Parents and activists fighting the invasion of pornography into schools face a big problem: they run up against the usually-good American impulse to reject attempts to censor books.

Americans rightly have a kneejerk reaction against suppressing ideas (although, ironically, the same people pushing pornography in the schools are also pushing for censorship of ideas they don’t like!), and without direct evidence that something truly unacceptable is being provided to children, they are inclined to side with those who are more permissive when it comes to speech.

Generically we approve of free speech, and yet we all have edge cases where we understand that some things are inappropriate to be widely distributed. That is why the Supreme Court has carved out “obscene” speech exceptions, and things like child pornography are completely banned.

The pornography in schools debate isn’t even about censorship of books, but rather the curation policies of schools which of necessity pick and choose which books to purchase and distribute to children. And, as far as I know, nobody is trying to ban pornographic books aimed at children, but simply exclude sexually explicit books from the curated lists that schools recommend and provide to students as part of their education.

Texas officials MUST see what is being PUSHED onto CHILDREN in Texas public schools! If they don't care, VOTE THEM OUT!https://t.co/2AT51SLDMj

— Protect Texas Kids (@protecttxkids_) July 31, 2023

One of the most powerful tools activists have to fight back is to get people to see exactly what they are talking about. When the issue is generic, the inclination to provide as wide a range of options tends to win. When the issue becomes specific, people’s critical judgment kicks in.

Well, parents in Texas have found a way to make the choices very specific indeed. They have begun a campaign to force school administrators and policymakers to look directly at the books that they have been pushing into classrooms and school libraries.

The American Library Association is under fire by concerned families across the country following a spike in books being offered to children pushing graphic sexual content and gender ideology.

But parents in Tyler, Texas are fighting back, and have organized a grassroots campaign to send the “explicit and inappropriate” books to city officials in an effort to create awareness of what local children are being exposed to.

Grassroots America Executive Director JoAnn Fleming said the campaign, coined The Dirty Thirty, will mail a sample of a graphic “child-friendly” book to local city officials.

“As a statewide organization, we continue to receive from outraged citizens shocking reviews of public library books readily accessible to children. These books contain blatant pornography, sexual deviancy, and pedophilia that rape the minds and emotions of children and normalize behavior that promotes the utter degradation of our culture, reducing human sexuality to soul-eating animalistic acts,” Fleming told The Publica. “The destruction of childhood innocence with taxpayer-funded smut readily found in our public libraries must stop.”

For 30 days, Fleming and her campaign group will send local officials one segment of a so-called “dirty book” per day in an effort to compel local officials to take action against the literature. If the campaign is successful, the protest model will be rolled out in other cities throughout Texas, and eventually, on a nationwide scale.

One thing I have found is that liberals and moderates automatically defer to the “experts” when it comes to such matters, and are inclined to assume that people objecting to explicit books in schools are oversensitive prudes who won’t “say gay.”

For decades Americans have been trained to believe that there is a large class of people who are nothing but bigoted killjoys. Movies like “Dirty Dancing” have us rooting for the joyful celebration of freedom and against the censorious. Opponents of alphabet ideology fall naturally into the second category, and people quit listening.

Unfortunately, the only way to break through (sometimes) is to make people defend specifics. Instead of imagining two young people joyfully dancing and celebrating youth, make them defend the specific troubling things that are really being pushed. Such as the image in the above tweet.

Often, they can’t. Once you move from the generic to the specific, the ruse breaks down.

This is why you hear about (usually fake) stories of poets getting censored and not the real issue. Some fake issue is blown up to hide what is really happening.

We have to make people defend the specific thing they are actually promoting, not some made-up case that people will be inclined to side with them on.

Better yet would be forcing taxpayers to view what they are paying for, although it would have to be executed well. People will resent having porn shoved in their faces, so a packet with copious warnings, sent in a plain paper wrapper, and a calm letter explaining the problem would tend to work better than slapping people in the face. Those for whom the cruder message would work are already on our side. We need the more delicate suburban moms and dads to take a look.

But something has to be done to grab people’s attention. The MSM and the Left have seized the high ground by keeping the issue generic, about “censorship.” We need to get people to look at the specifics.

James Klug: Should middle-schoolers, maybe they’re 11 years old, should they be seeing how to blow a strap-on?

White Democrat women: “We’re not trained, and I don’t know, are you a trained librarian to make a conclusion like that?”

😑

This is who protests @Moms4Liberty. https://t.co/WY86YAMZZF pic.twitter.com/t9mXTWyjaH

— Billboard Chris 🇨🇦🇺🇸 (@BillboardChris) August 8, 2023

When confronted by specifics, people tend to see that the Lefty activists are insane. We will never convince the Lefties, but showing them defending the absurd will make a difference. (As with the video above, where Lefties defend librarians showing kids how to give blow jobs because they are “experts” who know what they are doing.)

Make people defend this specific thing, right here right now.

It is the only way to win.