Live data from Hacker News

Dr. Seuss books deemed offensive will be delisted from eBay

wsj.com

501–510 of 1001 posts

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

#501

I think, the social mechanics of this process is very simple. Ability to tell others what to do is called power. Some people are more power-hungry than others, so they seek ways to assert themselves over others. That's a perfectly normal human thing to do. What matters is the way you would achieve power in a society. Getting power through building up your name as a notable researcher or author is one thing. Playing f…

> Entire fucking history of USSR is littered with different power-hungry people using noble goals to chop their competitors' heads off. Which is where I'm pretty sure the memetic tools came from to capture and wield this power over people. Where exactly? Marxism. Not it in and of its self, but along with the French Post structuralists a universal solvent of philosophy has been weaponized and let loose (and encouraged…

>Maybe it'll all fade away? I hope so. Previous washes of political correctness have come and gone.

This wave has very strong economic foundation. Remember we used to laugh 10 years ago about those people taking $30K loans to study for basket weaving degrees? Well, it got worse. This generation took $50K loans to study social justice degrees. And these degrees taught them that the real source of problems are not the colleges that sold them the worthless degrees. Not the corporations that outsourced the production jobs they would have otherwise taken. Not the interest rates and pro-corporate policies that made many small businesses unsustainable. No, they think it's their neighbor who studied 10x harder to get a STEM degree and occupy one of the last remaining spots in the economy that pays well. And now this neighbor is a privileged $BUZZWORD supremacist who dares to have kids and wants to put them into a good school and hence must be dealt with.

And they will "deal" with them. Or, rather, us. Because burning witches and heretics had been a popular entertainment for centuries and the factors that held it back since the Enlightenment age are fading away very fast.

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

#502

I think, the social mechanics of this process is very simple. Ability to tell others what to do is called power. Some people are more power-hungry than others, so they seek ways to assert themselves over others. That's a perfectly normal human thing to do. What matters is the way you would achieve power in a society. Getting power through building up your name as a notable researcher or author is one thing. Playing f…

> a power-hungry person can have the pleasure of telling 1000 other people what to say, and financially obliterate those who don't comply > Some people are more power-hungry than others True. Also, some people are more violent than others, but we try to keep those away from the rest of the population and gradually titrate them out of the gene pool. I would love to live in a society that treated insatiable thirst for…

In reality, if you try doing that, the movement will get spearheaded by a small group of cronies that will use it as an excuse to get rid of competition. I bet you can't be very power-hungry in North Korea unless you are a part of the ruling family.

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

#503

I think, the social mechanics of this process is very simple. Ability to tell others what to do is called power. Some people are more power-hungry than others, so they seek ways to assert themselves over others. That's a perfectly normal human thing to do. What matters is the way you would achieve power in a society. Getting power through building up your name as a notable researcher or author is one thing. Playing f…

> a power-hungry person can have the pleasure of telling 1000 other people what to say, and financially obliterate those who don't comply > Some people are more power-hungry than others True. Also, some people are more violent than others, but we try to keep those away from the rest of the population and gradually titrate them out of the gene pool. I would love to live in a society that treated insatiable thirst for…

> gradually titrate them out of the gene pool

Are you advocating for eugenics?

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

#504

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…

History is written by the victors in all cases. If Hua and Deng didn't win against the Gang of Four, you'd have a different history of the cultural revolution. Fortunately, they won. America's won too much, even when we're wrong or stupid, and our historical frame has suffered.

I wouldn't say you won. Id say you're willing to kill a lot more innocent people.

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

#505

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.

> this ride Oh the places we'll go.

Not in a car. Not in a train. Not in a boat. You cannot buy these books. You cannot buy them, Sam I am.

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

#506

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…

Meanwhile… https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mein-Kampf-Annotated-Book-criticall...

[flagged]

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

#507
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Sue. That’s creating a hostile work environment. Civil rights laws are still based on actual equality and not critical theory, and racism against white people is a cognizable violation.

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

#508
I have no problem with books retiring to respect the original vision instead of revise it to be more palatable to the zeitgeist. Modern society should move away from those things that actively made people feel less human and indoctrinate their children with those ideas. You will still have access to the materials. And Dr. Seuss estate is free to do what they want to highlight the positive while reduce the tarnish of Dr. Seuss commercially published racist works.

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

#509

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…

Lets be fair, "If I ran the zoo" is pretty blatantly racist.

Let's be fair, this is just an opinion, and very subjective at that
Post reply on HN