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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

#391

Post by markdog12 »

yew wrote: post #329
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.

What ideology produced these books?

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

#392

Post by whatever10 »

hintymad wrote: post #347

I was wondering if Americans learned history of other countries in school. HN users or Americans in general probably think China is a totalitarian country, but even Chinese students are taught in both elementary and high schools, repeatedly, that an authoritarian regime always started with moralizing everything, always started with telling its citizens to hate their neighbors, and always told their citizens that misi…

Ah the typical authoritative propaganda “they are all the same, at least we have order”. No we don’t have in the US a non elected politburo making nationwide decisions on speech issues.

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

#393

Post by [deleted] »

whatever10 wrote: post #392
hintymad wrote: post #347

I was wondering if Americans learned history of other countries in school. HN users or Americans in general probably think China is a totalitarian country, but even Chinese students are taught in both elementary and high schools, repeatedly, that an authoritarian regime always started with moralizing everything, always started with telling its citizens to hate their neighbors, and always told their citizens that misi…

Ah the typical authoritative propaganda “they are all the same, at least we have order”. No we don’t have in the US a non elected politburo making nationwide decisions on speech issues.

[deleted]

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

#394

Post by beachy »

sossles wrote: post #173
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've read a few older books with my kids that contained mildly questionable things, like a boy saying that girls can't do certain things, but I much prefer having that awkward conversation about how things used to be, over tossing it all out and pretending things were never any different.

So true. I enjoy discussing parenting articles with our 8 year old.

Yesterday it was one about "yelling less and praising less" [0]. We had a great discussion about the concepts. Then some fun trying out faint praise and faint yelling.

I think discussing with kids how things used to be, and why we try and do things differently now, is super powerful - that notion of historical change helps kids think at a higher level. Yes, things were not always rosy, and they aren't even now.

[0] https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2021/03/hunt-gath...

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

#395

Post by raindropm »

Someone in the comment mention they care about how Chinese illustration portrayed in Dr. Seuss book.

Then I think about those old European drawing(in the age of colonialism) of Asian country around 1600s. So outrageous when you see it today. That is not how my country and people looks like! Should we ostracize those too?

Point is, I don't think everything is intentionally racist. Ok, sometimes it is, but many time it's just the limited understanding of different culture(and the rush of deadline that you need to produce some imagery NOW)

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

#396

Post by tclancy »

tayo42 wrote: post #171
o_v_o wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's 6 of Dr. Seuss's books, and ones that most people haven't heard of. If you actually look at the content of the books, they are clearly racist and demeaning to those they make caricatures of. And in any case, it was not a sudden "canceling" or anything approaching that. Seuss's estate, managed by his family, made the decision after much deliberation to cease the publication of only six books due to the content. Y…

You'd think people would be tired of being unnecessarily outraged by everything by now?

Look at the pictures in the relevant books and ask yourself if you would want a Black child to see themselves in those images. Ask yourself if Dr Seuss would. No one is outraged, the world just moves on.

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

#397

Post by ClumsyPilot »

toomim wrote: post #307
dmingod666 wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These conversations always crack me up. Its just so comical. An empire with the largest military presence around the world, outspending the rest of the world to buy weapons that can decimate the world population multiple times over, but, somehow that is not "offensive"..

Nope, we call that "defense!"

We used to staight up call it 'ministry of war" untill PR people got involved. I prefered the more hobest approach, keeps you on your toes.

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

#398

Post by trav4225 »

byset wrote: post #150
unityByFreedom wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

No one fails to make this "hey, it's a private company" point in these discussions. It's always brought up when someone is criticizing a tech behemoth for censorship of some kind, and it's nearly always a non-sequitur. Guess what? It's totally fine and valid to criticize private entities even when their conduct is perfectly lawful. Thought experiment: imagine eBay and Amazon started to promote Neo-Nazi literature on…

Both.

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

#399

Post by trav4225 »

teawrecks wrote: post #275
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…

Yeah this doesn't even make sense to me. No one asked eBay to do this. I cringe at racial stereotypes as much as the next guy, but eBay is the flee market of the internet. The whole point is that you can buy/sell anything there as long as it's legal.

three words: corporate virtue signalling
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