Should sale and/or possession of Mein Kampf be banned in the United States?

[Paradoxical]

While the book is largely available throughout the world, several countries have banned sale and even possession of it. Reasons for banning the book stem mostly from the fact that it is considered hate speech and national socialist propaganda.

[Taverner]

1. "I love Freedom of Speech - it lets us know who the idiots are"

My favorite T Shirt

[RKP5637]

4. Excellent point!!! n/t

[Drale]

2. Reading such material can help us to discover

the true nature of our enemies, which has been and still is fascism.

[GreenStormCloud]

3. First Amendment.

Give the government authority to ban Mein Kampf and you will eventually find DU to be banned along with FR. NEVER allow any government to have that authority.

[RKP5637]

7. Exactly! Once that starts it's all downhill when reading/viewing material is banned. n/t

[The Northerner]

28. +100

[tekisui]

5. Of course not.

[Terra Alta]

6. Possession and sale should both be legal.

Freedom of speech and all. Once you ban one book, where would you stop?

[Nye Bevan]

8. Banning any book gives it a kind of mystique

like the ideas in this book are so *dangerous* we have to keep them hidden from the populace, in case they are swayed by them. Laws banning denial of the Holocaust are a bad idea for the same reason.

[bigwillq]

9. Should be legal (nt)

[Cleita]

10. I have a copy and I feel everyone should be made to

read it in school, so that when fascists try to take over the government, Americans will see it coming.

[OHdem10]

11. For years it was banned in Germany. I do not believe we ban

books here, do we???

[niyad]

17. you don't remember "banned in boston"???

this country of supposedly free speech has a long history of banning books for all sorts of reasons. it has been such a part of this nation's "culture" that september has long been designated "banned books month". I have my "I read banned books" button.

edited to add a link to a very partial list of books banned in this country:

http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/banned-books.html

and the information for the ALA's "banned books week" observances:

Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read
September 24−October 1, 2011

http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek/index.cfm

[Yo_Mama]

12. My fourth grade teacher

Told us all in class one day (we were on history/social studies) that we should all read Mein Kampf when we grew up.

She said it was important for us to read it to understand that sometimes people mean exactly what they said. She said that if the book had been taken seriously, the world would have intervened far earlier to stop the rise of Nazi Germany and many millions of lives would have been saved. She said it would happen again, and it would be important for us to realize that just because what someone says and writes seems crazy and hard to believe, that just not justify us in ignoring their beliefs.

So I did read it when I grew up. And I think she was right to say what she did. People did not take Hitler's ideology seriously, and because they did not, they let him get very powerful.

Probably very few people in the US read Mein Kampf with admiration. It is a part of history - painful history - but it is very important that people remember the mistakes of history so that we can amend them the next time around. I do know that some people admire this sort of thing, but I cannot understand why. I don't think the book would make anyone admire Nazism as an ideology.

[jmowreader]

13. Reading of Mein Kampf should be required in all American schools

Three reasons:

1) to see inside the mind of a madman
2) to keep people from making the mistake of letting anyone like that within a thousand miles of the reins of government
3) and because it stands out as a prime example of horrifically bad writing.

[Initech]

14. I agree, I also think reading of materials by Karl Marx should be required.

So that way people truly know what Marxism and Socialism is - and not what Oxyrush tells them.

[roamer65]

19. Mein Kampf and Marx-Engels were required reading...

in one of my political science courses. They should be required reading for all intro poly sci courses.

[white_wolf]

21. Yes to all 3, but especially the 3rd point.

The man was a great speaker, but he could not write worth a damn.

[Aristus]

15. Banning books is the first step toward Naziism.

A little irony there, no?

[robinlynne]

16. unfortunately I'm with the ACLU on this one.

[niyad]

18. on the contrary, it should be required reading.

[miscsoc]

20. I own a copy, published by a mainstream publisher.

Pimlico. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mein-Kampf-Adolf-Hitler/dp/071265254X

Of course it's hate speech but it's historically important hate speech - how can you talk about the second world war or the holocaust without reproducing hate speech?

[applegrove]

22. I'm of two minds. I had some creepy looking guy come into a 2nd hand bookstore where I worked

and ask about it. Fortunately we didn't have any copies of it.

[justabob]

27. I don't want it banned but

I worked the history section of a very large used book store, and had this happen too. People asked for it fairly often, and most of the time it was no big deal, but every now and then someone would come ask, and I was relieved when the book wasn't there for them.

[PDJane]

23. I thought the world would become saner ..........

It doesn't seem to be headed in that direction.

[trackfan]

24. I have a copy. I choose to keep it.

I have about 4000 other books. I choose to keep them.

[TroglodyteScholar]

25. You can't believe in banning books and freedom of speech at the same time. n/t

[krispos42]

26. If you forget what something was, you won't know when you face it again n/t

[Keith Bee]

29. Dumb question

There's a reason why it's the First Amendment to the Constitution.

[Douglas Carpenter]

30. former U. S. Senator Alan Cranston was once sued by Hitler for publishing Mein Kampf

an interesting historical note:

Cranston was a correspondent for the International News Service for two years preceding World War II. When an abridged English-language translation of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf was released, sanitized to exclude some of Hitler's anti-semitism and militancy, Cranston published an unexpurgated and annotated translation which he believed more accurately reflected the contents of the book. In 1939, Hitler's publisher sued him for copyright violation in Connecticut; a judge ruled in Hitler's favor and publication of the book was halted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Cranston