Joy Reid Invokes Hitler to Warn ‘Book Burning’ Is ‘Making a Comeback’ in the U.S.

MSNBC’s Joy Reid cautioned that book burning reminiscent of 1930s Germany or Maoist China is making a “comeback” in the U.S. on Friday.

In her opening monologue on The ReidOut, the host focused on 20th Century censorship campaigns against the classic novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.

Reid claimed that the book’s protagonist, Holden Caulfield, represented for many people anti-authoritarianism, while to others he represented anti-Whiteness.

She then invoked numerous campaigns from the 1960s to the 1980s that tried to ban the piece of literary greatness from libraries during the Reagan years.

Throughout the monologue, MSNBC displayed a chyron which read: “BANNING BOOKS MAKES A COMEBACK,” as Reid connected book burning to Republican voters and parents.

“Book burning and banning happened to be staples of fascism and communism,” Reid said. “The Nazis did it, Hitler, imposing rigid censorship on newspapers and burning all literature he considered dangerous. The Soviets banned books, too, along with the Chinese Communist Party.”

Reid later said, “Hey, Republicans, wokeness is communism, but book banning isn’t? Make it make sense.”

The host then made the case that White Republicans consumed by anger are out to start a new era of censorship:

Just like back in the eighties, the great parent revolt is bankrolled by conservative organizations and think tanks, and shaped by political operatives, who are controlling the puppet strings so that you think this is just about regular moms and dads advocating for their kids. But strip off that veneer, and it’s about so much more.

It’s about getting out the Republican vote by riling up White voters. But it’s also about distracting the voters because distraction and sleight of hand is basically what modern Republican politics is all about. I mean, it sure ain’t about governing. It’s about selling White grievance and rage.

Reid concluded that the modern campaign to censor literature is to distract people from the pandemic, and the from fact that they don’t have safe roads, bridges or drinking water.

Reid did not point to any instances of book-banning in this century during the segment.

Perhaps the screed was in part prompted by a Tennessee school board removing Art Spiegelman’s harrowing Holocaust survival story Maus from its curriculum after parents complained about language and imagery in the graphic novel.

Watch above, via MSNBC.