Pushing Back on Censorship

A Column by Kurt Milberger

I’ve written a lot about censorship this year. I’m afraid to say I’ll probably have a lot more to say about it next year, too, and not just because I’m working on turning these columns into a book. Although the news outrage cycle has mostly spun on, the censors continue their efforts, in many cases successfully.

Earlier this month, for example, a Minnesota school board voted to bypass their local review committee and rely instead on ratings from Book Looks, a Moms for Liberty endorsed conservative group, to decide which books are appropriate for their schools and libraries. Anything rated 3 or above on Book Looks’s 5-point “Universal Book Content” scale is automatically restricted, including books like Elie Wiesel’s Holocaust story Night, Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give, and even Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5.