(The following is discouraging, to say the least. But after reading this old/new development in Trumpublican politics, GO READ INFIDEL753's excellent essay, "The Cycles of Darkness and Light").
When I refer to the current Trumpubicans as neo-fascists, I'm not being overwrought. I'm just observing their behaviors and remembering history:
In May of 1933 Germans burned books deemed offensive to the white race.
TODAY, in 2021, the Virginia legislature is proposing burning books deemed offensive to the white race. And Texas is considering it as well.
In Kansas, the authorities are looking to ban books. Will burning books be next?
Virginia's Spotsylvania County School Board voted 6-0 earlier this week to order public school libraries to remove and catalog all "sexually explicit" books from their libraries, after a parent at one high school complained about "LGBTQIA" fiction prominently displayed in the school's digital library app, The Free Lance-Star reports.
Two of the board members wanted to go farther, the Free Lance-Star reports.
"I think we should throw those books in a fire," said one member, Rabih Abuismail. He said one young adult book about homeless teenagers trying to escape troubled pasts, 33 Snowfish by Adam Rapp, proved public schools "would rather have our kids reading gay pornography than about Christ."
Fellow board member Kirk Twigg said he'd like to "see the books before we burn them so we can identify within our community that we are eradicating this bad stuff."
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Wednesday instructed the Texas Education Agency to investigate potential crimes related to "the availability of pornography" in public schools and refer any such instances "for prosecution to the fullest extent of the law."
The TEA, The Texas Tribune notes, "does not employ law enforcement officers." Two days earlier, Abbott had asked the TEA and other state agencies to develop statewide standards preventing "obscene content in Texas public schools."
Pornography is one thing, but "there is clearly an audience in the conservative movement for more broadly excluding subjects involving the history of racism and how it might impact modern life," Blake concludes. And the big question is "how wide a net is cast."
WICHITA, Kansas — The Goddard school district has removed more than two dozen books from circulation in the district’s school libraries, citing national attention and challenges to the books elsewhere.
The list of books includes several well-known novels, including “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood, “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas and “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky.
It also includes “Fences,” a play by August Wilson that won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1987, and “They Called Themselves the K.K.K.,” a historical look at how the white supremacist group took root in America.
"Book burning refers to the ritual destruction by fire of books or other written materials. Usually carried out in a public context, the burning of books represents an element of censorship and usually proceeds from a cultural, religious, or political opposition to the materials in question.
The burning of books under the Nazi regime on May 10, 1933, is perhaps the most famous book burning in history.
Beginning on May 10, 1933, Nazi-dominated student groups carried out public burnings of books they claimed were “un-German.” The book burnings took place in 34 university towns and cities. Works of prominent Jewish, liberal, and leftist writers ended up in the bonfires. The book burnings stood as a powerful symbol of Nazi intolerance and censorship.
Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda, began an effort to bring German arts and culture in line with Nazi goals. The government purged cultural organizations of Jewish and other officials alleged to be politically suspect or who performed or created art works which Nazi ideologues labeled 'degenerate.' ”
29 comments:
proved public schools "would rather have our kids reading gay pornography than about Christ -- Abuismail
potential crimes related to "the availability of pornography" in public schools -- Abbott
Yeah, right, I really believe the public schools in Virginia and Texas have been stocking their libraries with gay porn up until now. Very credible.
The reality is, people like this will interpret anything that recognizes the reality of homosexuality as a normal and enduring part of the human experience as being "pornographic" -- because it transgresses their primitive religious taboos.
The Nazis also persecuted gays and destroyed writings that deviated from their own hateful views on the subject.
Thanks for the link!
Book burning in an allegedly "enlightened" republic? Note the clarifier allededly.
How much longer before burning witches at the stake resurfaces in this allededly "enlightened" country.
The planet will likely always have an abundance of ignorant people. It has always been so.
There have been many famous book and material burnings in America, and of course many book and material censorship's in America. Conservatives wanted and did pull the book "The Catcher in the Rye" from libraries all over the country. Then there was the famous record burning of Elvis material because he was branded immoral. Teenagers themselves did burned those albums, books, and pictures. The examples go on and on and come from both the left and the right and span the history of our country pre-dating the Nazi movement. Are these all examples of Nazi like behavior? Can a book, or other material be burned in protest without being Nazi like behavior?
Another Veterans Day has come and gone, each time seeing fewer remaining veterans from World War II.
We are appropriately accustomed to thanking them for their service, but we rarely discuss why they fought.
My father-in-law served in Patton's Third Army during the Battle of the Bulge and liberation of Buchenwald. He saw the end results of unchecked fascism.
Those inmates were all "enemies of the state", enemies of the “Deutshce Volk”, (German people). They were communists, socialists, educators, non-heterosexual people, and members of the wrong religion/heritage.
Even if someone wasn’t in any of those groups, he could still be labeled an enemy of the people and sent to the camps. The “law” allowed this.
Every atrocity the Nazis committed was "legal". The Enabling Act of March 23, 1933 allowed the Reich government to issue laws without the consent of Germany's parliament, laying the foundation for the complete Nazification of German society.
Echoes of Hitler's racist fascism are now ringing across America. As with the Third Reich, the resentments and anger of white nationalist bigots have fueled the rise of the radical Right and Trumpism.
We're on the precipice of a one-party dictatorship if voter rights are not protected and gerrymandering allowed to continue.
This is the party that still supports a leader who calls democrats communists. He calls the press the enemy of the people. He makes scapegoats of immigrants and minorities. He rose to power by fueling racism and hate.
The leader is a criminal sociopath who incited a violent coup and praised the mob of thugs for their efforts.
His party is banning books and suppressing education of slavery and racism.
His party gets away with inciting a coup, ignoring Congressional subpoenas and veiled death threats to fellow legislators. See any parallels here?
This is fascism.
Never forget these crimes against freedom and democracy.
Let’s also not forget our Constitution didn't prevent Bush from starting a war based on lies, locking people up without charges, and implementing torture.
Anonymous, when the state takes it upon itself to decide on burning books, yes, that IS Nazi behavior.
Individuals can make their own decisions on what books or other media they or their children can or cannot see. In a free society, no one has that right to impose their prejudices on other people's children, least of all the state! That's unAmerican.
I would hope that enlightened people would understand this.
Infidel753, The Republican Party has always hated the idea of gay and trans people enjoying equal protection under the law.
People will argue that religion has done a lot of good, but when I look at anti-semitism, anti-gay, anti-Islam, and anti-women, anti-science, anti-enlightenment, anti-atheism that run through many of today's major religions' extreme right sects, I can't help but see the hundreds of years of pain and suffering it has put people through.
Your essay is worth reading. I hope my readers visit your blog to see for themselves.
Then many States in America are Nazi States as they have fostered, supported, and passed legal laws supporting the kind of hate you describe. Homosexuality, interracial marriage, prostitution, and other acts deemed immoral by the majority have been considered illegal by many States, in fact the majority of States. One can still be legally fired from a job just for being gay.
Anonymous: "Homosexuality, interracial marriage, prostitution, and other acts deemed immoral by the majority have been considered illegal by many States, in fact the majority of States."
"have been" -- meaning in the past. Not true today. Progress.
This post is about book burning.
Religion is the cause of many evil acts in the world, but how do you change what the vast majority of the people believe in and base their acts on?
There are different levels of fascism and inhumanity. Hitler was much more evil and murderous than the world has even seen, and no one compares to his evil.
One of Hitler's tactics was to make Jews seem as repugnant as possible and build hate for the Jews in the populace. Isn't that the same tactic we use when we compare anyone to Hitler?
You rail against that kind of behavior, but excuse it because it was in the past? It is State sponsored and not in the past.
Anonymous, I don't know what you're talking about.
You made an assumption and wrote "but excuse it because it was in the past?" Nowhere on my blog do I excuse anti-semitism, anti-homosexualism, or any anti-human behavior.
You appear to be someone looking for a fight. I'm not in the mood to keep knocking down straw men.
This post is about book burning.
Jerry "One of Hitler's tactics was to make Jews seem as repugnant as possible and build hate for the Jews in the populace. Isn't that the same tactic we use when we compare anyone to Hitler?"
I agree that Hitler was a particularly evil human being. And there have been many evil human beings before and since who've been the cause of immense suffering and death for their fellow humans. I don't like labeling anyone another "Hitler," because I agree that makes the labeler not much better than the deplorable person.
I'm afraid we haven't learned much from the history of the evil that men do. There's a certain far right blogger who allows people on her blog to refer to Muslims and Democrats as "vermin" -- the Nazi's preferred label for Jews and others they hated.
I'm always stunned to read this on her blog because she allows it, and she's a devout Christian. Apparently she and her friends don't see any parallels to their hate speech and what happened in Germany in the 1930s.
People who don't learn from history are doomed to see the worst of it again.
Radical Right American fascists constantly employ tactics to make liberals, Democrats, Socialists, educators, atheists, immigrants and minorities seem as repugnant as possible and build hate for the them in the populace.
They stage a coup, attempt to bully the Justice Department and state officials to overturn an election, plot to kidnap a governor, threaten congress, threaten election officials, engage in vigilantism, and openly intimidate others by brandishing weapons.
They seize power to suppress voters, nullify elections, ban books, and ban the teaching the history of racism and slavery.
Who do we compare them to?
Quakers?
Dave D. "The leader is a criminal sociopath who incited a violent coup and praised the mob of thugs for their efforts."
In any other time in America's history, Trump would immediately have become a pariah in his party and in this country. But that time has passed, and too many Americans are okay with Trump's anti-American, pro-fascist behaviors and lawlessness.
This is what keeps me awake at night.
Dave, I can't speak for Jerry, but I think he means we can't label every bad actor a "Hitler," because being "Hitler" will lose its meaning.
What we are seeing, IMO, is neo-fascism here in the USA, everything you mentioned in your last post is true and has happened.
Trump is a malignant narcissist and sociopath who doesn't give a fig about anyone but himself and his hold on power. What happened a year ago -- HE LOST! -- has been bitter for him to face, the one thing a malignant narcissist cannot accept -- LOSER! He's been able to tap into his base's grievances and fears -- which are HIS grievances and fears of LOSING.
His base is following a mentally unstable personality who cares nothing for them.
Shaw,
You're right. We shouldn't say anyone is equal to Hitler, but historical comparisons can be made.
I stand by my statement:
"Echoes of Hitler's racist fascism are now ringing across America."
I'm not saying anyone is Hitler, or is his equal, or has done what Hitler eventually did.
I'm saying fascism is fascism, and too many Americans are fascists.
I see no logical refutation of these facts.
And my opinion is Hitler would have been proud to see this in America. We can compare them to Hitler's Nazis without equating them to Hitler himself. Massacring Jews in a Synagogue demands comparison to Nazis, as well as any other act of racist fascism.
If anyone is doing the same thing Hitler did before he took power, they should damn well be compared to early Hitler. Trump's coup is directly comparable to Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch.
He's not Hitler, but he echoes Hitler's demonizing hate, white nationalism, and authoritarian fascism.
Fascists need to be called fascists. They are what they are.
Dave D.,
Yes. Agreed. And here's why:
"Menace, as a Political Tool, Enters the Republican Mainstream
Threats of violence have become commonplace among a significant part of the party, as historians and those who study democracy warn of a dark shift in American politics.
At a conservative rally in western Idaho last month, a young man stepped up to a microphone to ask when he could start killing Democrats.
“When do we get to use the guns?” he said as the audience applauded. “How many elections are they going to steal before we kill these people?” The local state representative, a Republican, later called it a “fair” question.
In Ohio, the leading candidate in the Republican primary for Senate blasted out a video urging Republicans to resist the “tyranny” of a federal government that pushed them to wear masks and take F.D.A.-authorized vaccines.
“When the Gestapo show up at your front door,” the candidate, Josh Mandel, a grandson of Holocaust survivors, said in the video in September, “you know what to do.”
And in Congress, violent threats against lawmakers are on track to double this year. Republicans who break party ranks and defy former President Donald J. Trump have come to expect insults, invective and death threats — often stoked by their own colleagues and conservative activists, who have denounced them as traitors.
From congressional offices to community meeting rooms, threats of violence are becoming commonplace among a significant segment of the Republican Party. Ten months after rioters attacked the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, and after four years of a president who often spoke in violent terms about his adversaries, right-wing Republicans are talking more openly and frequently about the use of force as justifiable in opposition to those who dislodged him from power."
The ‘United’ States cannot hold together much longer under these circumstances. Since 2000, we have had two presidents elected by a minority of America’s voters. In Congress, 550,000 residents of Wyoming can and do cancel out the will of 40 million Californians, whose economy comprises over 20% of GDP and whose taxes comprise a similar portion of annual federal revenue.
In order for such a system to function, the ‘ruling minority’ must acknowledge it does not have a mandate from the majority; and it must be willing to govern by compromise and consensus. But the opposite is now true, and the Republican response to the infrastructure bill is Exhibit A.
For four years, Trump and his party promised such legislation and failed to deliver it. Infrastructure spending will directly benefit the economically depressed areas where Republican politicians have the strongest support. Yet simply because a Democratic President and Congressional Democrats proposed the current infrastructure bill, all but a small handful of Republicans vehemently opposed it, to the detriment of their own constituents.
The same is true of the covid-19 vaccine. Trump and his party heralded the vaccine as a crowning achievement of Trump’s presidency. But when the vaccine could no longer be used to bolster Trump’s re-election campaign, it became a ‘Democrat’ vaccine that Republicans would rather die than accept.
This nation, despite its prosperity, is deathly ill. I fear it cannot and will not recover.
No. It cannot anon.
It takes a very sick society to ban and burn this type of book. I could understand actual porn being pulled from a school library but none of these books are anything like that. IF anything, the Bible should be banned for it's constant talk of incest, rape, sodomy, murder, genocide, and every form of perversion one can think of. Funny how they want to BRING that into the school, but get rid of these other books.
smh I'll never understand the radical right. Never.
Consider studying Buddhism Shaw. The closest a life philosophy actually comes to recognizing the our greatest challenges as well as humankinds greatest evils. Ignorance and greed.
We should be thankful that Trump is not Hitler and the Republicans are not Nazis. Or we would have seen Muslims executed by the millions, concentration camps full of their enemies being prepared to be executed, the US attacking and invading other countries and their citizens murdered by the millions, slave labor used to build their society, and so many more atrocities.
You want to eliminate the Electoral College? Fine, there is a formula to change the Constitution written in the Constitution.
The country is ill, but it will continue.
We can get rid of these people through the ballot box just as we got rid of Trump. That is the step to recovery.
I have no clue why Americans keep voting for these fascists, but I live with the reality that they do.
One person, one vote. My vote never goes to these anti-Americans. Just as my vote would never go to a guy who had 22 criminal convictions in his past, even though he was a Democrat. An act I was called "sick" and a traitor to the Democratic party for doing.
Be careful how you define your enemies and be careful what you wish for.
Your fears Shaw are well founded. Everything is impermanent, including American majority rule and the rule of law.
What America is experiencing right now is the beginning of America's descent into lawlessness, extreme tribalism, egregious ignorance and greed, and so much more.
Frankly, I've completely given up any and all hope that America will recover. We are definitely too far gone as we continue to push the pedal to the metal.
trump will deffinately have his place in infamy. And the list of spinelesss cockroaches that followed him will stetch for miles and miles.
T
And here's a radical Trumpublican questioning a Jewish Republican's faith because the Jewish Republican candidate is courting the Evangelical vote:
‘But he’s Jewish’: Opponent questions Mandel’s faith in Ohio Senate primary debate
The Republican Senate frontrunner was targeted earlier in an ad criticizing him for courting evangelical Christians.:
So now we have a radical Trumpublican going after a Jew because he's a Jew.
Book burning? Calling out a Jew just because of his religion and for attracting the Evangelical vote?
Inciting armed thugs to attack the US Capitol because they believed Trump's lies about a stolen election?
Should we ignore all of this?
WORDS MATTER...
It's dictatorship, not authoritarianism.
It's lying, not misinformation.
It's systemic racism, not Critical Race Theory.
It's theft, not misappropriation.
It's fascism, not tribalism.
etc.
We Democrats need to wake up and speak simple truths.
Missouri had a right-wing church group whose mission was to burn all the wrong bibles. If it wasn't King James, they burned them. They would go around to used book stores, garage sales, etc looking for bad bibles. Of course they would burn Korans and any other books they didn't like. They were stopped with EPA rules about illegal burning.
Kids don't go to library for porn - they go to the internet. This is just a way for the Christians to ban ideas they don't agree with.
Lady M, Correct. And banning books only makes those books more tempting.
I read Peyton Place and The Tropic of Cancer when I was young. Those were banned, but we always had a way of getting a copy of those books. I read them, and I didn't turn into a degenerate. Here the history behind the Henry Miller books that the U.S. banned:
March 9 - In 1938, the U.S. Government banned Henry Miller s novel Tropic of Cancer, saying it dealt too explicitly with his sexual adventures and challenged models of sexual morality. To further drive the point home, the government went on to ban all of Miller s works from entering the United States. In 1961, the ban was lifted, but his work continued to be labeled obscene by the Citizens for Decent Literature. "Tropic of Cancer" (1934) along with the follow-up "Tropic of Capricorn" (1939) are the most controversial of Henry Miller's works due to their sexually explicit content. The books are an autobiographical account of a poor expatriate living in France during the early 1930s. With no real narrative plot, the novels follow the everyday life of the narrator. What make both works so controversial are the numerous sexual encounters that are depicted with shocking and unprecedented detail and frankness.
Description of Incident: In 1938, the U.S. Government banned Henry Miller s novel Tropic of Cancer, saying it dealt too explicitly with his sexual adventures and challenged models of sexual morality. To further drive the point home, the government went on to ban all of Miller s works from entering the United States.
Results of Incident: In 1961 the US ban on Henry Miller's novels was finally lifted, but the controversy surrounding his books (in particular "Tropic of Cancer") continued. "Tropic of Cancer" was still labeled as "obscene" by the US government and nationwide there were attempts to stop the sale of Miller's novel. In the fall of 1961, police officials in the Chicago area systematically intimidated bookstores who sold the "Tropic of Cancer", making several arrests. The book's publisher, Grove Press, along with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit arguing it is illegal for officials to interfere with the sale of the novel. During the first year of publication Grove Press spent more than $100,000 fighting 60 cases nationwide. It was not until 1964 that the US Supreme Court finally declared "Tropic of Cancer" not to be obscene and its sale protected by the US constitution.
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