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Amazon Quietly Bans Books Containing Undefined ‘Hate Speech’

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Happy Cat
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I think what civilwarbuff is saying is that Amazon is applying their own standard to what is hate speech. That is a slippery slope that could lead (with a lot of hyperbole) to a "Fahrenheit 451" style purging of all literature.

Whose standards should they be applying with what they will and wont sell?

They sell books. Are we supposed to be upset that they have standards at all, or are we supposed to be upset because their standards don't match ours?
 
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Ana the Ist

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I generally agree....it's their store, they can sell what they choose. We would not require a baker to bake and decorate a cake for a gay wedding....we don't require Amazon to sell particular books.

While I respect their rights to sell what they choose....I don't respect anyone who believes they should choose what I read.
 
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SilverBear

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I generally agree....it's their store, they can sell what they choose. We would not require a baker to bake and decorate a cake for a gay wedding....we don't require Amazon to sell particular books.
The baker isn't required to bake and decorate wedding cakes at all however if that baker is baking and decorating wedding cakes for some then s/he need to bake and decorate for all. The difference is that in one case the baker and Amazon is choosing to not offer a specific product to anyone and in the other case the baker and Amazon is willing to offer a product to anyone except black people (or some other minority)
 
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Erik Nelson

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Whose standards should they be applying
They are applying "liberal" (so-called) standards

Amazon is being threatened with massive boycotts if they sell "unacceptable" books

Under such circumstances, it's more profitable / less unprofitable for them to ditch the "unacceptable" books and maintain their customers

Whatever they "should" be doing, such is what they actually "are" doing
 
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GreatLakes4Ever

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Amazon has a fiduciary duty to their shareholders to take the more profitable route which they have determined is to refuse to sell certain books.

Conservatives currently lack the purchasing power to force corporations to due their bidding using free market commerce. This isn’t a liberal conspiracy, it’s just capitalism working as it is designed.
 
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cow451

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While I respect their rights to sell what they choose....I don't respect anyone who believes they should choose what I read.
Who is doing that?
 
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Akita Suggagaki

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Right. They are not discriminating against people but against a product.
 
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cow451

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If you want to read awful and offensive stuff, you can find it all on the internet pretty easily.
The post I responded to was the notion that people were being forced to read certain things.
 
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Erik Nelson

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Right. They are not discriminating against people but against a product.
Amazon is refusing to offer its services to someone b/c they don't care for their politics.

The exact reverse is "no shoes no shirt no service" and "we reserve the right to refuse service to any customer".

Yet those are essentially "discriminatory" and de facto illegal.

Restaurants don't hang those signs in their windows any longer.

Definite double standard.
 
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I don't honestly understand the issue. Is someone telling me they can't get ahold of certain books they want to read in 2021?

Should amazon be forced to sell books they don't want to?

Have we run out of interesting or impactful things to disagree about or is it just me?
 
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I would check up on what is legal and illegal because you don't seem to know.

"No shoes no shirt no service" isn't illegal in the least.
No Shirt, No Mask, No Service? - FindLaw

What is generally illegal is when you decide to discriminate against groups because of who they are rather than the reverse of simply not offering certain services. Liberals have been trying to expand the groups covered by the civil rights act to no avail.

It's weird how entitled people have been lately about their imaginary rights, given that expanding civil rights has been a conservative no go for the better part of a century now.
 
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rjs330

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Well we all know this is about leftist ideology and sensibilities.
 
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rjs330

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Let's be honest. This really isn't about capitalism. It's not that nobody is going to buy the book. Amazon has been selling the book for three years. This was absolutely a political move. Not a move based on capitalism.

I don't know if they were pressured by leftists or not. Maybe not because those that run the business are a bunch of leftists anyway.
 
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rjs330

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Really, are you saying the left are the rich people now? They have the buying power while us poor conservatives don't? I thought us conservatives were a bunch of rich people and the democrats were just regular folk who the democrats want to help. Now the democrats have all the spending power?
 
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GreatLakes4Ever

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It’s a book, it’s not overly expensive and the odds anyone will have more than one is almost zero so wealth isn’t overly important. What is important is the Left has more people than the Right, is more likely to participate in e-commerce because they trend younger, and because they trend younger, they have more time as potential customers.
 
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