• NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I don’t really see an issue with this position. Replacing book bans with de facto bans by refusing to stock them could also become a problem. I’ve read Mein Kampf and I’d still gladly slug a Nazi.

      • Stamau123@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Mein kampf is a terribly written book. Maybe it’s a translation issue? Does it read better in German?

        • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I read it in English so I can’t say. I just chalked it up to Hitler being a dipshit

      • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        bookshops can’t stock every book. Just because they don’t stock Georges Perec’s Species of Spaces or Italo Calvino’s If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller or Marcia Citron’s 1988 biography of 19th century composer Camille Chaminade doesn’t mean those books are banned - they’re niche.

        It seems more likely that current, contentious, right-leaning polemic is in a lot of stockist warehouses due to the political machine and the supply chain software is just presenting the inventory without comment.

  • FinishingDutch@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I imagine that’s a common pitfall for most online bookstores that have any sort of volume. Unless you want to proofread and curate every single thing that gets sold, there’s bound to be things that slip through. The article even mentions they sell 10 million books… just not possible to curate properly.

    And personally, I’d rather have a bookstore that occasionally sells a questionable title, rather than one that actively censors itself. There’s plenty of titles out there that someone would deem offensive, while others consider it essential works.

    Heck, there have been many scholarly annotated versions of Mein Kampf as the article mentions. It’s a historically significant work, penned by a madman. Not everyone who’d read it is by definition a Nazi. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that it could cure some of them if they did read it. It’s a terrible book. Even when it was first published it got shitty reviews.

    • echo64@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      This is just a drop shipping operation. It’s not “some things slip through.” Rupaul had just attached their name to a drop shipper that serves the broadest audience possible. There’s no curation. There’s no safety.

  • Kushan@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    RuPaul had come under fire previously for being anti-trans, but it’s okay because they apologized on Twitter by posting the wrong flag (literally a flag for trains - and I’m not making that up).

    Regardless of your stance on the issue of a bookstore with a no-banning-books mission not banning books, RuPaul clearly is not an ally and this isn’t surprising.

    • RGB3x3@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      How the fuck is someone who is so well-known for drag, not a trans ally?

      What synapses have collapsed in his brain to allow for this cognitive dissonance?

      • GlitterInfection@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The person you’re replying to is being a typical internet person.

        Rupaul’s Drag Race used to not allow trans contestants. It does now. We’ve had more than one trans Winner.

        Ru got some backlash for implying that being trans would be an unfair advantage on Drag Race, comparing it to taking performance enhancing drugs for the Olympics. She later apologized for it.

        The show also had some vernacular that was very common in its early days which the trans community pointed out weren’t OK and it changed overtime.

        Ru is a fairly old gay man who has done a pretty good job of changing with the times comparatively.

  • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The criticism comes after users on X (formerly Twitter) exposed the site for listing books by authors known for their anti-LGBTQ+ stances, including titles by Riley Gaines, Robby Starbuck, Kirk Cameron, and other books from the conservative publisher Brave Books

    So, like, thank you for pointing out a legitimate problem here and inspiring RuPaul’s team to try to do better, but complaining about people allowing fascists to get financial support on twitter of all places feels a bit inconsistent

    • FlickOfTheBean@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      You can’t seriously be against all censorship in books, right? Where are your actual boundaries? I don’t think you’d be ok with something obviously evil like a book of cp… Right?

      Edgecases are why it’s hard to be consistent.

      • capital@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        That’s illegal and for good reason.

        Yet somehow the US functions with freedom of speech even with some restrictions.

        But we’re not talking about CP are we? We’re taking about how we are still dealing with rightoids censoring books and now the left wants certain ones censored.

        I argued against the right censoring books and I’ll continue to argue the same way, regardless of who the next shitty group trying it is.

        • FlickOfTheBean@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          That’s my point though. If you don’t ban (aka censor) illegal things as a foundation, you end up living in a hellscape. I’m saying your argument isn’t thorough enough. It’s not going far enough. It’s scratching the surface and saying “good enough” when it doesn’t actually appear to be.

          I am talking about illegal things because it’s an obvious hole in your argument. What are you talking about about? Because it sounds like you’re being short sighted to me, sticking to a happy path, but I could be wrong. What do you think?

    • fidodo@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Twitter people pointed out that Mein Kampf is sold there, but it’s a historic book and valuable to read to understand the roots of fascism to fight it.

    • CptEnder@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yeah people should have access to the nutjob right wing shit as a learning tool. Can’t defeat your enemy unless you understand them.

    • CaptainProton@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s not censorship if it’s words by people you dislike, silly! Everyone with a real education knows that!

      (Edit: /s because I guess someone might say this unironically?)