this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2025

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616

Amazon is changing what is written in books (youtu.be)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

192 comments fedilink hide all child comments

But lets see the Positive side: Now the Nazis wont have to burn thousands of books, saving tons of co2 in their Plan to take over the world with propaganda. So, yay for the envoirment I guess

(page 3) 50 comments

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 days ago (2 children)

It’s time to de-Google, de-amazon, de-Microsoft, de-apple, etc.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Now? As if they were so ethical all those decades before.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (7 children)

It has been time for that, long ago. Why did you have to wait for everything to go south?

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

"How about instead of words, we fill books with numbers?"

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 days ago (1 children)

13+ years ago when I'd say why I hate social media, cloud services, all this convenient dependence, everybody would act as if this was stupid.

My logic was that if there's a mechanism allowing such influence, no matter how small, its power will grow almost until the death of such an ecosystem. Because the returns of abusing it will always be more than the expenses.

I don't like this Cassandra feeling really.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago (8 children)

Most people have an astounding lack of imagination. Its like they thing that things can't get much worse because that would be too different to now....

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[+] [email protected] -9 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Honest question, how is this different from the left doing the same? Take this for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl_revision_controversy

As an outsider, it seems the USA is currently in a culture war, and neither side minds burning & changing the books they deem offensive?

I'm all for the Trump hate, what's happening there is insane, but the American left wing being bothered by books being changed seems pretty hypocritical seeing recent events....

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago (9 children)

A punchier example would be And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie - the best selling murder mystery of all time - which was first published as Ten Little Niggers

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

The controversy you pointed out is about someone who was writing factually false information and feeding hate against people who should be covered under the freedom of speech. The ban happened during his life, and not years after he died. Therefore his works were not a peace of gone culture, but hate in the present of time.

If I follow your argumentation, that being that you should allow people write false information feeding hate against specific people just living their life in peace, you should be against censoring Hate speech against Lgbtqia+ people too, or the better question would be: where do you draw the line? At Jews? At queer people?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I have honestly no clue what you're trying to say???

If you read the wiki page i linked, it's about changing his books after his death, so not things about when he was still alive? Is also not about a ban? Did you even read the wiki? It literally starts with "Puffin Books, the children's imprint of the British publisher Penguin Books, expurgated various works by British author Roald Dahl in 2023, sparking controversy. "

And you're talking about hate against races, but the wiki talks about removing the word queer (which used to just be a synonym for strange), removing all kinds of gendered language (not sons & daughters, but children, etc....). So rewriting the books to fit your narrative.

My argumentation is simple: the right wing can't change books, but the leftwing can? Both sides seem to be trying to rewrite history, that's all. Whether what's in the books is acceptable or not, who cares. If the book is no longer appropriate, don't read it but complaining about the other side rewriting books seems hypocritical. That's all. You can just not recommend books to readers and suggest more modern alternatives that are more appropriate, or read the old works taking in mind the era they were written in.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I am with you on this one. I do think it would be appropriate to have a disclaimer in the beginning, saying that these words used to have a different meaning, and that in the context of the time they were written they meant different things than today.
There is a German book where this is done that uses the N word for people of color.
This is the more appropriate way of handling this, because i am totally with you: we shouldn't change what was written in books. If we start doing that, we destroy what authors have done, and in a sense we also edit history, because in this case we try to erase that these words were used in another context back in the days.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Indeed

And that also bothers me about threads like this... both sides in the USA seem to be guilty of this, so to now call it propaganda & nazism when the right is doing it... It's of course true, but the left wing is doing the exact same, so you can't really be that outraged.... You're both doing the same thing :s

[+] [email protected] -7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

didn't know JK Rowling is into Lemmy now

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Ah yeah, going for the insult rather than engaging with a difficult talking point...

I for sure hate trans people when i say it's hypocritical to complain about the right wing changing books to fit what they view as correct, when the left wing is doing the exact same (strange... my point isn't even about trans people it seems... how peculiar).

I haven't even said that i have a problem with more gender neutral language, i just gave it as en example of what it's about since the parent post was all about hate speech, (and there was some issue with that too in his childrens books, but afaik hardly any).

And i focused on that because OP made it sound as if just hate speech was being targetted, not rewriting old works to fit very left wing desires about how gender is mentioned.

But the question remains: if the right does it, it's Nazism, when the left does it, it's.... (at least totally not Nazism, because when we do something that we claim is blatant Nazism when the others do it, it's ok, because obviously, we're not Nazis, even when we do things that we call out as blatantly Nazism when others do it).

(and why am i trying to call this out: because i hate hypocrisy & polarization. It's fair to disagree with that, but then calling it Nazism and being all wronged about it while the American left wing is doing the exact same, and then get's called out the exact same by de maga idiots... That's just stupid on both sides, and i'd prefer our side to be genuine and honest, and not be all offended when others do the same thing they're doing)

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Soon:

"Protestors who were planning to publish video evidence of police brutality find the videos mysteriously vanished from their phone"

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

In some Star Wars book, of the period between PT and OT, there was a similar moment, but I don't remember details. Context - it's described as some slow transition, while the Republic of the Clone Wars had military censorship and many freedoms curbed, after the war supposedly ended and the Empire proclaimed, it legally and procedurally was mostly the same and the military limitations were in part lifted. So there were protests and attempts to use legal mechanisms, with such funny events.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 days ago (4 children)

I've got an old Kindle, but not too old, which I jailbroke just yesterday with Winter break. I recommend that method for those considering getting drm free usage out of their device (instead of it contributing to ewaste).

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I'm glad I've already pulled my audible library in to audibookshelf, I didn't have many ebooks so didn't bother with them. I'm moving to librofm this month I think.

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