In fact, progressive librarians already practice a form of book banning by not ordering books seen as “conservative,” ordering very few copies of them, or not featuring them prominently compared with liberal titles. For example, the public library system in Pinellas County, where I live, owns no copies of Johnny the Walrus, a children’s book by Daily Wire contributor Matt Walsh, though it has nearly 8,000 reviews on Amazon and a 4.9-star average rating. But the system has seven copies of Let’s Talk About It, a graphic novel by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan featuring sexually explicit images and themes, as well as copies of every other prominently “banned” young adult book.

Just as conservatives have gained traction on gender identity by asking leftists to define the word “woman,” they could also reframe the book debate by asking them to define the word “ban.” They shouldn’t let the Left avoid acknowledging the explicit or graphic content of many of these books, and they should ask defenders of these titles whether they want their own children reading them. When movies and television programs are rated PG–13, R, or X—and consequently restricted for younger viewers—that doesn’t mean that they’re banned. The same principle goes for books.

[I’ve been pointing this out on Twitter for weeks and months, and occasionally here. Library curation is not “book banning.” The United States *did* officially censor books until a few decades ago, but there are no book bans at all now. The law in Florida allows for parental input on school library curation (and notably not public libraries), but curation takes place in every library in the country. No library has a copy of every book ever published, and it would be absurd to expect it. Can curation policies be criticized? Indeed, but let’s be accurate about the issue rather than hyperventilate about “bans” that have no connection to reality. — Ed]