I’m a liberal democrat horrified by the current Dr Seuss drama and normalization of censorship

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe this whole cancel thing is suffering a backlash.

Thirteen of the top 20 selling books on Amazon today were.......... ALL Dr. Seuss books. And, the top 5 were all Seuss books.

https://variety.com/2021/digital/news/dr-seuss-books-amazon-best-sellers-1234919873/

The point isn't to cancel Dr. Seuss, it's to stop printing children's books with racist caricatures.

Do you think children will be grateful for that later on in life?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is appalling to me that they are pulling some of Dr. Seuss’s classic children’s books off the shelves because they are potentially offensive. At what point does this cancel culture not become Fahrenheit 451?

I just re-read one of the titles being discontinued, “...Saw it on Mulberry St”, Dr. Seuss’s first children’s book and a wonderful story about imagination. The only potentially offensive line in the whole book is “a Chinese man that eats with sticks”. Is acknowledging that Chinese eat with chopsticks now so offensive that we are banning a book that mentions it? Can any Asians out there please enlighten me and tell me if you’re happy with the choice to remove this classic book from the shelves?

I’m really afraid of what’s going on, and that this kind of move is supported and applauded by the left.

I completely agree. The ACLU should be suing about the censorship.

Suing who? The private company that has decided they no longer wish to print a couple of books? They’d be laughed out of court.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is sad how much wonderful literature will be cancelled. All because younger generations have not been taught critical thinking skills and because everything has become about feelings, not logic, facts or intellect.

What literature has been cancelled in the United States?

NP. There was a thread a few days/weeks ago asking for book recommendations for an elementary child interested in history. Someone recommended the Little House series but felt the need to spend half of the post apologizing for the offensive content and saying that if you could get past that, they were actually good books. I had to read the post twice to believe it.

I agree with the OP that the censorship and cancelling is out of control.

Isn't that LITERALLY what you are arguing should happen? Someone pointed out that a piece of literature had racist elements but, instead of saying it should be cancelled, recommended it in spite of the offensive content?

And, by the way, that is the reality of the Little House series. I read them with my kids and we had to talk about how Ma is strong and brave and wise and smart and a wonderful mother, and also suuuuuuuuuuuuuuper racist against Native Americans. You do have to deal with the offensive content.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe this whole cancel thing is suffering a backlash.

Thirteen of the top 20 selling books on Amazon today were.......... ALL Dr. Seuss books. And, the top 5 were all Seuss books.

https://variety.com/2021/digital/news/dr-seuss-books-amazon-best-sellers-1234919873/

The point isn't to cancel Dr. Seuss, it's to stop printing children's books with racist caricatures.

Do you think children will be grateful for that later on in life?

What an absurd standard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is sad how much wonderful literature will be cancelled. All because younger generations have not been taught critical thinking skills and because everything has become about feelings, not logic, facts or intellect.

What literature has been cancelled in the United States?

NP. There was a thread a few days/weeks ago asking for book recommendations for an elementary child interested in history. Someone recommended the Little House series but felt the need to spend half of the post apologizing for the offensive content and saying that if you could get past that, they were actually good books. I had to read the post twice to believe it.

I agree with the OP that the censorship and cancelling is out of control.

How is your example censoring? Is there some new definition of censoring I am unfamiliar with?

DP. Apparently there is. Censoring now promotes woke culture and like everything else is outsourced to businesses. It might not be the right word, but it's a close enough concept that it's being adopted to describe this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is sad how much wonderful literature will be cancelled. All because younger generations have not been taught critical thinking skills and because everything has become about feelings, not logic, facts or intellect.

What literature has been cancelled in the United States?

NP. There was a thread a few days/weeks ago asking for book recommendations for an elementary child interested in history. Someone recommended the Little House series but felt the need to spend half of the post apologizing for the offensive content and saying that if you could get past that, they were actually good books. I had to read the post twice to believe it.

I agree with the OP that the censorship and cancelling is out of control.

How is your example censoring? Is there some new definition of censoring I am unfamiliar with?

These books are no longer listed on the recommended reading lists. So yes, I call that censorship. There were also yearly awards named after the author that were renamed due to public pressure, which is essentially cancelling her since she's dead for more than half a century and I'm not sure what else they could do to cancel her.

[Anonymous]

Ahh, geez. Another thread that makes me fearful for the future of our country when people can’t discern the difference between censorship and the free market. I’m a moderate but I really hate the right at this moment for all their fear-mongering and arm-waving on click Nate topics rather than the important stuff we need to get done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is sad how much wonderful literature will be cancelled. All because younger generations have not been taught critical thinking skills and because everything has become about feelings, not logic, facts or intellect.

What literature has been cancelled in the United States?

NP. There was a thread a few days/weeks ago asking for book recommendations for an elementary child interested in history. Someone recommended the Little House series but felt the need to spend half of the post apologizing for the offensive content and saying that if you could get past that, they were actually good books. I had to read the post twice to believe it.

I agree with the OP that the censorship and cancelling is out of control.

How is your example censoring? Is there some new definition of censoring I am unfamiliar with?

DP. Apparently there is. Censoring now promotes woke culture and like everything else is outsourced to businesses. It might not be the right word, but it's a close enough concept that it's being adopted to describe this.

DP. "Read this, but heads up there's some racist stuff in it" is so far from censorship that it's hard to take you seriously. It doesn't even suggest that you shouldn't read that book! There are books I actively suggest people not read? I guess that's a book burning in your topsy-turvy world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is sad how much wonderful literature will be cancelled. All because younger generations have not been taught critical thinking skills and because everything has become about feelings, not logic, facts or intellect.

What literature has been cancelled in the United States?

NP. There was a thread a few days/weeks ago asking for book recommendations for an elementary child interested in history. Someone recommended the Little House series but felt the need to spend half of the post apologizing for the offensive content and saying that if you could get past that, they were actually good books. I had to read the post twice to believe it.

I agree with the OP that the censorship and cancelling is out of control.

How is your example censoring? Is there some new definition of censoring I am unfamiliar with?

These books are no longer listed on the recommended reading lists. So yes, I call that censorship. There were also yearly awards named after the author that were renamed due to public pressure, which is essentially cancelling her since she's dead for more than half a century and I'm not sure what else they could do to cancel her.

So every book not on a recommended list is being censored? Do you people even hear yourselves?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ahh, geez. Another thread that makes me fearful for the future of our country when people can’t discern the difference between censorship and the free market. I’m a moderate but I really hate the right at this moment for all their fear-mongering and arm-waving on click Nate topics rather than the important stuff we need to get done.

What is the name for the free market cancelling a beloved cultual icon in accordance with an ideology I don't agree with There is no better word than censoring right now. If the use it enough that way, that becomes the new definition. This happens all the time with other words. Why fight over words? You know what they are talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is sad how much wonderful literature will be cancelled. All because younger generations have not been taught critical thinking skills and because everything has become about feelings, not logic, facts or intellect.

You sound old. "Back in my day" old. Sorry we don't watch the same movies and listen to the same music and read the same books as you did when you were a child. That's the way the world works, unless you live in an authoritarian state that dictates what gets published and what media people can consume.

And who the heck associates Dr Seuss with facts and intellect anyway?

Have to go now and read Green Eggs and Ham to my younger child. It's our favorite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is sad how much wonderful literature will be cancelled. All because younger generations have not been taught critical thinking skills and because everything has become about feelings, not logic, facts or intellect.

What literature has been cancelled in the United States?

NP. There was a thread a few days/weeks ago asking for book recommendations for an elementary child interested in history. Someone recommended the Little House series but felt the need to spend half of the post apologizing for the offensive content and saying that if you could get past that, they were actually good books. I had to read the post twice to believe it.

I agree with the OP that the censorship and cancelling is out of control.

How is your example censoring? Is there some new definition of censoring I am unfamiliar with?

DP. Apparently there is. Censoring now promotes woke culture and like everything else is outsourced to businesses. It might not be the right word, but it's a close enough concept that it's being adopted to describe this.

DP. "Read this, but heads up there's some racist stuff in it" is so far from censorship that it's hard to take you seriously. It doesn't even suggest that you shouldn't read that book! There are books I actively suggest people not read? I guess that's a book burning in your topsy-turvy world.

I'm just saying they are pointing to a cultural change they don't agree with. This is so new, there is no word for it. But you know what they are complaining about anyway.

[Anonymous]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is sad how much wonderful literature will be cancelled. All because younger generations have not been taught critical thinking skills and because everything has become about feelings, not logic, facts or intellect.

What literature has been cancelled in the United States?

NP. There was a thread a few days/weeks ago asking for book recommendations for an elementary child interested in history. Someone recommended the Little House series but felt the need to spend half of the post apologizing for the offensive content and saying that if you could get past that, they were actually good books. I had to read the post twice to believe it.

I agree with the OP that the censorship and cancelling is out of control.

Isn't that LITERALLY what you are arguing should happen? Someone pointed out that a piece of literature had racist elements but, instead of saying it should be cancelled, recommended it in spite of the offensive content?

And, by the way, that is the reality of the Little House series. I read them with my kids and we had to talk about how Ma is strong and brave and wise and smart and a wonderful mother, and also suuuuuuuuuuuuuuper racist against Native Americans. You do have to deal with the offensive content.

+1
This is what we all agreed, right? If a book is offensive - and these books will live on in existing bookshelves all over the country - we have to talk to our kids about why they’re offensive and why we don’t talk about people like that anymore or depict them that way.

(And shout out to Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich, meant to be sort of a Native perspective story on the era in which LHOTP was set. It’s in a slightly different geographical location, but it’s really, really good. I read both to my son.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ahh, geez. Another thread that makes me fearful for the future of our country when people can’t discern the difference between censorship and the free market. I’m a moderate but I really hate the right at this moment for all their fear-mongering and arm-waving on click Nate topics rather than the important stuff we need to get done.

What is the name for the free market cancelling a beloved cultual icon in accordance with an ideology I don't agree with There is no better word than censoring right now. If the use it enough that way, that becomes the new definition. This happens all the time with other words. Why fight over words? You know what they are talking about.

It's called capitalism. Corporations and companies and firms do what they want with regard to their products. If you want that regulated then move to a different country.

I'm sorry you are no longer allowed to read Dr. Seuss wherever you are. I don't understand why you aren't, because we are reading one of his books here tonight, but obviously you live in a different world.