Live data from Hacker News

Dr. Seuss books deemed offensive will be delisted from eBay

wsj.com

121–130 of 1001 posts

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

#121
post #29

What bothers me is the speed with which this process - "accused -> convinced -> executed" happens. We are not discussing things anymore. Today, you could tweet any accusations, and, no matter how ridiculous they look at first, it will lead to a race of who is taking them most seriously. Something definitely is broken. Look at what happened to the "okay". 4chan forced that meme 5 years ago in what they thought is a mi…

>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…

We're not talking about Dr. Seuss Enterprises though. We're talking about eBay (and soon booksellers and libraries) banning books. Also a few schools outright disavowing Dr. Seuss all together. eBay is currently selling hundreds of other items with more shocking imagery than this, so there is also some weird signaling going on here. Oh I get it, this time around the book bans are probably justified. But you don't need to be an alarmist or conspiracy theorist to want to be just a little more cautious with this kind of stuff. You can also support removing racist images and still worry about setting a dangerous precedent.

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

#123
Ebay's existing "offensive materials policy":

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/prohibited-restricted-ite...

They already banned nazi memorabilia, confederate flags, "minstrel" type memorabilia, etc.

[edit: You will note this comment contains no editorializing or opinion whatsoever, it is supplying some context with a link. It doesn't say if I think it's a good idea or not to have that policy, just the fact that ebay already had a policy on offensie materials, under which already things like nazi memorabilia were banned, which to me seems relevant. That this comment is getting downvoted shows... something?]

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

#124
post #81

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."

Even if I loved the company, this would probably be a tipping point of some kind. Hypothetically, if I didn't quit in a comparable situation, I'd gradually resent the company to the point where I'd become sufficiently unproductive enough to be fired. How are you thinking about it?

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

#125

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…

The Seuss books being removed aren't Green Eggs & Ham: they're the older racist books that Seuss apologized for later.

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

#126
post #81

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."

For those that don't already consider the Slippery Slope Fallacy a fallacy.

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

#127
post #29

What bothers me is the speed with which this process - "accused -> convinced -> executed" happens. We are not discussing things anymore. Today, you could tweet any accusations, and, no matter how ridiculous they look at first, it will lead to a race of who is taking them most seriously. Something definitely is broken. Look at what happened to the "okay". 4chan forced that meme 5 years ago in what they thought is a mi…

[deleted]

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

#128
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For some 'fun' just search for 'is x racist'. What o-word are you referring to, ordinary? ok? https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/04/air-pollutio...

I assumed "oriental"?

Makes perfect sense, thanks. I don't remember the last time I heard anyone say that so it didn't come to mind.

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

#129
post #75

My work sent out a memo today regarding what pronouns I'm allowed to use. We're in the middle of a cultural revolution, and the current trend seems to be for rapid acceleration rather than moderation.

It’s been steady progression for a while. Welcome to the struggle, lol.

The only bright side is that the people on other side are really incompetent. The gender studies degrees have no meaning when power goes out and sink is backed up.

Most people play along because they think it’s their kids play acting to progressive ideals. They will get rude awakening when the little progs come for their heads.

This will play out like it has in the past and this cycle will repeat again in the future. History doesn’t repeat, but people don’t change and they will make exact same mistakes again.

Look into rise and fall of civilizations throughout history, US is right on schedule.

Start learning Chinese, it will come handy one day, lol.

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

#130
I haven’t seen these books since I was a kid. Does anyone know of, or where I can find the specific examples from each book, and what people find offensive? I’m really curious to the specifics here.

On this same topic, I recently rewatched Aladdin, on Disney plus and was surprised that it was prefaced with a ‘social justice’ disclaimer. They said they wouldn’t take it down, but warned it might be offensive.

Ok, so we prepared to ourselves be offended, and yet I wasn’t. The movie holds up, and was really enjoyable! I’m not really sure what the issue was? I guess the depiction of Arab people is the issue, but I couldn’t find anything particularly egregious.

Post reply on HN