Last year, we discussed a Democratic candidate (Will Rollins) for Congress who was running on an anti-free speech pledge to increase censorship in the United States. Now there is a GOP candidate for Secretary of State in Missouri, Valentina Gomez, who is literally running on a book burning platform.
Gomez posed a video of herself on X using a flamethrower to burn a stack of library books about the LGBTQ+ community. She then pledged that “[t]his is what I will do to grooming books when I become Secretary of State. These books come from a Missouri Public Library. When I am in office, they will burn.”
She specifically burned “Naked: Not Your Average Sex Encyclopedia” by Myriam Daguzan Bernier and “Queer, 2nd Edition: The Ultimate LGBTQ Guide for Teens.”
Running on good old-fashioned book burning represents a new low for this anti-free speech period. It is a practice most associated with Nazi Germany in the 1930s. However, long before that, German poet Heinrich Heine declared that “where they burn books, they will also ultimately burn people.” It would prove tragically prophetic in his own country.
It is tragic to see a young person like Gomez, 24, embrace such practices. However, one of the earliest and most significant book burnings in Germany was held on May 10, 1933 by students from the Wilhelm Humboldt University in Berlin. They carried out books from the university library and burned them in Franz Joseph Platz. As many as 25,000 books were decreed by propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, to be “un-German.”
There is nothing more unAmerican than book burning. To run on such a vile practice is a shocking example of a crisis of faith in this country, particularly when it comes to the right of free speech.
This is a bridge too far for me. Conservative here but Germany burned books, then it burned people. I hate the books, but there are other ways.
I doubt she would have the authority as SOS. I’m MAGA and #AmericaFirst, this is neither.
@Anonynous
You really, really have to consider her age. Everyone in her generation, regardless of party, is a flaming idiot (no pun intended). Again, I would not trust her with my fries, I don’t care if she is not a ‘progressive’. Today being twenty-four (I doubt she could write her age out in letters grammatically correctly) is like being twelve sixty years ago. I think some of our posters come from that era when everyone had a basic education. Those days have been but a memory since No Child Left Behind (the early 2000s, for those that don’t know) and deciding that millennials didn’t need to be disciplined (bad generational parenting, stemming from about the same time). We have a big, big societal problem that is going to be very, very hard to fix. And it is worse than ever today.
Before people get their undies in a bundle, that famous picture of a nazi throwing a book on a bonfire is actually from the library of Magnus Hirshfeld, a German psychiatrist and self proclaimed ” sexologist” who advocated homosexuality and having sex with children… so they burned his books.
Democrats PRO burn flags, bibles, America, etc
Republicans pro burn Democrat’s kids’ sexual grooming material.
I’d tend to agree on the first part, but we’re talking public libraries here.. Both candidates mentioned the article are kooks.
comment on Trans….test the DNA…that is your gender
I don’t have to accept your INSANITY!
Democrats Prefer to GROOM kids with Porn…a CRIME!
Invoking Nazi behavior is incorrect. My understanding is that these are sexually explicit books intended for minors. As such it is perfectly acceptable to destroy them. The burning may be a stunt, but she is attempting to make a point.
I have to admit this stunt so consumed my attention that I completely whiffed on the fact JT did not add his usual statement of support for her 1st amendment rights.
Turley needs to clean that up.
24? I wouldn’t trust a 24 year-old with my fries in 2024. These kids are all the same, we can’t pass the torch to any of them. Protected speech? Yes. More gen z idiocy? You betcha. What, pray tell, made her think she’s qualified to run in the first place?
Democrats want 16 year olds to votes….think about that.
@guyventer
Oh, I have. Insanity. Maybe 60 years ago when an 8th grade education rivaled a modern phd program (and that is legit), but today’s sixteen year-olds can’t even spell ‘ballot’, let alone understand our system. This is not the hyperbole of someone bitter – my wife is a teacher and we have seen it across many states, over a very long time, red and blue. Doesn’t seem to matter, the deterioration is real. . It’s generational. It’s a fantasy, but I would love it if we *raised* voting and driving ages to 21, and ALL public servants now need to be *at least* 35. That is how late Millennials and the subsequent cohorts encounter real, adult experiences and have had some time to process them. With these current kids, it should probably be 40. Sorry if that sounds cynical, but it’s true. Can you imagine if we had a modern 35 year-old as POTUS? Yikes. Some of them can’t make an omelet or budget for groceries. No joke.
We can only hope she will lose “Big Time!”
A stunt. Pretty wacky. But protected speech, as you would agree. What do you expect from a kid raised looking at memes and tik tok videoson her phone? If it works, that would be more disturbing.
Republican, Democrat, whatever, my gut is telling me is this is an immature, attention-seeking stunt. Once the dust settles, if she doesn’t use her new found fame to denounce this extreme form of censorship, then she will have put a torch to her own campaign.
OLLY,
Yep. It is a stunt. A dumb one. She got her 15 seconds of attention. Will look up whom she is running against later.
Considering that 80% of transgenders present with an average of three personality disorders, its tragic that society is normalizing and even encouraging pathological practices.
The lady in question no doubt is also disgusted by the trends in our society and Turley’s attempt to cancel her 1st Amendment rights shows what a hypocrite he really is.
Huh? Writing about her actual, public behavior is an attempt to ‘cancel’? So we aren’t even supposed to discuss it? And Turley is the one with censorship issues?
But the people through their elected representatives DO have the right to restrict child and teen access to adult activities and adult-themed material. And there is a plethora of laws on the books across the nation that do just that.
All great points.
I will plead ignorance to the scope of the MO Sec State power. But I find it hard to see it intersecting with curating library content.
They’ll just have to learn their ABC’s elsewhere.
The false calls of book banning when it was to keep age appropriate materials out of elementary schools was damaging to the entire issue. This is book banning and I hope it sinks her campaign hard.
“There is nothing more unAmerican than book burning.”
Frankly I haven’t seen anything that resembles the America I was raised in for last 4 years. What I see now is the destabilization of America.
There are people of this sort on both sides of the spectrum. While I agree with the idea of age appropriateness, one has to draw the line at banning. I hope she is not the nominee for that office
and what is that age…sexual reassignment surgery at 8 years old? Or 18 years of age?
This will lead to burning bibles folks!
The pope is now openly praying to Lucifer!:
https://rumble.com/v4c1qni-pope-francis-orders-christians-to-pray-to-satan-for-real-enlightenment.html
We are already in the 3rd year of this timeline that will be finished before the end of this decade!:
https://sumofthyword.com/2016/10/04/the-rapture-of-the-church-is-after-the-tribulation/
Rob if you believe the pope is praying to Lucifer I have a bridge to sell you….wow!
While book-burning is certainly contrary to the classic liberal premises upon which America was founded, there have been many, many public burnings of books in this country within my memory, and more before that. The urge to censor, like the urge to all ugly behavior, is part of human nature, and Americans cannot escape that essential fact.
The best thing is to know this, and that one’s self is capable of such, is the best prophylactic against indulging in it.
Only Trump can do Trump
She has lots of problems. The first is the powers she is claiming is not part of office. She is not really a Republican. A small govt closest to the people Republican