Cunt wrote: ↑Mon Jan 14, 2019 4:38 pm
Hermit wrote: ↑Mon Jan 14, 2019 4:34 pm
Cunt wrote: ↑Mon Jan 14, 2019 4:11 pm
Who is qualified to decide what you can hear, read or say?
Whoever has the power to determine what you can hear, read or say. It has always been thus, and there is nothing anyone can do to change it.
I don't mind you avoiding answering.
I answered clearly and unambiguously; Anyone who has the power to decide what you can hear, read or say has done so, and will continue to do so. The First Amendment supposedly guaranteeing freedom of speech, for example, did no such thing. It was ratified in December 1791. In 1873 US Congress passed the Comstock laws. Their purpose was the "Suppression of Trade in, and Circulation of, Obscene Literature and Articles of Immoral Use". Among prohibited items were personal letters with any sexual content or information as well as letters containing information regarding obscenity, contraceptives, abortifacients and sex toys.
Here is the relevant text of the parent federal law for the United States:
Every obscene, lewd, or lascivious, and every filthy book, pamphlet, picture, paper, letter, writing, print, or other publication of an indecent character, and every article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for preventing conception or producing abortion, or for any indecent or immoral use; and every article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing which is advertised or described in a manner calculated to lead another to use or apply it for preventing conception or producing abortion, or for any indecent or immoral purpose and every written or printed card, letter, circular, book, pamphlet advertisement, or notice of any kind giving information directly or indirectly, where, or how, or of whom, or by what means any of the hereinbefore-mentioned matters, articles or things may be obtained or made, or where or by whom any act or operation of any kind for the procuring or producing of abortion will be done or performed or how or by what means conception may be prevented or abortion may be produced, whether sealed or unsealed; and every letter, packet, or package, or other mail matter containing any filthy, vile, or indecent thing, device or substance and every paper, writing, advertisement or representation that any article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing may, or can be, used or applied, for preventing conception or producing abortion, or for any indecent or immoral purpose; and every description calculated to induce or incite a person to so use or apply any such article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing, is hereby declared to be a non-mailable matter and shall not be conveyed in the mails or delivered from any post office or by any letter carrier. Whoever shall knowingly deposit or cause to be deposited for mailing or delivery, anything declared by this section to be non-mailable, or shall knowingly take, or cause the same to be taken, from the mails for the purpose of circulating or disposing thereof, or of aiding in the circulation or disposition thereof, shall be fined not more than five thousand dollars, or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
Among the books banned by the US government were
Candide - Voltaire
The Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer
The Decameron - Giovanni Boccaccio
Fanny Hill or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure - John Cleland
Tropic of Cancer - Henry Miller
Ulysses - James Joyce
In addition to those, one or two other books were banned by one or more state governments.