I saw a meme recently, attributed to “Unknown,” but, to tell you the truth, it’s probably been said by so many people independently, “unknown” is probably not even necessary. Plenty of people could just as well say, “Hey, that’s my quote,” and be as right as the next guy.
Anyway, the meme goes, “It’s okay for you to believe what you believe. It is NOT okay, however, for you to insist that everyone else believe the same as you!” I’m thinking, “Yeah. That kind of sums up the first amendment of the US constitution.” Thing is — and maybe it’s my cynicism talking here — I’m not sure the people that say this know what it really implies anymore.
There was a time when the cultural Christian fundamentalist was the enemy (to more people than you might think — real Christians included). They were the ones to say “You need to pray in school,” or “no homosexuals allowed.” And, since a whole lot of Americans were cultural Christians, far too many people generally just accepted it.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with Christians being involved in politics and voting for the people they believe most closely supports their views. And there’s nothing wrong with the people they elect passing laws with which others may not agree. This is why we have a Supreme Court. As imperfect and wrong as they’ve been in the past, they’ve still generally served over the years in their roles as the checks and balance to the legislative and executive branches of government (we won’t get any deeper here, because that’s for another piece).
The point is, under the first amendment of the constitution, things like the removal of prayer from public schools was entirely the right call. And the Supreme Court said so. The first amendment said you could freely exercise your religion, and if you didn’t have a religion — if you didn’t believe in any particular god or in a god at all — you were free to do that too. The government clearly cannot compel you to believe something in which you don’t believe.
And so yeah, this is what people might think of when they see something like the meme with which I opened this writing. “It’s those doggoned Christians.” I mean, there’s still a lot of baggage being carried by the culture from the heyday of the Christian cultural wars.
But if you look around now, it might seem like we’re turning a corner here — experiencing a massive pendulum swing fueled in part by a backlash against the overbearing cultural Christians of the past. The “Religious Right.” The “Moral Majority.” The book banners. You know — the ones who would be unrecognizable to those we see being described in the early chapters of the Bible’s book of Acts. Those were the people being sawed in two for their faith. Beheaded. Crucified. They didn’t crave the wielding of power. They were the ones who prayed for those who were stoning them to death. They were the ones Paul was telling to pray for their leaders and obey the government — the same government that imprisoned and eventually killed Paul. And all this at a time when that government was more sensual and corrupt than anything we Americans have ever experienced. When their emperor eventually came to wrapping them up, dipping them in pitch, and lighting them on fire.
It used to be that tolerance meant that you would stand by the rights of others to live and believe as they wish. “I may not agree with you, but I’ll defend your right to your views.” This is what I lived by while I served in the military (and still believe). So, while I may not have agreed with a particular leader, I was ready to fight for them and what they stood for.
The problem we’re running into today is that some people are starting to believe that “tolerance” means not just allowing someone to have their view, but also being forced to accept that view. In other words, “tolerance” is actually having to agree with me no matter what.
And so, the meme. But this time, the book-burners are skipping to another tune. Fundamentalist prudes are getting people banned from selling their books on Amazon. But it’s not the cultural Christians doing it anymore. It’s the believers of a new religion. For want of a better word, and because I’m seeing it more and more lately, it’s the religion of “wokeism,” complete with its commandments, priesthood, and true believers.
So now, when I see someone talking about forcing any beliefs, my thinking pretty much goes right there, and I wonder if the meme’s poster actually realizes what it really means anymore in the real world, and not some world of the past that they think is still the prevailing culture. Because it isn’t, anymore…
Bonus material: Speaking of book burning, I saw Utopia in concert at Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium the year their album Swing to the Right came out (1982). Got there at showtime, but still stood only three deep from the stage. It was a blast. The place wasn’t even big enough for a full basketball court, so we’re talking fairly intimate.
What was the seed prompting this post? For the most part in my circle it is still the far right doing the banning and stifling of the first amendment. I don’t consider moving a statue to a place where context speaks better to be “erasing history.” There is a whole new train of baggage being created by those banning books they haven’t even read in schools. Having those books available isn’t forcing you to agree with them, or training them to be something they are not. It’s admitting everyone deserves recognition. It is the gift of free will.
I think you’ve missed the main point and glommed onto “old-fashioned” book-banning, not seeing that the larger movement is the deplatforming of people with differing views. So now, it’s not the outright banning of books from libraries I’m talking about. It’s the pressure put on retailers like Amazon, the world’s largest book seller, to remove books from it’s offerings. We now have publishers that won’t even publish works. I kind of get that for people that are clearly pushing crazy conspiracies, but I get suspicious when it’s done to books that hold a differing political view from the mob. And it matters more because this isn’t some rinky-dink school district in Oklahoma. This is Amazon. It’s Google. It’s speakers being disinvited, shouted down, or even assaulted at major universities. It’s a dangerous trend, and it’s not being led by the right or crazy fundamentalist Christians. It’s being led by the exact opposite. I don’t say this because I support or endorse everything the authors that are being targeted say. I say it as an observation. It’s easy to recognize book banning in school libraries for what it is, but when someone has their book pulled from Amazon, it’s a bit different. It simply disappears. Everywhere. Not just in a school’s library.
In the end though, the post is about the likelihood that when people see a meme like I mentioned, they’re conditioned to think “it’s those Christians forcing their beliefs on us,” when the truth is, the tides are turning, and the beliefs that are being forced are coming from a different direction now.
I thought I started my comment with “my bubble is different from your bubble” but must have edited it out. I didn’t miss your point; I just see it through a different lens. It is as easy to find good examples supporting the argument that the right is forcing their views as it is to find examples that it is the left. Anyone who says “the other side is worse” is letting bias overcome logic. Did you know you can’t sell WWII Nazi memorabilia on ebay? Nor Jemima memorabilia? Or when Neil Young complained to Spotify about spreading misinformation and gave them an ultimatum, they didn’t back down? (He removed his catalog.) Amazon is big, but it isn’t the only game in town. Publishers have always declined to publish works for a variety of reasons. (Ulysses by James Joyce springs to mind). Conservative speakers aren’t the only ones being heckled or shouted down. FBI agents are getting death threats for doing their job. That’s a bit more extreme than being uninvited. Grass-roots school book banning is not insignificant because it is, in effect, the very root of the issue. Censorship is unpatriotic. A company can choose to follow its own values (Hobby Lobby doesn’t have to provide insurance for contraception), but public schools are not private companies. My bubble is different from your bubble. We both want the truth and are outraged by its muffling, yet register perils differently.