I have forgotten where I first heard about the attempt to edit Roald Dahl’s books. I just remember it made me angry. So, I was relieved to read the following: Penguin Realizes Vandalizing Roald Dahl Books Is A Bad Idea by Nina Bookout. Her is how that post starts.
Suddenly, vandalizing Roald Dahl books was a bad idea. Penguin issued a major mea culpa after worldwide backlash.
Before I get into the mea culpa, what was all the hubbub about? Well, a progressively woke group got together with Penguin’s subsidiary, Puffin and members of Roald Dahl’s estate. You see, some of the WORDS and PHRASES in his books were triggering and had to be changed in order to not hurt anyone’s feelings.
Penguin Realizes Vandalizing Roald Dahl Books Is A Bad Idea
Here is the comment I left.
I like what David Burge said. “Here’s an idea: instead of making sure old books are “suitable for modern readers,” how about making sure modern readers are suitable for old books.”
What irked me the most is that the censorship fanatics accused Ronald Dahl of antisemitism. Too often the politically correct try to justify themselves by screaming “racism,” but the examples they gave — their quotes of Ronald Dahl — could have come from any Liberal trying to justify their support for the PLO instead of Israel. It was that lame.
I am over seventy. I have enough experience to recognize language inappropriate for children. I have read some of Dahl’s books to my grandchildren, and they love them. Because they are imaginative, entertaining and funny, adults enjoy reading them to children. That makes it easy for us to do the right thing and read to our children.
Here is some advice for the censors. You don’t like what someone else wrote or said? Then try to write or say something better. When we censor others, we don’t fix or repair anything. Instead, we perform an act as evil and inexcusable as any written words or speech we might condemn. If you cannot write or say something better, then don’t screw up the works of your betters.
https://victorygirlsblog.com/penguin-realizes-vandalizing-roald-dahl-books-is-a-bad-idea/#comment-722427
Citizen Tom 
I love your comment “how about making sure modern readers are suitable for old books.” This is so true and needed!
Yay, deciding NOT to edit a book and make it more politically correct is really good news! It’s also healthy to read stuff to children that might provoke some discussion and critical thinking. We’re not supposed to just feed their minds oatmeal 24/7.
Recently on Twitter someone posted a picture of a poster announcing the selling of slaves, allegedly a historical document. What was kind of neat was that Twitter posted a reader feedback announcement citing some issues, like how the font it was written in wasn’t invented until the 1940’s. The date on the poster would not have been a Tuesday. A similar document was found to have been used in a movie. I though this was pretty cool, a vast improvement over their prior knee jerk censoring, where one would be suspended and blocked for even questioning such a poster.
No one was denying that slavery happened, they were objecting to using a fictional movie poster as evidence of why one should support a certain modern political cause, and they were heard by Big tech, they were allowed to voice their concerns.
I’m telling you, I almost cried. I was so delighted to see this shift in censorship, I can’t even remember what the political debate was about.
The reaction to the poster definitely an improvement. Frankly, I am puzzled as to why Twitter has to something like that. It has to cost the company money to employ people to do that. If it isn’t illegal or a public safety issue, readers she be able to handle it.
Great news! She is correct. Teach kids how to handle things they don’t like. The woke culture is harming our ability to cope.