When the Dr. Seuss Foundation announced they would be yanking six of his children’s books from publication, political parties split down the middle with opposing views. Democrats argued that the books portrayed people of color in ways that are “hurtful and wrong,” while Republicans argued that this was a direct attack on freedom of expression. Even one of Dr. Seuss’s stepdaughters shared that the author didn’t have “a racist bone” in his body. Now, CNN’s Jake Tapper has joined in on cancel culture to share why he supports this era of digital book-burning and canceling everything in sight.
It started with this tweet from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy
I still like Dr. Seuss, so I decided to read Green Eggs and Ham.
RT if you still like him too! pic.twitter.com/2pbRbSiJD6
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) March 6, 2021
“One of the weirdest parts of this culture war is that the self-styled “warriors” aren’t willing to stand by the empirically racist images they’re supposedly defending. Green Eggs and Ham is not one of the books the @DrSeuss Foundation has decided to stop publishing,” Tapper tweeted in response.
Tapper then mocked the ‘culture war’ in a series of tweets over defending the “offensive images” and called out the National Republican Congressional Committee for offering donor copies of “The Cat In the Hat,” which was not one of the books pulled from publication. He listed the six books being pulled from publishing which include “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” “If I Ran the Zoo,” “McElligot’s Pool,” “On Beyond Zebra!,” “Scrambled Eggs Super!,” and “The Cat’s Quizzer.”
He also attached a link to the Dr. Seuss Foundation tweet talking about why they pulled the books and posted two “empirically racist” images from two of the books. He likened it to defending Disney’s “Song of the South” by showing “Frozen” or “Toy Story.”
Critics lashed out at Tapper for being a journalist with zero understanding of the First Amendment and refusing to understand the principle of the matter. Freedom of expression includes things we disapprove of and keeping works available. “McElligott’s Pool,” for example, was offered no explanation on which images caused their de-publication. Many of Seuss’s characters are non-humans and could be looked at as animals in a whimsical way.
The radical left has started a personal attack on Seuss’s entire legacy. eBay, for example, has started banning users from reselling outdated Seuss books while simultaneously allowing books like Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” to be sold on the site. Libraries, such as The Queens Public Library, have also refused donations of any Seuss books and said they were considering moving the books to its reference section. President Biden also made no mention of the author on “Read Across America Day,” a day which falls on Seuss’ birthday.
Why is it so difficult to understand that we oppose removing art and writing based on controversy?
It doesn’t mean we support the content itself.
Just like all speech.
To protect *your* speech you must protect *all* speech from being erased or suppressed. https://t.co/qm3EiWtD7d— Chad Felix Greene (@chadfelixg) March 6, 2021
The left-wing media loves to throw the word “racist’ around whenever they can but do not understand the slippery slope of book censorship that this creates. While it may only be “six” books today, it could be another six tomorrow.
