"Amazon Bans Book On Confederate Battle Flag" Topic

We've gone from "The Land of the Brave" to

link

In the US, we have had liberty cabbage and freedom fries. Today, we're back to eating sauerkraut and french fries. This hysteria will pass, too. It sure is ludicrous while it runs its course, though.

Awesome. What is next, book burning?

I usually support my local bookstore but every once in a while I use Amazon. That's not the case anymore. I purchased a copy of the book from Gettysburg Museum of History, so the money is going to a good place. Who knows, maybe Amazon will turn him into a best selling author.

Amazon is free to sell, or not sell, whatever it chooses.

As we are free not to give them our business.

Well, that was predictable, and it is a very slick, slippery slope, so…….

Actually Zip, as reported in The Lounge, the USN is now banning fried foods (which includes those Freedom Fries), so some will be SOL soon.

Sorry Choctaw, that creates a large carbon plume, so "book burning" is right out. More environmentally friendly book mulching will be the order of the day.

Okay, a little balance is called for here. John Coski's book, The Confederate Battle Flag:America's Most Embattled Symbol is a scholarly look at the flag, and is still available on Amazon.

link

I'm not sure what their criteria are for their purges, but it isn't universal.

Did you read the reviews, a majority of the one star reviews were written by people who couldn't read a coloring book.

> As we are free not to give them our business.

True, but people coming here and complaining about it is not going to change things. Perhaps if enough people politely sending feedback to Amazon would work better toward getting the policy reversed.

But it will get the word out as to what Amazon is doing. And hurting Amazon's sales figures is actually the best way to change things. That's all big corporations understand.

These are the folks that'll be bringing us our Two Minutes Hate.

> And hurting Amazon's sales figures is actually the best way to change things.

You can be sure the number crunchers checked the sales BEFORE they stopped selling the book.

Amusingly enough, the book appears to be available used on Amazon.co.uk.

Amazon is a business, not the government. They cannot ban anything. They are, however, perfectly free to choose what merchandise they will sell. If a customer does not like their business decisions about what to sell, they are perfectly free to shop elsewhere.

Doug

Amazon can and did Ban the book. What Amazon cannot do is Censor the book. Censorship is something that governments do, that might be the difference you meant.

I don't care about the review S o T, I read the book. It's thoughtful and balanced, though it is now obsolete due to the fall out and debate following Charleston.

I agree with Zippy, that folks will come to their senses on the commerce end. Government's role in the display of the flag should be properly debated, and individual display of the flag will take on new meaning.

Wimps.

It's probably the title that they're not happy with in the moment, and they're probably trying to reduce the risk of negative publicity, yet sometimes folks don't look at the other side of the coin and see the negative publicity possible by not selling it. Not that either of those is enough of a reason to not sell it, it's freakin' Amazon, they sell everything, right? Guess not … lol. Another reason to use a local book store.

WHAT negative publicity? Amazon probably sells tons of books I would find to be abhorrent. But since I have not gone looking for them, my righteous indignation locked and loaded, I guess I'll never know.

Yes, it's their call as a business, but rolling over and showing belly for the Pitchfork n' Torch Mob of the Month is just sad.

Amazon is in the business of making money. I support their efforts to increase revenue by limiting their selections. I hope it works out spectacularly well for them. If they were, say, forced to limit their selection by meddling government agencies, I would be having fits.

If Amazon wasn't on the verge of becoming a worldwide monopoly with a stranglehold over what does and doesn't get published or distributed, it might not be as worrisome. There's more than simple freedom of choice at stake here. When Amazon has effectively killed most of its major competitors, where are consumers supposed to turn to obtain banned items? It's not as easy as it once was, and a bad precedent may be being set here.

that might be the difference you meant.

Nope. I meant exactly what I said. If I own a restaurant and decide not to serve sushi, have I then banned sushi from my restaurant? Only to the hyperbolic.

Doug

I just checked. Mein Kampf is available in many editions.

When Amazon has effectively killed most of its major competitors, where are consumers supposed to turn to obtain banned items?

It's funny. Commercially, Amazon is approaching monopoly, but cheap computers and the internet make it easier than ever to self-publish anything. Governments just can't stamp out plagiarism or kiddie-porn or terrorist recruiting and training, no matter how hard they try.

It's trivially easy to put and keep any document in circulation. What gets harder is to make a buck off your efforts…

I would not have got round to reading it as Stated above Mein Kampf is available and over 4k books explaining various levels and experiences of Jihad.
Don't really want This flag to corrupt my mind and soul.

The Turner Diaries and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion are also available through Amazon in many editions.

Hypocrisy, pure and simple.
And pandering. Let's not leave out pandering.

Stopped buying from Amazon years ago. Their policies
were not the reason. I'll pay more at a local shop
to try and help them to stay in business.

Ridiculous thing to do.

Christopher

"Amazon is in the business of making money".

Well, they won't be getting mine.

Oh hey, so NOW we're realizing that corporations aren't actually noble and good, and that entrusting them as guardians and gatekeepers of culture is a dumb idea?

Of course, when they removed and then re-added that civil war game, "Protesters" bought the game in droves, thus improving Amazon's income all the further.
So I imagine this will go the same way:
It'll be re-added, tons of people will buy it on Amazon to "stick it to the man" and they'll make bank as usual.

I'm not sure what the TMP censorship in my post was all about. The "Snip" graphic leads ones imagination to believe I wrote something untoward instead of a proper word used in the proper context.

This is nothing new.

link

Now, technically the Confederate flag is offensive to some people, so it seems to fit at least one criteria.

Interestingly, you can purchase a copy of Mein Kampf on Amazon. But notice. The cover is displayed as plain black, no Hitler, and no swastika.

I had a similar problem with eBay. I was selling a Nazi parade dagger. I was careful to blur out the swastikas, but it was pulled anyway because I said that it had all of the original markings and symbols.

As the article suggests, the publicity this guy's book is getting will probably get him more sales than he would have had, had it not been pulled.

Heck, I'm wondering if I should knock something together real quick, so I can be "censored" and cash in.

Maybe a kickstarter?

"Send Ivan money if you're mad as hell and won't take it anymore!"

In the author's own words, he has chosen not to communicate at all with Amazon about this.

Yes, Amazon's first contact was to ask if the author would take the book down voluntarily, and they waited only 2 days then took it down themselves.

But I would think had he replied there could have been a conversation, or at least he could lodge a complaint. Amazon is his business partner, and while they are free not to carry one of his wares, nothing reported here shows they are refusing to do business with him.

That has been the author's choice so far.

Not sure why they pulled the book. There are plenty of other confederate flag books and items on Amazon.

Uhhhhhh….guys…if you search for This Flag Never Goes Down by M. Dreese on Amazon, you can buy it for $12.50 USD plus post.

In the meantime, he and his micro-publisher Thomas, have probably increased sales by ten fold. I might note that the only source for this "outrage" appears to be the author and a TV news story from his local TV station.

I would expect, given the recent events in Columbia, SC that a book titled "This Flag Never Goes Down" with a cover illustration of the Battle Flag, might draw review. However, it also appears to be freely available and not "banned." Now all you Emiliy Latellas can say, " Never Mind."

Could be the listing was put back up, but it wasn't there a week ago.

I warned as soon as this issue came up weeks ago this was going to get serious.