Twitchy reported something disturbing earlier this week: Amazon had decided to stop selling Ryan T. Anderson’s “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment.” The disturbing part of the ban is that not even third-party sellers could list the book for sale on Amazon; it’s just gone, as are the e-book and the audiobook.
The book Amazon does not want you to read:https://t.co/OvlOb7z8Wm
— Justin Taylor (@between2worlds) February 25, 2021
Abigail Shrier, whose own “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze That’s Seducing Our Daughters” was pulled from Target’s website, has a thread encouraging Americans to make a bigger deal of Amazon’s new policy banning books that promote “hate speech” while continuing to sell “Mein Kampf” by Adolf Hitler.
We're really not making a big enough deal of the fact that @amazon has begun deleting books.
(Thread)
— Abigail Shrier (@AbigailShrier) February 26, 2021
Amazon now claims the right to bar all books that are "inappropriate or offensive."https://t.co/marbANIvjM
Of course, nearly *every book* worth reading could be characterized as 'inappropriate' or 'offensive' to someone. /2 pic.twitter.com/TRALPVao0C
— Abigail Shrier (@AbigailShrier) February 26, 2021
But also, Amazon is manifestly dishonest about censoring books that are "offensive" or "inappropriate."
They continue to sell books like this, which discusses very young children performing fellatio.https://t.co/4TshHgC8I7
And I don't believe they should stop selling it! /3
— Abigail Shrier (@AbigailShrier) February 26, 2021
Books that surprise and inform and challenge us to see things differently are usually offensive to someone.
In the short term, sounding the alarm may increase sales of a particular book. But this is a dangerous move – and we are all too complacent about it. /4
— Abigail Shrier (@AbigailShrier) February 26, 2021
When a company controls over 83% of the market for books, it begins the process of deleting ideas from a society.
A bookseller can sell whatever it wants. If 'Marxist Books' wants to only sell books that conform to its ideology, OK; that has integrity.
/5— Abigail Shrier (@AbigailShrier) February 26, 2021
But this is the "world's largest bookseller." Amazon can basically make books disappear for *all readers* — and does so on a blatantly dishonest basis.
Under guise of removing "inappropriate" content, they will really be removing ideas they disfavor.
/6
— Abigail Shrier (@AbigailShrier) February 26, 2021
Please do not make the mistake of analogizing this to a tiny Colorado bakery. There's a huge difference betw one baker refusing to make a particular cake and Target, Amazon, or Apple deleting content: scale – i.e., the difference between homicide and genocide. /7
— Abigail Shrier (@AbigailShrier) February 26, 2021
Start to understand the power of scale.
The difference between Maoist Books refusing a book and Amazon, is that books Amazon disfavors will never be published in the first place — which is exactly what the book banners want. /8
— Abigail Shrier (@AbigailShrier) February 26, 2021
If the pipe that 83% of book sales flow through shuts off, those books will never get published. Why would a publisher take a chance on a book that @amazon won't carry?
It won't.
/9— Abigail Shrier (@AbigailShrier) February 26, 2021
NOW is the time to get upset. For the moment, while we can still express this on @twitter, NOW is the time.
Writers are being dropped by agents and refused by publishers *right now* because of Amazon's move.
Time is running out. /10
— Abigail Shrier (@AbigailShrier) February 26, 2021
Everything you say is correct. I worked in publishing for 25 years, and if Amazon would refuse to carry a book, the project dies on the vine.
— Butthurt Rick Wilson (@swampybuffalo) February 27, 2021
And don’t feel bad for publishers, either. They created this monster by bending over backwards to meet Amazon’s terms. Terms much more generous than those offered to other retailers.
— Butthurt Rick Wilson (@swampybuffalo) February 27, 2021
Just one brick in a big wall being built around us. Media, social media, gov't, education/indoctrination of our children and Public Health. Even in the realm of science, we are seeing suppression and cancel culture.
— The Pirate (@SeismicPirate) February 27, 2021
*** they will really be removing ideas they disfavor. *** https://t.co/j9mvm6BPlq
— Arthur Kimes (@ComradeArthur) February 27, 2021
I am looking forward to the epic, and inevitable battle between Bezos and Musk. It would be good business for Musk to find a way to service the customers that big tech is alienating. Is Starlink the first step? https://t.co/YnNiNWB7Ho
— NiedermeyersDeadHorse aka NDH (@NiedsG) February 27, 2021
The founders were right about the necessity of checks and balances for powerful entities. However, they couldn't have predicted that this would eventually apply to private entities as well. It's time we made it https://t.co/pTkX9zhW8y
— Elon Musket (@OGTwittarEgg) February 26, 2021
The new censors wrap their authoritarianism in the language of progress. But this is a lie. They don’t care about progress. They care about power. https://t.co/IQ3cbpvfZe
— Eli Lake (@EliLake) February 27, 2021
It’s telling and all too accurate that Shrier says that now is the time to make our voices heard, “while we can still express this on Twitter,” as Twitter’s crackdown on speech about transgenderism is picking up steam.
Related:
'Fahrenheit 2021': Amazon's nebulous 'hate speech' policy requires banning book on transgenderism, but Adolf Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' is A-OK https://t.co/NoTftSGdJ8
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) February 24, 2021
Join the conversation as a VIP Member