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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

#201

Post by flippinburgers »

offby37years wrote: post #7
tim333 wrote: post #6

The thing seems a bit silly. Curious what was offensive I found the books are on youtube and I'm guessing it's drawing Chinese https://youtu.be/Vl6wD6EGOVk?t=228 and tribal Africans https://youtu.be/Vl6wD6EGOVk?t=519 looking like cartoon versions of those. Does this means cartoon caricatures are only acceptable if they are of white westerners? I mean I can understand the publishers thinking they may get in trouble an…

Yes. When only whites can be racist, only whites can be caricatured.

Discrimination based on race is racism regardless of who the perpetrator is.

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

#202

Post by jimbob45 »

When are we going to admit that black supremacy is just as damaging as white supremacy? I’m not saying we should all become white supremacists because the science obviously doesn’t check out but surely it’s time to call racial superiority groups out for the trash they’ve become. It’s no longer about “racial equality” and I’m not sure it ever was. They’re just out to squash other races at this point.

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

#203

Post by shortandsweet »

api wrote: post #180
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.

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?

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

#204

Post by api »

caeril wrote: post #134
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.

The "private company" argument, while fully and technically correct, is such a ridiculous canard to trot out at a time when we slide rapidly into public-private authoritarianism. Someone (probably), in 1934 Hacker News: "BASF, Deutsche Bank, Hugo Boss, Bayer, BMW, and Siemens are private merchants. They can choose what to sell, and to whom. Maybe this presents a survival problem for the Jews, we don't know." I guess…

[flagged]

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

#205

Post by eplanit »

nullserver wrote: post #156
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 learned the hard way that using a persons name instead of desired pronoun is a major offense.

Why is it (honest question)? And what happened?

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

#206

Post by jjcon »

jfengel wrote: post #17
tim333 wrote: post #6

The thing seems a bit silly. Curious what was offensive I found the books are on youtube and I'm guessing it's drawing Chinese https://youtu.be/Vl6wD6EGOVk?t=228 and tribal Africans https://youtu.be/Vl6wD6EGOVk?t=519 looking like cartoon versions of those. Does this means cartoon caricatures are only acceptable if they are of white westerners? I mean I can understand the publishers thinking they may get in trouble an…

They're not just cartoons. They're caricatures associated with racist tropes, which have been used in conjunction with discrimination and even violence. The African pictures in particular look like minstrel shows, which were deliberately intended to demean black people in America. It's not that the publishers were afraid of getting in trouble. It's that they were ashamed of their own book -- with good reason.

> which were deliberately intended to demean black people in America

So if someone makes caricatures to demean the irish should we ban those? Seems pretty ridiculous...

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

#207

Post by eplanit »

vimy wrote: post #189
Shivetya wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

its not a cultural revolution, its a cultural intimidation, where groups have come to realize the real power of social media is to name, shame, and blame. there is no middle ground here, you cannot debate anything, as they consider no moral higher than what they profess. this is some serious Soviet Union type stuff being done to rewrite the world, no limits on how back one can go for an accusation, and then erasing p…

What’s happening is exactly the same as the Chinese cultural revolution.

I'm convinced that the CCP is playing us like a fiddle.

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

#208

Post by respondo2134 »

Fezzik wrote: post #61
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 from a platform that still allows Mein Kampf to be listed it seems especially idiotic... Edit, to add: as a comment below notes eBay only allows annotated versions of the book. So maybe they are consistent; I didn’t click through any of the listings when I searched. I also have no idea how you annotate Mein Kampf to not be racist/anti-Semitic propaganda...

especially because the Dr Seuss books are superior literary specimens (how ironic!)

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

#209

Post by peteretep »

jariel wrote: post #169
crowbahr wrote: post #125

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…

> If Alladin is not racist, neither is Dr. Seuss

If you’ve seen both Alladin and the cartoons in question, it’s hard to believe you’re commenting in good faith.

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

#210

Post by liveoneggs »

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.

On Beyond Zebra was one of my favorites as a child, one of the first I bought for my own children, and its message makes banning it very sadly ironic. make no mistake - this is a massive loss of american culture.
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