What, me worry? - free speech & indies

[Hopscotch]

This is not meant to be political but to ask, Could indies be targeted?:

US writers at growing risk of crackdown on free speech, says PEN America
Guardian   24 Apr 2025

"Writers in the US are at growing risk amid a worldwide crackdown on free speech that has begun to spread to countries previously renowned for unfettered expression and openness..." according to PEN America's "annual Freedom to Write index report, which showed that the number of writers jailed worldwide had jumped for the sixth year running to 375 in 2024, compared with 339 the year before...."

The report "records China as once again the biggest jailer of writers,...Iran is the second highest incarcerator,...Israel is in fifth place,...[followed by] Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey...While making no explicit mention of threats to free speech" in the U.S., "its text clearly hints at the potential for a future clampdown."

"'As geopolitics continue to shift and authoritarian tendencies spread to countries that were once considered safely anchored in openness, we are seeing that free expression, and therefore writers, are increasingly in the crosshairs of repression in a much wider range of countries,' says the index...."

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/apr/24/pen-america-writers-censorship

[Bill Hiatt]

Unless you're writing nonfiction that a certain politician could construe as defamation, I don't think you have to worry. That same politician is running into all kinds of issues right now. I think the number of non-political fights he's going to want to pick in the foreseeable future will be very limited.

The US has gone through periods of time during which freedom of expression has been more limited. But the overall trend has been in favor of freedom, at least in most instances. Some things, like pornography, have been put into a separate category.

[She-la-te-da]

I know a lot of erotica authors are worried about what may happen should that become illegal, but haven't seen anyone worrying about their personal speech being restricted.

I know I'm kind of vocal in places about my opinions on the current situation, but I don't think my writing is going to be what gets me in trouble. I'm at the point where my old smut doesn't bring in more than a few cents/couple of dollars a month, and have been thinking of just unpublishing it. Maybe even delete it from my computer. I hated writing it anyway.

[TimothyEllis]

I know a lot of erotica authors are worried about what may happen should that become illegal, but haven't seen anyone worrying about their personal speech being restricted.

I can't see that happening.

The current trend on Reels is women wearing only paint doing cartwheels.

They are naked, but getting around the restrictions by appearing to be wearing clothes, that are just painted on.

With that sort of blatant exhibitionism being acceptable on social media, I don't think erotica is in any danger.

[Maggie Ann]

I seem to remember that this same discussion was had several years ago when we were on KB. A very prominent author of erotica (initials SK) broke away from Amazon and established a publishing company that did their own distribution. I don't know if it ever went anywhere.

[LilyBLily]

But in at least one U.S. state someone has been trying to get a law passed to arrest bookstore owners and authors whose books have sex scenes. I think it's Idaho. There has been some discussion amongst romance writers about this issue.

The trend right now is ugly. The question is whether it will continue and get worse, or if these extremists will meet with substantial resistance.

[Lorri Moulton]

As someone who lives five miles from Idaho (eastern Washington), it's NOT Idaho. 

It's Oklahoma...which is also the location of Draft2Digital. 

https://authorsguild.org/news/oklahoma-anti-pornography-bill-what-it-means-for-romance-writers/#:~:text=A%20fear%20from%20authors%20is,even%20in%20a%20red%20state.

ETA: There's also the issue with anti-pornography and running credit cards.  I believe Stripe and Paypal both have statements about pornography concerns.

[Post-Doctorate D]

It's Oklahoma...which is also the location of Draft2Digital. 

https://authorsguild.org/news/oklahoma-anti-pornography-bill-what-it-means-for-romance-writers/#:~:text=A%20fear%20from%20authors%20is,even%20in%20a%20red%20state.

And, after some pearl clutching, they also admit:

To begin with, the bill only applies its amendments to visual depictions, and not the text of erotic novels or similar works.

So, once again, much ado about nothing.

[Lorri Moulton]

I've read (in Facebook groups) that erotica authors are having their books taken down at some retailers.  There are also concerns about processing credit cards at retailers, sometimes their own stores depending on the platform, and even Patreon (which apparently has limited some adult content).

ETA: The pendulum always swings back, as my grandmother used to say...so we may see more limitations in the future.

[PJ Post]

In the interest of following the pendulum:

From Google:

In 2024, Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters issued a directive requiring all public schools in the state to incorporate the Bible as an instructional support into the curriculum for grades 5 through 12, including the Ten Commandments, starting in the 2024-25 school year.

[Bill Hiatt]

I think maybe a federal district court has issued an injunction in that case, pending litigation.

Somehow, some people now see freedom of religion as the freedom to impose their religion on others. Ryan Waters has been advocating for something like this for a long time. It seems a definite step backward in our understanding of freedom of religion.

In the US, this has been a long evolution. Even though many colonists fled Europe to escape religious persecution, they were not slow to persecute or at least treat as second-class citizens once they got here. Rhode Island was the only colony originally that practiced full religious liberty, but slowly, other colonies (and then states) moved in that direction. It's sad to see us move to a position less enlightened than that of colonial Rhode Island.

[PJ Post]

When it comes to the Constitution, Americans often confuse Freedom To with Freedom From.

[LilyBLily]

The homeroom teacher in seventh grade made us say the Lord's Prayer every morning. Half the kids were Jewish.

That was a very long time ago, but I guess the future of this country right now is the past.

[Hopscotch]

It's sad to see us move to a position less enlightened...

...I guess the future of this country right now is the past.

I'm a Boomer and recall in kindergarten pledging allegiance to the flag each morning raising arms in a fascist salute - made safe, said the teacher, by turning our palms up "to offer our hearts to the flag."  The Bellamy salute fairly common in US schools 1890s-1940s.  Another piece of a returning past to worry us?   

[LilyBLily]

The Bellamy salute? Yikes! Even worse.

[Lorri Moulton]

We said the Pledge of Allegiance every morning, hand over heart, and it was an Air Force base school.  I didn't see it as a problem.  I also don't see it as an issue to recognize the country was created by a Christian society looking for more religious freedom.

While it's important to be tolerant, it's also important to try to assimilate somewhat.  Being a "melting pot" has kept the country going for almost 250 years.  If we can't do that, we're really in trouble.  Being an American should be the goal...not being a (fill in the blank)-American.  Just my 2c.
(I believe John Wayne said something similar in the 1970s.)

ETA:  We had a very liberal (in the old-school sense of the word) religious background growing up, so please don't paint me into a corner as being some right-wing religious zealot. 
Thank you! 

[PJ Post]

Not to be picky, but...America was not created by a Christian society, nor were they seeking religious freedom. It was created by a small group of secular free thinkers who went to great lengths to separate Church from State in an effort to, in part, prevent the religious violence that had devastated England for the last several centuries.

Some of them were Christian, some were Deists, others were Theistic Rationalists.

'In God We trust' didn't appear on coins until 1864, and not on paper money until 1957.

___

But yes, I agree with sentiment that there's no need for hyphenated citizenship, in name or ideology. The Statue of Liberty's "Give me your tired, your poor..." poem ("The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus) is pretty clear.

But I also recognize that's not necessarily a mainstream opinion these days. And I'll leave it there to avoid slipping into politics.

[Lorri Moulton]

Not to be picky, but...America was not created by a Christian society, nor were they seeking religious freedom. It was created by a small group of secular free thinkers who went to great lengths to separate Church from State in an effort to, in part, prevent the religious violence that had devastated England for the last several centuries.

Some of them were Christian, some were Deists, others were Theistic Rationalists.

'In God We trust' didn't appear on coins until 1864, and not on paper money until 1957.

___

But yes, I agree with sentiment that there's no need for hyphenated citizenship, in name or ideology. The Statue of Liberty's "Give me your tired, your poor..." poem ("The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus) is pretty clear.

But I also recognize that's not necessarily a mainstream opinion these days. And I'll leave it there to avoid slipping into politics.

An 1883 poem on an 1886 statue...since we're listing dates. 

The Age of Reason/Enlightenment certainly influenced some of the 'founding fathers' and their outlooks, and I probably should have said Judeo-Christian, which is a little more inclusive.
 
Deism - the idea of "the existence of a creator god who established the universe and its natural laws, but does not intervene in the world after creation" (Google AI) was definitely influenced by the logic/rational approach at the time.

As always, the pendulum swung back to Romanticism "an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century and flourished until the mid-19th century. It was a reaction against the Age of Enlightenment's emphasis on reason and order, valuing instead emotion, imagination, individualism, and the appreciation of nature." (Google AI)

[Hopscotch]

What the individual Founders thought about religion they made irrelevant - through the Bill of Rights - to the Constitutional governing system they set up.  What is dangerous to religious or any other freedom is too many voters' happy ignorance of the Constitution w/Amendments.  And human beings' apparent natural authoritarian - or fascist - tendency.