Harari explains why he censored his book, but his excuses make little sense
Russians are used to lies. None of my friends were shocked when after last weekend’s massive clampdown on peaceful demonstrators in Moscow, state channels unleashed the usual barrage of propaganda blaming the protesters for violence. We know that Russian TV lies, even in its weather reports. But when disinformation recently flowed from best-selling author Yuval Noah Harari, Russians were outraged.
The Russian edition of Harari’s latest bestseller, 21 lessons for the 21st century, has been heavily censored, with many of the mentions of Vladimir Putin and Russia either removed or replaced with examples of other countries. Harari has admitted to greenlighting some of the changes and said he was surprised about others.
“The main consideration was to reach Russian readers with messages about the dangers of dictatorship, extreme nationalism and religious intolerance,” Hariri wrote in an article in Newsweek, justifying the censorship. “The purpose of examples is to clarify things. If an example creates barriers to understanding instead of clarity, it's best to replace that example,” Harari argued.
But preaching about the dangers of dictatorship and censorship while self-censoring the book makes a flimsy argument and one that Russians don’t buy. And anyway, doesn’t changing examples change the narrative itself?