Is Mein Kampf still a permitted text in schools in right wing areas?

[Stinky The Clown]

Asking for a friend and inspired by Katy TX parent's petition to ban Michelle Obama's bio.

[Aristus]

1. If at all, then only for symbolic reasons.

Republicans can only read at the most basic "Dick And Jane" level. There's no way in the world they'd be able to get through the dense, tangled, unreadable morass of "Mein Kampf."

[lame54]

10. Is it poorly written?...

Never heard an assessment on that

[Aristus]

12. I've read the whole thing, but it was tough going.

Hitler scholars state, and I agree with them, that the prose style was very similar to Hitler's conversational style, which was rarely more than a rambling monologue that drifted from one topic to another, and was only cohesive by virtue of its ultimate aim: destruction of Europe's Jewish population, and conquest of the spacious Russian lands to the east of Germany for what Hitler called Lebensraum, "living space" (for 'superior' Germans, after eliminating the 'subhuman' Slavic people).

Albert Speer, Hitler's close confidant, wrote that it was impossible to have a conversation with Hitler because it always became one of his rambling monologues as described above. These could go on for hours at a time, and Hitler brooked no debate, no opposing views, or even small talk of any kind. Speer found these sessions exhausting (so is reading "Mein Kampf"), and an utter waste of time. Even Hitler's highest-ranking subordinates would rarely contradict him, and if they did, the encounters would turn into hysterical screeching matches.

One of the reasons for the book's uneven, rambling style is because Hitler didn't really write it; setting down an outline and then typing up the content, etc. He dictated the whole thing to his secretary Rudolf Hess while in prison. Which is why the text so closely resembles Hitler's monologuing style.

[OhZone]

2. Maybe it's considered an alternative -

to replace all those nasty Holocaust books they're banning.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. It was required reading for me for a course I took in college.

[Captain Zero]

4. A new law in Indiana says teachers have to be Neutral Toward Nazism.

So probably ok here.

on edit:
Oh, the legislator who wrote the law paid for a membership to Oath Keepers in 2010.

[TheProle]

16. Not a law. Senate killed it.

The Indiana bill that sparked national outrage will not move forward, Senate leadership confirmed on Friday.

"Members of the Senate continued to work on Senate Bill 167, but have determined there is no path forward for it and it will not be considered," Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray, R-Martinsville, said in a statement.

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/education/2022/01/14/indiana-education-bill-167-nazi-senate-house-state-legislation-2022/6530374001/

[MineralMan]

5. Permitted? Well, I can count on one finger the number of people

I knew as a high school student who read that book. Me. Same thing with Das Kapital (in translation). I read both in my senior year in high school. I read all sorts of arcane political things, but I was the only person I knew who did.

I suspect if there was a poll of DUers, only a very, very few have actually read Mein Kampf or Das Kapital.

So, it's not really a matter of allowing students to read books like that. It's almost impossible to get students to read anything of the sort, really.

However, I can tell you that there were no copies of either of those two books in our school library at all. I had to get them from the public library in my town. That was back in the days when library books had cards in them that showed a history of their circulation. Those two books had very few dates in them when the books had to be returned.

[Klaralven]

6. Is Mein Kampf a book that you want K-12 children to read?

School libraries should be stocked with books that the public wants children to read.

Public libraries should be stocked with books that the public wants to read.

[Stinky The Clown]

11. Did I REALLY need the sarchasm smilie?

And no, sarcasm was not misspelled. Sarchasm is a different word, used when the utterer of sarcasm is heard as having been said with seriousness.

And since we're being serious, NO book should be banned.

[rogue emissary]

7. Over a decade ago, when I sold books in Northern Virginia.

I had kids come in and buy it for book reports. So I'd say yes, but clearly things could have changed.

[lagomorph777]

8. Not permitted.

Required.

[lame54]

9. It's the book club pick

[jmowreader]

13. When I was stationed in Berlin...

...there was a report on one of the local TV news stations where a reporter stood outside the fence of the compound where the Stars and Stripes Bookstore was, telling his viewers that Mein Kampf (which is illegal to own in Germany) is sold in there. So, naturally all us assholes went to Truman Plaza the very next day and bought a copy.

I think I got through the first chapter before I had to put it down, and I don't know of anyone who was able to read the whole thing. It's REALLY poorly written. Unless you're a committed Nazi or you've been assigned to read it for a class you're taking, you'll never be able to get through it all.

[Klaralven]

14. The Google preview is probably quite enough

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Mein_Kampf/B7QkEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PT8&printsec=frontcover

[sarcasmo]

15. Turner Diaries is the second most popular book in right wing areas.