The Definition of Ignorance

What actually is a dictionary? If we go by primary entry at the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

1 : a reference source in print or electronic form containing words usually alphabetically arranged along with information about their forms, pronunciations, functions, etymologies, meanings, and syntactic and idiomatic uses.

A dictionary is not a work of fiction. It is not a narrative of personal conflict or derring-do or happy endings.

A dictionary is not an opinion piece, it is not a partisan or biased source of information. A dictionary relies on fact, on word origin history, usage, and common meaning; displaying known varieties of interpretations and even recognizing slang usage when appropriate.

A dictionary is a language tool, which teaches and reminds users of that language - in our case, American English - what we mean when we say and write things to each other.

And now in the state of Florida - where Republicans led by goddamned Ron DeSantis are waging a War Against Woke - the English Dictionary is getting banned in school libraries because God forbid it teaches our kids what the meaning of words like "Woke" and "Racism" and "Sexism" really mean. Via Gloria Oladipo at the Guardian:

A Florida school district is facing a federal lawsuit after it decided to remove copies of dictionaries, encyclopedia and other books because the works included descriptions of “sexual conduct”.

The Escambia county school district, located in Pensacola, Florida, removed several dictionaries and encyclopedias from school libraries after school officials determined that the books violated Florida law HB 1069.

The law, signed by the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, last year, restricts access to materials containing “sexual conduct” in Florida classrooms.

During the district’s 2023 summer break, officials removed at least eight encyclopedias and five dictionaries...

Encyclopedias - like World Book and Britannica - are also basic research and reference tools that give summarized information about persons, places, and things. Publishers try to remove as much graphic information - and any kind of political or partisan point-of-view - from those works as possible, and STILL the goddamned GOP book banners went after them.

Alongside removing books like biographies of prominent African-Americans and women, these book-banners are taking away ANY kind of information our children need to learn things like actual language composition and literacy. These censors want to make every child - and soon, every adult - in Florida as book dumb and ignorant as possible.

Ignorant (adjective): 

1) a) : destitute of knowledge or education, an ignorant society

also : lacking knowledge or comprehension of the thing specified

parents ignorant of modern mathematics

b) : resulting from or showing lack of knowledge or intelligence

ignorant errors

2) : UNAWARE, UNINFORMED

The excuse by the book-banners is that they object to "questionable" words in the dictionaries and encyclopedias, as though learning the word "breast" or "penis" would turn eight-year-olds into sex perverts. But what they're really doing is taking away the sources that could teach those kids not only the using of those words but also their meaning, to where kids won't understand the concept of words like "slavery" or "feminism" and thus not consider them. To make our kids - our future adults - UNAWARE and UNINFORMED (and easier to lie to).

Along all the fiction books I read as a kid, when I was around 8 or so I also took the time to thumb through my mom's beat-up college dictionary to better understand the words I was coming across in the higher-level teen books I was getting into (the juvenile-level books kind of bored me at that age). This was when I came across words like "statutory" which described certain legal realities, because it used "statutory rape" as an example (and not in graphic detail). It clued me in to the meaning of the word "consent" and I grokked - yes, that IS now an accepted word, Mr. Heinlein - that certain behaviors were illegal (and morally wrong). THIS is how I learned words, I learned meaning, I learned period.

This is what George Orwell warned us about in 1984 - another banned work by the by - when he delved into how the Big Brother regime attacked language itself to control their nation. Concepts like Newspeak (invention of nonsensical words) to diminish the range of thought, along with Doublethink (self-deception by thinking and believing two contradictory ideas), all of which would lead to Crimethink (believing things heretical - "thoughtcrime" - to what Big Brother wants you to think).

This is DeSantis and his Florida Republican cronies going after ANY form of literary work that would dare give our children - ourselves - the ability to think, to comprehend, to express ourselves in ways HIS Big Brother regime doesn't want us to do.

DeSantis and the Far Right are terrified of those who don't think - and fear, and hate - the same way they think. So they're going out of their way to BAN such thought, to remove the tools we need to be our better selves and honest citizens of our state/nation/world. O'Brien would be proud.

There's only one word to describe DeSantis and his ilk:

Asshole (noun):

1) usually vulgar : ANUS

2) a) usually vulgar : a stupid, annoying, or detestable person

b) usually vulgar : the least attractive or desirable part or area —used in phrases like asshole of the world

We'll go with the number 2a) definition, please and thank you.