Why are Christian Bookstores Allowed to Ban Books?

The BBQ Pit
#1

There are about 1800 Christian bookstores in the U.S. If you are unfamiliar with them, they specialize in inspirational and instructional books extolling Christianity, for all ages and reading levels, along with the usual assortment of small gifts that relate to the subject.

They are where you can find books about intelligent design and the evils of abortion and why gay marriage is unbiblical. You are guaranteed not to find books that call for the protection of trans people. No books with opposing viewpoints, at any time. No evenhandedness is allowed. *

So, @DemonTree, when you complain about Amazon quietly banning books, what is your position on Christian bookstores? They are private enterprises exactly like Amazon. Yet they proudly announce they promulgate scientific nonsense and hatred of others while banning, to use your favorite word, the views of the majority. Do you truly believe that only minorities you agree with have rights but that majorities don’t? Is success in the marketplace enough to cancel out the words “private enterprise” when it comes to Amazon? Is your position that bookstores should never be allowed to control their own stock and what they decide to sell - unless they conform to your prejudices?

I can’t figure out what philosophical position you’re taking on the subject. Any chance you could elucidate?

*There may be a handful of exceptions, but not in any I’ve ever been to.

#2

Modhat: No way is this staying in the Café. The thread is calling out another poster and in mockery of another thread.
Do not do this again. Next time will be a warning at least. You’ve been here far too long to think this was OK. Just use the pit for threads like this.

#3

I don’t care if Christian bookstores ban books, because they are not a significant part of the market. If Amazon was some minor website with 10% market share I wouldn’t care about what books they banned either. If some mega church bought out Amazon and started banning any books they disagreed with, then I would object. It’s about power and influence. What we really need to do is reduce the power of any one company by having true competition in the market.

#4

O hai we’re in the Pit. So yeah, Demontree, you’re transphobic as fuck. I won’t call you that anywhere else, but you’re pretty fucked up in this regard, and your dishonest bullshit in other threads is fooling exactly nobody. Claiming that you’re anything other than a reactionary conservative in this regard is risible. Knock it the fuck off.

#5

Meh. Everything is racist, everything is transphobic, you’ve debased those words so far they mean nothing now. I’m not going to be silent and let evil triumph just because you insult me.

#6

If Amazon “banned” a book I wanted to read (how can they “ban” something, they just choose not to sell it) I’d buy it elsewhere. I don’t see the big deal.

#7

So your takeaway from “Everyone constantly keeps calling me transphobic!” is “I’m so used to it that it doesn’t mean anything anymore” and not “Maybe there’s a reason everyone constantly keeps calling me transphobic”?

…says the person promoting nasty propaganda designed to increase suffering in an already-victimized demographic. “Evil triumphing” is your whole shtick.

But do keep pretending that you’re the real victim here.

#8

More “Wah wah, I’m being persecuted if I get called out on my hateful and bullshit posts about a group of people! Wah wah, you have to be tolerant of me being a hateful asshole, and never argue with me!”

It’s absolutely predictable.

#9

Really? Again you’re proving you don’t know what you’re talking about. They serve a market of tens of millions and make books into bestseller equivalents that the regular bookstore market doesn’t see. They have awesome power to set agendas and propagandize viewpoints, far more than Amazon which only cares about profits.

Your crusade against Amazon is simply a convenience for you to spew hate. Your blinders about reality serve the same purpose across all subjects. Nothing we can say is more insulting to you than your own words.

#10

It’s that Amazon represents such a high portion of sales it’s likely to affect what publishers are willing to publish and what authors bother to write.

Do you rely on Christian bookstores? Do you think their buying choices make any difference to what is available to you and people like you?

#11

So just what books is Amazon choosing to not sell? (Because your definition of Ban is as stupid as faux victimhood gets.)

#12

No, nothing to do with me. It’s a general thing. When you see constant hyperbole and ridiculous things being called bigoted, it ceases to have any meaning.

#13

When does the one trick pony get it’s hobby horse taken away?

#14

The argument seems to be that Amazon is so big that they must be put under government control, and be regulated as to what they can and cannot sell.

What’s next? A 5 year plan for Amazon, created by the Federal Department of Internet Commerce Control?

Or is this just another case of “the free market is the best, unless I don’t like what it does, then socialize it.”?

#15

Everywhere I go I smear boogers on windows. People keep telling me I’m disgusting. They tell me at the grocery store that I’m disgusting. They tell me at work that I’m disgusting. They tell me I’m disgusting at church.

They’ve debased that word “disgusting” so far that it means nothing now. It’s them, not me, and I refuse to stop being hygienic just because people insult me.

#16

And the thing is, if Demontree weren’t smearing her transphobic idiocy everywhere, there’s an important underlying argument: should Amazon be broken up? I think it should: while every company has a right not to sell bullshit, no company’s exercise of that right should have the impact that Amazon’s does. We don’t need trillion-dollar companies.

But Demontree keeps smearing boogers on that argument.

#17

Here’s the other one I’ve heard of:

#18

It is funny seeing Amazon attacked by both sides. Leftist Unionites and Rightist transphobes. Damn, they must being doing something right.

Funny, you could buy Capitalism on a Ventilator on Amazon currently. In paperback.

Also that is not what ban means.

#19

From your idiotic article:

A book that surveyed and compared the US’ and China’s reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic was recently removed from Amazon, the top ecommerce platform in the US, a move that again revealed the US’ biased attitude on the “freedom of speech” it claims, observers said.

Is it a shocker that a Chinese web site doesn’t understand what “freedom of speech” means in the US?

#20

Break it up, then the problem goes away. Or apply the same free speech rules the government has to follow - I don’t know how feasible that would be.