Their is no defense. Censorship of books is bad. I don’t care if you like or don’t like the book. If you are not outraged you are part of the problem, part of the thought police.
It seems as though most people commenting here have missed the point: Authors are no longer going to find an agent if their book doesn't conform to the correct dogma and hence are less likely to make the effort to write the book. There are arguments a plenty, but that is the bottom line.
This is going on everywhere now. The Networks decide not only what is important and should be seen, but how you should interpret the news by the way it is presented. You are no longer considered responsible enough to make your own decisions. This is nothing but a way to control thought.
Essentially, for Kindle Unlimited, the books ARE held captive to a monopoly agreement. By forcing ALL sales to occur there, Amazon has imposed a monopolistic control over those books. So, yes, Amazon should face anti-trust action.
Will it happen?
Oh, pul-leeze! Not with the Leftists in power. They LIKE monopolies in the Giant Tech Oligarchy.
Assange, Hugo Dr Garis, Kaczynski and many others warned us about techs horrible future. Nary one of you with a smartphone or facebook account ever thought critically. Your security blanket will be your enslavement device.
Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't this exactly what the Nazis did? Start banning books and reshaping history and people's perspectives forcefully. How come people be so stupid to repeat their history over and over this way 🧘
Amazon controls along with Apple and B&N control most book sales. Half the independent books store are out of business. So if the top 3 that control most of the sales ban you your chance at success is slim. This while it is OK to publish left leaning dogma that the majority of people disagree with. Maybe, they should let the market decide what they wish to read and not act as God and decide what is best for us.
It's kind of a fine line. The logic that says a cakemaker can't be required to serve all customers equally leads to the logic that a hotel is not required to allow black guests, or a country club can be men-only and public companies can pay for executives' memberships there as a legitimate business expense...
When does something stop being discrimination and start being personal choice? IMHO when Amazon chooses not to list specific titles, that's their choice. But when they invite other sellers to sell any of their wares there, then forbid certain wares from being sold that those merchants choose to sell, that transitions into monopolistic over-reach. Self-censorship is fine. Censoring others, even what they see as crude and ignorant right-wing points of view, is exactly what they accuse the others of doing with their "inappropriate" merchandise. A wholesaler should not be able to dictate what independent retailers do with their service.
Just got the Nook e-book version from Barnes & Noble (after seeing "Temporarily Out of Stock Online" for hardback and paperback versions, and none in any of almost 20 stores within 100 miles). Might need to find out how to decrypt it to ensure keeping a copy in case B&N's new UK owners decide to go PC, and yank if from my e-library as Amazon has done in the past.
I urge people, including the great author, to go to the Mises Institute and read up on monopoly. In a free society, a private business can do as it pleases. A persistent monopoly or cartel does not arise in a free market -- they are universally products of government interference, enfranchisement or controls. The canard examples of the past, Standard Oil, etc., do not hold up to scrutiny.
But what is a private business? This is where the line blurs. Amazon receives a tremendous amount of government support and business. This sways its policies. At some point, a business can act as a sort of agent for the government. One great author has called this phenomenon a "govermentality".
Lockheed is certainly a governmentality. As is Oracle, and perhaps Google, both of whom received CIA seed funding and had very early material support from the national security infrastructure. On this basis, a governmentality should be subject to controls that favor the public. After all, Amazon is swimming in our tax dollars, granted them by a Deep State bureaucracy that is entirely unelected and almost impossible to fire under current laws. On this basis, the State is indirectly poisoning our culture through censorship done by its whole and partial agents. Which, truly, is unconstitutional.
The founders never conceived of a creature so intertwined with the State as our defense industry or some of our Tech giants.
excellent report. I received multiple 'warnings' that i had violated Fakebook's "community standards" by using the word Conservative in a sentence. I removed my Conservative written books from Amazon voluntarily when i saw this coming, because i don't want to get angry as hell. There are other fish in the sea.. . Until Big Tech is broken up (a la Ma Bell) , i remain hopeful that the inmates don't continue to rule the asylum.
I believe markets work when consumers want them to. Amazon's policy is evil. If people paid attention they could economically force Amazon to do better. But, people don't care.
For almost a year i have watched an entire city walk around wearing unnecessary face diapers. I have occasionally rebelled and gone bare-faced but it doesn't catch on with my fellow citizens. People do what they're told, for various reasons, and a-holes like Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates get to have undeserved influence over all of us.
I avoid Amazon whenever possible. I look at Barnes & Noble (not great for freedom but better than the other) or i go straight to a website that comes up when I search the internet for a specific "evil" author or book. That's all it would take.
We are losing the Bill of Rights because we deserve to lose it. Because we collectively are too stupid or lazy or enslaved to convenience to keep it.
You probably caught this already (WSJ article) but Amazon just cancelled Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words,
https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-did-amazon-cancel-justice-thomas-11614727562
Their is no defense. Censorship of books is bad. I don’t care if you like or don’t like the book. If you are not outraged you are part of the problem, part of the thought police.
It seems as though most people commenting here have missed the point: Authors are no longer going to find an agent if their book doesn't conform to the correct dogma and hence are less likely to make the effort to write the book. There are arguments a plenty, but that is the bottom line.
This is going on everywhere now. The Networks decide not only what is important and should be seen, but how you should interpret the news by the way it is presented. You are no longer considered responsible enough to make your own decisions. This is nothing but a way to control thought.
Essentially, for Kindle Unlimited, the books ARE held captive to a monopoly agreement. By forcing ALL sales to occur there, Amazon has imposed a monopolistic control over those books. So, yes, Amazon should face anti-trust action.
Will it happen?
Oh, pul-leeze! Not with the Leftists in power. They LIKE monopolies in the Giant Tech Oligarchy.
Assange, Hugo Dr Garis, Kaczynski and many others warned us about techs horrible future. Nary one of you with a smartphone or facebook account ever thought critically. Your security blanket will be your enslavement device.
It already is....
Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't this exactly what the Nazis did? Start banning books and reshaping history and people's perspectives forcefully. How come people be so stupid to repeat their history over and over this way 🧘
I would be nice to have a list of all Amazon banded books. Anyone know where to find such a list?
Amazon controls along with Apple and B&N control most book sales. Half the independent books store are out of business. So if the top 3 that control most of the sales ban you your chance at success is slim. This while it is OK to publish left leaning dogma that the majority of people disagree with. Maybe, they should let the market decide what they wish to read and not act as God and decide what is best for us.
It's kind of a fine line. The logic that says a cakemaker can't be required to serve all customers equally leads to the logic that a hotel is not required to allow black guests, or a country club can be men-only and public companies can pay for executives' memberships there as a legitimate business expense...
When does something stop being discrimination and start being personal choice? IMHO when Amazon chooses not to list specific titles, that's their choice. But when they invite other sellers to sell any of their wares there, then forbid certain wares from being sold that those merchants choose to sell, that transitions into monopolistic over-reach. Self-censorship is fine. Censoring others, even what they see as crude and ignorant right-wing points of view, is exactly what they accuse the others of doing with their "inappropriate" merchandise. A wholesaler should not be able to dictate what independent retailers do with their service.
Just got the Nook e-book version from Barnes & Noble (after seeing "Temporarily Out of Stock Online" for hardback and paperback versions, and none in any of almost 20 stores within 100 miles). Might need to find out how to decrypt it to ensure keeping a copy in case B&N's new UK owners decide to go PC, and yank if from my e-library as Amazon has done in the past.
I urge people, including the great author, to go to the Mises Institute and read up on monopoly. In a free society, a private business can do as it pleases. A persistent monopoly or cartel does not arise in a free market -- they are universally products of government interference, enfranchisement or controls. The canard examples of the past, Standard Oil, etc., do not hold up to scrutiny.
But what is a private business? This is where the line blurs. Amazon receives a tremendous amount of government support and business. This sways its policies. At some point, a business can act as a sort of agent for the government. One great author has called this phenomenon a "govermentality".
Lockheed is certainly a governmentality. As is Oracle, and perhaps Google, both of whom received CIA seed funding and had very early material support from the national security infrastructure. On this basis, a governmentality should be subject to controls that favor the public. After all, Amazon is swimming in our tax dollars, granted them by a Deep State bureaucracy that is entirely unelected and almost impossible to fire under current laws. On this basis, the State is indirectly poisoning our culture through censorship done by its whole and partial agents. Which, truly, is unconstitutional.
The founders never conceived of a creature so intertwined with the State as our defense industry or some of our Tech giants.
excellent report. I received multiple 'warnings' that i had violated Fakebook's "community standards" by using the word Conservative in a sentence. I removed my Conservative written books from Amazon voluntarily when i saw this coming, because i don't want to get angry as hell. There are other fish in the sea.. . Until Big Tech is broken up (a la Ma Bell) , i remain hopeful that the inmates don't continue to rule the asylum.
I believe markets work when consumers want them to. Amazon's policy is evil. If people paid attention they could economically force Amazon to do better. But, people don't care.
For almost a year i have watched an entire city walk around wearing unnecessary face diapers. I have occasionally rebelled and gone bare-faced but it doesn't catch on with my fellow citizens. People do what they're told, for various reasons, and a-holes like Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates get to have undeserved influence over all of us.
I avoid Amazon whenever possible. I look at Barnes & Noble (not great for freedom but better than the other) or i go straight to a website that comes up when I search the internet for a specific "evil" author or book. That's all it would take.
We are losing the Bill of Rights because we deserve to lose it. Because we collectively are too stupid or lazy or enslaved to convenience to keep it.
Clearly, people need to start memorizing Dr Suess books. Just choose a title and flex that memory. 1984 + 37 = Fahrenheit 451.
No defense of Dr Seuss books that were recently banned. Not only are they not available they're not even allowed to be printed anymore. How scary