Censorship that would fail to describe Trump accurately now and in the future be dam#n*d.

Teach critical thinking instead.

The fine line of being accurate on a topic versus changing peoples minds to accept a false notion or inciting violence is under scrutiny in bizarre and unhelpful ways. Who’s to judge? We all will. In a nation that holds the First Amendment high. It is first.

Although it’s been noticed widely that many, like Fox News and politicians who identify as GOP, are not guided by presenting the truth, rather a version of ideas that suggest a story of their liking. Nevertheless NY Times tackles only some of the thoughts pertaining to words and the things they are in as they are being banned in some states. Book ban article here (gifted) and another about changing individual words within a book here.

We have a communications debate and I argue, the truth is losing. Our past is losing. Where we came from, our thought process of change and evolution of thought will be gone. The thoughts about books and the censorship possibilities are a spectrum of worthy to worthy of ridicule.

Can we be so smart? Can we create guidance for society, civilization to be safe. We, as a democracy, but more widely as a large population of people coordinating for the feeding and sheltering for all, we must try. It’s a mess out there in the media social and media not, as well as between us and in our heads.

Tom Sawyer in a moment of repose. The titular character of the Mark Twain novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer(1876). He appears in three other novels by Twain: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894), and Tom Sawyer, Detective (1896).

The whole topic is one that oddly, involves the right and the left sniffing around on what to limit from our tawdry collective existence. Ian Fleming’s 007 and Mark Twain’s writing are suspected and plenty more you may not think would be under suspicion.

While “Little Black Sambo” written in 1899 by Scottish author is an obvious book to look to, do we rewrite or censor or simply allow it to be ignored and left to fall away. It has been reset so to speak while original illustrated copies are on sale for upwards of two hundred dollars, clearly not everyone wants on in their collection.

Racism may be perpetuated by Twain or Helen Bannerman’s Sambo. What we now call toxic white male supremacy as described in the novels by Ian Fleming, pictured below, will be somehow altered. What do we do and where do we end? Do we erase the tobacco? The bowtie? Poor dentistry or skincare since we all do a better job now?

A photo of the first edition of Little Black Sambo. The illustration of the early editions, not shown here, depict Sambo as African child rather than from India. The story does take place in India as you may recall, Sambo is chased by a tiger, who also do not reside in Africa. In addition, the tiger is turned to clarified butter, a staple of Indian cuisine. Why the illustrations were done as they were, is not immediately known.

As a child, the Little Black Sambo story impressed me that Sambo was very clever in how he fooled the tiger and how I would have been more frightened. That’s it. Well, aside from the illustration of the tiger running around and around and around.

The conversation of today’s stripping ideas in the form of little lines on paper likely began with Truth V. Lies a la Kelly Anne Conway who in a moment created “alternative facts”. The whataboutisms began. Down the garden path we have been dragged into a conversation we could end but the lure is too much for some. Right Ms. Leslie Stahl?

While LBS (Little Black Sambo) is being pushed into the dustbin of history, George Soros is mentioned multiple times daily in an effort to paint “bad Jew”, “Jew’s are the problem, will replace us” in an effort to smear every politician or law enforcement person dedicated to the rule of law, aka, doing their job.

We aren’t limited to words as pictures communicate in a moment what we can wax poetic or shout. A baseball bat aimed at the head in another photo. A cascade of six pointed stars in another from the era of Roger Stone’s incarceration. One more mention of why Soros is persona non grata at the MAGA base is their love of the authoritarians. It’s a bonus twofer.

We roll our eyes at Trump’s rallies and the language and the concepts he uses. We don’t censor. The hush money case will talk of female prostitutes and payments for sex. We have to deal. Censor? Nope. Can’t put a sharpie line over the words of Stormy Daniels, although the MAGA crowd might be pleased.

Bad language is featured in the 2023 world in places it wasn’t previously allowed. Most people have figured out the art of when and where to use it. For effect, for being cool, for separating out people who are not their audience.

Tuesday, tomorrow, Trump will be formally indicted, finger printed etc. The chances of him receiving a gag order has been brought up as the rhetoric up till now has been in an effort to vilify Bragg and release Trump from an obligation we all must fulfill if indicted. Forbes does a great job of explaining what a gag order is and is not. It’s not gifted but I’m hopeful you can see it. Otherwise in a nutshell the following:

A gag order, if imposed is not censorship or in opposition to our constitution. There will be plenty of speculation and wrong thoughts given too much sunlight.

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