A Florida school district has literally banned the dictionary in an effort to comply with Gov. Ron DeSantis‘s ® book-banning law.

The Escambia County School District has reportedly removed over 2800 books from library shelves as they undergo a review process that will determine if they are inappropriate for students, according to Popular Information. Among the books currently relegated to storage are The American Heritage Children’s Dictionary, Webster’s Dictionary for Students, and Merriam-Webster’s Elementary Dictionary.

The district contends these texts could violate H.B. 1069, which DeSantis signed into law in May 2023.

  • Wooster@startrek.website
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    10 months ago

    Mmm. Malicious compliance.

    Honestly, it’s pretty ingenious. If they can get their publishers to help push for appeal, then it’ll be worth it in the long run.

    • dmtalon@infosec.pub
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      10 months ago

      Ya, I get it… But now they’re actively participating in making the students education worse.

      No doubt, it’s a lose/lose situation. But I find it quite sad for the innocent kids getting caught up in stupid adult stuff. And believe me… I use “adult” strictly to define age/authority position, not mental or maturity level.

        • lad@programming.dev
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          10 months ago

          And at least half of the time the conflicts start over “protecting kids” 🤦‍♂️

      • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works
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        10 months ago

        Yeah kids are probably bummed they can’t check out the dictionary. Maybe they can find an alternative way to look up words though.

          • Halosheep@lemm.ee
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            10 months ago

            Brother, we have this fancy new invention called “the internet”. You can literally go to any search engine and type “define: whatever word here” and boom, the definition and hundreds of online dictionaries will be RIGHT THERE.

      • Yondoza@sh.itjust.works
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        10 months ago

        They all have access to the Internet now. This would be much more detrimental to learning if other resources weren’t in everyone’s pocket.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Yes, you are wrong. Wikipedia can both be divisive and be deceptively edited. It also has articles about subjects. A dictionary just lets a person know what a word (like ‘divisive’) means. Dictionaries are pretty important to education, especially for a child who likely has a smaller vocabulary than most adults.

        Edit: Am I really being downvoted for touting the importance of dictionaries in education?

        • lad@programming.dev
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          10 months ago

          I would guess that people think that dictionaries play a secondary role compared to that of teachers and adults in explaining the meaning of words. Or maybe some think Wiki is without bias and flaw

          But then again, this is just a guess, and I agree with your point to a degree, even if I think dictionaries are not that important in school

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            A secondary role, sure, but still a role. A teacher is not always around or may not know the answer, but if a dictionary is right there, the kid can look it up.

    • Aussiemandeus@aussie.zone
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      10 months ago

      You can only hope so. However from looking in from Australia, America is going to shit at an accelerating pace.

      Thwy remind me of the movie Idiocracy, something i once viewed as extreme and impossible but now plays as almost fact.

  • snekerpimp@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I get that it’s malicious compliance, but part of me thinks this is exactly what they want. The correct definition of words is what they are trying to keep from children. They are constantly misusing or abusing the English language to push their agenda. What better way to brainwash than remove the ability to find out what a word means?

    • sanpedropeddler@sh.itjust.works
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      10 months ago

      I promise you, they simply dont know what books they are banning. They come up with some criteria and then schools have to sort through their books to make sure they all comply. A graphic novel of the book of genesis got banned from my school district. I garuntee they did not intend for that to happen.

  • superterran@discuss.online
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    10 months ago

    Seems like at the point you’ve banned dictionaries that you should stop and reconsider what you’re doing

    • rekabis@lemmy.ca
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      10 months ago

      Except that would violate their objective of increasing their electorate through the erosion of education.

      The more educated people get, the more they understand how morally and intellectually bankrupt the political and social right is.

  • MagicShel@programming.dev
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    10 months ago

    Sounds like some malicious compliance there just from the summary but maybe I still have too much faith in people.

    • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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      10 months ago

      Malicious compliance in my mind would be “We haven’t read all of these books completely, nor can we remember all the texts. Therefore we have to completely empty the library for review”

      • MagicShel@programming.dev
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        10 months ago

        Could be exactly the argument for a dictionary. Have you read one front to back? Do you recall every single definition? No? Might better remove the dictionary. Definitely have to remove the bible.

  • Smacks@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Honestly Ron probably wants everyone in his state to be dumber so they’ll vote for him

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    10 months ago

    That’s not the “gotcha” it should be. If anything results in future generations becoming ignorant, gullible and uncritically docile towards authorities, that’s just the system working as intended.

      • beebarfbadger@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Not even remotely. That is just the production method of copious cheap labour. Just make them multiply uncontrolled by instilling a dislike of anything in the way of birth control, make them docile and exploitable by telling them that unions are evil and corporations are the best there is and their friends and make them unaware of better systems by limiting their education to how great their own country is (and absolutely nothing else).

        That caste is then not who gets to run things. That burden lies upon the rich ones who actually enjoy private education and have all the money they don’t have to spend on fair wages etc.

        • Jarix@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Thats an excellent explanation.

          I was making a lame joke about a movie.

          Now i feel like an idiot

  • Tja@programming.dev
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    10 months ago

    They should ban the bilble like some other districts did. There is sex, murder, incest and all kinds of inappropriate content in there. Makes conservatives go nuts.

    • macrocephalic@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Banning it would annoy them, but if they all just went missing without any fanfare then they wouldn’t notice; very few of them read it.

    • Asafum@feddit.nl
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      10 months ago

      DeSantis makes the law, counties follow the law, the Bible gets banned.

      Fox news: LiBeRaLs ArE bAnNiNg ThE bIbLe!!

  • FurtiveFugitive@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    Of course they had to get rid of the dictionary! It contained words like fellatio and evolution. It even contained evollatio which is the theory that man invented fellatio!

  • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    2 years later… Melissa S Tafht has finally put together a new book, and what is this book about? All we know is that it is banned…

    Oh yes, I started thinking, hey maybe we should write all the words we know. I’m getting older and I see my mother forgetting words so I wrote this book for her. But then, I started thinking, hmm what about kids who don’t know all the words? And people might actually come up with new ones. Anyway, I’m calling this “Words Book”.

  • FauxPseudo @lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Teacher “look it up in a dictionary.” Student “We won’t have dictionaries outside of school.” Other student “we don’t have dictionaries /in/ school.”

  • rivermonster@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I’m a HUGE fan of malicious compliance. When people do stupid shit like, for example, being religious—if you just make them AC TUALLY live with their maleficence, then they give up faster than any other method of confrontation. If women really had to kill a dove every time they menstruated, then it would lose a bit of popularity. LMFAO, just one of an ENDLESS (well, I guess it actually is finite) number of examples.

    Leviticus 15:28-30 ESV But if she is cleansed of her discharge, she shall count for herself seven days, and after that she shall be clean. And on the eighth day she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons and bring them to the priest, to the entrance of the tent of meeting. And the priest shall use one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. And the priest shall make atonement for her before the Lord for her unclean discharge.

    Edit: We’d probably run out of doves too. ><

    • AnalogyAddict@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Most Christians believe in the new law, which abolished sacrifice like that, so it’s not the trump card you think it is.

      I’m not saying you shouldn’t call out religious inconsistencies, just make sure you know what you’re talking about, first.

      Use turning the other cheek. That’s a basic tenet of Jesus, which highlights the hypocrisy of gun-toting Republican “Christians.”

        • TwentySeven@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Serious answer from a non fundamentalist Christian: Because the old testament laws were intended for a specific society, to pave the way for Jesus. They were also a mix of religious rules and secular laws. They weren’t (all) intended to be universal moral laws that apply to all of humanity.

        • Bgugi@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          No-no… Jesus didn’t change the laws… He completed them! The rules are all still valid, they just don’t apply, except the ones that are convenient, or affect those people…

        • AnalogyAddict@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Because an infallible God is trying to herd very fallible people, which is way harder than trying to give a group of angry cats a bath.

          He is also working through fallible people, which is why a personal relationship with Him is so important. That is essentially what Christ taught.

          Just saying what their scriptures teach. You don’t have to believe it, but it is much more consistent than people claiming to be Christian would make it seem.

      • rivermonster@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        It was just a quick low effort example, but yes, you are correct. Take my upvote! LOL

        One can always leaf through and pick any of the many examples of awful highlighted on the site: https://www.evilbible.com/

        I’d also say, though, that most Christians will use any law, new or old, to support their hatred and evil. If they’re looking to support their bigotry or hatred, then any version of the bible is fair game. It’s only abolished when it’s inconvenient for them.

        Sadly, I’ve had the misfortune of living in multiple areas with mega-churches. ><

        • AnalogyAddict@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          But again, that’s not because they are Christians. Christianity for them is, at best, a veneer. A smokescreen. They are filled with fear and hate, and use whatever they can to justify it. They could be any religion or none at all, and would still act the same way.

      • Forester@yiffit.net
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        10 months ago

        My parents raised me in the church and then were surprised when I objected to all of the republicanisms. They decided that “the church was gay.”

        Them : Be Christ like

        Also them: no not like that

        • AnalogyAddict@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Exactly. They are no different than Moses’ people, trying to form God into an image they can live with. They don’t actually understand their own doctrine.

        • AnalogyAddict@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          That’s because they hate gays and are looking for justification, not because they believe in Christ and are seeking to become like him. Don’t mistake using religion as an excuse for actual religion. If it weren’t for the Bible, they’d cite something else.

            • AnalogyAddict@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              Some people who claim to be Christian, do. But hate is hardly limited to Christianity. It’s not a Scotsman fallacy if a core tenet of the group is being blatantly ignored. It’s only a Scotsman fallacy if the point has nothing to do with being in the group.