Where Cancelled is good and Banned is bad

by Joe Gervais

Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman is touring the state hosting a Banned Book Reading Tour. I recently attended the event at Northshire Bookstore in Manchester. The event was covered by GNAT TV and the Manchester Journal.  

Merriam Webster defines “Ban”:

Contrast the word “ban” with the word “restrict” or “limit.” In different areas, there are restrictions, particularly age-based, on what can be done. Tobacco and alcohol sales are restricted to those of a minimum age. Driving on the public roads also is restricted based on age and licensing. During prohibition alcohol was banned nationwide. 

I found the Lt. Governor inconsistent in his discussion and application of First Amendment rights. Certain censorship is acceptable when it meets the state’s purpose, other censorship is not. One audience member stated that the book Gender Queer was quite graphic in its presentation of sex and questioned the appropriateness of having this book available in the school library when it is readily available in the town library, via Amazon, and likely via Northshire Bookstore. Note that this book is currently on the National Education Association’s (NEA) Great Summer Reads for Educators. Fox News had inadvertently put it on a chyron during a newscast that “Gender Queer on NEA Summer Reading List for Kids”, but it is currently only on the NEA’s educator list. 

The NEA is led by Becky Pringle, a staunch supporter of critical race theory.  Pringle directed NEA’s efforts to oppose supposed “institutional racism” and other systematic prejudices within school systems that would limit educational opportunities, particularly regarding disabled, LGTBQ, and immigrant students. She is a supporter of Black Lives Matter and drove policy that kept schools closed during the Covid pandemic, which has resulted in significant harm to learning by our schoolchildren. Pringle describes herself as a social justice warrior. The event had similarly angry social justice warriors from the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter in attendance, with Mia Schultz, president of the Rutland area NAACP reading from Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Ibram X. Kendi. 

In his talk, Zuckerman attempted to define grooming and stated that “It’s a made-up term, under the idea if somehow you read a book like this, you would be teaching children to become a certain gender orientation, when, in fact, it is biological. You don’t teach people to be gay or lesbian or transgender. This is from within individuals. There are people who believe that reading a book like this would spur a child to become gay or lesbian when they otherwise would not.” Many would disagree that children cannot be groomed to be transgender. Children are very impressionable, and many states have enacted legislation restricting the practice of gender-affirming care for minors, while here in Vermont we’ve made it a constitutional right through Article 22. 

Research is needed on why transgenderism is increasing. There is a definite campaign in the public and in our schools to normalize transgenderism. In recent interviews with Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan, Robert F. Kennedy suggests that there may be environmental factors for transgenderism linked to the use of atrazine in our food supply. Tucker Carlson did an interview with Andrew Tate where Tate spoke extensively about being cancelled over pushing masculinity to men. Robert Malone covered the topic in the recent Substack article Kennedy is right – Atrazine and Gender Fluidity. In a Twitter episode, Tucker Carlson had a recent video on Twitter discussing why it is important to maintain taboos. We have far too much evidence that the WHO and UN want to groom our children to normalize pedophilia. I discussed this in previous Substack articles on The Not So Silent Assault on Vermont Children and Uphold the Assault Veto.

July 4^th was a significant day for this country. First, the movie Sound of Freedom was launched. This movie was first cancelled by Disney for nearly five years following their purchase of 20^th Century Fox, and upon launch by Angel Studios has been dismissed by the mainstream media and critics as QANON conspiracy theory. The left does not want child trafficking exposed. Despite attempts to cancel the movie, Sound of Freedom has been a box office success, breaking through $100 million in revenue in the first sixteen days in the theaters.  Also on Independence Day, Judge Terry A. Doughty issued a preliminary injunction against the US Government for the blatant censorship enacted through their partnership with social media companies, banning the government from continuing to meet and direct violation of First Amendment rights by these state actors. You can find the complete case history of Biden vs. Missouri on Court Listener. In a press release the following day, the Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey noted that in the 155-page decision, Judge Doughty stated that this is “the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history,” that the Biden administration has “blatantly ignored the First Amendment’s right to free speech,” and that the Biden administration “almost exclusively targeted conservative speech.”

Zuckerman called out in his view minority conservatives who were running for school boards in Vermont on a platform to limit what could be taught in schools. With the extreme cost of our schools in Vermont and the corresponding terrible performance in academics, I think it is time for parents to take back control of our schools from the NEA and current school boards. 

Clearly the message in the banned book tour is that it is unacceptable to restrict books in our schools. Students need to break free from their parents that restrict the material they see. Taboo is important to have a functioning society. Today we have a total hypocrisy. 

In congressional testimony this week, Marjorie Taylor Green presented redacted photos of Hunter Biden engaged in sex acts that were on the suppressed Biden laptop. Democrats were outraged that she would bring such material into the congressional record, despite genitalia being redacted in the images. Her purpose for bringing this to the House Oversight Committee was to raise the issue that Hunter was illegally deducting sex-club membership on his tax return, a fact confirmed by an IRS whistleblower in congressional testimony this week.   

So it is outrageous to expose the public to the sex crimes and criminal corruption of the current President and his family as widely documented in the Marco Polo Hunter Biden Laptop report that has been in the hands of every member of Congress for months, yet it is acceptable to have pornographic material such as the book Gender Queer in our elementary schools, because it is aligned with WHO initiatives to provide sexual education from birth. Our Lt. Governor is no more hypocritical than our federal government. 

I spoke at the end of the Banned Book discussion, summarizing that the issue of censorship is a broader issue of media censorship – be it books, music, film, social media. I asked if it is acceptable for the government to censor Americans as they were recently enjoined against in the July 4^th Biden vs. Missouri injunction. Zuckerman was not familiar with the case, and given the lack of media coverage on the case, it is not surprising. Fake news publishes what they are allowed to and doesn’t publish what isn’t aligned with the narrative. Zuckerman hypothesized that this censorship may be for the right reason, such as censoring hate speech. Early in the discussion he stated that banning books restricts knowledge. The record in Biden vs. Missouri shows among other facts that Department of Homeland Security “Defendants believe they had a mandate to control the process of acquiring knowledge.” Clearly, we are living in a time where First Amendment rights are conditional, based on conforming with the state narrative. The government does not find it acceptable for parents to want to restrict books that the parents feel is not age appropriate for their children.