Dr. Seuss is in a noose!

teh interwebz delivers!

One of the NPR-related podcasts did an episode on how Germany was handling the fact that a certain author's book was now public domain and it was basically impossible for them to keep copies out of Germany (you know who and what book). They essentially came up with a modern version of (some fancy word in German or Latin) a "forbidden book room" that libraries and monasteries had for centuries. Anyone could access the room and read any book in it, but they couldn't take the book out of the room, and there was a record of who read what book. I can't find the podcast now, but it was a really interesting idea.

As for what Dr. Suess would think of all of this, I imagine it would all depend upon where you caught him in his life, and how he was in his final years. If he turned into a crotchety old fuck, then he'd probably be pissed as hell, but if you caught him when he was younger and not a crotchety old fuck, then he'd certainly agree that he should revise the works.

Here's an interview with Rod Serling, recorded in 1959, where he rails against racism in TV. In the interview, he uses the word "Eskimo"
which is considered offensive by Native Americans, because it essentially lumps wholly unrelated groups under a term they didn't choose. The word was perfectly acceptable when Serling used it and in listening to him speak, you quickly realize that had he been aware that the term was considered offensive by the Inuit, Yupik, and Aleut, he'd have apologized and made an effort to never use that term again.

That one is bad on so many levels I would hardly know where to start. Racism, colonialism, animal preservation, realism of plot... and those are just for starters, off the top of my head, not having read it in quite a few years. It is truly cringeworthy.

Of course, Tintin in America is just barely better.

I vaguely remember Tintin en Amérique, but if memory serves, Congo was so cringeworthy that Hergé himself essentially blacklisted it.
Oh well, I'm still waiting for Spielberg and Jackson to do the followup to The Adventures of Tintin

Fox is already on to the next fauxrage...

Yes. Obviously libraries have records of what people check out, but privacy laws in most states are very strict, and should remain that way.

Consider this, however, even without the government having easy access to such a list (say that not only did that have to get a warrant for the list, but that they also had to post a public notice that the government was seeking a warrant before it was ever filed), the number of people who actively seek out such a work is going to be lower. Because you're less likely to want to take the steps to read the work if you have a casual interest in it. The reason we have so many flat-earther idiots isn't that they were searching for proof that the world was flat, it's because the algorithms used by sites like YouTube and FB started stuffing that shit in front of people.

Something like this lets people read the work, if they want, but slows the viral spread of the text.

"We'll still ALLOW you to read the material we don't want you to. You just have to go to the FORBIDDEN ROOM*, and sign the public document that will be published affirming that YOU'RE RACIST before you can read it. So see, it's not censorship."



* The FORBIDDEN ROOM is open from 12:00 to 12:05pm every third Tuesday of every alternating month save for the month of the equinox, you racist.

Except that’s not how it works. The hours are the same as the library’s. You might as well condemn libraries for storing books, rather than ensuring that everyone has a copy of every book ever written (of course, copyright law makes that a bit difficult to do, so clearly capitalism is the problem).

I'm sorry, but that is the most ultra-biased Snopes tier "fact check" response to my post possible. No refutation, in fact confirmation, of the horrifically terrifying and straight up evil subject that is the first part of my post and latching onto the tongue-in-cheek levity second line i typed to make my post not entirely depressing and saying "well, actually" to it with the almost comical fuck capitalism line that you couldn't just hold back. Your post would have been a great bit of dark comedy if I wasn't sure that you posted it in 100% seriousness.

And your post is approaching Tererun levels of incomprehensibility. So you’ve got that going for you.

The books are not banned.

One more time {ahem}

THE BOOKS ARE NOT BANNED.

The owner of the material decided, alll on their own, that they will not renew the publication of these books.

That’s it. But because the gave a reason that you dislike, well, fuck them fascists for doing what they want with their own material.

If you don’t like their decision, go out and buy those books while they’re still available. It’s that easy.

However, my guess is that you’ve never heard of, let alone actually read those books anyway.

It’s clearly a business decision. But I think the business missed the mark. They should have edited these books rather than just pull them completely. If I Ran the Zoo is a great book to read to kids.

So you're moving the goalposts from whether eBay's decision not to sell these particular books is part of "cancel culture"/something to be concerned about to whether Shirogayne thinks eBay should bar other things?

I hope various businesses are taking note of what is happening in this case and duplicate its path to success.

Step one: Announce that you are no longer producing products that no one particularly is interested in anyway, but attribute the decision to social justice reasons.

Step two: Hope that goodwill from the left results in increased interest in the products that you do offer.

Step three: Expect that the right will seize upon your decision as the nefarious workings of the left, and that they will increase their purchases of your product either a) to burn it in protest for your kowtowing to the left or b) to show the left that they can't bully you into social justice.

An Ohio teacher, who was reading The Sneetches to her Grade 3 class, was abruptly cut off by an admin when a student said "It's almost like what happened back then, how people were treated. Like, disrespected. Like, white people disrespected Black people.”

https://twitter.com/jeffreyasachs/status/1613200559820906496

Weren't the sneeches what hijacked Puff's Island until Jackie paper and chef pirate doused them in boiling chicken soup?

Nothing scares the right like kids who are smart enough to see through their bullshit.

(As UA)
Ope, that kid's ruined! Throw him in the log chipper!
It's the only way.

"You're a star belly Sneetch
you suck just like a leech
you want everyone to act like you

kiss ass like a bitch
so you can get rich
but yer boss gets richer off you.

You'll work harder with a gun in your back
for a bowl of rice a day
slave for soldiers till ya starve
and your head skewered on a stake...




also

https://x.com/noliewithbtc/status/1703110318791036964?s=46&t=iYW3foyqIA6Tn8VWwn3nwQ