Book Burning in America

[Roofgardener]

Well, OK.. not really.. no books have actually been BURN.. yet. But.....

Doctor Seuss Enterprises has withdrawn six Dr Seuss books from sale, on the grounds that they where 'racially insensitive imagery'.
Yup.. the Cat in the Hat was a White Nationalist Trumpist Quanon supporter all along !

Well, they have the legal right to do that. However, what happened NEXT is VERY interesting.
The value of those six books skyrocketed on Ebay. So Ebay finally responded by... delisting the books.
It is no longer possible to list any of the six books for sale in the USA. If you try more than once, your account can be penalised.

Now think about this. You can buy Mein Kampf, and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion on Ebay in the USA no problem.
But you aren't ALLOWED to buy "If I ran the zoo".

OK.. this is only six out of the many dozens of books by Dr Seuss.
At the moment.

Is it just me that finds this incredibly authoritarian ?

 

[MT15]

Yep, just you.

 

[RobF]

Well, OK.. not really.. no books have actually been BURN.. yet. But.....

Doctor Seuss Enterprises has withdrawn six Dr Seuss books from sale, on the grounds that they where 'racially insensitive imagery'.
Yup.. the Cat in the Hat was a White Nationalist Trumpist Quanon supporter all along !

Well, they have the legal right to do that. However, what happened NEXT is VERY interesting.
The value of those six books skyrocketed on Ebay. So Ebay finally responded by... delisting the books.
It is no longer possible to list any of the six books for sale in the USA. If you try more than once, your account can be penalised.

Now think about this. You can buy Mein Kampf, and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion on Ebay in the USA no problem.
But you aren't ALLOWED to buy "If I ran the zoo".

OK.. this is only six out of the many dozens of books by Dr Seuss.
At the moment.

Is it just me that finds this incredibly authoritarian ?

Private company chooses to stop selling an author's poorly selling, outdated, and offensive early books. Fine. Sensible, too.

Another private company chooses to stop selling those books on their platform in accordance with their offensive materials policy. Also fine.

The same policies also don't allow selling Mein Kampf or anti-Semitic material - https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/prohibited-restricted-items/offensive-material-policy?id=4324 - and this has been the case for some time. Listing do get removed accordingly.

So no, not even remotely in the region of authoritarian.

What's more concerning is the continuing and deliberate misrepresentation of private companies' commercial decisions and policies in order to further a divisive and false narrative about 'cancel culture', and the gullibility of people who fall for it.

 

[GMRfellowtraveller]

Your Kampf seems to be with understanding context and perspective

 

[samiam5211]

I am convinced that Dr.Seuss INC, made this as a business decision.

Now Dr Seuss is a woke hero and a cancel culture martyr.

Well played Seuss.

 

[xpuma20x]

I'm more outraged about Ebay allowing PS5 resellers to bot up all the consoles and raise the price 3-4xs original, creating their own little monopoly, than I am with them not allowing these Dr. Seuss books per the request of the estate.

 

[Sandman]

Authoritarian: favoring or enforcing strict obedience to authority, especially that of the government, at the expense of personal freedom.

This was Doctor Seuss Enterprises doing this on their own as a way to remove dated and racially insensitive material to protect Dr. Seuss's legacy going forward. This is personal freedom being exercised. Show me how that in any way falls within the definition of "authoritarian."

 

[Xeno]

Private company chooses to stop selling an author's poorly selling, outdated, and offensive early books. Fine. Sensible, too.

Another private company chooses to stop selling those books on their platform in accordance with their offensive materials policy. Also fine.

The same policies also don't allow selling Mein Kampf or anti-Semitic material - https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/prohibited-restricted-items/offensive-material-policy?id=4324 - and this has been the case for some time. Listing do get removed accordingly.

So no, not even remotely in the region of authoritarian.

What's more concerning is the continuing and deliberate misrepresentation of private companies' commercial decisions and policies in order to further a divisive and false narrative about 'cancel culture', and the gullibility of people who fall for it.

Seriously, when did the left and right make the switch on the rights of corporations? How can anyone call themselves Conservative if they can't even maintain a consistent belief system?

 

[SystemShock]

How can anyone call themselves Conservative if they can't even maintain a consistent belief system?

Um... nah

 

[Heathen]

Is it just me that finds this incredibly authoritarian ?

Free market capitalism. Isn't that what "makes this country great"?

 

[SaulGoodmanEsq]

This is really no different than Disney or Warner Brothers shelving some of their older works that have obvious racist undertones. As far as whether E-Bay should or should not shut down sales; I would assume it was at the behest of Doctor Seuss Enterprises.

 

[Frenchconnection]

Private company chooses to stop selling an author's poorly selling, outdated, and offensive early books. Fine. Sensible, too.

Another private company chooses to stop selling those books on their platform in accordance with their offensive materials policy. Also fine.

The same policies also don't allow selling Mein Kampf or anti-Semitic material - https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/prohibited-restricted-items/offensive-material-policy?id=4324 - and this has been the case for some time. Listing do get removed accordingly.

So no, not even remotely in the region of authoritarian.

What's more concerning is the continuing and deliberate misrepresentation of private companies' commercial decisions and policies in order to further a divisive and false narrative about 'cancel culture', and the gullibility of people who fall for it.

Funny, love capitalism when it suits you. Nobody is completely useless, they can be used as a bad example, and banning books and history is setting up to repeat it. Do you really believe that the pendulum can only swing one direction? How about the deliberate misrepresentation that our place holder-n-chief is coherent? As for cancel culture comment, that's flat earth thinking.

 

[Xeno]

Funny, love capitalism when it suits you. Nobody is completely useless, they can be used as a bad example, and banning books and history is setting up to repeat it. Do you really believe that the pendulum can only swing one direction? How about the deliberate misrepresentation that our place holder-n-chief is coherent? As for cancel culture comment, that's flat earth thinking.

Funny that you hate capitalism when it doesn't suit you. Kindly explain to the class what government entity is banning books. The rest of your post is incoherent which I guess is some kind of irony.

 

[Roofgardener]

Authoritarian: favoring or enforcing strict obedience to authority, especially that of the government, at the expense of personal freedom.

This was Doctor Seuss Enterprises doing this on their own as a way to remove dated and racially insensitive material to protect Dr. Seuss's legacy going forward. This is personal freedom being exercised. Show me how that in any way falls within the definition of "authoritarian."

I could agree with that, though I hesitate to ban books. However, it was Ebay's decision to ban sales of the book that I find alarming. Consider this; the books could - from a certain perspective - be regarded as dangerous to 4-9 year old children. They could be influenced by the 'racist' nature of the images. (or at least, stereotyping). However, such people don't generally have access to Ebay purchasing (no credit or debit card). Only older young people (way beyond the reading age of the books) and ADULTS can easily buy stuff from Ebay.

So Ebay was blocking the sale to people who are easily able to judge for themselves the merit (or otherwise) of the books, and recognise (and not be taken in by) any 'offensive' racist images. So why block them ?

The bit about 'terms and conditions' doesn't hold. Ebay happily sells Mein Kampf and The Protocols of the Elders Of Zion. Or DOES it ? It certainly doesn't ban it in the UK, but then it doesn't ban Dr Seuss either. (I can happily buy "if I ran the Zoo"; one of the banned books).

Can anyone confirm whether Ebay (USA) has blocked these books ?

 

[RobF]

The bit about 'terms and conditions' doesn't hold. Ebay happily sells Mein Kampf and The Protocols of the Elders Of Zion. Or DOES it ? It certainly doesn't ban it in the UK

It certainly does in the UK. The same eBay policies apply. https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Arc...on-1939-version-of-the-book-Mein/td-p/5677644

Can anyone confirm whether Ebay (USA) has blocked these books ?

I already provided a link showing you they remove listings for them.

Is there a point at which you'll stop uncritically repeating misinformation you're finding elsewhere, and start questioning it yourself instead?

 

[Roofgardener]

It certainly does in the UK. The same eBay policies apply. https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Arc...on-1939-version-of-the-book-Mein/td-p/5677644


I already provided a link showing you they remove listings for them.

Is there a point at which you'll stop uncritically repeating misinformation you're finding elsewhere, and start questioning it yourself instead?

Thank you for your kind - and not at all rude - assistance , RobF.
I repeat: Mein Campf, and the Protocols (and the 'banned' Dr Seuss books) are freely available on Ebay in the UK. Now, is Mein Kampf and the Protocls availabe on Ebay USA ?

 

[RobF]

Thank you for your kind - and not at all rude - assistance , RobF.
I repeat: Mein Campf, and the Protocols (and the 'banned' Dr Seuss books) are freely available on Ebay in the UK. Now, is Mein Kampf and the Protocls availabe on Ebay USA ?

You can repeat it, but doing so, and misspelling it, doesn't change the fact that anti-Semitic and Nazi materials are restricted on eBay, and I've shown you eBay community postings showing you they do indeed remove listings accordingly. And that this applies to eBay in the UK, which has the same offensive materials policy as eBay in the USA, as I literally just told you in the post you're quoting.

Look. eBay USA:

Security Measure

www.ebay.com

eBay UK:

Security measure

www.ebay.co.uk

At this point it appears that you're so sold on the misinformation you've seen that you'll deny sourced, evidenced, reality, rather than accept that you've been misled.

And this isn't rude, any more than showing someone repeatedly insisting that "2+2=5" that "2+2=4" is rude. If it comes across that way, I'd suggest that's a reflection of the content of the quality of your post, rather than the response.

 

[insidejob]

appears

Appears?