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I don't think I'm being hyperbolic at all. Also
It was required reading for me in English class, way back as a freshman in highschool. Lord of the Rings is every bit a part of the western cannon as many classics. And it probably had a larger cultural impact than many as well.
But back to the defense of my hyperbole. Look, even a year ago I'd agree with you. Then a bunch of Dr Seuss books got unpublished more thoroughly than I thought possible. Ebay wouldn't let people "profit off racism" and delisted them. Amazon did the same. Libraries pulled them. They will never be printed again, and are blacklisted from all the largest markets.
Knowing this can be done, I fear what happens next. Because at this point it's impossible to believe all this censoring isn't a slippery slope. Cloudflare banned The Daily Stormer and promised to never do it again. Then they did it again with 8Chan. Then they promised they absolutely wouldn't do it again with Kiwifarms, and in fact regretted doing it with Stormer and 8Chan. Then they did it again with Kiwifarms.
It's basically a given all but the most milquetoast, middle of the road republicans will be banned from Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. And even the Ben Shapiro's of the world are on notice.
Blizzard straight up took away people's original versions of Warcraft III and replaced them with a far shittier version. That was the first time a "remaster" straight up replaced the original in your digital game library. I believe Eidos followed suit, then chickened out when people complained. But the day where that is the norm is coming.
It's completely impossible to get a legitimate, good copy of the original Star Wars Trilogy, and that was just Lucasfilm, and now Disney, straight up giving zero fucks and only feeling like publishing the adulterated version, which seems to continue to be adulterated with every release.
Disney permanently memory holed the Michael Jackson episode of The Simpsons from streaming, syndication and even DVD box sets.
I have zero faith that any of this will suddenly halt and reverse course. I believe absolutely that this will continue, and probably accelerate in pure spite if Republicans start winning offices in numbers again. I believe many works risk being lost forever, or becoming so extremely marginalized they are like Song of the South, or the Star Wars Christmas Special. Or the lost episodes of Dr Who. Or all the silent films which were lost when studios decided to just chuck em. Supposedly Cleopatra from 1917 was an amazing film. It's lost forever.
All this has happened before, and it can happen again. I used to believe "The internet never forgets". But as I actually attempted to find things I assumed had to be out there somewhere I found myself coming up empty. And that was, I assume, completely without this ascendant force of digital monopolist and cultural vandals purposely attempting to memory hole things.
Alas, the pirates will probably be the ones to keep such things alive.
Maybe! But how long until the open and neutral infrastructure of the internet turns against them? How long until DNS, ISPs and even VPNs decide pirates are engaging in "spreading hate" and more aggressively hunting them.
What you say? Surely not VPNs! Their whole advertising pitch is keeping you safe from the watchful eyes of your ISP. Why the hell not? Google's motto used to be "Don't be evil". What a difference time makes.
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