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Comment by MarkLowenstein | Hacker News Reader

Pertinent:

https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbook...

a list of the Top 10 Most Challenged Books in order to inform the public about censorship in libraries and schools. The lists are based on information from media stories and voluntary reports sent to OIF from communities across the U.S.

So it's (1) voluntarily submitted, like an Internet poll, (2) it is from libraries AND schools (not just school libraries), and (3) the library had to already carry the book, which means that if the library itself felt like the book was too inappropriate to shelve, it will not be represented here.

In other words, take the NPR article with a grain of salt, or skip altogether. Whatever you learn is unlikely to be accurate.

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Talking about censorship and banned books should be to highlight what is politically incorrect and indefensible in society, the ideas that are too dangerous to even consider. By seeing what ideas we reject on instinct we can highlight society’s biases. I find it hard to believe that most people would consider the books on this list too dangerous to allow people to read, they seem relatively tame. It’s much more likely that we would ban books dealing with pedophilia or rape, classified government information, COVID misinformation, or encouraging violence.

> highlight what is politically incorrect and indefensible in society

The big one here of course is communism. Arguably the most censored idea in the history of American politics. The government even held hearings to track down adherents.

In some places it's still difficult to have an uncensored discussion about much tamer topics like labor organizing.

> pedophilia

Lolita was frequently banned

> classified government information

This is generally celebrated rather than challenged by readers. The Pentagon Papers, Snowden leaks, and the Panama papers are famous examples.

In regards to classified information it’s come up in some Tom Clancy style novels and contemporary military histories. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Easy_Day

Ah I see what you mean.

Although in that case the author had a contractual requirement to clear the book and didn't. In that sense it's similar to defying an NDA or publishing your company's trade secrets.

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