Year after year, students are taught, step by step, how Germany was turned into a fascist state, which started off by promising to “restore greatness to Germany,” and by the end, they were mass killing their own citizens. We are taught that the Americans are the “good guys” for ending the war, that the “bad guys” ban and burn books, spread misinformation, and demonize knowledge.
So, why is it that now that President Donald Trump is banning books in schools and public libraries that oppose his beliefs, he is the “good guy” for “protecting the children”? Many of the books that have been banned question typical gender norms, non-Christian ideologies, LGBTQ+ identities, and anything that could be viewed as vaguely “anti-American”.
However, Adolf Hitler’s book Mein Kampf, which details his belief system and specific plans for taking over Germany, has not been banned.
Books are not the only media being banned. TV shows, such as South Park and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, have faced intense backlash from the Trump administration.
Stephen Colbert, who is openly anti-Trump, announced during the July 17 taping that the Paramount-owned CBS was canceling The Late Show. Days later, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved an $8 billion merger between Paramount and Skydance.
In this agreement, FCC Chair Brendan Carr said, “I welcome Skydance’s commitment to make significant changes at the once storied CBS broadcast network.”
However, the FCC Commissioner Anna Gomaz shared “[CBS] agreed to never-before-seen forms of government control over newsroom decisions and editorial judgment…”
This parallels how, almost immediately after taking power in Germany, Adolf Hitler began writing new laws that restricted what German newspapers could publish.
Along with this, earlier this year Congress proposed the Take it Down act, which would seek to quicken the process of taking down “troubling” content online. The issue arises with what would be considered “troubling.”
There are some things, such as nonconsensual sexual content, that most people would consider troubling. However, others, such as anti-government content, that could be argued as troubling, even if it is not.
If we are following this logic, the government could say anything is “anti-government,” leaving them to be able to take down anything they oppose.
Many historians and researchers have expressed concern, with Trump pushing to purge museums of information he dislikes. In a post of Truth Social on Tuesday, August 19, he posted “”The Museums throughout Washington, but all over the Country are, essentially, the last remaining segment of ‘WOKE’”.
Trump has been at odds with multiple cultural institutions since being reinstated into office in January. Most notably, he has had an issue with the Smithsonian museums, which were created by the American government to promote knowledge.
The Smithsonian has even taken Trump out of the museum’s impeachment display, since the Trump Administration exerts pressure for a more positive, as well as selective, view of American history.
And the most ironic part of all this? Trump made it a key part of his election campaign last year that he was going to restore free speech to the United States. On Trump’ s first day back in office, he even signed an executive order called Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship.