Showing posts with label Dan Kleinman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dan Kleinman. Show all posts

Monday, June 30, 2025

Sam Shoemate: Unmasking Marxism in Our Public Libraries, Featuring Dan Kleinman of SafeLibraries

JUNE 18, 2025 · 1 HR 2 MIN
Unmasking Marxism in Our Public Libraries
Our Country Our Choice

SUMMARY:

On this episode of Our Country Our Voice, Dan Kleinman discuss the alarming infiltration of Marxist ideology in the American education system, particularly through public libraries.  Dan shares his personal experience that led him to investigate the inappropriate content in children's books and the role of the American Library Association (ALA) in promoting such materials.  He highlights the funding mechanisms of the ALA, the legal tactics used to silence dissent, and the need for grassroots movements to reclaim control over educational content.  The discussion highlights the ideological justifications used by proponents of this agenda and emphasizes the importance of community action in combating these influences. In this conversation, Sam and Dan of SafeLibraries discuss the alarming rise of radical ideologies infiltrating libraries and educational institutions.  They explore how these ideologies are being pushed through policies from organizations like the American Library Association, leading to the indoctrination of children.  The discussion emphasizes the need for community resistance, parental involvement, and grassroots activism to reclaim libraries and protect children from inappropriate content. They also address the historical context of Marxism in society and the importance of empowering parents to challenge these ideologies.

TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome to Our Country Our Voice. One of the greatest threats to our nation, which I believe is the greatest threat to our nation, is the proliferation of Marxism, both in our education system and throughout our institutions, those being the federal government or the military, which I've talked about extensively. You've heard me bring this up in the past. But we need to talk about how this takes hold at the grassroots level. And somebody has been doing a lot of research and pushing back on this over the last however many years, specifically in the public library system. I'm going to bring on a man named Dan Kleinman who has been investigating and exposing the proliferation of Marxist propaganda in our children's books in the public library system. So Dan, welcome to the show.

Thank you very much, Sam.

Tell me about yourself and tell me how you got started doing this.

Well, you know, I'm just like every other father, frankly. And I got started doing this because I sent my kid to a public school. And on the fourth day of kindergarten, she brought a book home for me to read to her. "Hey, daddy, would you read this to me?" And I was like, this is it. I've reached the top. I have a beautiful wife, a house in the country, and I got to read a public school book to my kid. You know, that's it. That's the American dream. 

Sure, yeah.

And I began to read the book to her. And it was completely inappropriate. I mean, like, she went on a date, skinny dipping with three guys at the same time. Ooh la la, she said in a lusty voice. So, 

Wow.

You know, it's a kindergarten, she's not going to pick it up. I changed the words around anyway to get away from those kinds of things. But I brought it in to the principal and I said, hey, what's going on here? And she took four days to review it. She said, this book is twice as bad as what you reported to me as. And so I'm going to remove it from the school. And I'm like, okay, well, why did you give it to my kid? Well, one, our librarian is a member of the American Library Association. And she was using a list of approved books from the American Library Association for kindergartners. And two...

A list of approved books? This was on an approved list?

The ALA puts out lists. 

Wow.

And number two, it had to do with multiculturalism because it was about Puerto Ricans, which I could care less about, but the American Library Association does, because that's part of the issue. So right then, that's when I went to my public library that, on the same day, and I found that there was a website called Fun Sites for Kids and Teens. What was on Fun Sites for Kids and Teens? Was Go Ask Alice from Columbia University, where you could learn, for example, this is going to be fun for kids, how to hang yourself to have a better orgasm.

What?

This is how David Carradine, the actor, died from, you know, Grasshopper from 

Right 

Kung Fu. And also, I found a library director who admitted to me that somebody died in this, a 15-year-old boy died this very way, the day after coming to the library and seeing that very website, because the ALA recommended it. It's written on my, she's written to me and I've published this. So these are serious problems.

I can't even wrap my head around what you just said. The ALA approved a book on teaching kids how to hang themselves for the purpose of achieving their goals.

No, that wasn't a book. That was a website.

A website. Okay. Okay. Even still, this was on their approved list of stuff to go to and check out.

Right.

Wow.  Wow. 

By the way, they have an approved list and Common Sense Media was on that list because it's a great site for looking at book reviews. But one of the book reviews was about the inappropriateness of s[.]xuality in the books. And then when the American Library Association, when a certain group, I forget which one, within ALA learned that, they had the Common Sense Media website removed from that list. So Columbia's Go Ask Alice is on it. Common Sense Media was off it because Common Sense Media provided parents with information about the potential for s[.]xual inappropriateness in books. That got removed. This is the kind of organization we're dealing with. They're not providing you with information. They're providing you with what they want you to know.

This is very subversive. What you're describing is we will continue to do this until we get caught, and then we will change tactics. And they're doing this over and over. They know what this stuff is. They know what they're pushing. And they are just, they are continuing it until they get caught, and it reaches a level of public knowledge that they have to deal with it.

And they are librarians at the American Library Association. It's been around for a hundred years or something like that. And people have a high regard for librarians and think they're like pink fluffy bunnies who had never hurt a fly. When in reality, about 60 years ago, they changed their mission. No longer would they protect children from inappropriate material. Now they would push it on it, mislead the parents as to it, and ensure kids get as much of this is possible. This is the very reason why you and I are talking today right now. It's because of all this stuff going on in school libraries.

Talk about that. What happened 60 years ago? What took place?

60 years ago the American Library Association decided to change the Library Bill of Rights, which sounds great, and gave people the rights to– you know, actually ALA used to be a racist organization. They'd keep blacks out of libraries and wouldn't let them borrow books and all sorts of things. And eventually, they wrote a Library Bill of Rights to make sure people had access to libraries. 

Right.

But in the 60s, thanks to the input of a guy named– 60s radical named Edgar Friedenberg, they decided to add the word "age" to the Library Bill of Rights. So, suddenly, it was age discrimination to keep children from seeing anything whatsoever. And now, public libraries have this Library Bill of Rights with the word "age" in there and this is why inappropriate material is being given to children despite laws against obscenity like in New Jersey or Supreme Court cases like Board of Education v. Pico because the librarians basically bully their way into these positions and say, hey, we know what we're doing and everybody assumes that they do and lets them get away with this stuff and this is why we're having this conversation because kids are getting inappropriate stuff because the American Library Association 60 years ago added the word "age" in there because of their new age views of things. 

Yeah, wow.

They're not our friends anymore. They're now working to keep us in the dark, us parents in the dark, and to go after the children. And it's in many different forms, which I hopefully will get into in this discussion.

Yeah, absolutely. Who's funding the ALA? I know the answer. I've got another answer, but I'm just going to ask you. Who's funding the ALA?

I believe most– a lot of the funds at least comes from dues and from conferences that you attend which you think that they'd be all about free speech and no censorship, but it's like $500 to attend a conference. Unless you're a member, then it's like $400 and they sell some books. But they also get– for certain projects, they will get big donations like Jay Z and Robert Kraft of the Patriot Eagles– Patriot– New England Patriots gave a million dollars to the American Library Association with the express purpose of helping to sue– to file lawsuits for school librarians, to file lawsuits against parents, to silence the ones who are speaking out like I am and indeed I'm being sued, but there are others like me and it just keeps proliferating because they keep getting away with it. So they get money from that too.

What are you being sued for?

I'm being sued for defamation. The American Library Association at a meeting that the American Library Association warned people I might show up at, so let them know because then they'll change the language, yhey trained librarians on how to file suits against parents who complain for defamation because it runs them up of a lot of time and a lot of money. There's nothing there. There's no there there, but it just shuts people up. This is literally lawfare, SLAPP suits, and I got that from a FOIA response from some other people who had a battle with a library in Illinois, home of the American Library Association, where people are taking notes and the notes say we got to file defamation suits against parents that will run them up to $500,000 in costs. This is a plan. This is part of a plan of there's a many points that go into this pushing of this agenda. And that, that's one of them is filing lawsuits against parents and other groups.

How do you how do you combat this? I mean, when they're when they're funded the way they are, how do you as a concerned parent, is there any avenue, any recourse to fight back against this lawfare?

Um, the answer is no. And actually, that's what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to get this to the, you know, while this organization, the ALA, has huge funding to sue parents, parents don't have any wherewithal to fight back except from out of their own pockets. I would like to get large funding from Elon Musk or Mike Bloomberg or somebody like that to pay lawyers directly, not us. I'm not looking for a Lexis 

Sure.

or a Tesla. I just want it to go to the lawyers so that we can defend ourselves against these SLAPP suits and maybe do more. If we had the right amount of money maybe we can bring like a RICO charge against American Library Association for all these cases going on across the United States where they don't have a lot of control, but they get local people to become their little people to bring these lawsuits. So effectively, they can sue anywhere in the United States, and all standing rules are set aside for the American Library Association.

Um, I am... I wanted to talk to you today, but I wasn't planning on hearing all of this, and I'm in shock. 

I could go on. 

It takes a bit to shock me these days with what I've experienced, but I'm truly in shock with what I'm hearing. Who is empowering? Beyond the money, how is the ALA getting the access to make the changes and do the things they're doing? How have they established this kind of footprint to have this kind of power?

Well, they have established, like, underground connection things. How do I put this? They have funded and created local groups in hundreds of communities nationwide. They provide the means that librarians can communicate with each other so that parents don't know. And specifically, even if they file open government requests for information, the American Library Association guides librarians on how to prevent people from getting information under those FOIA Acts, Freedom of Information Act things, by using things like Signal to communicate with each other, and it won't become public, supposedly. It's become so prevalent that librarians are even writing this into their books that they're providing to people that are and to provide, to tell them on how to combat people like me, frankly. So one of the things you do is you communicate with each other. So for example, there was some legislation in Louisiana that in part started because of me and what I disclosed about the librarians down there. And the legislation got 44,000 emails opposing this particular legislation. Well, where did that come from? It came from the American Library Association platforms, community organizing platforms that you can sign up for if you're in the local community. They'll send you some money to get you like initially started. They'll set you up with a fundraising site. They'll set you up with a site to send emails to senators and representatives and so on and so forth. And so little people like us are crushed by this giant machine that can send out 44,000 emails to bully or pressure legislators into passing this or that law. That's another thing the lawyers, the librarians are doing, getting laws passed that make it harder for parents to, well, actually makes them lose their rights, lose their First Amendment.

How do people, how do they actually get this funding? So you're talking about the ALA provides funding so people can have their sites built or whatever in building. Is there some kind of litmus test that they have to pass first so that they can prove that they're ideologically on their side or what is that? What is the process for this? What does this look like?

You contact the Office for Intellectual Freedom, which is a subdivision of the ALA, or there's another subgroup called EveryLibrary. They, EveryLibrary, set itself up to look like it's separate, but it's actually the same people doing the same thing. So you just contact them, and they have bragged about how they can set this thing up within hours and get you going. 

And how do the...

I have published the transcripts of these, the leader of Every Library Association, of EveryLibrary, and the president then, Emily Drabinski of ALA, providing a talk to the members about how they can stand this stuff up real fast and start helping people immediately. And they're doing it in hundreds of places.

How, how are they interconnecting these, these platforms? How are they talking where they're able to establish such a large response? 44,000 emails is no joke. That is an enormous volume of communication. So how are they actually, how is this banding together? I'm not understanding the logistics behind this.

Well, not only is it, not only is it like secret messages, but you can actually watch it on Twitter, and now they're not on Twitter, or X, they're now on, on BlueSky. 

Of course, of course.

And you can, you can not only write to themselves, but they write to their partner groups like the AFT, their partners with the AFT, the American Federation of Teachers, and the ACLU, and so on and so forth. So I have been to a number of meetings where parents show up, and they are completely outdone by hundreds of people that are showing up with the same professionally done signs, Free People Read Freely, which is a registered trademark of American Library Association. So there's hundreds of people showing up that got out there because out in the open and public online, they're crowdfunding and crowdsourcing, and the crowds come out. One meeting was so bad, for example, in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, that the parents who filed the complaint didn't even show up to the meeting because they were so intimidated. And I was the only person who spoke in favor of those parents, and I was then attacked by the ACLU of New Jersey as why would I ever speak up in favor of these parents? I mean, it's just crazy what goes on. Hundreds of people show up, and very few parents from the actual schools or public libraries are there, and they just get bullied out of existence. There's nothing that parents have in the opposite direction.

What is, I always ask why, and obviously I understand the purpose of Marxist ideology and propaganda. But for the average person who isn't trying to overthrow the United States through subversive ideology, what is the mechanism that they're using to, I guess, justify themselves? To say that what they're doing by teaching kids about this filth is the moral right. What is this?

Well, I would say, remember, it's not filth that they're teaching. They are s[.]xualizing the kids, but they're not s[.]xualizing them to s[.]xualize them. They're s[.]xualizing them because that is one way to inculcate a kind of like a Marxism and a hate for your country, your God and your family. That's like an angle to where the ultimate goal is. And it seems like it's Marxism. Now, when I say that, everybody's eyes go, Marxism. Okay. We have the American Library Association president, Emily Drabinski, who said when she became president, she said, "I am so proud that a Marxist lesbian became president of the American Library Association."

Wow. I saw that. Yeah.

"And I can't wait to wield power for what we want. I love you, mom." Okay, that's the kind of thing she does. Then she went to a socialism conference. This was uncovered by Karlyn Borysenko. And she says at the Socialism Conference in Chicago, she says, we need your help. And she's talking to real people, like really in jail for the things that they used to do in the 70s. She says, we need your help to turn libraries into sites for socialism training. That's what it is. It's not, it's not sites for s[.]xualization training. They're really after the political goal of getting children while they're young and making them into, indoctrinating them into their little view of things. The next president, she was Marxist, the next president is Marxist, the next president after her is not only Marxist but "non-binary." So the present elect of ALA right now is a "non-binary" Marxist. 

Wow.

So you can guarantee that children are going to be getting this stuff, whether you want them to have it or not.

No, you know, I understand why they're doing it. I understand why the leaders of this are doing it. And I fully understand their modus operandi, if you will. 

Ya.

But how are they convincing the PTA mom who thinks that she's doing the right thing by getting this stuff to their kids? How are they convincing them that this is the right thing to do?

Yeah, by doing what Marxists do, and that is lie. Take a grain of truth and turn it into something that makes sense. For example, it makes sense that children have a First Amendment right to anything that they want to read. I mean, it just sounds right. It makes sense that parents should not tell other parents what to read in schools. Right? I shouldn't tell other parents what to read in school. All this kind of stuff makes sense. It makes sense that there's the Miller case that says you have to, you know, something has to be read "as a whole" in order to be considered obscenity. And if you're just looking at excerpts, then you're not reading them "as a whole." It all makes sense. None of that is true. It's very deceptive though, because it sounds true. None of that is true. That's how they do it.

You know, what triggered in my head when you said that was, you know, Satan in the Garden of Eden telling Eve who, you know, who are you not to know? Why should you not know these things? And did God really say that? Because he just doesn't want you to know good from evil, like he does, and all these things, and this deception, this ability to convince her that, no, this is a good thing, and he just doesn't want you to have what he has. That's what's reminding me of, what I'm reminded of when you say that, you know, telling a parent, you're right, it sounds good when you say kids should have First Amendment rights. And then you're like, why does a six-year-old have a First Amendment right? You don't have a First Amendment right. You don't even have, you have no rights in your home. You do as you're told, you're six years old, you know? Like, I want you to explore and discover yourself, but within very limited constraints. Like, I am raising you and I am teaching you, you don't have First Amendment rights. So I fully get that.

That's how it's done.

That's, yeah. What, I don't even know how to approach this question because I'm so floored by what I've heard here. 

Right.

What is, what do we do? How do we combat this as? I will offer the first one, I will say, first of all, just like I do with anything else, people need to know that this exists. People need to know that this is happening. And if I'm shocked by something, I am pretty certain that most people, most people don't know that this is going on to this extent. So first is education, but then how do we actually push back against this and stop what is taking place?

Yeah, I was going to say the first is education. So there you go. The second is, the way to push back is, in my opinion, is that you need to change the library boards, right? Let's say you have a town that's conservative, but you have only ten Marxists in the town. Those ten Marxists will get on the library board and control that board. That's how this stuff happens. That's, ALA even writes about it, talks about "sneakily" pushing this kind of drag queen story hour into small, rural, red communities, for example. They talk about this. And so what really needs to happen is the boards need to come back to control of not necessarily conservative, not anything, just people who don't want to have inappropriate material pushed on children. It's as simple as that. I think there's people come from both the GOP and the Democrats when it comes to that. 

So, sure.

So those are the people you need on the board. Once you get them in the majority, then you have to go into the policies and remove all the policies that the ALA created and got into these schools, not directly, but indirectly because they train the librarians who come back and write this stuff from the sample policies right into your local school policy. So suddenly, if you want to challenge a book, it's going to take a five-month process of getting together a committee and parents will have input. They tell you parents have input. Parents have zero input. This is another lie they tell you, by the way. The parents will have input and everybody makes a decision. No, that's not true. That's what the ALA makes up. The ALA from Chicago, Illinois. It's the Supreme Court of the United States, and the Board of Education v. Pico that said if the book is educationally unsuitable or pervasively vulgar, it can be removed immediately. So a superintendent can and has remove books immediately. Even librarians have removed books immediately. They just don't make it public because they know when it's inappropriate, it shouldn't be, some of them know when a book is inappropriate, it shouldn't be in there and they take it out and they move it into another library. There's no big review process or anything like that. An eight-year-old girl in an Arizona school was reading a book about squirting sperm, not making it up, and the parent brought this to the principal's attention and the principal removed it that day. And the head of the Arizona Library Association said, "you can't do that. It's a violation of her… It's a censorship, a violation of her First Amendment rights, and there's a process that you need to go through." Well, anyway, she… That's it. This is what happens.

Yep. That process and that bureaucracy is something I'm very familiar with. I'll tell you a quick story really quick, and you can weigh in on this. Very, very similar to what you're describing. 

Right.

There was an individual on Fort Leavenworth who brought a book, a very filthy book that I exposed publicly, teaching kids how to masturbate and all kinds of stuff, and how to avoid being caught by their parents. And I mean, just the graphicness of this book, it was technically in the preteen section. The preteen for this library on Leavenworth was, I believe, 12 to 17, or maybe it was 12 to 15. Either way, it was right next to the children's reading section. And this person brought this book to, first of all, to the chaplain, brought it forward to the chaplain, and then the chaplain brought it to the commanding general of Leavenworth. And this happened, I want to say, two, two and a half years ago. Well, initially, they were all about getting it removed. They both readily agreed, this is disgusting, this should not be in the library. 

Right.

However, what happened after that was, this individual waited, I think it was a month, month and a half or so, it was a long time, and then got a response back from the chaplain saying, there's a process to have this removed, we're not going to be involved in this anymore, we're removing ourselves from this process. And she was flabbergasted, she was like, how, what do you mean? You were so gung-ho, you were on my side about getting this removed. And the entire conversation had been shut down, all the way from this chaplain to the commanding general, a three-star general of Fort Leavenworth, because for whatever reason, we don't know what took place behind the scenes, but when this person dug into it, and there's a whole process for submitting books that should be removed, but then the person who approves this is basically a dictator in charge where they decide overall what is and what isn't. And as we dug into it a bit more, we found that it was a network of very influential people that were working with one of these organizations. I couldn't even remember the name of this point, but they dictate the reading materials for all the DODEA libraries and in school systems. And so a three-star general, though he was opposed to it, not only did not have the power to remove this book from the library, but he stopped talking about it immediately, like silenced him. He was, he was, boom, done. I, not my problem anymore, I'm not going to address this. 

Right. 

What is your thought on that? And that's in the military.

This is how the American Library Association operates. There are a lot of librarians who are not like this, but they stay silent and they don't do anything, because if they do, sometimes they lose their jobs. One librarian, for example, came out after eight years and finally admitted how she was bullied out of her job because they kept showing p[.]rn on the computers. And the library director said, well, if you don't like it, don't let the door hit you on the way out. So she finally just left the job and wouldn't talk about it, just like you said, until eight years later, when another issue came up of more child p[.]rn in the library, because it never goes away, it just comes back. And so then she talked about it. That's how frightened these people are of these people who run this kind of stuff. So as I was saying before, what you need to do is you need to get the right people in place, get that policy that creates these dumb policies that came from the American Library Association, get it out of there. Suddenly, then you can remove a whole pile of things. You can remove, for example, hundreds of trans books that have to do with boys that look like girls and they're breast chopped off and everything else going on. It doesn't have to be a one-off thing. It could just be get them all out of there. Why? Because they're educationally unsuitable. And that's what the Court says. You don't have to, you know, the stuff with the one-off reviews, it takes forever, nothing ever gets done. Even the librarians laugh about it. They say, oh, you know, even if they remove this book, so what? I got 10 more like this on the shelf and the publishers are pushing out 100 more every day. 

Geez.

So go ahead. Let them remove it.

I mean, the coordination behind this is incredible.

It's a massive coordination. Just massive. But it's not just coordination behind this. It's like an all-on-field effort. For example, they're passing legislation to ensure that children get this stuff in schools, despite laws like obscenity. In New Jersey, there's 2C:34-3, and it's for obscenity for children under 18. And it doesn't use the Miller Test "as a whole" standard. It just says if it has this, that, or the other thing, it's inappropriate for children, and it's a crime. And the librarian, actually, a book was, the superintendent wanted it removed from the library. But the librarian went to the American Library Association, got some advice and said, you can't do that, and that started years of battles in that community to where to this day, New Jersey has passed a law that requires people to ignore the obscenity statute and ignore the Pico case, and all books will now be accepted in schools. So you got to change the policy, then you can clean out entire swaths of the libraries. And just in case you think I'm being funny by saying that, I want you to know the librarians are cleaning out entire swaths of what's in the library. 

Oh I'm sure.

They call it "decolonization." Or they oppose Christian books or something like that. They have other words for it. But they're doing the same thing. It's why when you go into a library, it's like completely slanted to one side and not the other because the librarians have been "decolonizing" the library and getting rid of dead white men, as an American Library Association website put it.

You know, you saying this is actually a, is perfect for this. This podcast is Our Country Our Voice, but it's a, you know, it's under our organization, which is Our Country Our Choice. And this is what we promote all across America. And this is what we're trying to build right now. We're we're very, very small at the moment. We are trying to build that movement where people understand that change is going to happen at the grassroots level. This is not going to be a federalized process. We are not going to overtake the federal government or anything else. It involves people in their local communities being aware of what's happening on their city councils, their town boards, but in the education system. But this is this is one that I really hadn't factored. The public libraries were not on my, were not on my radar. The ALA was not on my radar. 

That why they are so effective.

I had all of these other boards and councils. What's that? 

That's why they're so effective.

Oh, yeah. I mean, you're, like you said, who's going to suspect a librarian? You're not even thinking about it. They checked your books out. How big of a threat could they be? But if they're all coordinated and they're all controlling what people see in the library, not just books, but websites and in any other medium 

Right.

that could push this stuff to a child, then they have an enormous amount of power. And if they're able to mobilize like this, which is literally what we're trying to create as an organization, the ability for people to do the same in their communities and mobilize and talk about these like-minded things and take back their country, then the amount of power that a librarian has is incredible. You know, this is literally the army of the Marxist movement in action. 

Yeah.

And I'm just, I'm floored.

By the way, some of these school librarians, speaking of an army of Marxists, some of these school librarians are calling for the murder or the killing of Donald Trump as President, of Elon Musk, of all Jews. 

They're violent. They are violent people. Whether they do anything about it or not, they are actively espousing this stuff. Not just on hidden accounts, not anonymous accounts. They're doing it on their public accounts without any fear because they are this emboldened.

Right, and when I publish reports about them doing it, including showing their tweets or posts with, you know, "kill," you know, DT on it, maybe I shouldn't say his name. 

Yeah, right, right.

Then they say I'm harassing him and I'm going to gather evidence to bring another lawsuit against him. This was what they did. And all the library friends join in. They don't care that he's threatening the President of the United States, or Elon Musk. They don't think, "I'm going to stay away from that guy." No. Instead, they're like, "yes, Dan is the worst. Well, I don't know what he's so obsessed about with you threatening the president. You know, aren't there more important things in his life? Does he live in his mother's basement?" You know, all that kind of stuff just keeps coming up.

Right. Of course. Of course. This is the same, the same talking points over and over and over. And the ends justify the means because this is this is warfare. Like, make no mistake about it. We are at war with this ideology and these people who want to radicalize and completely overtake our nation. And they've been very successful at it for a very long time. And I think I think over the last four or five years, a lot of people got red pilled, if you want to call it that. But woke up after the COVID stuff and started seeing a lot of these things around them and saying, we, wow, what's been going on in our country? We have to respond to this.

And since they got woke up, the librarians have realized that they've been caught. So their response is not to pull back, their response is to double down. So, for example, when the Department of Education stopped the book ban hoax, which ALA was part of, by the way, but get to that later, the American Library Association and the School Library Journal started publishing how you can double down on DEI in your school despite what the Department of Education has done. How you can sneak this stuff on children without the Department of Education knowing. How you can make sure kids are continuing to learn things that we know that nobody wants them to learn except for us, because we know what's best for these children, right? They complain that parents think that parents know what's best. It's them who think that it's the parents who know, like that one who is suing me. I have to be careful what I say, because I'm still in the middle of a lawsuit.

Sure.

But basically, I revealed something that she said on a broadcast, in which she bragged about the "not modern" parents knowing that she was putting books in front of the kids that would teach them things that she knew the parents would not want them to know, like about s[.]xual harassment, for example, or whatever it may be. And she thought she was funny talking to another school librarian about it, and they were laughing it up. Well, I heard that, and I published it, and I provided a transcript, and I got sued for doing that. So it's basically, that's so they come out and they say this stuff when they, in fact, if I could give people a piece of advice on how to investigate this stuff, it would be to just listen to all the broadcasts from these various librarians. They say things because they think nobody's listening. They say things that is like hard evidence of the agenda that's going on and how things are getting done. I've been at this for 25 years. This is halfway why I know this stuff, because I've been listening to a hundred of these broadcasts. They say this things.

Yeah. Now, what you're describing is the same thing they did in the Department of Defense where Trump came out with his executive order to get rid of DEI, critical race theory and all this subversive propaganda. What did they do? Not only did the lawyers and the JAG Corps push back against this stuff very publicly, but they started doing malicious compliance where they were only obeying by the letter of the law, but making the administration look bad. 

Right.

And then they archived a lot of this stuff. So they were very open about it. They didn't delete it. They didn't remove it. They archived it. And you had a three-star admiral that came out and said, we will wait them out. And she was relieved for it. But they're very open about this. 

Right.

They are, this isn't just a social idea for them that they're trying to improve society. No, they are trying to radically take over the entire establishment with Marxist ideology and therefore, ultimately, communism.

Right. I've even seen them openly saying, you know, let's fool people. I mean, I know they do this multiple times. So when a story comes out, a lot of times the librarians will fake things to make it look really bad. Like if DeSantis says you can't give DEI books to kids third grade and below, they'll empty out the shelves in the library, then take a picture of empty shelves and say, look what happened. 

Bingo.

They'll have a law that wants to get passed on Internet filtering. The head of the Illinois Library Association sent out a message to all librarians using their public resources to tell them to purposely turn up all their filters to the highest setting so that nobody could get access to anything. Leave slips of paper and pens so that people could write to the governor right there. That bill that passed both houses got vetoed by the governor after he got a huge number of these kinds of things 

Wow.

because they faked it. They do this kind of fake stuff all the time. They even write it publicly sometimes to play these kinds of games on people, to use your public resources. You're in a public job. You can hide things. You can make things look bad, make it harder for people to get access. Then they complain and then suddenly you're back to where you were before. It's just what they do. These are not honest people in the slightest.

No. You know what? To be honest, if I was leading any kind of combative effort to subvert the population or anything else, I would do the same thing. I wouldn't be honest because these people are my enemies. So I don't blame them for not being honest, but what I do encourage people to understand is that this is real and you are being lied to, and you need to look past what you see on the surface, the black and white, such as these emptied out shelves and, oh, this is a result of the scientists telling us that we couldn't have these reading materials. So now you don't get any reading materials and understand that this is a ploy to manipulate.

Almost every time.

Yes, it is absurd when you look into it, but it works. The propaganda works. 

Yep.

The psychological operation of it works on the masses when you put this stuff out on social media. And it's, you know, they have an army that we've allowed to infiltrate over decades and decades and decades of doing this.

Yes.

And it's just really taken off in the last 10 years as far as how aggressive it's become. 

Right.

But the structure and the base was already in place to allow this. 

Right. 

So, I have some questions that people asked last night, and I want to run these by you. So, Crystal said, ask him about the ALA policies, how the ALA policies have infiltrated school libraries to the detriment of all. I think we covered a bit of it, but outside of just public libraries and everything else, maybe there's something you could expound on with that question. I think, like I said, it's been covered, but maybe you have another thought.

It has been covered. A lot of these policies come from the American Library Association. They're trained at the meetings, and then they go back and they write them up and suggest them to their policy people, and it becomes the law. For example, a lot of people didn't like, a lot of librarians didn't like that people were filing materials reconsideration complaints, which is from the ALA, but too many of them were being filed, so they began to make new rules. They just make it up. You have to be a school parent. You couldn't even be a grandparent in the case of one school. Yet you have to be living in the community. You have to be limited to only one challenge per year. So they start putting all these restraints on your First Amendment and your state constitutional rights, because there's two constitutions involved. And they don't care. And suddenly that gets trained at the American Library Association. And suddenly it's in all the, not all the policies, but it's in the policies that have adopted this kind of stuff. This training at the American Library Association is so egregious that some kind of a training that I brought up was used in a banned books hearing. And Mike Lee spoke about it on on Capitol Hill during a "banned books" hearing. And he played this clip. And let me tell you what's in this training that librarians are getting. They're saying before this stuff becomes legislation, so they know it's going to become legislation, but they want to fool people. We need to get the people to think that these are not inappropriate books for children. And then she corrects herself. It's not s[.]xually inappropriate. She actually changes it to that. But "reframes" them as diversity and inclusion and things like that. 

Yes.

This is what training librarians. This is what they're doing. This is why books like Gender Queer are not being removed from as many schools as they could be, because people have been convinced to believe that, well, first of all, as a whole, it's a good book, which has nothing to do. It's the Miller case. It doesn't apply to school libraries. And it has ideas in it that are good ideas. No, it doesn't. It's just you just took the idea that these are pervasively vulgar, and you change them into, it's diversity, she's half gay, cut off her breasts, whatever it is. That's not an excuse, but that's the American Library Association's excuse. And it's working. So, there's...

Yeah, I guess if you're a fence walker, and you don't have any kind of standard, which is something that they've tried to do for decades, is break down your moral boundaries for what you will tolerate and what you won't tolerate, then that stuff looks clean and wholesome. You know, like, oh, diversity is good. Equity is good, until you dig into what that actually means behind the framework.

Well, for librarians, okay, like, I'm Dan Kleinman, and I tweeted today or posted today on my account I call SexHarassed on X, which is named after the librarians who get harassed, and the ALA doesn't care and says it's "dubious." Anyway, this librarian told librarians today how to get rid of Christian books from their libraries and don't let Christian people come in and use their public library books for public library readings.

That's insane. 

It's insane.

I mean, that's just illegal. That's full-blown illegal.

They don't care. They run the thing using your public taxpayer monies. 

That's crazy.

They get away with it. That was uncovered years ago by me, the American Library Association trained people initially how to do that. The thing I wrote about today is somebody who keeps writing about it every year to tell librarians exactly what to do and even telling them to spend public money, like "go get your lawyer and make sure your policy is good on your public library meetings room." That's nice. She's telling people to expend public money to advance an American Library Association goal to keep Christians out of libraries.

All right. Um. I'm. This. This is crazy. Let me ask you this one. Greg asked, does he feel we are facing Marxism that has been implemented here since the Soviet Union days, or is this mainly pushed by China currently?

Yeah. I think it's the Soviet Union days because it was 60 years ago that they added the word "age" to the Library Bill of Rights based on their, you know, what I said before.

Yeah. And I agree with you. This has been going on way too long. This is not a CCP operation. I'm sure that they are more than willing to support it in its efforts to divide and destroy our nation internally. But this is by no means an origination.

Yeah. I don't see anything CCP connected here a lot. I see other problems, but not that.

Yeah. Fair enough. We already covered who funds the ALA, and you talked about that. Now, you said that it was like donations and these dinners and everything else, but is there any, are there taxpayer dollars that are funneling and supporting ALA directly?

Well, I'm going to guess yes, because I'm actually not a financial expert. So they are a 401c3 organization. 501c3. See, I can't even say it right. 501c3 organization. So I'm assuming they get tax benefits by claiming they are. Meantime, the president, Emily Drabinski, was just talking about how people should downvote or not rank Mario Cuomo. It sounds to me like she's violating FEC and IRS rules, but they don't care because they're librarians.

They don't care. Hey you're right, who's going to stop the librarian? Yeah, that's crazy. We talked about this earlier, and I don't know if you even know the answer to this, but the question is how do they get to dictate what goes in DOD and other libraries and effectively no one else will say it. I know how you covered this. We talked about bureaucracy, but do you actually know the method that DODEA has for selecting books?

It's the librarians.

Okay.

It's through them that this kind of stuff happens. 

Okay.  Fair enough.  And then ...

Because nobody says, look, while I'm out flying caps over whatever, Washington, DC., I want the librarian to teach my kid in the army-based library about how to put on a dress when he is five years old, and he can get his penis cut off or wear tucking underwear. Nobody wants that. That's coming from somewhere. It's the American Library Association.

Um, yeah. Um. Lakelady asked, are there examples of public libraries that have been taken back by their communities?

Yes.

And how can people win against the radical library associations?

Gillette, Wyoming, was taken back. Why? They got the right board in place and then, the board that doesn't want to s[.]xualize children, and they threw out all the American Library Association policy and they changed it. Now, people can go in the library, everybody can go. You see, before it was just the people who didn't mind the indoctrination and the flags and the books and the whole thing that goes on with if you don't follow this, you're out. Now, everybody can go and feel welcome. People don't have to be afraid that their kid is going to read Gender Queer about rubbing off or, whatever, in the library. And that resulted in the library director refusing to follow the new policy. And the library said, look, you got to follow the new policy. This is the policy, we're the library board, we're the one who set the policy under the law. People have to look at the law that creates these libraries and don't just listen to your librarian, but look at the law. And what did that law give them the power to do? And it gives them the power to tell the library director what to do. The library director refused, they fired her. 

That's what I was waiting for.

So she went out and got the American Library Association, and now she's suing that library. But they're not moving. 

Good.

They're not budging. And there are other libraries that are also ending their funding for ALA, stop sending their people to ALA conferences. There are state library associations doing it. There are state library commissions that are dropping out of ALA, largely because they realize that having Marxist leaders is something you don't want to really be paying for. You know, you don't even need an MLIS. You don't need a degree even to be a librarian. I was a volunteer librarian for two years. You kind of learn it on the job from other people. It's not terribly difficult. And it's not even a profession, right? What's a profession? A lawyer, a doctor, somebody else that passes a test and they can get kicked out if they, you know. Well, that's not librarians.

I'll refrain from from any insults because I have a few off the top of my head, but that's I'm trying to be professional here, but I agree.

I'm not insulting them.

You can tell them yourself.

They're just trying to make like they're the professionals. They're the trained professionals and we should leave all the decision making to them. I've had multiple school superintendents say we can't leave the decision making to them. They got all the school like Booklist as an ALA thing. All these other groups that rate books, they only look at the ratings that come from books that say things like, "oh, this trans book about the girl chopping her boobs off is a great coming of age book. It's really wonderful. Your child needs to read it." That's the only kind of reviews that they have. The American Library Association has put together a review site that provides information on these books that just is about the awards they get, how wonderful they are, doesn't give any excerpts of what's in the books so parents could make up their own mind. That's part of the tricking that goes on.

Of course. Yeah. It's the same thing with, you know, turning on the Disney Channel, for instance. You think your kid's going to get some Mickey Mouse and instead they're getting indoctrinated. If you're not paying attention, you're using it as a babysitter. Well, they're probably hearing something if it was made in the last five years that you don't want them to hear. So yeah, same exact concept. This guy asked how to overcome and eradicate the philosophy. The communist influence has been the greatest impediment to a free and civil society in this country since the early 1900s. That's obviously a pretty big question. You want to take a stab at it, how to overcome the philosophy?

I'm an expert on libraries, not on Marxism, believe it or not.

Fair enough. Yeah, I don't think I could answer that one. With the time, we have allotted either. Okay, so this was Crystal again, and she's quoting the LibsOfTikTok post. The LibsOfTikTok post said, Garrett Jones, assistant principal for an elementary school in a lot... I'm not going to try to pronounce that. School says he thinks it's appropriate for eight-year-old kids to be reading p[.]rnography and dirty magazines in school. And Crystal said, ask him what should happen to school administrators like this. Because our district decided a promotion to middle school principal was the correct response. And then she said, I'm the mom asking the question.

Well, I think that people like that should be dismissed permanently from their jobs and not allowed to hold any jobs with children again. But that's not the way it, you know, it depends on the community. That community is all for, you know, transing kids or whatever. They don't care. They're just gonna move to someone else.

Right. That's unfortunately a free society. And if you're comfortable with people destroying your kids, that's what you're gonna allow. And that's what you're gonna tolerate. But yeah, I'm of the same mind that you should not only be able to not have anything to do with kids anymore, but you should have a team of FBI agents scouring your hard drives because I'm concerned about what just came out of your mouth. You're comfortable with eight year olds reading p[.]rnography. Let's go ahead and take a look at that computer, bud. Yeah, we need to see what's going on in the background. So, yeah.

Oh, my God. Twenty five years of fighting this stuff. My computer is going to be interesting.  [laughs]

Yeah, don't don't say that. You might get a team that shows up just to just on those premises alone. 

Well, namely, legal stuff. 

No, I get it. Trust me, I get it. But yeah, there's it's insane. So prior prior to where I'm at now and something I'm still involved with very, very intensively, but I don't talk about it very much here is counter human trafficking, specifically, rescue of children. And I'll tell you, it's one of those things where when it comes to the kind of things you're exposed to, you really can't understand how bad it is until you experience it. And those are those are avenues where I personally, I can't I can't handle seeing that that material. There are people out there that that can, they are just wired differently and they can, you know, FBI forensic analysts that can see this stuff. I can't. So I can only imagine what you've been exposed to as far as 25 years of seeing this trash and having to fight it. It's it's got to be taxing on you mentally.

Yeah. I just thought of another way that you can get rid of this kind of stuff. You can do what like Florida is doing. Florida has just passed some kind of a law. And for example, in Escambia County, where the PEN America partner with ALA and the authors of And Tango Makes Three are suing a school teacher because she challenged books because she saw that they were inappropriate. Gosh forbid even a teacher challenge a book. 

Right, right.

They're suing down in Escambia County two cases. Well, anyway, that county just decided to remove a number of books, essentially hundreds, because there's a law that says if your book gets reviewed in one school and the school decides that it's inappropriate for whatever reason, then it's inappropriate. But other schools can consider that as well and remove it as well without having to take the time to review it as well. So if one school, for example, removes Gender Queer or All Boys Aren't Blue or the whole litany of this kind of stuff, then other schools can just add that to the list and out it goes from the library. You could literally remove hundreds of books this way. And that is happening in Florida schools right now. And the Florida librarians are lying like crazy about it. And they're crying like crazy. But there is, those children are going to get protected somewhat because the librarians are always going to sneak in on them. In fact, my organization, I have another organization called World Library Association. And we uncovered that when, in fact, the teacher from Escambia County uncovered that when librarians remove this stuff, as they're supposed to do, they remove it from the records in the system that the administrators and the parents can see. But not the children. Children have differing access from the parents, and they can still see this stuff in the system. 

Wow.

And they have access to electronic versions of the same things that are provided to them by these school librarians that want to make sure these kids continue to be indoctrinated. So it's like hidden from parents. They sneak this stuff on them. They sneak it on all the legislators and the parents logging into the databases. They don't see things. But the kids log in with their IDs, and suddenly you can see this stuff and the downloads for the electronic books and so on and so forth.

That's wild. I don't know how much more we can process. I think that's a pretty good place to stop. You have anything else you want to add?

You have to not be intimidated by school librarians. They like to act like they think they know what they're doing, and then they act like they do and get away with it. Don't let them get away with it. These books are inappropriate. They can be removed from schools immediately under the Pico case. The librarians tell you you can't because you can't remove them under the Miller case "as a whole" standard. But the Miller case doesn't apply to schools. Furthermore, when they make that lie that sounded great earlier that I mentioned that parents shouldn't control what other people's kids are reading, that's a lie. Parents are allowed to seek redress under the government, the state and constitution, for, you know, seek redress under the government. So they go to the government and they say, "I think this book is inappropriate." That's what the parents do. Parents don't remove those books from the library. Those bodies, those boards of education then make that decision and decide to remove it or not. It's not parents removing a damn thing. It's not a single parent short of stealing that has removed, which they should not do, that has removed a book from anywhere. But that's the lie that they tell you because it sounds pretty good. Also, I want to tell people, don't harass librarians. 

Sure.

I'm not in the harassing business. I'm in the reporting business, essentially, and pointing things out. There are people who do physically sometimes harass people. I'm not one of them.

Yeah, no. This harassment is not going to stop the problem. It is going to remove individuals. It is not going to remove the problem. The problem is ideological. It is rooted in a network that you cannot possibly overcome by yourself, just harassing an individual. So I fully agree with you. 

Right. If you have a school librarian pushing inappropriate stuff on your kids, it's really not her alone. It's a giant thing behind her. 

Yes.

Oh, and here's another major point, since we're about to say goodbye. I have decided to try another tactic, and now I'm spreading it out now. People can try this too. And that is to look at the school ethics laws. In my state of New Jersey, the school ethics laws require that school boards consider the opinions of the local people and specifically not special interest groups. That's a law. American Library Association is about the biggest special interest group from Chicago, Illinois, you'll ever see. And it's the one that drives a lot of this policy in schools. And the school boards are following the ALA policy, like in New Jersey, where we have that law on obscenity. They're not following the state law. Instead they're following the American Library Association's anything-goes law. Well, that means that they're following outside interest groups or special interest groups. 

Ya.

And I have brought an ethics complaint against those people. That complaint is still being settled. This is something that you all might want to consider doing and look into because they just can't have a school board who comes in there and says, "oh, look at this American Library Association, got these great policies. Let's force it on our kids." You can't do that. There's probably laws that prevent that. Like ethics laws. Look into it. See if you can do it that way, too.

No, that's great. Dan, how can people follow you and the work you're doing?

They can follow me on X, essentially. I'm at SexHarassed or at SafeLibraries or at WLibraryA. SexHarassed is the one that is like my personal account. So it's got the most followers and the most tweets. SafeLibraries is where I just try to retweet things relevant to things that I maybe publish or related to things, whatever.

And if folks are looking for you, you can follow those accounts from my account as well, because I've quoted and I've re-tweeted some of his posts recently.

And I appreciate you. Mainstream media does not report on parents like us, like you are going to now. Nobody hears about this stuff. There's another reason why they get away with this. Nobody wants to talk about it.

Sure.

I can get evidence from the police, from FOIA requests showing child p[.]rn arrests in libraries and things like that. And the media will not publish it. It's just...

Of course, they've corrupted the media, just like they've corrupted all the institutions. I mean, this is a framework that's been built over decades.

So I thank you. You are helping to educate the public right now.

No, I appreciate that. Dan, thanks for your input. Thanks for your insight. Hang on just a second while I close this out. But yeah, I can't thank you enough for the kind of eye-opening information you've dropped here. And I really hope a lot of people see this, because this is insane to me. So hang on just a second. 

Thanks. 

To close this out, I will say we have a responsibility. It's beyond just making sure that your kids are not looking at p[.]rn or not looking at things you don't want them to see anymore. There is an element in this country, a very radicalized and serious element that is trying to destroy not only your children by transing them or indoctrinating them with LGBTQ alphabet soup policies, but they are trying to overtake the institutions themselves and push communism and subversive Marxist ideology in every venue. To include the public libraries, you need to take this seriously. You need to get involved. This involves your response at the grassroots level and you, you and anybody who thinks like you coming together, taking over these institutions, taking over these boards and saying, we're not going to allow this in our communities anymore. Appreciate your time. This is Our Country Our Voice. Y'all take care.

# # # 30 # # # 

From Our Country Our Voice: Unmasking Marxism in Our Public Libraries, Jun 18, 2025
This material may be protected by copyright.

Transcription by and published on SafeLibraries with permission of Sam Shoemate aka Shoe @samosaur on X.

Chapters

00:00 The Threat of Marxism in Education
01:00 Investigating Marxist Propaganda in Libraries
03:01 The Role of the American Library Association
05:48 Funding and Legal Tactics of the ALA
08:49 The Power Dynamics in Library Systems
11:00 The Mechanisms of Ideological Justification
16:09 Strategies for Combatting Marxist Influence
20:58 Grassroots Movements and Community Action
32:21 The Rise of Radical Ideologies
39:39 Infiltration of Libraries and Education
46:44 Community Resistance and Reclaiming Libraries
50:40 Addressing Marxism in Society
56:02 Empowering Parents and Communities

Note: Certain words use [.] to stand in for letters that would otherwise cause publishing/blocking problems.

Watch the interview below.



Friday, February 16, 2024

Poster Girl for ALA: 'That Librarian' Amanda Jones Indoctrinates Students Without Parents Knowing

Citizens for a New Louisiana recently won another court case against school librarian Amanda Jones who had sued them in an attempt to impose a gag order on library issues.  Michael Lunsford, a member of the organization, discussed a podcast episode from 2021 featuring Jones and Amy Hermon, the host of School Librarians United.  In the podcast, Jones discussed her program called the MESH Society that aims to replace STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) to incorporate instead media literacy, ethics, sociology, and history, to inject "social justice" (including "microaggressions") into the curriculum, without explicitly teaching social justice.  Lunsford expressed concern about the use of taxpayer money to promote a specific worldview and questioned whether parents were aware of these teachings.  He encouraged viewers to share their thoughts on the matter.  And feel free to comment below.

Here is Amanda Jones's MESH Society: 
Notice the loveb0mbing there: "We will announce your entrance into The MESH Society during morning/afternoon announcements and post on social media and our website." One of many examples:


From that, here is Amanda Jones's recommended reading:
It's an Amanda Jones cited story detailing replacing actual learning (STEM) with raising a Marxist critical consciousness (MESH):

Now we can see why Amanda Jones is the perfect poster girl for the American Library Association, an organization that spends decades minimizing information parents get about what librarians are doing.  I should write a book on this.

Here is a transcript of that commentary, followed by the video source and my X post with a recording of Amanda Jones and Amy Hermon high fiving each other over indoctrinating and s3xualizing children without "riling up" the parents:



Michael Lunsford:

Hey, all. Michael Lunsford here at Citizens for a New Louisiana. You know, I, I mentioned, uh, I think on our social platforms and I sent an email to all of our, uh, 23,000, uh, email subscribers the other day that Amanda Jones, the librarian that sued us back in 2022, has just, uh, we won again in the, the First Circuit court.

Uh, basically, well, she sued us, she wanted a gag order, so we couldn't talk about library issues. And why she didn't want the transparency organization talking about library issues is anyone's guess. But (laughs) we've got a great friend. You know, we do research. Uh, we're really good at it. We don't do, we don't, we don't stay on this library issue because I think, I get tired of stuff. I like to move around a little bit. I think you like variety too. After all, we don't go to the same restaurant every single day to eat the same exact thing, right? We mix it up, right?

So, that's where we are. We're, we're movin' around, but we're back on library. So, if you're not a fan of this issue, I apologize. But what Dan Kleinman found is nothing short of shocking.

So, back in March of 2021, before any of the other junk happened and we got sued and all of that, we have a podcast episode from, uh, it sounds in like the Teamsters Union, but it's actually called, School Librarians United. Apparently, it's a library union. (laughs) It's, it's a podcast run by one person, uh, but, uh, Amy Hermon is her name, um, March from 2021. 

Let's, let's listen to introductions just so you know this is, uh, Amy and also Amanda Jones. Listen now. 

Amy Hermon:

Welcome to Episode 118 of School Librarians United. I'm your host, Amy Hermon. So, I'm so excited today to be sharing conversation with old podcasting friends, Amanda Jones. Welcome back to the podcast. 

Amanda Jones:

Thank you for having me. 

Michael Lunsford:

All right. So, there we have it, uh, there's the podcast. It's put on by Amy Hermon. It is called, School, excuse me, yes, School Librarians United. Not public librarians, School Librarians United. Um, and of course, introducing Amanda Jones, the woman who sued us. Anyway, uh, let, let's continue.

Amanda Jones:

But I think that as a modern school librarian, you just gotta jump in. And you've got to, you know, take some risks. Yes, be fearless, take some risks. Another program that I started that happened over the summer with all of the, the social unrest and the issues in the news, um, I am in Southern Louisiana. And I had to be very delicate about this 'cause I don't wanna be... Let me just say, my district is not modern for th- (laughs)

I don't know how to say it. Uh, and by district, I don't mean my school, I mean, my community and some of the thinking. And, um, w- there's some of the thinking is still back in the '50s. 

Michael Lunsford:

So, w- we've heard this language before. You, you, you're thinking is still in the '50s. This is old-fashioned. You shouldn't be thinking these things. And, uh, this is, this is common with the drag queen story time stuff we saw back, uh, when we, (laughs) very early on in this organization, we stopped government funded drag queen story time in Lafayette. As far as I know, we're still the only organization in Louisiana for sure, and perhaps the nation that is actually blocked the drag queen story time event. Which honestly, let's face it, it's a drag show for three-year-olds, is what it is. 

Um, but this was the language you kept hearing. You're so old-fashioned. Why would you be against this? And it's like, why would you wanna s@xualize children at three-years-old? This is, this is weird. 

But anyway, they, they turned the tables on us, right? But if you listen, there was a very long pause while she tried to figure out how to say, uh, we're a bunch of troglodytes because we don't like this junk, or whatever she's about to tell us about. We're gonna get to that here in a second. 

There, also, "take risks." What are we taking risks on? Hmm, let's continue.

Amanda Jones:

And so, I knew that I wanted to teach my students some things, but I couldn't outright say it, "This is what I'm teaching." So, I developed a program called the MESH Society to incorporate media literacy which we all should be teaching anyway. But ethics, sociology and history, but infuse, um, some social justice in there without outright s- teaching social justice, if you read between the lines of what I'm saying.

Say it. 

Michael Lunsford:

The term again, we're teaching my students some things, but without outright saying it. And you... What were some of those things? She says, "Well, we have our standard stuff." And this is kinda the, the, um, common core that we talked about years ago, mixed in with this social emotional learning which is not allowed in Louisiana, uh, combined with the, um, what's the, diversity, equity, a- inclusion stuff, right?

We're, we're gonna take standard, what everyone accepts, and we're gonna interweave social justice in there. That, those are not my words. That's what was said right here in this podcast, back in 2021 before most of the trouble started. Uh, let's continue.

Amanda Jones:

I think a modern school librarian pushes things like, graphic novels and audiobooks and social justice. And, and, and you focus on the, what you're reading and not how many. So, the MESH Society program, it encourages and is completely optional, it encourages the students to read one book from each of those categories. And then they have to do a Flipgrid [a video discussion platform that requires a student to make a recording of himself for everyone to see and hear], and, um, tell me what they've learned. What h- What ideas have changed from reading these books?

Michael Lunsford:

So, here we go. We're, we're, we're encouraging children to read books about, what are the categories? Social justice is one of the categories. And then, so instead of me teaching it directly, and that's gonna come here in a minute, instead of me teaching this directly, I'm just giving these kids these materials for them to learn on their own, interwoven with acceptable materials to kinda conceal what we're teaching. Does that, does that, do you see how that works? Uh, let, let, let's listen to her, the rest of this explanation here. Very interesting stuff.

Amanda Jones:

Because I can't teach, outright teach s@xual harassment and consent at a fifth grade school. My community would just, you know, even though it needs to be taught. But they can read, Maybe He Just Likes You by Barbara Dee, which is written on a level four, the age group of my students. And I can encourage them to read that, and they can tell me what they have learned themselves.

Michael Lunsford:

Do you, see, see, there it is. Encourage them to read materials that propagate this world view, this social justice world view and just start, just, just pour it a little bit at a time into the kids. And who's paying for this? By the- But this is, these are s- public school librarians. Public school means, your tax dollars are paying for this. 

Uh, who's paying attention to this, you all? I mean, we're paying attention to it. Are you paying attention to what's going on in your schools? I know we hear about this, the DEI and all of this stuff. But did, have you actually heard a school teacher from Louisiana saying they're doing this? I'm, uh, we're providing it. Thank you, Dan Kleinman for pointing this out. This is fabulous. 

Listen to Amy Hermon, uh, who's going to applaud this. Listen. 

Amy Hermon:

I think that's amazing. I think that you have found a way to thread the needle and do it in a way that gives your students the benefit of, of all of the resources you can bring together. And do so in a way that is not going to agitate and stir up, uh, the, and rile up, uh, your, your parent base. 

Michael Lunsford:

So, you're hearing this. You're presenting information that would normally rile up the parents in your area. But you found a way to do it, so that no one's the wiser, no one makes any noise, there's no troubles. Shh, don't tell anybody. That's what's going on. 

Again, I'll, I'll, I'll say, uh, I'm, I'm not taking a position on this stuff. I'm just letting you know, is this okay with you, number one. Number two, Amanda Jones, again, is the w- uh, the former president from last year, president of the Louisiana Association of School Librarians, I believe is the name of the organization.

So, the school librarians, if they're unionized in Louisiana or they, they have resources that they use, they're getting them from this organization, the Association of School Librarians. And their head of that organization is talkin' about, how can we can teach the little kids in middle school stuff that their parent don't approve of without creating much of a disturbance. 

Leave your comments in the, uh, in the notes below. If you're on the website, you have to sign in, uh, and become a, uh, a subscriber to do that. It's free. Uh, social media, obviously you can, you can comment, respond. Let us know what you think. I really wanna know what you gu- especially if you're in Livingston Parish, I wanna know what you think of this. 

Until next time, keep doing it. Keep, keep doing your own research. Keep followin' things. (laughs) Follow the thread all the way to the end. And, uh, you know, share some of that with us too. Appreciate it. Til next time.







Oh look, Amanda Jones is going to spread her method of indoctrination of school children to other school librarians in yet another training:

SLS Communication Coordinator Meeting (REGIONAL MEETING - Amanda Jones)
Join SLJ Librarian of the Year Amanda Jones as she shares her biggest takeaways and top words of advice on how to stay proactive vs reactive in standing up for intellectual freedom, tips on how to transform your school's library one step at a time, and advocating for school libraries across the country. Join the discussion and learn about resources for advocacy best practices, protecting yourself as an advocate, building your professional learning network, and making your voice heard in your school, district, state, and across the nation. Together we are a force and we must stand united. Follow her journey as a school librarian who has learned to speak out on behalf of her students and libraries at librarianjones.com.
Bio: Amanda Jones is a 23 year educator and the current Past President of the Louisiana Association of School Librarians. She is the 2021 School Library Journal Librarian of the Year, a 2021 Library Journal Mover and Shaker, and the 2020 Louisiana School Librarian of the Year. She made national headlines for fighting back against censorship in her community when she became a target of extremists. Amanda is a co-founding member of Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship, a grassroots organization fighting attacks on intellectual freedom in Louisiana. She is the winner of multiple intellectual freedom awards from the ALA, AASL, and the Louisiana Library Association. She serves as the LLA Chapter Councilor for ALA and is a member of the AASL Chapter Assembly. Her book That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America, will be published by Bloomsbury in 2024. Find out more about her at librarianjones.com.

Finally, here is a publication from Michael Lunsford, one of the parents sued by Amanda Jones, ALA's Poster Girlyou know, "That Librarian":

Lunsford, Michael. “CAUGHT! Librarian Concealing Social Justice Push from Parents.” Citizens for a New Louisiana, February 15, 2024. https://www.newlouisiana.org/caught-librarian-concealing-social-justice-push-from-parents/.

Watch the 8:41min video in this X post for a true jaw dropping experience:


See also:


Monday, January 29, 2024

Book Review of 'That Librarian' by Amanda Jones

Amanda Jones is a school librarian.  She has written a book called "That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America" being published in August by Bloomsbury Publishing.  She's an American Library Association awarded/paid propagandist promoting ALA's Unite Against Book Bans, and Bloomsbury Publishing is an official "partner" with UABB.  

UABB was created by ALA because too many parents were getting "Gender Queer: A Memoir" removed from too many schools under the Board of Education v. Pico case, a book to which ALA gave multiple awards to draw everyone's attention, so ALA began losing its power to s3xualize school children.  Well ALA can't allow that so it created UABB.  UABB has become one giant lie after the next to convince people to allow school librarians to continue to s3xualize and indoctrinate children despite the law, community standards, and common sense.  But that's for another day.

For now, it's Amanda Jones who's literally selling the snake oil.  I have not yet read a book that hasn't yet been published, but I already know Amanda Jones's story is fake from my contact with her victims, a contact she mocks: "there's a guy in, in New Jersey named Dan Kleinman that targets school librarians all the time. They tag him like, you know...."  

Mrs. Jones has lost three court cases in a row, in part because her story is fake.  She claims defamation based on a steady stream of memes and comments.  There was only the initial meme.  She claims harassment based on one of her victims visiting a school library.  Parents are allowed to visit school libraries and he did so only once.  She claims she was doxxed.  Her victims revealed the school's location, not hers, but false claims of doxxing help her to promote herself.  Even her book title is a lie.  "Book banning in America"?  The last book ban in America was in 1963.  It's now 61 years later.  And books being removed from schools in accordance with the Pico case is lawful—it is not book banning.

So her book will be as fake as the ALA funded lawsuits she's lost three times precisely because her case is not based on reality.  

Here's how the publisher describes the book (with bold and italics omitted).  Notice the fakeness is summarized, including parents labeled as "Christian" "extremists"—and the book is about how "she sued her harassers for defamation," yet she has been proven wrong three times out of three and owes her victims tens of thousands of dollars in compensatory attorney fees for vexatious litigation.  So ALA's UABB partner Bloomsbury Publishing is promoting a book about a repeat loser who stills owes attorney fees but as if she's in the right.  Well at least the publisher promotes that it's about diversity, equity, and inclusion, and we will see in the transcript Amanda is so into the Marxist white privilege power play against capitalism and America (she even gets a tattoo on her body to enshrine "POWER and PRIVILEGE for PURPOSE,' meaning for revolution or "resistance"), so no wonder the publisher promotes a fellow traveller:

Bloomsbury Publishing USA, Aug 27, 2024 - Biography & Autobiography - 288 pages
“Amanda Jones started getting death threats, all for standing up for our right to read . . . but she's not stopped fighting against book bans, or stopped advocating for access to diverse stories.”-Oprah Winfrey, in a speech at the 2023 National Book Awards

Part memoir, part manifesto, the inspiring story of a Louisiana librarian advocating for inclusivity on the front lines of our vicious culture wars.

One of the things small town librarian Amanda Jones values most about books is how they can affirm a young person's sense of self. So in 2022, when she caught wind of a local public hearing that would discuss “book content,” she knew what was at stake. Schools and libraries nationwide have been bombarded by demands for books with LGTBQ+ references, discussions of racism, and more to be purged from the shelves. Amanda would be damned if her community were to ban stories representing minority groups. She spoke out that night at the meeting. Days later, she woke up to a nightmare that is still ongoing.

Amanda Jones has been called a gr[--]mer, a p[-]do, and a p[-]rn-pusher; she has faced death threats and attacks from strangers and friends alike. Her decision to support a collection of books with diverse perspectives made her a target for extremists using book banning campaigns-funded by dark money organizations and advanced by hard right politicians-in a crusade to make America more white, straight, and "Christian." But Amanda Jones wouldn't give up without a fight: she sued her harassers for defamation and urged others to join her in the resistance.

Mapping the book banning crisis occurring all across the nation, That Librarian draws the battle lines in the war against equity and inclusion, calling book lovers everywhere to rise in defense of our readers. 

Now she's lying again, and I have created a transcript of her recent statements, shown below, where she's not only lying, but she's rationalizing the s3xualization of children and attacking the multiple organizations and politicians/legislators opposing such harm.  So I'll post the transcript here and leave it to you see why "That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America" is going to be one giant motivator to other school librarians to continue to s3xualize and indoctrinate more school children.  

As Amanda Jones herself put it, in a sort of foreshadowing of her new book, "WAKE UP.  KICK [-]SS.  TAKE NAMES.  REPEAT."  



And know this, generally, school librarians are working to completely eliminate the issue of age inappropriateness.  Look, they literally spell it out, crossing out "AGE APPROPRIATE" and replacing it with "AGE RELEVANT," and that opens the doors to anything while shutting the door on the Pico case:


Source of above two graphics here.

Here is more evidence of the "anything goes" attitude from librarians, and you'll hear ALA's then leader of its Office for Intellectual Freedom, Barbara Jones, saying this and bragging about this:


Now here's the source of the transcript, followed by the transcript itself, and I'll let you figure out the rest of how bad are school librarians as you read it:



Karen Svoboda:
Friends, allies, and Americans, welcome to the Defense of Democracy Podcast where we tell the stories of folks who defend your children's rights by advocating for inclusive public school systems and who fight for diversity across our nation. I'm your host, Karen Svoboda, let's get into it.

Today, it is my pleasure to welcome to the show, Amanda. Amanda is a 23-year-old teacher librarian and grassroots organizer from Louisiana. She's been on the front lines fighting against censorship in libraries. Amanda is the 2021 School Library Journal co-librarian of the year, a 2021 Library Journal Mover & Shaker, and the 2020 Louisiana School Librarian of the Year. Amanda is the 2023 AASL Intellectual Freedom Award winner and recipient of both the 2023 ALA Paul Howard Award for Courage and the 2023 IFRT John Phillip Immroth Award.

She is an interna- international speaker and author of the upcoming book, That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America. I am welcoming Amanda to the show. Amanda, wow, you have quite a list of accolades that go, that go along with you. How are you doing?

Amanda Jones:
Hi. I'm doing great and thank you for having me.

Karen Svoboda:
So let's talk. You have had quite a journey. Um, you are obviously, uh, passionate about, uh, you know, the right to read, um, so, so tell me about your, your-

Amanda Jones:
Yes. I am very, very, very passionate about the right to read, um, and the right for all students and patrons of public libraries to have access to books that reflect their own journeys and the journeys of everyone in, in libraries both school and public. Um, so I've been a school librarian for 23 years and I, um, recently have come under fire. I say recently, for the past year and a half, I've come under fire, uh, for a speech I gave at the local public library board meeting in my, my own parish of Louisiana.

And, um, since then I have been doxed, harassed, um, you know, targeted by the usual, the usual suspects, Moms for Liberty, Libs of TikTok, Gays Against Gr[--]mers and then, um, my own local hometown keyboard warriors. And, um, really all I did was I went as a resident... I'm a school librarian, but I went as a resident, uh, 45-year resident of my two small town, a small, uh, two red light town public library. And I went and spoke against the right to read for everyone, and then suddenly I've been targeted and harassed. Um, there were memes posted about me that I'm advocating for the teaching of anal s[-]x to 11-year-olds.

Karen Svoboda:
Oh my god.

Amanda Jones:
Oh, yeah. (laughs)

Karen Svoboda:
Woah.

Amanda Jones:
Yeah, they, um, they posted that I am giving p[-]rnography and erotica to six-year-olds and, you know, the usual. (laughs)

Karen Svoboda:
So, yeah. Uh, well, so I know, but I, but I think it's important for our listeners to hear, uh, people... Because people don't realize, you know, that this happens to, you know, our fellow Americans our, our, our, our friends, you know, our, our community members. Um, so you live in, you live in Louisiana. You've been a library, a lover of books and education. Obviously, a lover of kids and they have... Um, now in the show notes sometimes I like to show what, you know, show different things. I mean, maybe you could give me some of, some of the, um, some of the things if it's not too hard that were posted about you so that we can give a sense.

I just want people to know that this is a real thing that happens. So, so if you're listening to this and, you know, whatever you do for a living, if you're an accountant or a teacher, or a doctor like just imagine, you know, going into work and seeing, you know, horrible things said about you and shared within the community. I mean, this is really difficult.

Amanda Jones:
Yeah. It's, and it's, and I can send you links, it's been, um... Uh, NPR has done a lot on it. (laughs) NBC, um, that, you know, I, I'm very small town and I, I, I feel strongly the way I do. I am in the Evangelical South (laughs). Um, and the the irony is I'm an independent and I was raised Southern Baptist and I, um, obviously I have different views now than I did growing up, uh, but I, I believe in human empathy and, you know, anyone who goes and speaks out on behalf of, uh, the LGBTQI plus community or black indigenous people of color in my town they get targeted. Um, I just was not prepared for the extreme targeting that I received. You know, people... I, I received a death threat. Um, they're coming to kill me. (laughs) That's what they said. Um, yeah.

Karen Svoboda:
Wow. How did they call you? Like what was that?

Amanda Jones:
Yeah. It was, um, the subject line was alphabet agenda and it was, uh, you know, they're going to come get my commie p[-]do [-]ss. (laughs) Click, click. You know, the usual.

Karen Svoboda:
Wow.

Amanda Jones:
I say the usual. I guess everybody doesn't receive death threats. Um...

Karen Svoboda:
Well, I have and it is no fun and they sound very much like the ones you have.

Amanda Jones:
Yeah. I even, I still get them. It's been a year and a half since I first spoke out and I got one last week about my mother and, um, yeah, they go on my fa- my relatives social media pages and things like that. And I just gave a very basic censorship speech at the public library and they didn't like that. And so they targeted me and it was shared thousands of times, um, to the point where, um, I was concerned about losing my job. I thought people were going to believe that I was some kind of... You know, people were writing I was a pervert, a p[-]dophile gr[--]mer. I just gave a censorship speech so (laughs) I don't, you know, the jump, they, they don't always make sense.

Karen Svoboda:
And so the death threats and the harassments, um... Uh, so I counsel people, uh, very much to, to, to take those as far as you can take them, as far as litigation and, you know, not just for protecting yourself but because if they lob a verbal death threat like I really believe that there, there is a buildup there and if you try to ignore it, it, it can be, uh, it can just escalate. So tell me what you've been doing to kind of counter some of them.

Amanda Jones:
Well, the first thing I did was I filed three separate police reports, um, one for the death threat and two for the online harassment. And it didn't go anywhere. (laughs) It, it just didn't go anywhere. Um, they're like, "Oh, our hands are tied. We, there's nothing we can do." Um, and so I filed a defamation suit against the main two, two men and it was immediately dismissed at our local court system because, uh, the judge labeled me a public figure.

Karen Svoboda:
Oh, come on. What?

Amanda Jones:
Yeah. I'm just a public school librarian but, um, you know, she said I was a public figure and that it's their opinion that I teach children anal s[-]x and it's their-

Karen Svoboda:
Oh my god.

Amanda Jones:
Oh, yeah.

Karen Svoboda:
I'm sorry.

Amanda Jones:
Oh, yeah. No, like I'm glad someone's outraged besides me. (laughs)

Karen Svoboda:
Oh my god, that is messed up. And, uh, with no proof she's like it's their opinion [inaudible 00:07:31]

Amanda Jones:
It's their opinion and it's their opinion that I give p[-]rnography and erotica to six-year-olds. Uh, that's not even the age of the children at my school. (laughs) But I teach middle school. Um, but she, she said that and she dismissed it and so I, we filed a motion for a retrial for her to rehear it because I can prove all... Defamation cases are really hard to prove, um, but even as labeled a public figure, I can pro- I can provide, um, evidence to document all four facets of defamation. You know, the injury, the malice. I can prove all of that. She wouldn't even hear it, wouldn't even hear it.

And, um, you know, it's, it's, it's unjust and so I filed an appeal with the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Louisiana. And so they, the court system heard my appeal on September 19th I believe it was and we are still waiting for the verdict. We have not heard... We're just still waiting. Um, and I, I'm going the full distance with this, um, so if it's, doesn't go my way I'll appeal to Louisiana Supreme Court. But the, the thing is though because they, they filed what's called a SLAPP suit and said that I was a public figure and that I was trying to stifle their freedom of speech, um, I have to pay their court costs if I continue to lose.

Karen Svoboda:
So wait, explain to me what a what a SLAPP case is.

Amanda Jones:
So usually it's done... So a SLAPP suit... And I don't even understand it fully but usually it's something that you file against politicians or newspapers and you are... It's a way to get a case dismissed saying that, um, you know, "I'm a public figure and they have the right to say these things." And, um, I don't fully understand it. It...

Karen Svoboda:
And, and what I do understand about that argument is that, you know, if you are, say, an actual public figure, right? A celebrity or, you know, um, an elected official, right? Like you've made a choice to be in the public eye and, and therefore you don't have the same safety, uh, you know, around you as like an average person who just is, you know, living their life. You don't have, have the protections, I guess.

Amanda Jones:
Yes.

Karen Svoboda:
So what they're doing by saying you're an a, a, a celeb- What was it? A, a, a public official.

Amanda Jones:
Public figure is what they said.

Karen Svoboda:
A public figure is that, you know, so they, they are effectively pulling away all the protections that a, a normal regular just individual would have, um, which seems absurd to me. And so you've escalated, you've escalated it, and you're waiting and you, you said that was September we're now in late December. There's been no word at all.

Amanda Jones:
No word at all and every time I file an appeal or things like that, the amount of money that I owe my defamers goes up by tens of thousands. (laughs) So, but I'm, you know, I'm not a public figure. I went, I lived in, I've lived in my town for 45 years. I went as a resident of my community and spoke at a public library board meeting, so did 30 other people spoke the same thing I said. Um, they weren't targeted, which I'm glad they weren't. Um, but they weren't targeted, but it's, they're stif- they're stifling my free speech. They're, they're trying to intimidate me.

And what happened was that they tried to silence me by this public smear campaign, but they didn't realize they messed with the wrong one because I'm not gonna be (laughs) I'm not gonna be silent. So, you know, I, um, I formed the Livingston Parish Library Alliance, uh, which is a citizens foundation... Uh, or not foundation but a citizens organization to combat censorship in our public library system. And because they didn't stop at that one meeting. They've kept on. Every two months, we have a library board meeting and they try some new tactic. They've tried to replace our board. They've tried... They've had legislation. They've...

And we fought them every bit, step of the way and we've won every step of the way. Um, we have not banned any books. Uh, we have not, um, succumbed... Our board has not succumbed to any of the, the ridiculousness. And, um, so they're mad at me for not backing down and that's too bad for them. And, um, (laughs) I also... I mean, it doesn't make it easier for me. Uh, I mean I... When I say I'm targeted, I can't even go to my child's high school games, sit in the bleachers and watch her play in the band without people pointing at me, calling me a pervert, a p[-]dophile. These are people I grew up with.

Karen Svoboda:
And so that's what, that's what's so shocking to me is that people know you and they're willing to put everything they know aside and, and mark you as this, you know, pretty much the worst thing that you can, you can label [inaudible 00:12:24]

Amanda Jones:
Yeah, and I... It took... Um, I had to take a medical leave of absence from work from all the pressure. I've been ve- very disappointed with the people, a lot of people that I grew up with, um, friends of mine. And it's very disheartening when you, you know... I had quiet support but nobody was being very public about it. Um, even some of our, our local school board who two years ago, um, honored me at the school board and said I was one of the best things that ever happened to our community. They were silent. They refused to speak out for me.

Karen Svoboda:
I know. I was... I'm reading all of these awards you've received and all of this recognition and, you know, there are libraries around the country that would kill for someone like you.

Amanda Jones:
I mean, I've gotten our school over $100,000 in grants, um, you know, I just... It was silent. Um, and so I got really, really angry and I'm very vocal about the need for therapy and, you know, because it's, it's, it's a lot. Um, and then I decided to just write a book about it and, um, so I wrote a book and I named names. And I'd tell all in.

Karen Svoboda:
Did you? So, so before we get into that, I want to go very quickly into the part of the show where I do a volunteer shout-out. So I'm going to say a real quick, uh, message to a very special volunteer. Today's volunteer shout-out goes to our volunteers in Washington state who heard about the middle schoolers in Seattle who sent handwritten pride cards to Moms for Liberty headquarters. Our volunteers are working to put together a care package for the teacher who coordinated that effort. Thank you.

Okay and we're back. So, Amanda, let's talk about your book, The Fight Against Book Banning in America. That's a pretty lofty title. So tell me what, what's in it.

Amanda Jones:
Yeah, I never thought I'd write a book and it all became... It was like... I don't know if you're familiar with the foundation, We Need Diverse Books?

Karen Svoboda:
No, but they sound wonderful.

Amanda Jones:
They're, they're very great. It was founded by an author named Ellen Oh. And she, um, they had an auction where you could bid on different things like, um, book, autographed books. And of the auction items was a 30 minutes with a literary agent and as a librarian that intrigued me because I am, I, you know, purchased the books and, but I didn't know the other side of it. So I purchased, I won the auction and I, um, talked to the agent. I was asking her how the publishing industry works and then like eight hours later I got an email and they asked to sign me and wanted me to write a book. (laughs)

Karen Svoboda:
That's amazing.

Amanda Jones:
And that like never happens. So I, I'm very... I, I'm very privileged in how that happened. And then so I was like, "Well, I don't really know if I want to write a book, but I'll sign with you, okay." And then two days later, um, Anton Mueller who is the senior editor at Bloomsbury said he heard me on the New York Times podcast and he's like, "Hey, have you ever thought about writing a book?" (laughs)

Karen Svoboda:
Oh my god.

Amanda Jones:
I was like, "Well, I do have a lot to say."

Karen Svoboda:
(laughs)

Amanda Jones:
So it just snowballed from there. And so now I have a book and while I was on medical leave. I just, I wrote out all of my feelings. And so it's kind of, it goes, it starts out with my death threat. That's the opening of the book and it goes all about from the meeting, that the original meeting to my harassment to how I've tried to turn, um, lemons into lemonade and I've created, um, a found- an organization in my own town. I join forces with some other people in Louisiana to help, um, found Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship. And so we, we've spoken at the legislature. We have, um, we tried to build, um, a coalition with all the other alliances that are in our state that are facing this in their parishes in Louisiana.

And, um, I decided I wasn't going to take it sitting down and I wanted to write the process. And I talked about coalition building is huge and I, um, I talk about... Because I was like my one wheel... and I use this analogy I was like one wheel just spinning. And they realized there's a whole other group out, a whole other groups out there like Louisiana Trans Advocates and forum for equality, and Planned Parenthood and 10,000 women of Louisiana.

And we all want the same things which is love, acceptance, basic human rights. And so they taught me how... They, they they, you know... I tell everyone the people that are hated on the most in our state, the historically marginalized took me under their wing and did more for me than my church ever did-

Karen Svoboda:
Wow.

Amanda Jones:
... (laughs) for me. And, um, they taught me how to become an activist and speak out a little more.

Karen Svoboda:
That's cute. Yeah.

Amanda Jones:
So that's what the book is about. It, it talks about my story, but then coalition building, but then also, um, the greater, what's happening in Louisiana and the book banning across the United States and the target and harassment of not only librarians but the reason that librarians are being targeted is essentially because of historically marginalized groups and the people that we choose to stand up for.

Karen Svoboda:
Yes, yes. And it's, I mean, it's a very lonely, um, spot to be in if, if you're in a community like the one you're in. I, I have no doubt in my mind that there are more people there who feel like you do, but it sounds like, you know, they're, they're not able or willing to, to put themselves on the line like that. Um, so that, that's a huge, um, sacrifice that you're making right there.

Amanda Jones:
I just, I don't know. (laughs) I just think that when you, uh, and I... So I have a platform, you know, like winning national school librarian the year in 2021 gave me a platform and I think that if you have a platform and you don't do anything with it, it's a waste, you know. And I... People make fun of me in my town for what I'm about to say but I'm a white straight woman and, and I, there is privilege in that. And I think that people that have privileges should use their privilege for good. And in fact, um, you can't see it because this is audio, but I have a tattoo on my wrist that I just recently got... It's a P cubed because, um, at the national, uh, school librarian conference in October author Samira Ahmed said that we should use our power and privilege for purpose. So I got P cubed.


Karen Svoboda:
Oh, I love that. Right.

Amanda Jones:
Yeah. Use your power and privilege for purpose and I think if you're afforded privileges. I, I have a very supportive family. I do have a supportive administration at my job and I have a platform. And I mean, yeah, it sucks to be the target of people. You know, it's horrible, but like, but if people like me don't speak out, it shouldn't be up to people that historically are marginalized. They're tired. Like they're tired of it. Like it's not-

Karen Svoboda:
I have this conversation all the time. Yeah.

Amanda Jones:
It's fair and until everyone else speaks up, there's not gonna be any change. So, and I don't think that makes me courageous or brave because that's what people tell me, "Oh, you're..." No, I just think it means I'm a decent human being. (laughs) So...

Karen Svoboda:
And you're... Right. And you are courageous and brave and, you know what, and you're giving courage to others too. You know, I'm hoping that acts, uh, like what you're taking will inspire other members of the community to stand up. And it, it, it can happen. Um, you know, certainly staying silent isn't helping anybody.

Amanda Jones:
No. And I will say the tides are turning in our community. Um, we we had a major vote recently. Our public library had a millage, a tax millage and if the millage had failed our public libraries would have closed by 2026. And we won by 168 votes.

Karen Svoboda:
Whoa, wow.

Amanda Jones:
Yep. So now we are funded through 2035, so we don't have to worry about funding. But it came down to a lot of speaking out and a lot of coalition building and work.

Karen Svoboda:
And a lot... people don't understand how much work goes into something like that because there's nobody who's going to come down out of the sky and like help you, right? You are going to have to mobilize yourselves and save that library yourselves because it's not gonna happen on its own.

Amanda Jones:
No, and it's very... It's all consuming and it weighs heavily on you and it's, it's like, it's... For a while, for about a year it's all I thought about 24/7 and, um, I'm at the point now... Our library is safe for the next 10 years years so I'm, you know, and I've come to the realization that it doesn't matter if I win in court or not because I've already won. I mean, I, I found the [inaudible 00:21:08] Yeah, I've already won and every time I lose in court, they get online and they mock me, and they make fun of me and... But what they don't understand is that I won the minute I filed the suit. I stood up for myself.

Karen Svoboda:
Yes.

Amanda Jones:
And I have a daughter. My daughter is 16. She's about to be 17 and, um, and, and, and then also not just as a parent, but as a teacher I teach children to speak out and say something when they're being bullied and if I hadn't done that, I wouldn't be practicing what I preach, so...

Karen Svoboda:
Absolutely. So tell me, um, the people who are targeting you are they part of a group or is it just like random people in the community?

Amanda Jones:
Both. So there's, there's two entities that I'm, that are in the lawsuit. So one I'll start with the local yokel. He's this, he's just this guy that has a keyboard and he just wants to feel important about himself. And I don't know, and I don't know any these people. Like I've never met them. I don't, I've never interacted with them online and he just, I don't know, he singled it on me. He still posts about me. It's been a year and a half. It's a little obsessive and it's, it's concerning.

Karen Svoboda:
That is scary, yeah.

Amanda Jones:
Yeah. It's, it's, it's just. I don't know why he's just obsessed with me but, um, I should say allegedly obsessed with me. (laughs) But he, um, he, he just posts nonstop. Like he... I don't know. And it's, and he equates it to, um, he's like God's warrior and I'm-

Karen Svoboda:
Oh, I'm sorry.

Amanda Jones:
One of that.

Karen Svoboda:
I should know that. I don't know why that surprised me. [inaudible 00:22:32]

Amanda Jones:
Yeah. I'm Goliath and he's David. And he's trying to protect the children. And he's convinced everyone in our community that our lawsuit is actually about, I'm trying to put p[-]rn in the kids section and he is the parent that's standing up for the children. But the irony is he's never spoken at... He's never stood up and spoken at any of these meetings that I'm at. He just sits there sullen and then he goes home and gets on his keyboard and rants. He's a coward. Um, he's just a coward but I, I do, I am concerned about his obsessiveness. Um, but he's just this local guy.

However another entity is, um, a group called... I don't even want, I don't want to say their name because I don't want to give them publicity. But they're, they're a local extremist group, um, in our state that targets other libraries. They've targeted other parish libraries and their leader is a guy, he gets online and he makes fun of trans people. And he makes, you know, he says stuff like the jab and like (laughs) he probably uses horse dewormer for (laughs) I don't know.

He's not the brightest ball but, um, but the, the scary thing is he's the director of a nonprofit who they're dark money, dark, uh, nonprofit group and they have a lot of politicians believing what they're saying and follow them.

Karen Svoboda:
I'm gonna to stop you because I know you said you don't want to give them air time and I will respect that if, if you really don't. But I mean like, I'm very curious because we deal with a lot of different groups and I'm... Part of what we do is try to like let people know, you know, it's not all Moms for Liberty. It's not all the...

Amanda Jones:
I'll tell you.

Karen Svoboda:
Okay. (laughs)

Amanda Jones:
I'll tell you.

Karen Svoboda:
Who is it?

Amanda Jones:
So they are called Citizens for a New Louisiana and they work hand-in-hand behind the scenes with like, you know, the Louisiana Freedom Caucus and, um, they've, they've worked with Mass Resistance before. They work with, um, there's a hate group that they invite to library board meetings, I think it's called, um, Tradition Family Property or TFP or something. And, um, you know, they're very proud. They, they, they feed stuff to Gays Against Gr[--]mers about me. I mean, I can't prove that but I mean it's, they feed stuff-

Karen Svoboda:
I'm like on your website now and just [inaudible 00:24:45]

Amanda Jones:
Oh, yeah. It's, it's, it's... They're crazy trains. But they they also feed stuff. There's a, there's a guy in, in New Jersey named Dan Kleinman that targets school librarians all the time. They tag him like, you know, they... But the, the thing is they promote politicians and the politicians lean into that. And my local, my local representative who by the way gave me a commendation from the House of Representatives in 2021. She jumped on the bandwagon and she had some legislation in our system. But she, she's posted, um... When I lost my, when my court case was dismissed, she posted on her social media that it was a win for freedom of speech and we have work to do. And I'm just like, "Lady..." (laughs)

Karen Svoboda:
Yeah, yeah.

Amanda Jones:
If she bothered to read the lawsuit she'd see it's a defamation case and I'm pretty sure she probably has read the lawsuit and, you know, there's a lot [inaudible 00:25:47] have to about her. Oh, I'm sorry.

Karen Svoboda:
No, I was gonna say it's it's what they put in the header that, you know, that it's this whole twisting of fact that we see all the time.

Amanda Jones:
And I have a lot more I say about her in my book. And, and I have receipts.

Karen Svoboda:
Yeah?

Amanda Jones:
Because, you know, when a book is published particularly a book... My book's being published by Bloomsbury and, you know, it had to go through legal, so I had to to have my receipts.

Karen Svoboda:
So when is your book coming out?

Amanda Jones:
August 27th 2024

Karen Svoboda:
All right, all right. So that'll be interesting. I cannot wait to read that. Um, gosh I'm trying to think. How does... So you have a 16-year-old. How do you, how does this affect them? How do you as a mom, uh, deal with this?

Amanda Jones:
Well, when I was first targeted, um, I locked myself in my room for two days and I cried so much that like my eyes swelled shut and I couldn't breathe. And, um, my husband and I we just told her I was sick and like I really protected her. But at some point... She's, she's on social media. So we had to sit her down and show her these awful memes and things that people are saying about me. We had to show her the death threat because somebody was going to show it to her anyway.

Same with my 97-year-old grandmother. I had to sit her down and show her and, um, you know, these people that say they want to protect children sure didn't worry about my child, um, but, um, she took it in stride and she's like, "Mom, nobody is gonna believe that." And I don't let her know that people do believe it in my community and, um, I've, I've overheard conversations with her. Um, she's, she has a good group of friends like, um, about a year ago they, somebody, a teacher at her school was dead naming, uh, a student and there was a position, a petition started. And her friends got her to ask me for help because she has been telling them, "My mom is a fighter."

Karen Svoboda:
Oh, oh.

Amanda Jones:
So, so...

Karen Svoboda:
That's good.

Amanda Jones:
And her friend said, "Your mom is a badass." So, you know (laughs) at the end of the day all I care about is what my own child thinks of me. And I, and the way I raise my child to speak out. And so I'm, I'm happy with the way she is turning out.

Karen Svoboda:
It sounds like she's wonderful. And it sounds like she has a good network of friends and a good network at home which makes the advocacy of a parent so much easier, you know, if not possible at all, right?

Amanda Jones:
Yeah, I was very... The fir- first thing I thought about was that she was going to be targeted at, at school. She has a very good friend group. And I will say it's the adults that are the problem.

Karen Svoboda:
I know.

Amanda Jones:
(laughs)

Karen Svoboda:
I'm sorry, but let's just say it, it is not the kids. It is the adults.

Amanda Jones:
It's not the kids. It's the adults. And the kids have been overwhelmingly supportive of her. And so I do have hope for the future that, you know, the kids are okay. They're great. And so I hope that they can break this cycle of hate, you know. And I... They, they're growing up in the age of social media and so I actually did a lesson, um, with my students my students are 10 and 11, um, on social media and the number of children that are 10 and 11 that told me they, they've been told to kill themselves...

Karen Svoboda:
Oh my God.

Amanda Jones:
Yes, was shocking. I actually wrote an article about it for School Library Journal that was published last month about how like, you know, people are worried about books, non-existent issues. They have their kids, have phones in the palm of their hands and they're being told awful things every day. And so I hope on the flip side of that if good comes out of it that the kids that are growing up with this, have learned what it feels like and so they will be more... I mean, I don't want them to know what it feels like but that they'll be more empathetic because of it.

Karen Svoboda:
I agree, I agree. And and, you know, I, I, I often say that, you know, if you're really worried about your child in p[-]rnography, you got to take the phone away and you got to take it away from every kid around them, you know, because it's just, you know... Or you can accept the fact and you could talk to your children and you could be open with them and just, you know, what I had said to my kids when I felt it was the time to do it, you know, "You're going to see things on the internet that you can never unsee."

And anytime you have a question about anything, you have to come to me and I will talk to you and it will be no judgment. And that's, to me that's the only answer to dealing with kids and, and the exposure that they have to horrible material. And it is, none of it is in books that I'm worried about.

Amanda Jones:
Yeah, and it's, it's those conversations you have to have with your children, you know? Like you don't hide stuff from them. I mean, you monitor and you, you know, but, but you, you have those conversations with them because they're in the real world. (laughs) You can't hide from it.

Karen Svoboda:
You can't. And, and, and that's the thing. And I'm not saying to promote it in any way, but I'm saying to accept the fact that you can... And I, believe me, my kids didn't have cellphones, we didn't have a TV in our house until they were in middle school. They, I, I was very conscious and worried about social media. But then the day came where they were going to be exposed to it whether I liked it or not because we don't live, you know, in the middle of nowhere.

We live where they have access or their friends have access to these things. So, you know, that's the reality of the situation and doing things like taking books away from them, you know, is, is taking away another option of for, for wholesome and healthy entertainment.

Amanda Jones:
Yeah, and one of the things I don't understand people will say, "Oh, there's p[-]rnography in the children's section." What they mean is there's s[-]xual reproduction books in the teen section and it's not like it's, you know, Hustler. (laughs) It's, it's accurate information and my thought process as, as a parent is I'd rather my child learn accurate information than what they see on the Internet. And let's be honest, kids aren't, they're not going to the library to get p[-]rn. (laughs) And there's not p[-]rn in the library anyway, but, you know... And then but, but you have books like... And they say that... I see, I see the book Gender Queer targeted a lot and, um, that book saves lives, you know. But people will say they want to get out Gender Queer, um, but they don't stop there. They say, they, then they go for Pride Puppy! which is a picture book, you know, and so you're like, "Ah, you're not worried about..." (laughs)


Karen Svoboda:
Exactly. And they come, and it trickles down just like you're saying and then, and then what they end up going and calling p[-]rnography suddenly becomes any book that deals with an LGBTQIA plus character. Right? And then what's your excuse for pulling the history books? Where do you get... What's the reason for that, you know? It's made up.

Amanda Jones:
Exactly. And they...

Karen Svoboda:
It's out of control.

Amanda Jones:
Uh, sometimes we have... I have well-meaning, well-meaning people in my community will say to me, "Well, maybe we should just put the LGBTQ books in their own section." And my counter which I don't know, it's the best counter argument (laughs) but my... And then I, I, I act dumb and I'm like, "Oh, and then maybe they should get their own water fountains and bathrooms too."

Karen Svoboda:
Uh-huh.

Amanda Jones:
And then, oh, I mean... And then they're like, "Oh." I'm like, "Do you see where we're going here? Do you see where we're going? We're going backwards in time."

Karen Svoboda:
[inaudible 00:33:18] down that path.

Amanda Jones:
Like why should... And, and, and my thing is we, why should Pride Puppy! or Gender Queer being in LGBTQ section. Libraries are for everyone. They don't serve a certain population, they serve everyone, you know? And it's, it's a slippery slope. And it's, I tell people what, you know, it's... "Well, if you censor Pride Puppy then are you gonna start the other side?" I say other side. There shouldn't be sides, but I'm saying, "Then people are going to start wanting to censor the Bible and Christian fiction and..." You know?

Karen Svoboda:
Yeah. Right?

Amanda Jones:
It's, you can't... Libraries are for everyone and that means straight white too, gay, people of color, like everybody, everybody.

Karen Svoboda:
Libraries are for everybody. So, Amanda, um, I always like to kind of close the show on a positive note. So you tell me, what's, what's coming down the road for you that you are looking forward to in 2024? Obviously, your book. But (laughs) so anything you want to... Are you going on tour? Are you doing anything like that?

Amanda Jones:
I do. I have... So I go and speak at librarian conferences. So I have several coming up one in Alaska. I've never, I've never been to Alaska so I'm doing that. And then, um, I was interviewed by Oprah Daily so... In fact, Oprah, so Oprah Winfrey herself talked about me at the National Book Awards.

Karen Svoboda:
Wow.

Amanda Jones:
For like a full minute. I'm-

Karen Svoboda:
[inaudible 00:34:45] starstruck right now.

Amanda Jones:
I was like I didn't know. I, I had no clue. People started texted me. They're like, "Oprah is talking about you at the National Book Awards." Like for a solid minute. I was, you know, because as someone growing up who like, that's... I was introduced to like The Color Purple and Dr. Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison from watching Oprah. And so and she, she talked about me and my story for like... You know? So I'm really excited about my Oprah Daily interview that is coming out. Um [inaudible 00:35:15]

Karen Svoboda:
When is that coming out? Do you know?

Amanda Jones:
I don't know. [inaudible 00:35:17] I don't know. It should be-

Karen Svoboda:
Come back. You gotta let us know so we can share it.

Amanda Jones:
I will. I don't know it's coming out. I don't... That and then I'm hoping, um, and then my book, and then maybe I'll go on a book tour. We'll see. (laughs)

Karen Svoboda:
Woo. Well, Amanda, I, I really love having you on the show. I, I, I want to wish you the best of luck. I, I do see you as a warrior. I do see you as a winner. Uh, you clearly are not about to give up on this journey and I think the kids in your community are so fortunate to have you. And the other parents like you on their side. So thank you so much for joining us today.

Amanda Jones:
Thank you for having me. I'm a huge fan of your work. I watch your TikToks. I follow you on Twitter. I'm huge fan so thank you for having me.

Karen Svoboda:
Thanks for listening to the Defense of Democracy Podcast. If you like what you've heard, you can find out more at defenseofdemocracy.org. Please consider becoming a support partner by texting the letters, DOFD. That's Defense O-F Democracy to [-----]. Stay strong and remember there is more good than bad out there and you're standing on the right side of history.

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See also transcript and associated recording here:

Further, I have previously written about Amanda Jones here:



Here is Amanda Jones's latest loss, yet her book is about her defamation case against parents that she thrice lost:



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