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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

#261

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…

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

#262
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately your only choices today are this or overt neo-Naziism. You have to stake out the most extreme, divisive, fanatical position possible. If you try to be nuanced and rational you get attacked by both sides. I think social media has a lot to do with it. We created a global communication medium and then programmed it to prioritize the most "engaging" content, which is of course the most triggering and contro…

Why not be attacked by both sides? Why not live your morals and not desire to be in a group?

It's tiring.

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

#263
post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

They're not racist - they're books with caricatures of any number of cultures, including Western cultures. It's possible people could be offended, but they're not any more offensive than any creative depiction of anything (Edit: poor choice of words there - they are more offensive than 'anything' but not more so than many things). All of Disney's films, even the most modern one's are caricatured articulations of cult…

I don't understand your point. Aladdin is mildly offensive, so it's ok that Dr. Seuss was really offensive? I have those books, and the drawings in them are straight up offensive, for all individuals that are not white.

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

#264
post #119

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.

Yup. The adults in the room should have nipped this crap in the bud but instead they entertained it. Now it’s a much bigger problem to solve. Check out SFUSD renaming racists schools like “Lincoln High”. Eventually parents had start a recall effort to end it.

Counterpoint: I graduated from a university still named after the confederacy that held "slave auction" fundraisers all the way into the 80s. I think it's easy to downplay how pervasive racism still is in America, and to imagine that hypersensitivity is the result of "fragility" instead of "constant exposure".

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

#265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you are not. A substantial majority of people consider this foolish Just think of it as a weird entertainment show that doesn’t have to be rational. There are crazies in all historical eras; the various social justice people are ours :)

> A substantial majority of people consider this foolish [citation needed]. While ebay banning them may be a bit much, I don't know anyone IRL who is upset that Dr. Seuss's B-list books with offensive stereotypes are no longer being sold.

And I haven't heard anyone I've met in person argue in favor of the banning, and earlier (before the ebay thing) someone I know irl (well, haven't seen them in person in a while, but I still talk to them frequently) complained about the unpublication, and I warned against overreacting about it (now, hearing the ebay thing, I do think the ebay thing is indicative of something which is a somewhat larger concern).

(I've only spoken to one person I've met irl about the topic. It is likely that others other people I know would have a variety of different opinions on it, if it were brought up, but the topic didn't come up when we spoke recently.)

Do our anecdotes cancel out?

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

#266
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."

Well, I'm deeply offended that someone has called me "cisgendered male". Can you folks stop using terms I have not agreed to also?

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

#267

I don't know any culture that banned books independent of their content that people didn't regret in the future. A few months ago I was reading about schools banning the book "To Kill a Mockingbird" because it contains basically the "n" word. I'm not american, and and havent read that book. I watched the movie, through, and it seemed to me to be a very anti racism message. I think instead of banning, schools should w…

The word you are referring to is nigger. It’s a bad word that can be very offensive. It’s horrible to use it in a derogatory way, but I feel that it’s ridiculous in at least halfway intelligent conversation no one white even dare ever write it, let alone say it.

As if white people have enforced themselves to just pretend the word has magic powers and it is the one who shall not be named.

That’s giving an enormous amount of power over people who want to control language in a inherently racist way (your skin color determines your ability to say a word).

I refuse to accept that this amount of power extends to typing the word as a discussion of it.

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

#268
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…

The speed is part of the point. What better way to signal that you're part of the woke agenda than to be one of the first movers only a few days after the publisher made their announcement? It's like all the sycophants tripping over themselves to be the first to compliment their dear leader.

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

#269
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately your only choices today are this or overt neo-Naziism. You have to stake out the most extreme, divisive, fanatical position possible. If you try to be nuanced and rational you get attacked by both sides. I think social media has a lot to do with it. We created a global communication medium and then programmed it to prioritize the most "engaging" content, which is of course the most triggering and contro…

Why not be attacked by both sides? Why not live your morals and not desire to be in a group?

You're subscribing to a life of pain. Maybe some can weather that storm, but most can't.

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

#270
post #252
post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you are not familiar with eBay's existing policies, but this seems to fall well in line with their prior behavior. From their official policy [1]: >Listings that promote, perpetuate or glorify hatred, violence, or discrimination, including on the grounds of race, ethnicity, color, religion, gender or sexual orientation, aren't allowed. This includes but is not limited to the following: ... >Items with racist, a…

Why is Mein Kampf available then?

As others have pointed out in this thread and is seemingly confirmed with a simple search of listings, eBay appears to only allows annotated versions of Mein Kampf which are meant for scholarly work. There is a historic value to those that doesn't exist for a Dr. Seuss book. And as the article points out, books that have a lower degree of historical significance like The Turner Diaries are removed.

Also let's not pretend that these moderation policies are foolproof. There are always going to be examples that slip through the cracks. If you want eBay to remove them for sake of consistency, you are free to report those items.

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