Galileo’s house arrest. Rachel Carson” “silent Spring” attacked. Spanish Inquisition
300 whites lynched i South, 1830-1860. Colin Kaepernick unsigned
Joan of Arc burned, 143l. corporate advertisers restrict content. McCarthyism
American women can’t vote, 1789-1920. “Jim Crow,” 1865-1965
Nazis burn “subversive un-German books in 90 cities, May 10, 1933
1873-1957, American postal authorities censor mail under the “Comstock Law”
***** Heinrich Heine: “..where they burn books, thy will ultimately burn people also.”
Jew burnings, 12th – 16th centuries. HUAC “Un-American” purge, 1940s
1852 – “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” banned in Russia. Jesse Owens banned, 1936 –
American labor union activists persecuted, murdered, 1870s – l930s; harassed and fired, 1930s –
Servetus burned [heretical medical theories], 1553. Supreme Court “packing”
1939 – “The Grapes of Wrath” burned on East St. Louis courtyard steps
Censorship has been exercised by many groups: churches, government, corporations, activists.
Censorship has existed in many forms: murder, banning, sabotaging, story suppression, disinformation, threats, limiting what is discussed, criminalization, self-censorship.
THE object: CONTROL. Control of money, power, facts, narrative, people’s lives, inconvenient information, women, dissident groups, unpopular books, “heretics,” the law……..
***** George Orwell: “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
1692 Salem witch scare. the “tobacco defense”. “gerrymandering” and “election fraud”
Jan Hus burned, 1415. Muhammed Ali loses boxing title. “don’t be the first to stop clapping”
Senator McCarthy gets all books world-wide in government libraries offensive to him burned, 1953
***** Lenin: “Truth is the most precious thing. That is why we should ration it.”
1829, Georgia, Virginia, Missouri anti-literacy laws deemed necessary “because an un-educated Black population made white citizens feel more secure against both abolitionists and slave uprisings.” [Missouri state website]
“Mother Jones,” September-October, 2021: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ bill signing text forbidding teaching racism was embedded in American society to uphold white supremacy “echoes an op-ed article published in the Richmond Enquirer in 1856”
Justice Potter Stewart: “Censorship reflects a society’s lack of confidence in itself. It is the hallmark of an authoritarian regime.” [“Ginzberg,” 1966]
Orchestrated. Campaign
– American corporations have waged a fierce, never-ending war against labor unions. The issue: control of workers and greed.
– the American “religious right” has waged a 50-year war on America. the issue: control of people’s lives by religious dogma and political power.
– the combined reactionary right forces have waged a 150-year war against the American legal system. The issues: CONTROL of ideas, people’s lives, power, GREED.
– the combined reactionary right have waged a 150-year war against the truth – which they MUST do in order to impose their will. The issues: control the narrative, TRUTH, power, GREED.
– the NUMBER ONE CENSORSHIP: voter suppression. Continuing the “stolen election” fraud, Republicans across America have passed numerous bills, in their words “to ensure election integrity.” The goal/result: to eliminate the “wrong voters” – people likely to vote against Republicans. Along with gerrymandering, pushed since 2010, allows Republicans to pick their own voters.
Attack Dogs
– I: the “conservative” media morons and internet idiots routinely savage ANY criticism of “conservative” [reactionary]words, actions, laws. These campaigns are designed to kill at birth any attempts to bring forth the truth.
– II: “conservative” media morons and internet idiots, other mouthpieces also routinely claim “anti-conservative” [reactionary] “BIAS.” As explained by Rich Bond, Republican Party chair [1992]: “There is some strategy to it [bashing the ‘liberal” media]…if you watch a great coach, what they do is ‘work the refs.'” Also by William Kristol. Republican neoconservative: “I admit it, the liberal media were never that powerful, and the whole thing was used as an excuse by conservatives for conservative failures.”
– III: self-censorship – the result of fear induced by attack dogs I and II; publishers, editors, writers avoided irritating corporate advertisers; didn’t tell stories, no matter how critical and truthful.
– IV: results of I, II, and III: hundreds/thousands of critical stories that DIDN’T GET TOLD: topics sensitive to the top 1%, corporations, “out of bounds,’ not raised, not discussed [tax evasion, monopoly power, job loss,etc….]
-V: legal wars. “Mother Jones,” January-February, 2022: “The Legal War Against Mother Jones”: a billionaires lawsuit because of an unfavorable report, “..lawsuits aren’t necessarily about winning [they won]. Some are just about inflicting as much pain as possible.” See also Soley’s “Censorship INC” pages 88 forward about SLAPP lawsuits [silencing].
– VI: still being played out is another form, the use of government power to silence/punish criticism, most recently in April, 2022. Florida’s governor [running for 2024 president] and the Republican-controlled legislature removed a provision giving Walt Disney World’s private government autonomy around Orlando. Reason: Disney World criticized a Republican law on teaching about sex in public schools.
School Censorship – the cost of not knowing???
– 1920s: United Daughters of the Confederacy demanded any book saying the South fought to keep slavery or said the slaveholders were cruel to be banned.
– 1996: Alabama school board members and Governor Robert James required an insert in biology textbooks: “Since no one was present when life first appeared on Earth..any statement about life’s origins should be considered as theory, not fact.”
– 2000s: Texas public school text: there were both cruel and kind slaveowners; many [slaves] may not have been terribly unhappy…for they knew no others [conditions]”
– 1/30/2019 Palm Beach Post: “The Florida Legislature is considering a bill that would give public school students alternative facts to so-called “controversial theories” of science such as evolution and climate change..pushed by the Florida Citizens Alliance, which thinks Florida’s kids..”indoctrinated in a public school system that undermines their individual rights and destroys our founding principles and family values.” [Frank Cerebino]
– 2020s: private Christian academies texts: God is the singular causation of history; America founded as a Christian nation; unequivocal praise for capitalism coupled with demonization of social charity [Jan., 2022 “Church & State”]
– 11/21/21 Washington Post Weekly: “Republicans have concluded..a manufactured moral panic over critical race theory and diversity can help them win elections..Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, is worried about the long-term impact of this orchestrated national onslaught against books and libraries..”We get three to five reports every day..no one parent should be telling the community what everybody else should be reading.”
***** General/President D.D. Eisenhower: “Don’t join the book burners..don’t be afraid to go to your library and read every book.”
Corporate censorship – beyond the “tobacco defense”
– Soley: “..when government capitulates to private groups and commits speech-stifling acts, the acts described as “censorship.” When private entities commit the same acts, they are described as exercises in ‘property rights,’ ‘editorial control,’ or..’business policies.’..speech-stifling acts by private parties occur more frequently..are enforced daily, are deeply rooted, and go unnoticed..”
– for in-depth discussion: Lawrence Soley: “Censorship INC The Corporate Threat to Free Speech in the United States”; Alex Carey: “Taking the Risk Out of Democracy Corporate Propaganda versus Freedom and Liberty”; Herbert Schiller: “Culture Inc. The Corporate Takeover of Public Expression”; Andy Roth, Mickey Huff, Project Censored”s series.
The Internet – more disinformation than “information” ???
– is the internet more destructive than constructive? [think very carefully]
– Maya MacGuineas: “Capitalism’s Addiction Problem” [The Atlantic; April, 2020]: “..the new powers in the digital age have built their business models on strategies – enabled and turbocharged by self-improving algorithems – that actively undermine the. principles that make capitalism a good deal for most people.”
– Jack Davies: “Can Democracy survive the Internet?” [Mpls Trib; 9/27/20]: “..one human weakness makes the internet…perhaps the greatest threat democracy has ever faced: our universal desire to see ratified our own opinions and biases..”confirmation bias”…we ignore sites that might give us reasons to question our assumptions..”
– and then there is this: the increase in mental health issues, especially in young people. People tempted to, and committing, suicide – because of social media. Some professionals have already labeled this a ‘crisis.”
“Free Speech”? – there used to be standards, rules, laws, customs, norms – and now?????
– is everything now “the Wild West”? Can I say anything, in the name of “free speech,” especially on the internet???
– is the 1791 idea of “free speech” and “free press”. now so out of date that what was once thought “positive” and “good’, now so destructive and negative it threatens a polite, respectful decency toward our fellow citizens?
– if I label myself not a “journalist” but an “entertainer’, can I throwout “red meat” and get away with it [ and perhaps “earn” a multi-multi million dollar yearly salary]?
– if seven people are beaten to death after a false viral message [May, 2018] – do we just blow this off [as an accidental cost] of our “right” to suggest/say/imply just about anything about anybody – without proof?
– can I now yell “fire” in a crowded theater and get away with it [it was just a prank, officer]?
It may, chronologically, be 2022 – but how far have we come from 12th century Jew burnings, the Spanish Inquisition, 19 innocents murdered in 1692 Salem, Galileo’s house arrest?
In the end, have “we’ just devised more sophisticated ways of Burning Books and Burning People?
But, then, some of us are afraid of our own children – that they may be “weaker” then we thought; they they may be more curious than we’d like; and worse of all – that they may reject us and our ideas.
SO – we demand that. NO. children will read a book we don’t like; that. NO. children will learn something we don’t want them to; that. NO. children will think for themselves; that we will deliberately try to teach. ALL. children demonstrable falsehoods.
AND – we firmly believe this will make our country “great again.”
***** Soren Kirkegaard: “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to
believe what is true.”
With Justice For All 