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Dr. Seuss books deemed offensive will be delisted from eBay

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Re: Dr. Seuss books deemed offensive will be delisted from eBay

#101

Post by ojnabieoot »

nerdponx wrote: post #51
replwoacause wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>We are not discussing things anymore. Sure we are. There has been discussion. Just because you weren't involved in it, which is natural since I doubt you work for Dr. Seuss Enterprises, doesn't mean it didn't take place. The onus is on them to protect Dr. Seuss' legacy and it is important to change with the times. This is not the first time something like this has happened and it won't be the last. There are plenty…

If you can sell Nazi memorabilia on Ebay, you should be able to sell a Dr. Seuss book that happens to contain an offensive stereotype on Ebay.

You cannot sell Nazi memorabilia on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/prohibited-restricted-ite...

While there is a grey area around general German WW2 artifacts, including those associated with the Nazi government, eBay explicitly disallows Nazi propaganda. It has a blanket ban on any item with a swastika that was made after 1933.

While some are going around to “point out” Mein Kampf can be bought on eBay, eBay only allows critically-annotated copies designed for scholars.

Re: Dr. Seuss books deemed offensive will be delisted from eBay

#102

Post by unityByFreedom »

supernova87a wrote: post #55

Now this part is getting a little too carried away. It is one thing for libraries and bookstores to decide not to offer for borrowing or sale things that they disagree with. It is another (and overstepping imo) for Ebay to restrict individual people from selling to others goods that are not illegal or in violation of their other practical rules (no selling jewelry, monetary equivalents, etc). This falls into the cate…

> It is one thing for libraries and bookstores to decide not to offer for borrowing or sale things that they disagree with.

Ebay is a private merchant. They can choose what to list too. Maybe this presents a copyright problem with clones, we don't know.

I found the books by googling the title and PDF because I was curious about why they were removed. Curiosity satisifed and I still love Dr. Seuss.

Re: Dr. Seuss books deemed offensive will be delisted from eBay

#103

Post by question000 »

jaimex2 wrote: post #73

If you want to send a clear message to eBay you can close your account here. https://www.ebay.com.au/help/account/changing-account-settin... It should not be up to them what is and isn't offensive. I did the same to Netflix last year. Money talks at the end of the day.

I'm just so offended that you would economically harm all the good people working at EBay due to political stances they might not even agree with. People are so reactionary these days. This is the real cancel culture.

Re: Dr. Seuss books deemed offensive will be delisted from eBay

#104

Post by leshenka »

chroem- wrote: post #81
abhorrence wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With what pronouns you're allowed to use to describe yourself? Or what pronouns you're allowed to use to describe others?

I am no longer allowed to refer to my group of cisgendered male companions as "you guys."

What? why?

How should you call them now?

Re: Dr. Seuss books deemed offensive will be delisted from eBay

#105

Post by viklove »

maxerickson wrote: post #52
beervirus wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't need a company to tell me what books I'm allowed to read to my kids.

They aren't though. Does every company that published any book have a responsibility to continue publishing them forever? Of course not.

Ebay isn't publishing anything. It costs more for them to censor these listings than it does for them to leave them up.

Re: Dr. Seuss books deemed offensive will be delisted from eBay

#106

Post by legitster »

I think nearly every reasonable person agrees:

- Particular illustrations have not aged well

- The content itself nor Dr. Seuss can be accused of malice

- The offending content is not really a high risk of perpetrating future malice

- It's completely within the right of the publisher to not want to profit from these books anymore

But at no point did it seem like anyone made the point that you can't read or enjoy the book with your kids!

I think the mistake was the publisher should have just slapped a statement in the beginning, or better yet, just released them all into the public domain. Instead, it seems like they unwittingly triggered an unwritten social infrastructure we have created called "cancellation".

Re: Dr. Seuss books deemed offensive will be delisted from eBay

#107

Post by Pfhreak »

CodeGlitch wrote: post #65

The modern version of book burning? Are the people enacting this too cowardly to stand up to "the mob". What a strange time we live in.

What hyperbole. The publisher decided to stop publishing a book. Ebay decided to enforce their TOS that has been in place all over. It's hardly book burning.

Edit: Also, you know there are Americans out there actually burning books like the Quran, right? No need to be outraged over slippery slope fallacious "book burning" when you could spend that energy on cases where real actual book burning has taken place.

Re: Dr. Seuss books deemed offensive will be delisted from eBay

#108

Post by snicksnak »

jeffreyrogers wrote: post #62

About 5 years ago a friend of mine was saying, "yeah, it's bad at the universities but it doesn't affect the real world." Pretty funny how quickly things accelerated. I'd like to get off this ride.

This hypersensitivity all started at universities. Eventually those bubble-wrapped students will enter the workforce and eventually will end up in higher positions in HR or PR departments driving those decisions. No surprise there.

Re: Dr. Seuss books deemed offensive will be delisted from eBay

#109

Post by refenestrator »

chroem- wrote: post #81
abhorrence wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With what pronouns you're allowed to use to describe yourself? Or what pronouns you're allowed to use to describe others?

I am no longer allowed to refer to my group of cisgendered male companions as "you guys."

I've referred to entirely-female groups of people as "you guys". It seemed like a better bet than "hey ladies", and I'm not southern enough to pull off "y'all".

Re: Dr. Seuss books deemed offensive will be delisted from eBay

#110

Post by m463 »

eric4smith wrote: post #70

A bit off-topic, but I use Green Eggs and Ham to help teach my friends English here in Asia. It works pretty well, since there is quite a limited vocabulary. And it's pretty magical! I can have someone reading aloud from the book quite fluently, with extremely limited english skills, after only a few hours. The other part is, because of the superior illustration skills of the author, people quickly understand the dif…

Green Eggs and Ham also teaches people to try new things.

Next try Fox in Socks - that is some next-level elucidation.

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