Censorship Almost Always Exempts the Rich and Powerful

Did some research on the history of censorship going back to 1580. Found the same dynamic repeated over and over -- the methods and targets of censorship imply that the rich can handle misinformation, porn, unpopular truths and the actual horrors of war but those same things must be hidden or denied to low income families.

We have all been told that in Shakespeare's era women were not allowed to perform in stage plays. And that was true but only for public performances. But simultaneously, inside the monarchy, uncensored works were performed and female roles were performed by Mary Sydney and others, possibly Queen Elizabeth herself.

From 1560 to 1966 the Vatican maintained Index Librorum Prohibitorum, a list of works which the faithful were to be denied access to. The idea being that the clergy (Bishops and above) could read these works because they were incorruptible but lower classes were perceived as vulnerable and therefore in need of protection from thoughts and information. Owing to a 'Streisand effect', this list became a guide to the more thought provoking publications of the 17th and 18th centuries and, paradoxically, reading the list itself was then banned (!)

Outrageously illustrating my point about the class dynamics of censorship:

Markedly absent from the Index Librorum Prohibitorum was Adolf Hitler's book Mein Kampf. After gaining access to the Vatican Apostolic Archive church historian Hubert Wolf discovered that Mein Kampf had been studied for three years but the Holy Office decided that it should not go on the Index because the author was a head of state.