Well, I’m not sure what “banned” means outside of the Danish context, but my friend’s wife would not get arrested or fined for reading those books. If I remember correctly, her book club was actually covering those books, and similar, that month.
What “banned” means is that no book store franchise will sell them and no library will hold them. Small private book stores probably still sell banned books, and if you get them somewhere from the internet it should be fine.
i believe that Mein Kampf should be available with the proper contextualization and critiques. putting it out for the public to spread its hate is what its author wanted, but to erase its existence entirely is to eliminate the possibility of learning from the past that these things are possible and real.
Mein Kampf is not the only way that form of racial hate spreads. we have to teach people to recognize it or you make it too easy for someone like Ben Gvir to retool this racial hate to equate anti-semitism and anti-zionism when zionism itself is an anti-semitic strategy of statecraft.
If it’s seated within a text that’s critical of nazi propaganda and makes the necessary context clear, I agree that it should be available. But that’s different from publishing the book under its own title.
When it comes to books like Mein Kampf, I think they should be available to the public.
Those individuals who would end up radicalised by a book like Mein Kampf would end up radicalised anyway. Those who would not get a look into the mind of an idealogical extremist and will hopefully get educated.
What would get people to not take nazi, fascist, and extremist talking points seriously is not being educated in what they are. So instead people get their idea of what they are from movies, memes, and whatever they remember from lessons briefly covering World War 2 in history class.
Banning is is still dumb, even if people think it’s weird…
" Here is what’s in this book, make an informed decision on whether or not you will read it."
Vs:
“I think this book is icky, so no one is allowed to read it.”
Well, I’m not sure what “banned” means outside of the Danish context, but my friend’s wife would not get arrested or fined for reading those books. If I remember correctly, her book club was actually covering those books, and similar, that month.
What “banned” means is that no book store franchise will sell them and no library will hold them. Small private book stores probably still sell banned books, and if you get them somewhere from the internet it should be fine.
Do you or do you not believe Mein Kampf should be banned?
i believe that Mein Kampf should be available with the proper contextualization and critiques. putting it out for the public to spread its hate is what its author wanted, but to erase its existence entirely is to eliminate the possibility of learning from the past that these things are possible and real.
Mein Kampf is not the only way that form of racial hate spreads. we have to teach people to recognize it or you make it too easy for someone like Ben Gvir to retool this racial hate to equate anti-semitism and anti-zionism when zionism itself is an anti-semitic strategy of statecraft.
If it’s seated within a text that’s critical of nazi propaganda and makes the necessary context clear, I agree that it should be available. But that’s different from publishing the book under its own title.
When it comes to books like Mein Kampf, I think they should be available to the public.
Those individuals who would end up radicalised by a book like Mein Kampf would end up radicalised anyway. Those who would not get a look into the mind of an idealogical extremist and will hopefully get educated.
What would get people to not take nazi, fascist, and extremist talking points seriously is not being educated in what they are. So instead people get their idea of what they are from movies, memes, and whatever they remember from lessons briefly covering World War 2 in history class.