People keep saying '1984' is banned in the US and it's missing the point

I keep seeing posts here that list George Orwell's '1984' as a banned book in America. It's not, and saying it is muddies the water. The book has been challenged in some school districts, sure, like in a Florida county in 2021, but it's still widely sold and taught. The real story is how often it's used as a lazy symbol for all censorship, which lets actual banned works from other places get ignored. I've read reports from groups like PEN America that track real removals, and focusing on a famous book that's still easy to get feels like missing the forest for the trees. Does arguing over the status of a classic actually help smaller, truly suppressed voices, or does it just make for an easier talking point?

2 comments

2 Comments

harperwright1mo ago

Saw a good article about how this mix-up helps real censors by making people argue over nothing.

nathan5451mo ago

Yeah, and it's funny because I probably contributed to that mess. Saw a post last week saying it was banned and just hit retweet without even checking. Felt like a real Winston Smith moment, just accepting the narrative. Now I'm over here trying to explain to my cousin that no, you can still buy it at Barnes and Noble, while actual books by new authors are getting pulled from school libraries in Texas. Makes me wonder how many other things I've gotten wrong just because it fits a simple story.