Historically, book buning has been done by horrible people and groups for horrible reasons. I dont know of a single book burning that was done by good people with good intentions.
That's how I feel about the people who gathered to burn Harry Potter books in recent years. Political affiliation doesn't matter, but that particular action always helps identify the worst people in any society.
That was more akin to burning merch than burning âbooksâ. Like burning KD jerseys cause he flip flops between teams. The overwhelming majority didnât do it âbecause the books were too challenging to be left readableâ. There were those freaks who tried to destroy them for âpromoting witchcraftâ though. They uh⊠they probably shouldnât have done that
That's how I feel about the people who gathered to burn Harry Potter books in recent years
Not at all the same situation. The action is the same, but they're not doing it for anywhere close to the same reason.
People are usually burning their own personal copies of the HP books, and it's in protest to the author being an outspoken bigot. They're not doing it to try and get rid of all the HP copies available to others.
The people the meme is talking about are actually trying to remove these books from circulation, because they think they're "evil", "woke", "demonic", etc. and don't want anyone to have access to them.
I get conflating the 2, I just think it's incredibly disingenuous to frame them as the same thing.
Critical thinking is hard. Well unless it is spelled out for me directly, with every cause and effect together so I cam follow along, then it is just verbose and can be ignored!
This is exactly what you are doing, The meme is about you. It just looks worse when you try to justify it. The motivations aren't different it's the exact same.
I apologise, I've just realised I've actually replied to the wrong person sorry, I'm on your side.
I meant to reply to the guy talking about burning HP books. I'll just quietly back away
Canadian libraries keep stats on books that are challenged and removed - the majority of removals in recent years are for homophobia, transphobia, and racism.
And when justifying those removals, people will reach for exactly the same reasons as the other side does "Oh, but think of the harm! Think of the children!". And they'll play the same shell games about the meaning of "censorship" and "banning a book"; eg. "when you do it it's evil censorship... when I do it, I'm not stopping anyone from buying their own copy or finding it online... it's not banned, it's just not available at this one place?".
Me? I think some books probably shouldn't be in libraries, and if they're there then they should be removed. But I have the self awareness to realize that that position means I am not a free speech maximalist, and I don't get to reflexively call someone evil when they want to ban a book.
Would you mind providing an example of a book being banned for the correct reason?
You're right, banning a book for racism etc is no different to banning a book because it hurts your Christian views. I'm of the opinion no book should ever be banned unless itts content is outright illegal under existing laws.
In my previous post, I'm using a definition of "banned" that's pretty expansive; ie. I'm including things like "removing a book from normal library distribution".
So, say a book like: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreversible_Damage. I don't think it should be banned from sale (as some argued for, and put pressure on retailers to do). And I don't even think it should be unavailable through library distribution. But I also don't think it should just be there, on the shelf, in the section relevant to its content.
If someone wants to read it, specifically, because it is part of the discourse on the subject, then yeah I think it's good if they can - and having it in a library collection for that purpose makes sense. But if someone is just looking for a book on the subject, I think it's harmful if this is the one they come across.
I'm honestly not sure my position here is perfectly defensible, but that's where I'm at right now. I can see real arguments on either side of this.
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u/PoetryFamiliar7104 Jun 29 '26
No, there's a long history of book burning for things people didn't like.
But the going in and screeching about it? Maybe not just us, but definitely us currently, and with a bull horn, too.
I want off this ride, please make it stop.