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Hm, Elfwreck, you've lost me.
Yes, I am anti-censorship. Completely, no exceptions. Yes, I do believe libraries should keep everything available, even if it is offensive by standard mores.
Here's why.
I'm currently writing a novel which takes place in the 1880s, with flashbacks to the 1850s. The main character is a former slave, so I've been doing a lot of research about slavery and contemporary attitudes toward same, including several arguing for the morality of keeping slaves.
Some of these books are downright vile. One argued that since all Africans are cannibals (this is a given according to the author), slavery contained their natural urges and exposed them to civilization. The author argues that freeing the slaves will result in widespread barbarism and cannibalism (the fact that there were several thousand freed blacks living in the US without resorting to cannibalism at the time seems to have escaped him).
And yet, I would not want this book to be banned or censored, because I think it's really important to know that at one time, there were actually people who thought like this, and who could get such a book published.
History is important. Knowing what the past was really like helps us to avoid repeating it.
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