Right-wing journalist uses Nazi book-burning picture while calling LGBTQ+ books ‘filth’
Kara McKinney called for books to be banned. (OAN/Tipping Point/Screenshot)
A right-wing journalist used a photo of Nazis burning books as she advocated to ban LGBTQ+ literature, calling it “filth”.
In a short clip circulating Twitter, Our America News (OAN) TV reporter and host of Tipping Point, Kara McKinney, stated: “Democrats try to use their outsize media influence to redirect the anger of voters over the idea of book banning to Republicans.”
She said Democrats are employing the “Saul Alinsky Rules for Radicals tactic of accusing your political opponent of what you’re doing yourself”.
During this rant McKinney used an image of Nazis burning literature to drive her point.
Despite her speech on Democrats being the real villain in the book banning discourse, she went on to argue for book banning as well.
“I think banning pornographic books from school libraries was not only justifiable, it’s the only moral option,” she said.
Yes, McKinney is using a photo of Nazi youth partaking in a book burning to argue that banning LGBTQ books in public schools is good. She says banning these books “is not only justifiable but the only moral option, it’s our duty in fact to purge our schools of such filth” pic.twitter.com/TeLOxkngFW
— MMA ? (@Emmamae143) August 23, 2022
The “pornographic books” McKinney is referring to are LGBTQ-themed ones. It comes as right-wing bigots have been calling novels with elements of queer material “pornographic”.
In November 2021, Republican governor of Texas Greg Abbott sent a letter to the state school association board asking for “obscene” and “pornographic” content to be removed.
Across the United States there has been an uptick in book banning discourse. And PEN America found books that were banned disproportionately featured LGBTQ+ characters or storylines.
A woman even called the police on a school library for stocking a queer graphic novel.
McKinney’s sentiments are in line with the bigoted approach many conservatives are taking to books that don’t align with heterosexuality.
She continued her rant stating removing these books was a “duty” and called for people to “purge our schools of such filth”.
The use of the Nazi image to highlight her point is “apt”, as LGBTQ+ Nation wrote. Books the Nazis burnt were ones they feared would rile change or revolution, such as The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx.
The Nazis even ransacked the Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexual Science in 1933 and books that touched on LGBTQ+ identities in Germany were burned.
National Coalition Against Censorship released a statement in December last year detailing the importance of “freedom” and choices in libraries.
“Libraries offer students the opportunity to encounter books and other material that they might otherwise never see and the freedom to make their own choices about what to read.
“It is freedom of expression that ensures that we can meet the challenges of a changing world. That freedom is critical for the students who will lead America in the years ahead. We must fight to defend it.”
