this isn’t his war, Israel has been doing slow and steady ethnic cleansing of the region for 50+ years.

          • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            9 days ago

            True that. Netanyahu’s a little more extreme than the norm, but as I understand it, yes, Israeli politics is:

            • A majority that wants full-on ethnic cleansing
            • A minority party that wants oppression and murder but not in a way that’s explicitly genocidal or threatens their own security
            • And maybe a tiny dissident faction that wants actual human rights for the Palestinians

            I’m speaking well of the dissident faction and highlighting its existence in the first place; I’m not saying it’s anywhere near the mainstream.

          • ImADifferentBird@lemmy.blahaj.zone
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            9 days ago

            Rabin was closer than anyone to ending it, and Netanyahu’s stochastic terrorism led directly to his death. And he’s been propping up Hamas ever since, to give Israel an enemy to hate and prevent peace from ever coming to the region.

            Fuck him, he owns it now.

            • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              0
              ·
              8 days ago

              “No does more for Israel than I do”

              “What about that time you killed a democratically elected Israeli leader who was doing good things for Israel”

              “That’s what I said. He was doing more than me for Israel, and we can’t have that. No one does more for Israel than I do.”

    • Cyborganism@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      9 days ago

      Hey man. If it looks like a Nazi, walks like a Nazi and quacks like a Nazi, it’s probably a Nazi

      • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        edit-2
        8 days ago

        If it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, swims like a duck, and looks like a duck, then it’s…

        A swan! It claims to be a swan, therefore it is a swan! Swans are beautiful, therefore if you’re against swans you’re a bad person! You see ducks everywhere and accuse everyone being a duck! The word “duck” lost its meaning. In fact, we defeated the ducks in 1945, therefore any “ducks” we might have today are just edgy teens cosplaying as such.

        EDIT: If you ask me, I think conservatives are just “good cops” to the fascists “bad cops” (this gave me an idea for a potential video essay).

  • intelisense@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    9 days ago

    I’m interested in what their reasoning was for banning Maus - I certainly don’t recall any sex or amti-christian material.

    • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      9 days ago

      IIRC there is a brief depiction of a (possibly human rather than mouse? It’s been a while since I read it) woman whose body is in a tub after committing suicide, which is what I’ve read other groups trying to get it banned object to. Because titty.

  • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    9 days ago

    Are conservatives activists so concerned with information related to living under Nazism because they don’t want young people to be able to recognize the steps if those steps occur to young people today?

      • candyman337@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        9 days ago

        Not it’s 100% tied to the resurgence of white supremacy. These conservatives groups are backed by humongous PACs that fund groups that push their agenda. Just like with turningpointusa and groups like that. Don’t mistake careful planning masked by racist zealots as idiocy.

        • Optional@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          9 days ago

          Fair enough. All the actual humans I know that vote for these numbnuts are some flava of misplaced Jeebus worshipper. They don’t agree with racists (do they vote for them? Every time - while explaining how the candidate isn’t really racist) but they try not to do and say racist things. They don’t really know what fascism is in this context. Still they willingly hand over political power to those that do.

          The actual racist / fascist shitheel who supports this garbage will do the Wavy-Jesus-Hands when they pray ostentatiously, but don’t really believe that crap, it’s just an important part of the grift for “the weak-minded”.