Books that shouldn't have been written...

[Archae]

Not a call to censorship, this is just an essay on some of the vilest books out there, advocating racism, anti-Semitism, "Christian" theocracy, etc.


Books That Should Never Have Been Written

Thu May 24, 2012 at 02:24:44 PM EST

Recently I finished James Robison's book on economics, politics and American history. I thought to myself that the book should never have been written with limited credentials for such an endeavor. I have had several posts to my articles here in which the post stated they were glad I read the books so they did not have to. I started thinking about all the books I have read that never should have been published and thought I might come up with a few.

The most obvious first offering is David Barton's, The Myth of Separation of Church and State. Barton's critics have found a welcome home here at talk2action. The Oral Roberts math major lacks the background and objectivity for such an undertaking. None the less He continues to inspire a nation to doubt what they were taught about American history and the First Amendment. He has no shortage of influential followers.

Wikipidea has me as a resource for another book that should have never made it to a publisher. It is Pat Robertson's, New World Order. Pat fed the hysterical suspicions of the far right with this publication. Among the book's gems is that the first President Bush worked secretly with the Masonic Lodge, some Jewish bankers and Jimmy Carter to destroy the nation. I bought my copy at a Southern Baptist book store.

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2012/5/24/142444/107/Front_Page/Books_That_Should_Never_Have_Been_Written

[LeftishBrit]

1. Whooooo and Uggghhhh

The odd thing is that I've actually read 'Communist America, Must it Be?' I must have been about 17. A friend of mine picked it up for 10p from a second-hand bookshop, not reading the title carefully, and thinking it was an ordinary book about Communism, that might help her in her Politics A level. OMG, it was a weird and horrible book!

Of books that shouldn't have been written - well, of course there are lots in history, of which the most notorious may be 'Mein Kampf' and 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'. On a less extreme. modern level, in the UK, there are such right-wing polemics as Melanie Phillips' 'All Must Have Prizes'; 'Londonistan' and worst of all, her latest 'The World Turned Upside Down'; Peter Hitchens' 'The Abolition of Britain' and 'The Broken Compass'; and Richard Littlejohn's 'You Couldn't Make it Up' and 'To Hell in a Handcart'. But all of these writers probably exert their baleful influence more through their newspaper articles than their books. Then there is that revolting disgrace to serious psychology, 'The Bell Curve', and Jenny McCarthy's books of anti-vaccine propaganda.

There is also the early-70s 'The Little White Book', a Swedish book for schoolchildren (in response to 'The Little Red Schoolbook', but going way beyond attacking that book), full of hatred for liberalism, promotion of the Christian Right, and (unusually for that time, I think, when the Christian Right were mostly more interested in fanatical censorship) extreme homophobia. With literal demonology mixed in with it all. I will not link to it, but a New Zealand English version, published by Founder Press, is readily available on the web.


As regards truly dangerous recent books, however, you could not be much more extreme than Scott Lively's 'The Pink Swastika' and 'Redeeming the Rainbow' - the author may have helped to promote capital punishment for homosexuality in Uganda; or Michael Pearl's child-abuse manual 'To Train Up a Child'.

I am restricting myself here to books readily available in English and I am sure that there are a lot of still-worse things in a variety of countries

[Risen Demon]

2. The Twilight Saga. Vampires should not sparkle!!

I kid, I kid

But seriously, there are too many out there.

One thing is for sure: The wingnuts need to look at Ayn Rand's background for claiming her. Yes, she was a social darwinist, but freely admitted to being an atheist.