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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

#321

Post by userbinator »

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…

The most disturbing thing about this phenomenon is its encouragement to essentially attempt to destroy and rewrite history. I am more offended by that than anything else. The past may not have been very nice to certain groups, but it is what it is --- a historical artifact to learn from and remember. The other comments here comparing it to the Cultural Revolution are very relevant.

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

#322

Post by markdog12 »

dmix wrote: post #259
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…

And you get downvoted on HN for even mentioning “slippery slope”.

Didn't you get the memo? They cancelled it. They don't want you thinking that now.

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

#323

Post by fortran77 »

divbzero wrote: post #258
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…

Hop on Pop is also a good one, great for learning phonemes.

Hop on Pop is a disgusting book. It encourages violence against fathers.

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

#324

Post by mc32 »

ggggtez wrote: post #310
mc32 wrote: post #300

I don't fully understand this move by eBay. They let people sell the books without problem. Then the rights holder withdrew the IP from circulation (their right) and then SUDDENLY and simultaneously eBay arrived at the same conclusion as the rights holder? Like overnight they came to the same realization? I don’t get the problem with the Asian depiction (apparently the eyes are problematic). But looking at block prin…

I get the vague impression that Dr. Seuss' estate asked eBay to do this, but maybe we'll never know.

Imagine if Kanye or the estate of Biggie Smalls or Pat Benatar, Springsteen or whoever said, eh, you know I denounce my music. I take it back. Stop playing it. Take it off the radio, internet, boot sales, flea markets, used music stores...

Is that reasonable?

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

#325

Post by sriku »

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…

I don't know these books, but I was wondering that given they are for children, couldn't they instead serve to initiate critical thinking about race bias?

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

#326

Post by djsbak »

legitster wrote: post #106

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…

1. I can’t read to my kids what I cannot buy (libraries are closed and my younger kid rips books)

2. Publications should automatically enter the public domain when the publisher looses interest in re-printing them.

I’ve thought of this for a long time when i had to fork out $200 for a thermo text long out of print that my professor preferred. Most research groups had a copy they’d pass onto the next batch of grad students, but I joined a new group.

This just reinforces my belief. (Also I despise Disney’s abusive copyright prolonging tactics)

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

#327

Post by djoldman »

slibhb wrote: post #301

It has to be made clear that this isn't about legality. It's also not about whether this "technically qualifies" as "banning" or "censorship". It's about what kind of society we want to live in. I want to live in an open society. I want to be able to watch movies and read books that offend people. I want to be my own censor and I want everybody to be their own censor. We're grown-ups, we can make decisions like this…

Not trying to be snarky but there are I believe more than enough stores happy to sell you whatever you want, even though eBay won't allow these books to be listed.

I'm confused as to how eBay banning the listing of these books materially impacts people from getting them.

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

#328

Post by eevilspock »

userbinator wrote: post #321
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…

The most disturbing thing about this phenomenon is its encouragement to essentially attempt to destroy and rewrite history. I am more offended by that than anything else. The past may not have been very nice to certain groups, but it is what it is --- a historical artifact to learn from and remember. The other comments here comparing it to the Cultural Revolution are very relevant.

History by its nature is always a rewriting of history.

History to-date has been dominated by a white supremacist rewrite, so now there is an attempt to write corrections to that.

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

#329

Post by yew »

robomartin wrote: post #274

This is getting bad, really bad. It reminds me of this poem by Martin Niemöller: --------- First they came for the Communists. And I did not speak out. Because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Socialists. And I did not speak out. Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists. And I did not speak out. Because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews. And I did not sp…

If the ideology that produced these books survives to take power, we will have failed as a society. But I'm not worried - we're better positioned than ever to hunt error to the farthest corners of the world, if need be.

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

#330

Post by throwaway0a5e »

major505 wrote: post #96

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…

>I don't know any culture that banned books independent of their content that people didn't regret in the future.

A lot of the most enthusiastic book burners get caught up in the intermediary events and don't make it to the regret phase.

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