Have you heard about the book bannings in the US?
If you listen to the left, there are tons of banned books by fascists everywhere. If you want to read LGBT content in some jurisdictions, you absolutely cannot find it, as those books are banned.
Except that's not true. No books are banned in the US. Not one of the 50 states has any book bans in place. Instead, the so-called "book bans" involve keeping pornographic and/or left wing propaganda books out of school libraries. This is nothing new. Could you check out Hustler Magazine from your middle school library growing up? Obviously not. It is not "book banning" to keep certain types of content away from children.
However, all books are available in all 50 states. No matter where you live, you can order whichever book you want, and if you are a shit parent, you can give those inappropriate books to your children.
That hasn't stopped the left from whining about "banned books", and claiming that there's an attempt by the right to censor LGBT content.
In response, Ru-Paul started an online bookstore called "Allstora", which proudly claimed they would not ban any books. He was trying to capitalize on the leftist book banning fears, and becoming the one-stop shop for any pornographic book you heard you can't get in school libraries.
Okay, whatever. If Ru-Paul wants to carry all books, regardless of content, more power to him.
And originally, Allstora took a fair and reasonable position regarding their refusal to ban any kind of book:
We cannot fight the ideologies of hate if we lack the ability to study, understand, and react to them. We do that by reading books. Censorship of any book, perspective, or story is incompatible with the survival of democracy. Banning books is never the answer.
Of course, the left freaked out. The bookstore faced backlash for selling “homophobic,” “transphobic,” “anti-woke,” and “Nazi” material.
Allstora panicked, remove their anti-ban statement above from their website, and immediately removed books by Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Matt Walsh, Riley Gaines, and Libs of TikTok founder Chaya Raichik.
Now they're apologizing:
Here's an article about it: https://www.nationalreview.com/news/...-filled-books/We’ve already removed the titles that visitors have called to our attention, and you can continue to report any instances of hateful material on our site. While other online bookstores will continue selling hate-filled books, Allstora will not. We will be a community, a home, for all.
Allstora, of course, can carry whichever books they please. But it's hilarious that a bookstore literally founded to fight the perception of book bans, ended up banning books anyway. The store's heart was originally in the right place -- correctly pointing out that "banning books is never the answer". But they were shamed into censorship. Extreme left wing ideology can only survive by creating an echo chamber where dissent is not allowed. Healthy criticism or skepticism is labeled as "hateful", and removed. You're not allowed to read it. You're not allowed to see it. You're not allowed to think about it.
Believe what they tell you to believe, or else.