Glenn Reynolds heard that “bookstore employees tend to ‘hide’ politically incorrect books” and with no proof aside from an anonymous message board post (quick, call Dan Rather!) extends that slur to all bookstore employees. My response to him:
I’m about as left as they come, and I worked in bookstores and distributors throughout the Reagan and GHW Bush eras, which were highly polarized times. Your view on bookstore employees — in general — is baseless. What people who run bookstores believe in more than almost anything else is the freedom of speech, something that those of you on the right don’t seem to understand.
If leftist book goons were actually hiding books by right-wing authors, how did Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Hannity, Scarborough, Coulter, Savage and their ilk sell so damn many books throughout the last decade? It’s not like the New York Times has been keeping them off of the bestseller lists.
You accuse “Borders employees” of bragging about hiding Unfit for Command. Do you mean all Borders employees? Or just one person who posted an anonymous note? Are you implying that conservatives are too stupid to work in bookstores and that they might not do the same thing?