It took just three days.
After drag performer RuPaul announced the creation of a “no censorship” Allstora bookstore, censorship was back with a vengeance after many on the left learned that free speech meant that opposing views might be sold at the site. While the sentiment was appealing, it became intolerable when activists noted that a “no censorship” store would mean that they could not censor others.
In the rollout, RuPaul stood in a blue suit before a flag to defy the censors and embrace access to works of different authors and viewpoints. For many of us, it was an exciting moment. The anti-free speech movement on the left has grown exponentially. Now, this iconic figure from the left was taking a bold stand for free speech.
With ten million titles, readers could buy most any book, including writers like Riley Gaines who have challenged transgender theories.
Various sites like National Review have covered the rise and rapid fall of the free speech initiative.
The rollout was promising. Like many of us, the founders objected to book bans across the country. Such bans have been implemented by both the left and the right.
Allstora was founded on the pledge that “We’re a marketplace for all books and all stories, with a focus on elevating marginalized voices.” Co-founder Eric Cervini and drag performer Adam Powell, welcomed visitors to the website with a pop-up message that warned “you may find books you disagree with.”
The site declared “censorship of any book, perspective, or story is incompatible with the survival of democracy.” After all, “banning books is never the answer.”
The pledge was heralded in the media. Many viewed it as a jab at conservatives to show that there is nothing to fear in access to opposing views.
Then someone thought about what free speech means.
Liberal critics raised the alarm that the bookstore would be selling “homophobic,” “transphobic,” and “anti-woke” works. Drag performer “Lady Bunny” noted that the store would be selling works by figures like Mike Huckabee, Chaya Raichik, and Matt Walsh.
Lady Bunny asked “Why not just stop selling what many on the left consider to be hate speech?”
That is all that it took. Allstora first implemented a flagging system for offensive books and then just got rid of the no censorship pledge. While some sites state that Allstora only moved to add disclaimers, it appears that the no censorship pledge is gone and various authors are missing. I searched for books by writers like Gaines and Matt Walsh and found nothing.
The obvious response to Lady Bunny is that she is the answer to her question. In the name of combatting hate speech, she is embracing the very tool used by the most hateful movements in history from book burning to black listing of opposing views. Censorship becomes insatiable as the list of offensive topics or views grows from transgender politics to climate change to abortion. Every advocacy group finds opposing its own views to be dangerous and harmful.
It is analogous to what Gandhi said about vengeance: “An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.” The same is true about censorship. Eventually it leaves the whole world ignorant.
What this even illuminates, is the left, while extremely loud and emotional about their beliefs, they have put no thought into what they believe.
I guess I was taught by people that had their core values forged in the blast furnaces of the Great Depression, and WWII. Us Baby Boomers had no nonsense parents, and taught by teachers that made our parents look like free love hippies by comparison.
We were taught, that free speech ONLY meant the must obnoxious and upsetting speech MUST be allowed, for no protected right needed to exist only that speech that no person could object.
Only after, all of Rue Paul’s friends supported this, did they realize that information they disagreed with would be available.
These are people whose opinions are based on nothing but where their emotions lead them.
iowan2, it’s the ‘free love hippies’, their kids (and *their* kids now) that are the problem, but it’s not completely their own fault. Those 60’s hippies are in charge of administoring the public education system. The Leftists teaching the recent couple of generations have doomed their students into subservience to other Leftists, they simply aren’t ‘allowed’ to know about self-reliance. Sadly, it’s all by design.
Jafo said: “Those 60’s hippies are in charge of administoring the public education system”
The problems with the public education system go back significantly further than that. While I was in HS in about 1962, a dichotomy developed and became apparent between older teachers and more recent teaching college graduates. The vast majority of older teachers were focused on the satisfaction they achieved from imparting skills and knowledge to their students. The more recently graduated teachers were focused almost solely on the benefits of a union-protected sinecure: short hours, easy work; good pay; great benefits; tenure; and 3 months off every Summer to do as they pleased. A few of them even told their classes so, in as many words, in an effort to recruit some of them into the “profession”. I was only 15 years old at the time, but I found an announcement of that kind made by my 22 year old English teacher on the first day of class to be profoundly disturbing.
Dr Turley,
I am eager to read your article “Like a Punch in the Face …”, but I think it may have been censored and taken offline.
Democrats ban books (e.g. The Bible, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain etc) and arrest those who speak against their cult dictator.
During Biden’s campaign speech last night at State of the Union PR stunt, Gold Star father, Steve Nikoui yelled down from the gallery at Biden, “Abbey Gate! Second Battalion, First Marines!”. He is the father of a fallen Marine killed in Biden’s botched Afghan pullout. He was later arrested
Lesson learned: Justice vs Just-Us
Democrats are enabled to shout antisemitic phrases and terrorize Jews at state universities
vs
Uttering the memory of your dead son in front of the imbecile president responsible leads to being arrested
Not only did this Gold Star father lose his son Kareem Nikoui at Abbey Gate Afghanistan.
But then Kareem’s older brother committed suicide over the loss.
To this day, Biden has never apologized or said Kareem’s name in public.
Border Patrol Union – NBPC
@BPUnion
The most arrogant, self-absorbed, clueless and angry loser ever. Never held a real job. Lifetime political hack.
Joe Biden is the epitome of what so many Americans despise about politicians.
Gold Star parents cannot criticize Der Furher.
None of these men should have died. I wouldn’t let Joe Biden polish their shoes.
The deceased from the Marine Corps include:
Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover, 31, from Salt Lake City, Utah
Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo, 25, from Lawrence, Massachusetts
Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, 23, from Sacramento, California
Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22, from Indio, California
Cpl. Daegan W. Page, 23, from Omaha, Nebraska
Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, 22, from Logansport, Indiana
Marine Corps Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza, 20, from Rio Bravo, Texas
Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, 20, from St. Charles, Missouri
Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum, 20, from Jackson, Wyoming
Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, 20, from Rancho Cucamonga, California
Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, 20, from Norco, California
If Joe Biden were never born, this world would be a better place.
It’s a sad day in today’s Amerika that it took “Lady Bunny”, that paragon of literary wisdom, to save Democracy for all of us. For that single act of courage, Lunch Box Joe will award her the Presidential Medal of Freedom and feature her in his upcoming campaign ads as an example of saving democracy. Sound about right Jonathan ?
Dawned on me that whenever a Democrat squeals about our Nation losing its Democracy, it means THEY will lose THEIR power over the people.
Democrats Democracy = Mob rule with them at the helm.
Steve Baker – TPC
@TPC4USA
When they introduced the President’s cabinet at the SOTU, it was like watching the 70s Soviet Politburo in review at the Kremlin. (Knowing what I know about their individual backgrounds.)
I think the following generations which did not have to “duck and cover” under their school desks or watch their neighbors build a bomb shelter do not totally comprehend the flaws of marxism and its subsequently necessary totalitarian regime. They are stymied in their desire to seek alternative ideas and are too easily led by the rings in their noses (sometimes literally).
What you said reminds me of this, which I just discovered the other day, from Orwell”
Nearly all the dominant writers of the thirties belonged to the soft-boiled emancipated middle class and were too young to have effective memories of the Great War. To people of that kind such things as purges, secret police, summary executions, imprisonment without trial etc., etc., are too remote to be terrifying. They can swallow totalitarianism because they have no experience of anything except liberalism. []
[] To me, murder is something to be avoided. So it is to any ordinary person. The Hitlers and Stalins find murder necessary, but they don’t advertise their callousness, and they don’t speak of it as murder; it is ‘liquidation’, ‘elimination’, or some other soothing phrase. Mr Auden’s brand of amoralism is only possible, if you are the kind of person who is always somewhere else when the trigger is pulled. So much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don’t even know that fire is hot. The warmongering to which the English intelligentsia gave themselves up in the period 1935-9 was largely based on a sense of personal immunity. The attitude was very different in France, where the military service is hard to dodge and even literary men know the weight of a pack.
https://orwell.ru/library/essays/whale/english/e_itw
Whimsicalmama,
I listened to a podcast on The Free Press about pre and post Oct 7 Israel.
One thing that they talked about, which you touch on, is each generation passing from the 1948 creation of the nation of Israel. They were the ones who saw the horror of the Holocaust or at least knew about it second hand. As each generation passes, they become that much more removed to the point it becomes just something they read in history books, names, places, events, dates to be memorized passed on a test and then think only of it at an anniversary.
Then the people of Israel got a wake up on Oct 7. Now they are all first generation, who read, saw, experienced, knew someone killed, heard the sounds of gun fire or sirens.
I see our leftist friends in the distantly removed from such great examples of how wonderful Marxism and totalitarian regimes like Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot.
But they always claim “This time it will be different!”
Power, by any means necessary.
Speaking power to truth.
It’s what the radical left Dems do.
It’s what Jacked-up Joe did last night in his SOTU: speaking power over truth.
If it weren’t, in the end, so perniciously dangerous, it would be so funny to watch the ironic hypocrisy of the prog/left. They are so ignorant of their own ignorance that it is astounding to observe if not for the fact that those so burdened with such ignorance, are attempting to destroy this nation.
Well, I did a search for Riley Gaines and Matt Walsh.
Nothing turned up under those names.
Mike Huckabee, two books listed.
Looked around a bit.
How in the world do some of these books, get published?
If you’re going to let a Bunny by the name of Lady dictate how you manage your business you don’t belong in business.
“Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views.”
~ William F. Buckley
As the MSM and corporate oligarchs continue to push their LGBTQXYZ agenda on Americans in efforts to normalize, blah blah blah.
Let me know when we get ride of completely RACIST DEI directives, Affirmative Action, etc… Oh wait Democrats have been racists…since the beginning.
Go visit Camden NJ where 5% of students are at grade level after 60 years of democrat “help”!
Once you take taxpayer money out of the economy, the marketplace would determine “free speech”
Anonymous said: “Once you take taxpayer money out of the economy, the marketplace would determine ‘free speech'”
Exactly correct. Let us lnow when you accomplish that. In the meantime, those of us with at least one foot on the ground need to develop and use tactics that at least slow government and government-induced infringements on our few remaining liberties.
I’m working on it.
Along with 75 million other freedom loving Americans, we’re draining the swamp.
Anonymous said: “I’m working on it.. Along with 75 million other freedom loving Americans, we’re draining the swamp.”
You have great intentions. Unfortunately, so far, the water deosn’t seem to be receding very quickly. It would also be a good idea to make sure that “draining” “just changing the color of the water”. That has happened before, more than once.
Damned WordPress removed a symbol for “NOT EQUAL” (apparently after the comment had posted successfully with the symbol – BIZARRE). Should have read: “It would also be a good idea to make sure that “draining” NOT EQUALSYMBOL “just changing the color of the water”. That has happened before, more than once.
I got it. I don’t understand wordpress either. Have a good day…
It’s a huge swamp.
At some point, America will not be able to support “taxpayer funded free speech”, or anything else for that matter. One huge dinosaur will be leaving the swamp shortly and after November, maybe some more. I don’t care what color the water is, as long as the swamp gets drained. Actually, when the swamp is drained, there is no water.
Democrat = Fascist
FDR, Joe Kennedy, Chamberlain, etc always believed Hitler lies while ignoring ACTUAL actions….. WE keep accepting Democrats lies vs admitting their Fascists Methods
2300 people are jailed for January 6th…which even to the most dense viewer was a setup. When BLM rioters burned, looted, attacked Federal, Civil Building, PROTESTED on government property…very few went to jail! Meanwhile the son of the VP now President…openly TAKES bribes for Access to government….the 100% corrupt, Russian Hoax(hillary and our government worked with foreign spy and a russian) creating DOJ, FBI….DO NOTHING! The Democrats are fighting a Civil War against America…their 2nd and importing millions of illegals to help them!
Banning books is different from restricting access to kids and teens. It’s not the same and this is not Fahrenheit 411. Adults can still buy the books but the people, through their elected representatives, have a right to protect kids from what is deemed harmful adult activities and material and controversial divisive material like CRT. There are plenty of laws on the books across the nation which does just that. “Book banning” is just a political term the Left uses for opposition to indoctrination. It’s not happening.
Perverting the language is how they manipulate the emotions of rubes.
They call abortion “reproductive freedom” or “women’s health”
They call gun control “gun safety”
They call strengthening ballot security “voter suppression”
They call illegal aliens “undocumented immigrants”
They call chopping off dicks “gender affirming care”
They call changes in weather “climate crisis”
It’s all lies. All the time. All the way down.
For the record, no books in the US are banned. Libraries curate their collections. Many curate them to the exclusion of say, the Bible, or authors such as Riley Gaines, Matt Walsh, or more seriously, Thomas Sowell. But their books are not banned – even if you can’t buy them from Rue Paul you can buy them in other places. I certainly don’t want certain books in the library of my children’s school, but if another parent finds it very important for his or her child to read books celebrating gender queer ideas, and those books are not in the library, those parents are welcome to find them in other places. As am I, for the books I find important. And I can say that certain books are not consistent with our family’s values. My home library is very carefully curated. The viewing habits of my children were very carefully curated. That’s the parents’ job. It is a very interesting discussion as to how a public school, or a public library, should curate its collection, but we need to use more precise terms than “ban.”
Anonymous said: “but we need to use more precise terms than ‘ban.'”
The scope of the reference makes a difference. When discussing an online bookstore that announced that its founding principle and its claimed unique market position was a total lack of political censorship, quickly reverses course exclusively as a result of socio-political pressure, use of the term “ban” (and “censorship”) is entirely appropriate. Your inane astroturf contribution is most unhelpful to the conversation.
Speaking of literature, anyone read Hamlet recently?
There’s letters sealed; and my two schoolfellows,
Whom I will trust as I will adders fanged,
They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way
And marshal me to knavery. Let it work,
For ’tis the sport to have the enginer
Hoist with his own petard; and ‘t shall go hard
But I will delve one yard below their mines
And blow them at the moon. O, ’tis most sweet
When in one line two crafts directly meet.
On a more serious note, this about-face amply illustrates two factors: the coercive pressure brought to bear on any members of their collective who fail to toe their lines and mouth their mantras by the fascists who are controlling the agenda of the woke left; the weak-kneed and spineless lack of resolve by any members of that collective who might privately disagree with some of their agenda or tactics.
The American electorate had better wake up. Consider that Biden is not moving to the center to get re-elected but is doubling up the rhetoric. Consider what will probably happen if he wins and his handlers feel unfettered in a second term. Things like what’s mentioned in this column will no doubt escalate.
Great points Ken. Most normal candidates head to the center after a primary, but Biden is so weak with his base that he is doubling down on the leftist garbage that has him at about 37% in the polls.
Wow, only the 10,000,000,000,000th example of leftist hypocrisy.
My friends welcome to Doublestandardstan, where a Gold Star Father is arrested for shouting at the president (note the lack of a capital when I call Biden the president) while pro-Hamas protestors block his way to the SOTU without getting arrested. where J6 protestors, yes, and rioters, are sent away for years and years while Ivy League educated lawyers toss Molotov cocktails into a police car and get fawning coverage in the media.
Oh yeah, where a former president is arrested and charged with having classified documents from his recently ended term as PRESIDENT in his Secret Service secured premises while a former SENATOR and VP is not arrested or charged for having classified documents in his GARAGE, his OFFICE and at his CHINESE FUNDED “think tank”.
hullbobby said: “note the lack of a capital when I call Biden the president”
Maybe “IMPOTUS” would be better ;?>
Number 6 (is that for Bill Russell, this former Bostonian asks), there is no pill that will make impotus more potus.
Signed
Number 9
hullbobby said: “is that for Bill Russell…)
Ha! Good one. Totally OT, but my native sports district is Philly. As a kid, I loved to watch the epic battles between Russell and Chamberlain at the rim (pre no-goaltending enforcement)
The Splendid Splinter?
That’s a good one but I can’t decide if it is short for “impotent potus” or “imposter potus”
whimsicalmama said: “I can’t decide if it is short for ‘impotent potus’ or ‘imposter potus’”
I think Biden could swing either way on that question.
Turley said: “For man of us, it was an exciting moment.”
Freudian slip showing ;?>