(no subject)
This is likely to lose me a few friends, because it's not exactly a popular position, but oh well. I don't defriend people simply because I disagree with them, but if you do, then more power to you. Like the icon says, I know I'm obnoxious and disliked, and I don't care. Sometimes, things needs to be said, no matter how unpopular.
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To all of you people up in arms about that pedophile book on Amazon: Seriously? This is the way you want to go with this? Pass out the torches and pitchforks?
I'm not going to get into the morality of pedophilia, because that's not what this issue is about. I don't see anybody arguing about tougher laws for child molestors, or discussing the moral rightness or wrongness of having a 16-year-old boy who had consensual sex with his 15-year-old girlfriend be branded a sexual predator for the rest of his life. No, nobody's talking about that.
They're talking about a book like it's the Pop-Up Necronomicon being put in the kiddie section at Wal-Mart along with everything the little tykes need to summon up their first demon. And about how books like that shouldn't be allowed to be sold. As though they have somehow become the grand authority on what's "allowable" in this world.
So, my question is, what's the endgame? They get this book banned, and then another group gets another book banned, and another group gets these other five books banned, and it ends where, exactly?
Amazon has the right to sell any book they choose. You have the right not to buy it (or anything) from them. But that's pretty much where it ends. You don't have the right to tell them what they can and can't do with their business.
Amazon sells books on how to construct bombs, on the use of various poisons, manifestos for white supremacists, The Anarchists Cookbook, The Satanic Verses, and a whole host of other books that make people throw up a little in their mouths just by seeing the titles. Should we ban all of them? Or -- at the risk of Godwinning myself -- why don't we just burn them instead? (Cue some guy on a skateboard rolling by: "Dude, you have no book on pedophilia!")
This book isn't going to make a non-pedophile into a pedophile, and banning it isn't going to make a pedophile into a non-pedophile. So, really, what's the intent with all this vitriol? What do you hope to achieve, other than to show your moral superiority? There are plenty of groups who think that homosexuality is just as disgusting as pedophilia, so do we let them ban The Big Book Of Gay Sex?
"But pedophilia's illegal, and homosexuality isn't!" some may cry. To which I reply: selling, buying, and/or reading a book isn't illegal, either. And that's all that's happening. A book is being sold, and (presumably) a few people -- people who more-than-likely already feel an inclination toward pedophilia -- are buying and reading it. If someone who reads this book then commits an illegal act, then they can be prosecuted for the illegal act itself, not for their reading material prior.
Amazon does not have to make moral judgments about what it sells, any more than LJ has to care about what people post in their journals. Now, both sites do set some boundaries of what they consider to be acceptable content, but they aren't required to. Provided the book does not violate Amazon's TOS (and I'm certain that with all the screaming, there's someone frantically scanning them to be sure), there is no justifiable reason to remove the listing. "A bunch of people are upset that it's there" is not a justifiable reason. If it were, Amazon's catalog would fit on a single web page.
Now, people, of course, have the right to turn around and make moral judgments about companies who engage in acts they don't like, but nobody is doing anything illegal in this equation, so please stop trying to claim otherwise.
(BTW, I'm sure the author thanks you for all the free publicity all of you are giving him. Why else would you give a book such a provocative name if you aren't expecting the overwhelming moral outrage to do your marketing for you? Because here's the thing no one's quite been able to mention: How'd the book get found in the first place? I'm sure most people heard about it from someone else, who saw it on someone else's blog, who in turn saw it somewhere else... but where'd it start? Who went searching on Amazon for "pedophilia" and saw this pop up in their results? A clever author, recognizing that this has this potential to be a powderkeg, would set up a few sockpuppet accounts talking about it, and then just sit back and let the echo chamber explode.)
There are more productive things that can be done if you are upset by the existence of this book than just ranting about it or drawing even more attention to it to drive up page views and potentially increase sales. If you really care about it, why not take the price of the book and make a donation in that amount to RAINN or some similar organization?
---
To all of you people up in arms about that pedophile book on Amazon: Seriously? This is the way you want to go with this? Pass out the torches and pitchforks?
I'm not going to get into the morality of pedophilia, because that's not what this issue is about. I don't see anybody arguing about tougher laws for child molestors, or discussing the moral rightness or wrongness of having a 16-year-old boy who had consensual sex with his 15-year-old girlfriend be branded a sexual predator for the rest of his life. No, nobody's talking about that.
They're talking about a book like it's the Pop-Up Necronomicon being put in the kiddie section at Wal-Mart along with everything the little tykes need to summon up their first demon. And about how books like that shouldn't be allowed to be sold. As though they have somehow become the grand authority on what's "allowable" in this world.
So, my question is, what's the endgame? They get this book banned, and then another group gets another book banned, and another group gets these other five books banned, and it ends where, exactly?
Amazon has the right to sell any book they choose. You have the right not to buy it (or anything) from them. But that's pretty much where it ends. You don't have the right to tell them what they can and can't do with their business.
Amazon sells books on how to construct bombs, on the use of various poisons, manifestos for white supremacists, The Anarchists Cookbook, The Satanic Verses, and a whole host of other books that make people throw up a little in their mouths just by seeing the titles. Should we ban all of them? Or -- at the risk of Godwinning myself -- why don't we just burn them instead? (Cue some guy on a skateboard rolling by: "Dude, you have no book on pedophilia!")
This book isn't going to make a non-pedophile into a pedophile, and banning it isn't going to make a pedophile into a non-pedophile. So, really, what's the intent with all this vitriol? What do you hope to achieve, other than to show your moral superiority? There are plenty of groups who think that homosexuality is just as disgusting as pedophilia, so do we let them ban The Big Book Of Gay Sex?
"But pedophilia's illegal, and homosexuality isn't!" some may cry. To which I reply: selling, buying, and/or reading a book isn't illegal, either. And that's all that's happening. A book is being sold, and (presumably) a few people -- people who more-than-likely already feel an inclination toward pedophilia -- are buying and reading it. If someone who reads this book then commits an illegal act, then they can be prosecuted for the illegal act itself, not for their reading material prior.
Amazon does not have to make moral judgments about what it sells, any more than LJ has to care about what people post in their journals. Now, both sites do set some boundaries of what they consider to be acceptable content, but they aren't required to. Provided the book does not violate Amazon's TOS (and I'm certain that with all the screaming, there's someone frantically scanning them to be sure), there is no justifiable reason to remove the listing. "A bunch of people are upset that it's there" is not a justifiable reason. If it were, Amazon's catalog would fit on a single web page.
Now, people, of course, have the right to turn around and make moral judgments about companies who engage in acts they don't like, but nobody is doing anything illegal in this equation, so please stop trying to claim otherwise.
(BTW, I'm sure the author thanks you for all the free publicity all of you are giving him. Why else would you give a book such a provocative name if you aren't expecting the overwhelming moral outrage to do your marketing for you? Because here's the thing no one's quite been able to mention: How'd the book get found in the first place? I'm sure most people heard about it from someone else, who saw it on someone else's blog, who in turn saw it somewhere else... but where'd it start? Who went searching on Amazon for "pedophilia" and saw this pop up in their results? A clever author, recognizing that this has this potential to be a powderkeg, would set up a few sockpuppet accounts talking about it, and then just sit back and let the echo chamber explode.)
There are more productive things that can be done if you are upset by the existence of this book than just ranting about it or drawing even more attention to it to drive up page views and potentially increase sales. If you really care about it, why not take the price of the book and make a donation in that amount to RAINN or some similar organization?