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It is a matter of precedence. Censoring written works is a slippery slope. Eventually, you end up with a documented history that never was.

nhchris 4y ago
It's not censorship - censorship would be a black bar over the offending text. This is falsification.
- throwuwu 4y ago
  That’s a cartoon depiction of censorship. You can censor by editing or omitting text as well. The black bar would actually be preferable because it would clearly indicate that there was content there before and that someone had censored it. It’d only be improved by writing the names and addresses of the censors in the book so they can be judged appropriately by history.
- dustfinger 4y ago
  Black baring over text is a form of redaction.
sircastor 4y ago
Being a bit pedantic about it, Isn’t that what we already have? “History is written by the victors”?
- throwuwu 4y ago
  You’d have to assume a conspiracy among all historians both amateur and professional for that cliche to be true. The people that write history are humans and they all behave and believe in different ways. You’ll never find an unbiased version of history whether it’s written by the victors or the defeated.
  - dustfinger 4y ago
    The word conspiracy has been effectively demonized. The truth is, societal fractions at all levels conspire against one another on a daily basis, from community sport leagues conspiring to form strategies to defeat their rivals to executives in multi-national corporations trying to dominate a global market-space. > You’ll never find an unbiased version of history whether it’s written by the victors or the defeated. That is true. I think being unbiased is extremely difficult. Maybe impossible; I am not sure. Worse yet, there would never be a way of knowing whether something is biased or not.
op00to 4y ago
A censor would remove the offending books from circulation. No one is burning the old books. The original book will continue to be found in used book stores, church rummage sales, parents end tables, and so on for years and years to come. Scans are certainly available online at the various pirate sites, so likely available for my lifetime at least. Please explain how releasing an edited, updated version of a book that is more marketable in today’s world is censorship when the original works are fully available.
- dustfinger 4y ago
  > A censor would remove the offending books from circulation That is actually not what censoring a book means. According to the Oxford Dictionary [1]: > to remove the parts of a book, film, etc. that are considered to be offensive or a political threat Regarding your last comment: > Please explain how releasing an edited, updated version of a book that is more marketable in today’s world is censorship when the original works are fully available. That would be by definition. Regarding your second comment: > The original book will continue to be found in used book stores, church rummage sales, parents end tables, and so on for years and years to come. Scans are certainly available online at the various pirate sites, so likely available for my lifetime at least. They would be around. They would become rarer and rarer overtime. Most people would grow up believing that the author wrote the censored version of the book. Moreover, they would grow up believing that the way the book was written was reflective of the setting of the book in our actual history. That is the way of things and the censurers know it. [1]: https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/censor_2?q=censoring https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/englis...

nhchris 4y ago

It's not censorship - censorship would be a black bar over the offending text. This is falsification.

throwuwu 4y ago
That’s a cartoon depiction of censorship. You can censor by editing or omitting text as well. The black bar would actually be preferable because it would clearly indicate that there was content there before and that someone had censored it. It’d only be improved by writing the names and addresses of the censors in the book so they can be judged appropriately by history.
dustfinger 4y ago
Black baring over text is a form of redaction.

sircastor 4y ago

Being a bit pedantic about it, Isn’t that what we already have? “History is written by the victors”?

throwuwu 4y ago
You’d have to assume a conspiracy among all historians both amateur and professional for that cliche to be true. The people that write history are humans and they all behave and believe in different ways. You’ll never find an unbiased version of history whether it’s written by the victors or the defeated.
- dustfinger 4y ago
  The word conspiracy has been effectively demonized. The truth is, societal fractions at all levels conspire against one another on a daily basis, from community sport leagues conspiring to form strategies to defeat their rivals to executives in multi-national corporations trying to dominate a global market-space. > You’ll never find an unbiased version of history whether it’s written by the victors or the defeated. That is true. I think being unbiased is extremely difficult. Maybe impossible; I am not sure. Worse yet, there would never be a way of knowing whether something is biased or not.

op00to 4y ago

A censor would remove the offending books from circulation. No one is burning the old books. The original book will continue to be found in used book stores, church rummage sales, parents end tables, and so on for years and years to come. Scans are certainly available online at the various pirate sites, so likely available for my lifetime at least. Please explain how releasing an edited, updated version of a book that is more marketable in today’s world is censorship when the original works are fully available.

dustfinger 4y ago
> A censor would remove the offending books from circulation That is actually not what censoring a book means. According to the Oxford Dictionary [1]: > to remove the parts of a book, film, etc. that are considered to be offensive or a political threat Regarding your last comment: > Please explain how releasing an edited, updated version of a book that is more marketable in today’s world is censorship when the original works are fully available. That would be by definition. Regarding your second comment: > The original book will continue to be found in used book stores, church rummage sales, parents end tables, and so on for years and years to come. Scans are certainly available online at the various pirate sites, so likely available for my lifetime at least. They would be around. They would become rarer and rarer overtime. Most people would grow up believing that the author wrote the censored version of the book. Moreover, they would grow up believing that the way the book was written was reflective of the setting of the book in our actual history. That is the way of things and the censurers know it. [1]: https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/censor_2?q=censoring https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/englis...