Banned Books Week was like... a week and a half ago, but I missed it because I don't pay enough attention to arbitrary days of observance.
My bad.
I have some thoughts, though, and thought I'd take the opportunity to share them, despite their fashionably late arrival.
For absolutely no reason—none whatsoever—I've been thinking a lot about censorship and freedom of expression in the United States lately.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
— First Amendment to the United States Constitution
Because I'm a fully formed human being with an over-developed sense of empathy, I think that free speech can be a complicated issue.
On one hand, it's important to protect the right to express diverse opinions and ideas, even if they are controversial or unpopular. On the other hand, I agree that some forms of speech—such as incitement to violence—don't deserve those protections due to the extreme harm they can cause.
One thing to be clear on, though, is that incitement to violence is not the same as offensive speech. The two are often conflated, but they are very different concepts. Incitement to violence refers to speech that is intended to provoke or encourage others to commit acts of violence.
Jokes do not count as incitement to violence.
Satire does not count as incitement to violence.
Parody does not count as incitement to violence.
Art does not count as incitement to violence.
Criticism does not count as incitement to violence.
Dissent does not count as incitement to violence.
Protest does not count as incitement to violence.
Unfortunately, even hate speech does not count as incitement to violence; I do hate that.
I hate the othering of already marginalized groups, and conspiracy theories that spread dangerous misinformation, and outright lies meant to manipulate and mislead, and hateful rhetoric that seeks to divide us. I hate that some people use their words to hurt other people, and I hate how much hate there is in the world.
But I also hate the idea that it is okay silence people just because we disagree with them—even if what we disagree with is disgusting on its face—because that means someone gets to decide what is acceptable speech and what is not, and who the hell could we possibly trust to draw that line?
If we're being completely honest with ourselves: nobody.
If you don't like what someone is saying, the answer is not to silence them. The answer is to engage with their ideas, to respectfully challenge them, and to present your own perspective.
Or just fucking ignore them, because our attention is free expression too (we may have to allow speech we disagree with, but we don't have to personally tolerate it).
Book banning is a great example of this.
When books are banned, it's because they contain ideas or perspectives that some people find offensive or uncomfortable, and they want to prevent others from being exposed to those same ideas. But exposure is not the same as endorsement, or agreement, or (the word of the decade) indoctrination.
Instead of banning books, we should be encouraging critical thinking and open dialogue about the ideas they contain. We should be teaching people how to evaluate information, how to recognize bias and misinformation, and how to engage in respectful debate.
The last thing we should be doing is trying to silence voices we don't like, even if those voices are loud and obnoxious and downright hateful (which, let's be clear, books advocating for equal rights, justice, and human dignity are absolutely none of those things, regardless of how uncomfortable they make someone in their world view).
Because the reason we have to allow the speech we don't agree with is so we can continue to share the speech we do agree with. It's not about them vs. us; it's about all of us, and when we lose sight of that (like how things often feel today), then we all lose.
I don't read enough banned books, and I definitely don't read enough books that challenge my worldview (can anyone?), but I do read some, and would like to read more.
I encourage you to do the same.
Because the more we read, the more we can understand each other's pain and frustration and fear and troubles, and the more we understand that, the more we can find a way through the garbage fire we are all experiencing at the moment.
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