The internet is not a book. If one has an argument against certain people’s activities, one may write a rational argument and is free to publish their argument. This is not the same as being a public figure writing tweets about doctors being criminals for performing consensual treatments affirming gender identity, as Jordan Peterson recently did, causing his ban from twitter. He is now on the platform The Daily Wire no doubt arguing that his ‘free speech’ was encroached on and Western Civilization is falling into irrationality and the answer is to veer right and become angry.
The right wing and angry meanwhile are targeting libraries all across America to take books off the shelves of our institutions and out of schools for simply mentioning the existence of LGBTQ individuals. These books are a ‘threat’ somehow. I was prompted to writing this piece while listening to a book on MTV’s history where people were quoted using the outdated term ‘midget’. These people would likely eventually erase this book and replace it with an emoji. Or perhaps make it so that that term was brought back into vogue and enforced as the only term. Who knows. Such movements to censor and control other people’s minds and media I feel are not based in rationality.
I think of the quote attributed to Mark Twain: “Censorship is telling a man he can’t have a steak just because a baby can’t chew it.”
And these times and the level of debates being had about them tell me the people are either starving for good nourishing substance, or feral and only able run brainless after red meat.
Either way, the library and access to books is worth fighting for, and killing for. Those who burn books will eventually burn people, and with the internet, those who seek to control information will control our lives if we do not maintain eternal vigilance. So stay strong, read hard, and pray.
The Haunted Typewriter 