An event that could recall the worst hours in history. In the heart of Missouri, local senators reportedly organized a book burning representing the “liberal woke agenda.” In a post published on Sunday and viewed thousands of times since, we see several men with flamethrowers destroying a pile of boxes where we see what appear to be books. These men would even be senators. “They think flamethrowers should be legal, but history books should be destroyed,” the publication says.
The publication poses several questions. Were there actually books in the boxes? Are these men really representatives of the State? And was their intention really to burn books deemed too progressive? 20 minutes tells you more.
FAKE OFF
In the video, two men are in the center of the small crowd sheltered under a pergola. It’s about by Nick Schorer And Bill Eigel, both senators for the Republican party. The first is also a lawyer and the second an Air Force veteran. The scene was filmed at the Charles County Freedom Fest fundraiser on Friday, September 15. On X (formerly Twitter), the two representatives denied having burned these books. “In the video, I throw a flamethrower at cardboard boxes representing what I am going to do to left-wing politicians and corruption,” replied Bill Eigel, adding a video from another angle. From this point of view, in fact, we see no books but only piles of cardboard.
“Bill Eigel and I burned a pile of empty boxes to help raise funds,” confirmed Nick Schorer to respond to the accusations of journalist Howard Fineman. On Monday, he tweeted: “Read your history books before these American Nazis burn them.” The senator replied for his part that he only wanted to stir up hatred and divide by imagining false news.
Books banned because they are deemed “inappropriate”
If these books were not actually burned, the senators do not completely refute the idea. “Let me be clear, you are bringing these woke pornographic books into Missouri schools to try to brainwash our children, and I will burn them too – on the lawn of the governor’s mansion,” added Senator Bill Eigel, still on his X account.
This remark is not insignificant, especially not in the state of Missouri where in October 2022, a law was passed banning sexually explicit material in schools and books deemed “inappropriate”. In all, nearly 300 books were removed from Missouri libraries that same year, reports the media Education Week. Among them we find graphic novels like Batman or X-men or books on the Holocaust, but also on the Bible. But the majority mainly concerns texts written by LGBTQ+ or racialized people, underline several American media. According to the American Library Association, among the thirteen books the most reported, half are LGBTQ+ content.