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In his 1883 book Traps for the Young, Comstock wrote that newspapers, magazines, novels, and even fine art were snares used by Satan “to capture our youth and secure the ruin of immortal souls.”
To fight the devil, Comstock claimed, Christians must eradicate the very words that encourage lust and licentiousness.
There is “no more active agent employed by Satan,” Comstock wrote, than “EVIL READING.”
In seven years of work for the YMCA, Comstock played a key role in “seizing and destroying 134,000 pounds of books, 194,000 ‘bad pictures and photographs,’ […] and 60,300 ‘articles made of rubber for immoral purposes, and used by both sexes.’”
Comstock’s most consequential accomplishment, however, was the federal legislation formally titled “A bill for the suppression of trade in, and circulation of, obscene literature and articles of immoral use” — the law now widely known as the Comstock Act.
–Anthony Comstock, the 19th-century scourge of art and sex, is suddenly relevant again
The same laws and principles that fancops want to use to censor fanfiction they consider “nasty” or “immoral” are currently being used to oppress people seeking abortions and transgender care.
Discussion ¬