To be clear, the book sounds like a sad, pathetic prooduct of mental illness and self-delusion, but then again, so are most self-help books, and so are all of Glenn Beck’s books. It’s garbage, but it’s garbage that nobody is forcing me to buy. I don’t understand why anybody thinks their life is affected if somebody else buys it.
Because you’re trying to stop the buying and selling of something that has no affect on you. You’re trying to decide for other people what they should be allowed to read?
Why do you care if Amazon or anybody else sells that book? How does that hurt you?
I would argue that the Twilight books are far more noxious.
So you’re against boycotts then, Dio?
(Looks like another thread is Dio-ized, peeps)
Sure, if one or two people buy it, no prob. But if it sells a couple million copies, I know at least one person who will be very, very depressed.
I’m not deciding for you. You’re free to buy the book and Amazon is free to sell it. I can try to persuade Amazon not to sell it and for others not to buy from Amazon so long as they sell it but I’m not deciding for anyone.
I’m not really sure this is relevant. I don’t like the book is a good enough reason for me.
I guess we just don’t see eye to eye on this and I doubt we’ll convince one another. Thank you for clarifying your position and making it easier for me to understand where you’re coming from. I appreciate it.
Odesio
Just out of curiosity, do people think this book is worse than Mein Kampf? Are those iin favor of bullying Amazon to stop selling this book that nobody was buying anyway also in favor of agitatiing to stop them from selling Mein Kampf? The Communist Manifesto? The Bible? Those books have all had a far worse impact on humanity than this ridiculous pervert manual.
How about that Hogg thing that one of our other posters is so enamored with? That’s sounds much worse than thing. Do you have trouble sleeping knowing that those things can all be sold on Amazon, and somebody might be, God forbid, buying and reading them?
I just don’t understand why anybody cares what books other people want to buy and sell.
It depends on the reason. Some boycotts are good, some are fucking retarded. Remember Bill O’Reilly boycotting French wine because France wouldn’t support the invasion of Iraq? How about fundies boycotting Disney because they give employee benefits to same sex partners?
Boycotts are not automatically good just because they can be good, and I’m not saying they should be illegal anyway. I’m just sayng sometimes the reasons for a particular boycott (like boycotting a bookseller for selling books you don’t like) are obnoxious.
This is exactly the problem with it.
Forget it, folks. What could have been an interesting thread has been turned into another episode of The Dio Show. :rolleyes:
Wow, that’s original.
Kind of funny that people on Amazon were complaining about not being able to give the book less than one star in their “reviews,” when it’s a book they didn’t read in the first place.
No, Diogenes, you started out saying a bit more than that.
I certainly agree that there are times that boycotts are done for obnoxious reasons. We simply disagree on what constitutes an obnoxious reason. I am a bit curious. Are boycotts you find reasonable a drag on free expression and commerce or does that only apply to those you find obnoxious?
Yeah, I know. Which is why I don’t think it’s possible for us to see eye to eye on the topic. I’m not going to boycott you or anything though. 
I think that any boycott that done solely to impede the dissemination or expression of any speech or opinion is obnoxious.
They’re just a bunch of Gladys Kravitzs. Maybe the puritan heritage? Actually, America is way ahead of most other cultures in this area (however hard that might be to believe). I’m guessing it overlaps a lot with the authoritarian personality.
Time to file a complaint with Amazon over Lolita. It’s well written pedo porn.
That absolutely cannot be true. I hope.
Amazon’s initial response was courageous and correct. Their secondary response was unfortunate but predictable. The third public reaction to censor more books all too depressingly expectable.
Apparently the guy now has a bunch of cops milling around his house.
Is it now a first amendment issue?
Step back for a second and look at this, Dio. This was the 30th post in this thread. Nine of those 30 posts have been made by you. By the time I’ve posted this it looks to be 11 of 38 posts have been made by you, and you only showed up in the thread at the 12th post. Of course it’s not original, but do you wonder why threads get described as Dio-ized?
Nobody can really figure out what the sales ranks on Amazon mean, and since it only cracked the top 100 of the Kindle store, there are no non-Amazon numbers to compare it too. So yeah, that number could be rubbish. In retrospect, I think 100,000 sales would have put it at #1, easy. I’m guessing it was more like a thousand. I shouldn’t have quoted a stat I knew was suspicious.