Dr. Seuss books deemed offensive will be delisted from eBay • Hacker News Board

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

#141

Post by throwaway3699 » Fri, Mar 05, 2021, 12:29 AM UTC

vyhd wrote: post #131

wwww4alll wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

This is a wildly incendiary ideological rant and it has no place on HN.

I would argue that what is going on today and the mirrors with the Chinese Cultural Revolution are too close to not be worried.

We need to talk about this.

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

#142

Post by op00to » Fri, Mar 05, 2021, 12:29 AM UTC

brailsafe wrote: post #117

chroem- wrote: 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.

That's scary and possibly illegal.

How is it illegal?

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

#143

Post by op00to » Fri, Mar 05, 2021, 12:30 AM UTC

Pfhreak wrote: post #84

chroem- wrote: 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.

Like, you aren't allowed to use the neopronouns for yourself? Or is your work telling you that you should respect other people's pronouns?

This never happened, so probably the latter.

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

#144

Post by ravenstine » Fri, Mar 05, 2021, 12:30 AM UTC

I understand that eBay has existing policies about what they will allow to be sold, but doesn't going to this length basically mean that a lot of media will eventually be banned? Something we say today may(probably will) be considered offensive in the future. Maybe this is the inevitable model for the future; mass "software updates" to our culture ushered in by Silicon Valley. Is this good?

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

#145

Post by nullserver » Fri, Mar 05, 2021, 12:30 AM UTC

refurb wrote: post #119

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.

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.

It’s dangerous to complain about this stuff. Was at one place that routinely trashed white males, of which I happened to be. Caught hell when I tried to push back. Sadly this seems like it’s becoming the norm.

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

#146

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Mar 05, 2021, 12:30 AM UTC

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."

[deleted]

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

#147

Post by elindbe3 » Fri, Mar 05, 2021, 12:31 AM UTC

crowbahr wrote: post #135

elindbe3 wrote: post #68

Thank God I have ebay to protect me from reading Doctor Seuss! Now please excuse me while I go bid on a vintage copy of "Charles Manson In His Own Words".

While I think ebay bans are ridiculous most of this furor is about old, very racist books that Seuss himself apologized for later in life. 99% of Seuss readers have never read Oh Beyond Zebra, and nobody will miss the Cat's Quizzer.

IDK I think it's quite cowardly if ebay is not willing to be consistent in what they are willing to sell. For example, if they can find a few people that are offended by violent video games, then all violent video games should be taken down from eBay. If I'm offended by the Communist Manifesto then it's time to take all copies of it off the site.

In fact they could even automate this. They already have a report item button. Whenever someone clicks that and marks the item offensive they could remove that whole class of items.

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

#148

Post by rozab » Fri, Mar 05, 2021, 12:32 AM UTC

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…

Hysterical articles tend to use the word 'ban' when they really mean something like 'choosing not to air' or 'removing from the curriculum'.

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

#149

Post by madeofpalk » Fri, Mar 05, 2021, 12:32 AM UTC

ipsum2 wrote: post #72

notJim wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not what happened. This decision has actually been in the works for a while and involved a lot of discussion. > The decision to cease publication and sales of the books was made last year after months of discussion, the company, which was founded by Seuss’ family, told AP https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation-world/ct-aud-nw-dr-... eBay has an existing policy that removes racist materials. They're just appl…

As someone mentioned above, Mein Kampf is still allowed: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m...

Right so this story is actually about yet another platform poorly enforcing its own moderation policy.

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

#150

Post by byset » Fri, Mar 05, 2021, 12:32 AM UTC

unityByFreedom wrote: post #102

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.

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 their home pages in the same way that they now promote anti-racist books and such. What would be the appropriate response: outrage, or "bUt iTs a pRiVaTe cOmPaNy!!!"?