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Amazon refuses to sell book on Covid-19 and lockdowns

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Re: Amazon refuses to sell book on Covid-19 and lockdowns

#171
post #139
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> * We need to preserve the supply of surgical masks for at-risk healthcare workers. Do hospitals get their stocks from hardware stores in boxes of ten? As much as I've seen, they buy from large distributors who prioritize government agencies and often don't serve individual consumers at all.

Many sent people to hardware stores etc to buy masks.

No doubt, but knowing how much PPE my local hospital goes through in a week, it's difficult to believe that hardware stores etc would any significant impact on PPE availability. The most commonly sold type (FFP1) isn't even allowed in hospital settings.

Re: Amazon refuses to sell book on Covid-19 and lockdowns

#172

There’s a difference between censorship and a book publisher deciding they don’t want to publish or sell a book. This appears to be a case of the later. He’s free to print and distribute his book, but no private company is under any obligation to help him in that endeavor.

Once they publisher reaches near monopoly status this is censorship.

Amazon is insignificant as a book publisher. They could have a near monopoly on selling books, but even that is unlikely.

Re: Amazon refuses to sell book on Covid-19 and lockdowns

#173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once they publisher reaches near monopoly status this is censorship.

What? I'd be shocked if Amazon even published a majority of books sold. There is no way they are monopoly or even close. I looked and couldn't find reliable stats on it. Does anyone else have any?

What about eBooks?

Re: Amazon refuses to sell book on Covid-19 and lockdowns

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least two of those links had nuanced reasons that matched the parent's remarks. One even literately had a three point explanation: * There is no scientific evidence they are effective in reducing the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission * Their use may result in those wearing the masks to relax other distancing efforts because they have a sense of protection * We need to preserve the supply of surgical masks for at-ris…

> There is no scientific evidence they are effective in reducing the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission It's a disease spread by exhaled droplets. How the heck could masks _not_ work? Why has common sense, as an acceptable way to obtain knowledge, died in the general public?

It's explained in point two. We're talking about large quantities of people here. Technically mask blocks droplets. But if you tell everyone to use a mask, does it reduce transmission on average?

Re: Amazon refuses to sell book on Covid-19 and lockdowns

#176
post #125
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The CDC and WHO both at various times recommended against the general public wearing masks. https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/4/13/21214114/media-coronavi... This advice was wrong. It is not just sick people that benefit from wearing masks. It is not true that people are flattening that into "masks don't work". Masks don't work was repeated many, many times by these organizations. Here's an example: https://www.cidrap.…

I'm not sure about "severe consequences". If you compare Switzerland (where, although the government now recommends masks in public transport at least but almost nobody does wear a mask) and Austria (where wearing masks while shopping/in public transport etc was made mandatory when the restrictions were eased), you don't see much of a difference in the amount of new cases. I do believe masks work and I do wear one wh…

Quite frankly, I'm surprised there hasn't been an uptick in cases here in Switzerland. At least in the city where I live, few people wear masks on public transit or in grocery stores and virtually no one seems to do so in restaurants or cafes. Social distancing also doesn't seem to be diligently observed by many/most people. It's quite possible that there are so few infected people that it will be enough to contain the spread, especially with fewer people commuting in general, but I'm not exactly confident in the safety of this strategy.

Re: Amazon refuses to sell book on Covid-19 and lockdowns

#177
post #2

After a half hour long conversation with my neighbor last week of him trying to convince me that Bill Gates is behind coronavirus, please, for the love of our future, continue banning information that is blatantly put up on a bad faith basis. It's exhausting to see my mom and dad succumb to a new conspiracy every other day. I don't see how else we can curb this other than for the tech companies to start aggressively…

I never get this. Why does Bill Gates need to inject people to track them when we're all carrying cell phones which provide far more data including much more refined location data than you could get will an implant.

Just saying, if you're going to have a conspiracy, there's a much better one to use as your basis.

Re: Amazon refuses to sell book on Covid-19 and lockdowns

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does he think bill gates is behind COVID? That's a new one I have not seen yet.

I believe the story goes that Bill Gates created COVID-19 to force people to accept microchip implants that will then be used to control their minds.

I heard it was to track them. No body tell them about cell phones...

Re: Amazon refuses to sell book on Covid-19 and lockdowns

#179

I wonder why he hasn't used his freedom of speech to make the text of his pamphlet freely available on his own website, instead of depending on a publisher to carry it. Granted, it would be harder to monetize this speech, that way. He'd have to find a payment provider, take payments directly, et cetera. But I don't see why those ancillaries should detract from upholding a principle that clearly means so much to him.

He's not asking a lot of money for it, and he put in the work. People still gotta eat man. Maybe not this guy with his backing and work and I'm sure he has plenty of money, but to answer your point, other people who have been censored have released their materials for free. Take for example the book "Nobody Died at Sandyhook"

From what I'm reading, I haven't purchased it, seems to be the length of an article or blog post. Seems like selling a "chapter" of a "book".

Re: Amazon refuses to sell book on Covid-19 and lockdowns

#180
> So as a libertarian, it pains me to say, I would encourage and welcome anti-trust investigations into big tech platforms such as Amazon, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft and Apple.

What you mean to say is you’re not a libertarian.

You have a relationship with Amazon which previously consisted of voluntary, mutually beneficial exchanges. Amazon determined the exchanges were no longer beneficial and elected to stop. You wanted to continue, and so you invite the full might of government to threaten to destroy Amazon (but not actually destroy them cause then you wouldn’t get what you want.) You pull in Facebook and Google and try to make a larger argument to obfuscate the fact that you are a very unprincipled libertarian.

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