{"id":324,"date":"2024-12-02T23:52:06","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T22:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fintalkshistory.com\/?p=324"},"modified":"2025-03-26T16:14:15","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T15:14:15","slug":"what-does-trumps-election-mean-for-the-future-of-book-bans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fintalkshistory.com\/?p=324","title":{"rendered":"What Does Trump\u2019s Election Mean for the Future of Book Bans?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The re-election of Donald Trump signals a new, dark era for America, and the future of its democracy. The most powerful country in the world is now set to be led by a convicted criminal, who is seeking to establish a cult of personality,1<\/a><\/sup> having campaigned on a slew of propagandic disinformation,2<\/a><\/sup> and who has publically bragged that \u201cfour more years\u201d of his presidency and \u201cyou won\u2019t have to vote any more.\u201d3<\/a><\/sup> This is a case study in the potential rise of an authoritarian leader. Hence, many have raised concerns on what another Trump term will mean for censorship in the United States of America\u2014after all, this is the man who has made upwards of 100 threats to prosecute perceived political opponents since 2022,4<\/a><\/sup> and who has been widely associated with the ultra-right Project 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do not raise these or the following observations in order to fear-monger, I wish they were hyperbolic; as the author of a work5<\/a><\/sup> documenting the book bans\/burnings of Hitler and Stalin alongside the already-rising trend of censorship in the USA propagated primarily by the right-wing, I simply recognise the imminent dangers that a second Trump term carries, including on the matter of censorship and book bans.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cYou\u2019re not going to be a dictator, are you?\u201d We should be concerned when this question has to be posed to any presidential candidate. We should be even more concerned when the answer received is \u201cNo, no, no, other than day one.\u201d6<\/a><\/sup> Despite Trump\u2019s aides insisting that he was simply aiming to \u2018trigger the left\u2019 with this remark, it fits into a wider pattern of authoritarian rhetoric, and, moreover, can be evidenced through his policies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A key point on Trump\u2019s agenda is \u2018Schedule F\u2019, which would see as many as 50,000 federal workers being fired without cause, and being replaced with workers screened by right-wing organisations (to see if their ideologies align with Trump\u2019s)7<\/a><\/sup>, thus desecrating the independence and bipartisanship of every federal agency by enabling MAGA control. In addition, the early days of Trump\u2019 second term could see Executive Orders on ideological tests for those entering the country; as well as an increasing of the military\u2019s role on domestic soil, including sending the National Guard to cities like Chicago at Trump\u2019s whim, and a renewed encouragement for police to shoot now, think later<\/em>.8<\/a><\/sup> The president-elect has also been worryingly unafraid to voice his praise for dictatorial, authoritarian leaders\u2014namely Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin\u2014and their methods, including extrajudicial killings.9<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The rise of book bans in the United States has become an epidemic in recent years, with the most common allegations being LGBTQ+ content, sexual content, and\/or discussions of race. To quote from the introduction of my own book:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cA 2024 report from PEN America found that not only are book bans speeding up\u2014with over 4,000 instances of book bans in the first half of the school year, more than all of the previous school year as a whole\u2014but banning activity has been recorded in 42 out of 50 states in the past two and a half years. Additionally, \u2018those who want to ban books are attempting to use obscenity law and hyperbolic rhetoric about \u2018porn in schools\u2019 to justify banning books about sexual violence and LGBTQ+ topics (and in particular, trans identities) … they have also disproportionately targeted books by women and nonbinary authors …The movement to ban books also continues to focus on themes of race and racism by advancing rhetoric disparaging \u2018critical race theory,\u2019 \u2018woke ideology,\u2019 and efforts to ensure library collections are diverse and inclusive.\u2019 In the vast majority of cases, these are decidedly not extremist books which may incite dangers or violence; those books \u2026 are largely absent from PEN\u2019s lengthy public spreadsheet which tracks book bans (successful and proposed) in American schools.\u201d10<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Under Trump, this will only be exacerbated. This is not conjecture: this is clear from many of the publicly available Agenda 47 policies, all of which employ ridiculously hyperbolic language and allegations with no basis in evidence. Take, for instance, the entry from 17 July 2023, on \u2018Protecting Students from the Radical Left and Marxist Maniacs Infecting Educational Institutions.\u2019<\/em>11<\/a><\/sup> Here, Trump plays on the typical right-wing narrative of schools \u201cindoctrinating America\u2019s youth\u201d (no example given), and rallies his followers against the subsequent \u201canti-American insanity\u201d supposedly being pushed in education. The proposal is mainly focused on college funding, though the rhetoric is a testament to the propaganda entirely underlying Trump\u2019s campaign\u2014including another unfounded Agenda 47 allegation that there are \u2018Radical Marxist Prosecutors Destroying America.\u2019 <\/em>(Joseph McCarthy who?!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A February 2023 proposition, \u2018President Trump\u2019s Plan to Protect Children from Left-Wing Gender Insanity\u2019<\/em>12<\/a><\/sup>, is perhaps the most significant, even putting the disingenuous connotations of \u201cprotect[ing] children\u201d in the title aside. Trump\u2019s vow to \u201cstop the chemical, physical, and emotional mutilation of our youth\u201d will likely be easy to accomplish, considering that no such thing actually exists; he goes on to comment that gender affirming care is \u201ca process that includes giving kids puberty blockers, mutating their physical appearance, and ultimately performing surgery on minor children,\u201d before asking \u201cCan you believe this?\u201d Given that zero13<\/a><\/sup> such surgeries have been performed on children (<12) in America, no, we cannot! In an incredibly concerning, if unsurprising, turn, Trump also pledges to \u201ccease all programs that promote the concept<\/strong> of sex and gender transition at any age<\/strong>\u201d in this document, in other words, trying to eliminate the very notion of transgender people\u2019s existence from public life. Most notably for our inquiry, though, this entry is also where censoring policies are being embedded into education:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cMy Department of Education will inform states and school districts that if any teacher or school official suggests to a child that they could be trapped in the wrong body, they will be faced with severe consequences, including potential Civil Rights violations for sex discrimination, and the elimination of federal funding. As part of our new credentialing body for teachers, we will promote positive education about the nuclear family, the roles of mothers and fathers, and celebrating rather than erasing the things that make men and women different and unique. I will ask Congress to pass a bill establishing that the only genders recognized by the United States government are male and female\u2014and they are assigned at birth. The bill will also make clear that Title Nine prohibits men from participating in women\u2019s sports. And we will protect the rights of parents from being forced to allow their minor child to assume a gender which is new and an identity without the parents\u2019 consent. The identity will not be new. And it will not be without parental consent. No serious country should be telling its children that they were born with the wrong gender\u2014a concept that was never heard of in all of human history\u2014nobody\u2019s ever heard of this, what\u2019s happening today. It was all when the radical left invented it just a few years ago.\u201d14<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot to take in here, so we\u2019ll take it chronologically, before getting onto book bans, which will undoubtedly crop up as an effect. (1) The claim that teachers are indoctrinating children to being trans is nothing new and nothing true<\/strong>. The only possible base for this claim is some schools adopting an affirmative approach to trans youth; a method that has repeatedly been proven15<\/a><\/sup> to be the best course of action to protect kids, and which is generally handled on a school by school, case by case basis. (2) While he does not explicitly state it, in this clip anyway, Trump is adamantly trying to align himself with \u2018traditional Christian values\u2019. Anybody<\/em> who knows anything<\/em> about the separation of church and state should be concerned about the president-elect trying to ensure that teachers are pushing the theological agenda of \u201cthe nuclear family, the roles of mothers and fathers, and celebrating rather than erasing the things that make men and women different and unique.\u201d Not only are these policies designed to undermine trans rights, but they explicitly attack gay rights, and oppose accepted ideas of diverging from outdated, stifling gender roles. Additionally, they reek of indoctrination; no explanation is given to why suggesting trans people exist is supposedly indoctrination, while ensuring that Christianity infiltrates public schools apparently isn\u2019t. It also bears mentioning that this fundamentalist neo-conservative rhetoric is being pushed by a man who has publicly violated the majority of Ten Commandments\u202616<\/a><\/sup> (3) Trump\u2019s visible attempt to prevent legal transition and erase non binary identities sets a dangerous precedent, precursing an end to medical transition\u2014i.e., exercising the right to bodily autonomy\u2014and effectively removing trans people from society. (4) There have been many articles17<\/a><\/sup> written explaining the idiocy of the \u2018men in women\u2019s sports!!!!\u2019 <\/em>fear mongering narrative, so it need not be discussed here. (5) Despite what Trump asserts, transgender people are by no means a new phenomenon. Arguing as such erroneously looks to discredit trans people by denying their history, and is ignorant not just of this long history in the West, but of many global cultures entirely, whereby the gender binary is not necessarily the norm.18<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Many have soundly raised fears of book bans surrounding Trump\u2019s re-election. The organisation \u2018Authors Against Book Bans\u2019<\/em>, explains how Trump\u2019s agenda (quoted in their piece, \u201cPornography, manifested today in the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology and sexualization of children \u2026 has no claim to First Amendment protection. Its purveyors are child predators and misogynistic exploiters of women.\u201d) translates to mean that \u201cAll LGBTQ+ content will be regarded as pornography. This is already the pernicious lie being used to ban books all over the nation. First Amendment rights will not apply, meaning we will no longer have freedom of speech to protect us.\u201d19<\/a><\/sup> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As they explain, such claims of obscenity are not a new tactic\u2014see chapters eight and nine of my book\u2026\u2014but are intended to shock the public, cause complicity and outrage, and eventually revoke constitutional freedoms. Interestingly, despite his self-projection as a mythic defender of free speech, Trump and his followers largely don\u2019t deny that they seek to ban books, they simply justify it (well, vainly try to) through this disgusting rhetoric that books with queer themes are inherently pornographic; the same excuse of minute sexual content has also been used to censor any literature with an inkling of critical race theory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the words of Stephana Ferrell, co-founder of the Florida Freedom to Read Project, the proponents of Trump\u2019s censorship have caused a national, right-wing effort that is \u201credefining government power to restrict access to information in our schools \u2026 This movement to protect the innocence of our children believes if children never read it in a book they won\u2019t have to know about it and can go on to lead harmonious lives. But books teach us cautionary tales. They instruct us. You can\u2019t protect innocence through ignorance.\u201d20<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notably, the imminent possibility of book bans has spurned many to take a sudden interest in dystopian literature, Jonny Walfisz explains that, \u201cIn the two days since Trump\u2019s re-election, \u2018The Handmaid\u2019s Tale\u2019<\/em> has surged in sales moving up 400 places in the US Amazon best sellers chart to the third most popular book. Atwood\u2019s novel saw similar popularity during Trump\u2019s first term.\u201d21<\/a><\/sup> Other books that have surged in popularity include \u20181984\u2019<\/em>, \u2018Fahrenheit 451\u2019<\/em>, and \u2018On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century\u2019<\/em>.22<\/a><\/sup> Clearly, the public are becoming aware of the dangers, but many may still be in the dark of the insidious narratives behind myths like \u2018porn in schools\u2019; not to mention that book bans may just be the beginning, especially considering Trump\u2019s other aforementioned electoral promises towards trans people.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In conclusion, then, it is evidently not fear-mongering to acknowledge that Donald Trump\u2019s second term could pose a serious threat to cornerstones of democracy, including but not limited to freedoms to read, write, express, and access information. While this is not fear-mongering, many, such as those who are trans, may understandably feel disheartened, even hopeless, but hope is not lost. Below, there are calls to action, and maintaining strength of self should never be doubted\u2014especially to my trans siblings, you have to keep living<\/strong>; do not give in, and do not give up the fight. The freedom to read must not and cannot go undefended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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TAKE ACTION:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n