Censorship News

 From Book Banning to Book Burning gives a history of American censorship. I know, you are an American and scared of history. Get over it. Unless you are into good-stepping we need to know our history. 

Murder is the ultimate censorship. See Salman Rushdie and the enduring risk of political art. Look at these countries, do we want America joining this list?

But 30 years after the publication of The Satanic Verses, risks to writers endure. Some of those hazards come from violent extremists. Last month, the terrorist group al-Qaeda, in one of its publications, issued a death threat against the Egyptian journalist and novelist Ibrahim Eissa. States, too, engage in violent censorship, and a review of PEN’s Writers at Risk Database include those who have been murdered, jailed, or disappeared in repressive countries across the world. Authors are detained in Bangladesh, China, Myanmar, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe, and many other countries. Journalists, of course, confront violence as ever.

Critical Mass published Cancel Culture Did Not Stab Salman Rushdie:

If you want to place the attack on Rushdie into a U.S. political context, it’s the rise in legislation to ban books from schools and local libraries that should most concern you. PEN America’s recent Index of School Book Bans lists more than 1,100 books banned from 86 school districts across 26 states. The most common themes among the banned books are discussions of race in U.S. history and LGBTQ+ identities. At the forefront of the national book-banning charge, you will not find progressives or offended college students, but conservative legislators intent on purging from schools and libraries content that threatens their political and religious sensibilities. Religious justifications have been central to conservative book-banning efforts.

HuffPost has Florida Judge Says Gov. Ron DeSantis' 'Stop Woke' Law Is Unconstitutional:

Walker said the law, as applied to diversity, inclusion and bias training in businesses, turns the First Amendment “upside down” because the state is barring speech by prohibiting discussion of certain concepts in training programs.

Conservatives are conserving what? 

Think about The Bible is among dozens of books removed from this Texas school district from NPR:

...The School Board did not say why the Bible and the Anne Frank book were removed, but parents had objected to them, according to the list.

Er, has anyone read Genesis or The Song of Solomon? Racy stuff. 

PEN has a report on book banning cases here.

sch 8/16/22