“We like the book a lot but want to tone down the ‘fight’ message.”

We were talking to an editor at a major conservative publishing house about the book that would eventually become “Stolen Youth,” a book we hoped to write that would trace just how early leftist indoctrination targets children from every direction.

We felt like we had clicked with the editor, that she understood the project, and so, we sat there stunned as she told us that our book, about how parents should fight back against that indoctrination should feature a little less fighting back.

We were pitching the book in the spring of 2021, during a touchy time for conservative publishing imprints.

Abigail Shrier’s book, “Irreversible Damage,” about the social contagion of transgender ideation affecting teenage girls across America, had recently been pulled from Target, and Amazon was considering doing the same.

Amazon had already removed a 2019 book by Ryan T. Anderson “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment.” Several Amazon employees quit when Shrier’s book was reinstated on the site.