Italian Book Fair Echoes Jakarta Book-Burning!
Turin’s international book fair refused on Thursday to let a publishing house run by an avowed fascist exhibit at the event following a protest by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Holocaust museum and Italian intellectuals.
Why ‘intellectuals’ of any nationality should have a say in who gets to show off his or her company’s books is beyond me!
Why Do Media Focus On Mouthings Of Meaningless People?
‘Intellectuals’ are a parasitical breed, prone to bombast and frequently cosmopolitan, many devoid of patriotism and lacking any empathy with their own fellow-citizens.
For my part, if fascist or communist publishers want to be represented at an international event, I can see no reason why not.
I reckon I’m fairly consistent on the issue of book censorship – there was this episode ..
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“After the public statement by condemning the work and the FPI accused Manji as a lesbian, police and FPI ended the event. A later discussion was dissolved by Sunni hardliners in Yogyakarta, while the police did not take any action.”
She was a left-liberal lesbian but I supported her freedom of expression. If she’s got a point of view, let’s hear it, and debate it if we don’t like it.
Marxism, fascism and jihadism alike are not consonant with democracy.
If communists had their way, many a decent patriot would be in jail or dead.
But should we ban communist books? Hardly – Marx’s ‘Das Kapital’ is so boring it’s unreadable anyway.
If some dumb sectarian bum wants to advocate polygamy, or other primitive practices, like coercing women into becoming bag-heads…
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…they should be free to publish books justifying such bizarre beliefs – so long as there’s no coercion of gals, or garbage-think like incitement to murder ‘apostates’ or adulterers.
Equally, books criticising any or all religions should be unmolested, NOT the case here in Indonesia, where the intolerant publishers Gramedia even got into Nazi-style book-burning.
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At least the censors in Italy haven’t yet gone that far!
Strange that the Jakarta Post, whose report we looked at, failed to link the examples of home and away intolerance, but they are part of the Gramedia business empire!
No idea if far-left books are on display in Turin, but if so, or even if not, then Altaforte Edizioni, ‘founded and run by far-right activist Francesco Polacchi,’ should not have been excluded.
Polacchi had been an approved participant, but the organisers knuckled under to fake ‘populists’ on Turin City Council and leftists in the regional assembly.
Pure political censorship.
Last word to Polacchi.
“Altaforte Edizioni does not bend to the logic of a single way of thinking … Books cannot and must not face censorship,” he said on Facebook…
JazPen, 
Noreen Paterson, 
Jim Ex Jakarta, and 2 others are discussing. 
rossrightangle 
Nichol Greenaway 21:31 on May 11, 2019 Permalink |
Communism is not to be compared to fascism or jihadism. Marx’s writings make perfect sense.
Only extremists like you can’t get that.
The intellectuals you insult have the brains to get it, which is also why they do what they can to make sure the far right are shut down.
Your blog is sickening, if I may say so.
I hope it will soon be shut down too.
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Noreen Paterson 23:56 on May 11, 2019 Permalink |
Correct, Nichol. Communism is not to be compared to fascism or jihadism.
It’s much worse. All three are bad but communism has killed far more people.
None of them are any use to people like us who believe in democracy, that is, rule by the people, not by your ‘intellectuals’ who think they know best.
Their era started to disintegrate when the result of the Brexit vote was announced and in the USA when Trump won.
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Mario Hickel 22:02 on May 11, 2019 Permalink |
Italy is a mixed democracy, partly democratic of course with Salvini winning elections, but partly built on a double-standard, as I was reading earlier. There’a ban on the fascist salute but not on the marxist clenched fist salute.
It was because at the end of WW2 the Communists had a lot of power and nearly took over.
One of my grandparents was Italian and he used to talk about those days, He called it the Hidden History, but there must have been a lot went on then that we will never know sbout.
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Jim Ex Jakarta 22:08 on May 11, 2019 Permalink |
Gotcha! The book burning scandal again.
Ingenious!
Ross you never miss a chance to shame Gramedia and the Jakarta Post.
Well done.
They deserve it.
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JazPen 21:34 on May 12, 2019 Permalink |
I have followed your war against the Gramedia book-burners since it started how many years ago?
They still havent had the grace to offer an apology so I expect we will be seeing a lot more action replays.
Good on you for your determination.
When they ask sbout Indonesia, I always let people back home know about Gramedia so word spreads. All expats should do the same if they care about this country.
Its the least we can do.
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