But as always happens when reactionaries pull their censorship pants on, the main focus is reading. Spoiler: They hate it. Authoritarians have always been suspicious of reading, because it is such a private act. A reader, after all, is alone with the text and their thoughts. It's very hard to control what kinds of "dangerous" ideas — such as that people of color and LGBTQ people are full, complex, interesting and often contradictory human beings — might start to form in that space. This is exactly why we so often in history see a reluctance to let oppressed groups of people, such as women or racial minorities, have access to literacy or higher education. And it's also why Republicans have gone on an anti-reading rampage in the wake of their barely literate leader, Donald Trump, losing the 2020 election. -Amanda Marcotte in Salon.com
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