Book Burners

I work out at a local gym facility in a pretty left wing area of western Massachusetts. The weight room has a magazine rack so people can use reading materials while they use the cardio equipment. Gym members often bring in publications from home that they put in the rack.

One member always brings in the latest copy of "The Nation," which is an opinion publication espousing the "progressive" viewpoint. To give people a little variety, I often bring in the latest copy of "American Rifleman." The person who brings in The Nation always tears off the address information; I don't tear off the address information on the American Rifleman. That says something, but I'm not sure what.

The copies of The Nation stay around for a while until they're too old to be current. But the copies of American Rifleman don't because someone throws them in the trash almost as quickly as I put them in the rack. We all know that people on the left don't like to even think about viewpoints contrary to their own, let alone debate them. But preventing others from exposure to contrary viewpoints in this manner is just classic book burning. There are many historical examples of book burning. It's always done by those who think they're views are correct, and that others shouldn't be exposed to "heretical" opinions. I leave it to the reader to draw conclusions from this.