Amazon Begins Removing QAnon Goods For Sale (seattletimes.com) 169
Long-time Slashdot reader AmiMoJo quotes the Washington Post:
Amazon said it will remove merchandise related to QAnon, a discredited conspiracy theory that the FBI has identified as a potential domestic terrorist threat, just a day after the e-commerce giant suspended the pro-Trump social media site Parler from using its cloud computing technology.
Amazon is beginning to remove QAnon products from its site, a process that could take a few days, spokeswoman Cecilia Fan said Monday afternoon following inquiries from The Washington Post and other media outlets. Third-party merchants that attempt to evade Amazon's systems to list QAnon goods may find their selling privileges revoked, Fan added.
Amazon is beginning to remove QAnon products from its site, a process that could take a few days, spokeswoman Cecilia Fan said Monday afternoon following inquiries from The Washington Post and other media outlets. Third-party merchants that attempt to evade Amazon's systems to list QAnon goods may find their selling privileges revoked, Fan added.
They're very selective. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:They're very selective. (Score:4, Informative)
There's no problem buying Mein Kampf and other controversial items from Amazon.
as that is used in actual history classes and such it should be (its hard to study the causes of the rise of fascism for example if you can't read sources)
Re:QAnon merch won't be needed... (Score:4, Informative)
You don't know much about prophetic cults. Millerism still survives in the Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses, with both groups notorious for failed prophecies, and William Miller's first prophecies didn't come true 180 years ago.
Once people have bought into a prophetic cults, their ability to ignore reality and continue buying into their prophet's further bullshit claims is almost limitless.
You see, most people are fucking morons.
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The reason Christians missed the Apocalypse and Muslims missed the return of the 12th Imam is the same reason Jews missed the Coming of the Messiah (Jesus Christ according to the Christians). They are all expecting the end of the world instead of the en
Re:QAnon merch won't be needed... (Score:4, Insightful)
Have you seen the "End of the World" cults that miss their target dates? They just come up with new dates, reasons why the old dates were missed, and the cult members nod their heads in agreement that it's obvious why the old date was missed.
Right now (as I understand it), QAnon is claiming that on January 20th, Trump will give some kind of grand reveal which will ensure that he remains President. When he doesn't, they'll come up with some explanation (e.g. he's really implanted a series of spies into the Deep State and is directing things from afar) and possibly some new date as to when the Grand Reveal will occur. When that doesn't happen, they'll change to another new explanation and another one, each time forgetting how wrong their old predictions were.
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False and failed predictions never stopped a cult before and it won't stop this one. Facts don't matter, all that matters is belief.
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Alo what about the "kill all Republican" shirts.
I don't see anything listed with that motto. Do you have a link?
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It's strange how if you search amazon for 'antifa' you find a lot of "f**k antifa" clothing but the only actual antifa stuff listed is generic clothing branded with a 1950's German anti-fascist flag.
It's like there is a lot of hate directed at a group that doesn't actually exist.
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It's been a while since Mein Kanpf inspired insurrection.
Re: They're very selective. (Score:2)
You must somehow have missed the German AfD (our N@zi Tea Party equivalent), NSU (basically Schäbe's agents trying to stir up an insurrection, before joining the AfD), etc.
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So when did they attempt to sack Berlin?
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So when did they attempt to sack Berlin?
If we're leaving the 20s and 30s out of it, some right wing extremists gave it a try last year [dw.com].
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The only edition sold in Germany is an academic version with scholarly notes and critique.
Until 2017 it was kept from print using copyright laws. If indeed the anti-corona restriction nuts did get their ideas from Mein Kanpf, perhaps something should be done about it IN GERMANY.
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Calm your knee down and re-read what I have written. Now ask yourself where did I attampt to equate the tea party with the Na zi party?
I will however state plainly that I equate the crazy QAnon true believers with the stereotypical guy in a straitjacket wearing the Napoleon hat.
The people who actually believe that Trump won by a landslide and that Biden being inaugurated is the result of a vast conspiracy against Trump (including a number of lifelong Republicans and Trump appointees) aren't doing much bette
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Jan. 6, the Capitol, maybe you've heard of it?
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That wasn't Mein Kampf, that was Q-Anon and Trump.
"Kill All Republicans" shirt since august 2020 (Score:4, Informative)
Amazon has listed a "Kill All Republicans" shirt since august 2020:
https://archive.is/V6dj3 [archive.is]
Only removed in the last few days, once they needed to dress up in moral clothing, as Hillary Clinton's mentor Saul Alinsky recommended.
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has listed a "Kill All Republicans" shirt since august 2020
I know I'm just a dumb foreigner with deficient English, but I used to think that present perfect didn't refer to actions that didn't continue anymore.
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once they needed to dress up in moral clothing
You mean, once they realized that incitement to political violence actually has a high chance of leading to violence, and decided to enforce their new policy evenhandedly with regard to incitement from any political party? Yeah, I don't see anything to complain about there.
Good luck (Score:2)
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Sure. But so far the data seems to be showing the QAnon cult has lost a huge amount of their recruiting power due to these bans.
I mean ultimately, theres no negotiating with crazy, but that doesn't mean companies ought be participating in the crazy.
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The brand has just reached end of life. It was a whole Trump/Republican thing, not very good, somewhat creative, but is has lost it's reason to exist and so the merchandise simply has no value any more, except in discount bin in supermarkets, dependent upon stock levels.
Pretending the censoring had an impact is as silly as can be, and those doing the censoring and scared a bunch of politicians globally and they are all, kill, kill, kill kind of mental framework, Google, Facebook and Twitter are facing a gl
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The current claim is that on the 20th there will be 10 days of blackout, during which Trump will round up all the Satan worshiping paedophiles and emerge as POTUS again.
When that doesn't happen hopefully it will be the final nail in the coffin for QAnon. Unfortunately I think it may well just continue, as Trump gets hit by criminal charges and lawsuits. There is a strong possibility of violence on the 20th as well, and not just in Washington.
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but how will we know... (Score:2)
Re: but how will we know... (Score:4, Insightful)
Same as vegans.
Just wait. They'll tell you.
Re: but how will we know... (Score:3, Funny)
It's a Good Thing (Score:4, Insightful)
I know plenty of people are going to go all "muh freedums" and claim this is some kind of targeted conspiracy to suppress speech. The thing is, as a society we have seen this sort of thing and done this sort of thing before, and with good reason.
Go to walmart.com (in the U.S., at least) and do a search for "Mein Kampf". No luck, eh? That's odd. Try a search by author and you'll see that most of the books seem to want to portray that person in a pretty bad light.
Similarly, although anybody in the world who is dedicated to getting and reading a copy of "The Turner Diaries" can do that, getting a print paperback copy is going to prove challenging, You'll probably have to go to your local fringe political bookstore to find one. Here in California, it would (ironically enough) probably be a socialist action bookstore. But you won't just breeze into Barnes and Noble and pick up a copy. Why? Because they don't carry it.
We, as a society, have decided that certain political speech is so virulent, damaging, and dangerous that we choose not to allow it to be disseminated widely. I think it's demonstrable that QAnon falls into that category.
Is it oppression? Repression? Suppression? Probably just the latter. I doubt anyone has ever gone to jail for trying to distribute their press's copies of "Mein Kampf" through Walmart. Walmart just says "thanks but no thanks" and it's that much harder for uneducated people to go down the rabbit hole.
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Why? How much money would the state of Bavaria be losing if Walmart sold a book that Bavaria isn't publishing?
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You don't have to show that you have suffered monetary damages to enforce copyright. All that is necessary is that a) you own the copyright and b) the copier did not have your permission. Although, as I stated earlier, the copyright on Mein Kampf expired a few years back; it's in the pubic domain.
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Perhaps that depends on which part of the world you are in but if the damages are zero then how much damages do you expect to receive?
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I don't know of anyplace where it works differently. You would, of course, get no damages. You would get a judgment of a penalty for violating a copyright, but you wouldn't get damages on top of that, which you could expect if you could show a monetary loss.
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I don't think that's how copyrights work and that's not what they are intended for, copyrights are put in place to protect artists /publishers profits in order to encourage the artists to create works. Copyright was always intended to encourage the creation of more works and those works were supposed to enter the public domain as before copyright there was only public domain.
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Copyrights are in place to protect artists, period. Protecting their profits, yes, but it's not the only thing they protect.
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No, that is the only thing they protect, get real.
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I assure you, I am very real.
Re:It's a Good Thing (Score:4, Informative)
Actually, the copyright on "Mein Kampf" expired in 2016. It's now public domain.
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Are they going to stop selling They Live merch? (Score:2)
You know, because it promotes a discredited conspiracy theory about aliens?
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BLM/AntiFa? (Score:2)
So they're OK with BLM and AntiFa protesters rioting and destroying downtown PDX and shooting one guy?
Re:BLM/AntiFa? (Score:5, Informative)
Do you equate fighting for you equal rights with attempting to overthrow a democracy because you're a moron or because you're genuinely a bad person?
Yes, Amazon are okay with it. We should ALL be okay with it. To not be okay with it makes one of the racist fucks that's part of the problem.
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Actually yes, they kinda do equate the two. They believe that BLM is just part of the communist/globalist conspiracy, not a genuine issue. In that sense it's actually less legitimate than their struggle against the Satan worshiping paedophiles.
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Hmmm. playing Devil's advocate here, rather than "They Live" merchandise, how about... are they going to stop selling the Quran? Some fundamentalist Islamic extremists have conducted acts as bad as (or worse than) invading the Capitol building. I've always been taught not to judge an entire group of people based on the acts of a handful of idiots, but it seems you're suggesting we should. Why is it acceptable to ban absolutely anything to do with QAnon based on a relatively small number of Capitol-invading
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When the buyers of said merch attempt to overthrow a democratically elected government I'm sure they would.
My pillow is still on sale, though. (Score:3)
Some reporter with super high res camera snapped him and was able to read a lot of the notes printed on the papers he was seen carrying into the White House. It went something along the lines of:
"Egg on your base to attack the Capitol and lynch your Vice President. Then you can cite law and order situation, invoke insurrection act and crown yourself as the King! Then you can appoint me as the Groom of the Stool [wikipedia.org] and I will diligently, completely but softly carry out my primary duty of wiping your butt".
I am paraphrasing, you can find the original decryption here. [washingtonpost.com]
More #gratiscourage. (Score:2)
So courageous, Amazon! Have all the brownie points!
Also: Discredited? Are you implying it had some credit before? ...)
(Well, ok, the media certainly treated them with the attention that implied that
Censorship is half the argument (Score:2)
In all of this "deplatforming" there is certainly a case to be made that this is censorship and that people are trying to "shut down" dissonant voices. The other half of the story is that these are commercial entities and they don't want your dangerous bullshit on their platforms because it's dangerous and has the potential to wreck their bottom line. Companies manage their profits in part by managing risk. Trump & Qanon are risky. Hosting extremist garbage is risky. Maybe Jeff Bezos couldn't give a fly
Che is Still OK, Though (Score:2)
Mass murderers like racist Che Guevara and Mao and Stalin are still welcome, however.
Let's Check on Che (Score:5, Informative)
Yup, the racist mass-murderer who rounded up homosexuals for execution squads is still just fine by Amazon:
https://amzn.to/2M1cwBb [amzn.to]
https://www.humanprogress.org/... [humanprogress.org]
Q-tards, though... Glad we know where they stand.
Won't this be counterproductive? (Score:2)
I get shutting down communication avenues for people wanting to organize an insurrection on inauguration day, but won't de-listing their t-shirts and such just play into the conspiracy theory, potentially encouraging more of their members/believer to participate in some uprising attempt? Why not wait until after Jan 20th to delist, and in the meantime, perhaps provide the authorities where these items are being shipped by Wednesday, in case it's clothing for those who plan something crazy on Wednesday. Or i
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No. Some, at least, of QAnon is small-money funded (as opposed to other elements of it, that have backing by billionaires, [1] and some of the other big-money pushers (like the former VP of Citibank, who was posting from a work account.
It's a case of follow the money... and if you cut the money, you cut the people *behind* who are pushing the idiocy.
1. https://www.theguardian.com/us... [theguardian.com]
I bet... (Score:2)
Re: Apocalypse coming 2023 (Score:3)
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Hey it was the GOP that fought for corporations to be considered people and who doesn't hold them to the first amendment. They can refuse service of anyone they'd like. Just wait until Broadband companies start denying people service.
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And then they reap the consequences of pissing off 150,000,000 million people.
Re: Apocalypse coming 2023 (Score:2)
Go on, make a threat of violence on /.
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No one cared for my anger when they elected that moron to office in 2016. Why should I care about you? Did you express any sympathy, did you ever tell Republicans not to piss off 50% of the population?
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You know what, most Republicans are pissed off at QAnon and the dimwits too. Number of people pissed off by this de platforming is not as large as you think. Corporations dont such steps without fully checking with marketing departments, focus group studies and market watchers.
If they are willing to take this action, deny campaign funding to congresscritters who
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So you are saying the Federal Government should tell States how to run their elections?
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They can refuse service of anyone they'd like
And then they reap the consequences of pissing off 150,000,000 million people.
150,000,000,000,000 people? Right-wing maths...
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Yeah going to war because your safe space was taken away. Actually no wait Parler is back up https://www.reuters.com/articl... [reuters.com]
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We're also hearing, like a steady drumbeat, about armed militias, planned armed marches, possible plots to abduct political leaders and other threats against the government, all seemingly founded on a 95% fabricated idea that the election was "stolen". I'd say that's pissing off the other 50%. Perhaps, instead of coming on here trying to score argument points against "liberals" or "the left" or whoever you think is doing this you could find some of these pissed off patriots and carefully point out to them t
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This gave me a chuckle. Y'all Queda or Tangerine Taliban not sure which is funnier. The horn guy was crying in jail because his food wasn't organic. Some revolutionary there.
Re: Apocalypse coming 2023 (Score:2)
Nah, only America.
But right now we still have to determine if that counts as civilization. ;)
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0/10 troll, too easy.
Re:Double standards (Score:5, Insightful)
You see Amazon still sells books about the Trump Russian collusion delusion. They do this even though this has been debunked at every point.
But that's not even true. You should probably read the books, starting with the actual Mueller Report -- which, contrary to Trump talking points, hardly "found nothing." So the argument that this is some kind of double standard holds no water. There is exactly zero evidence to support Pizzagate or any of QAnon's theories, and even asking for any is met with nothing but derisive laughter. It's a total false equivalency to compare the Mueller Report with "Hilary Clinton is the leader of a cult that kidnaps children, molests them, and sacrifices them to Satan in the basement of a pizza power to gain the powers of Necromancy and steal the White House."
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It is difficult to get [Mueller] to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.
Upton Sinclair
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If you think the Mueller Report found something criminal about Trump then what is your conspiracy theory for why no one is using it as evidence?
Read the report. Mueller explains it himself. There's no conspiracy. Mueller's judgment was that, given that we're talking about a sitting president of the United States, there was insufficient material to conduct a successful prosecution. His opinion on that score was based largely on procedural and political matters.
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So much crying about terrorism, and America keeps the biggest terrorist funder in power. So stop crying.
You ever feel like bringing up "terrorism" in a discussion about the crimes committed by the President of the United States might constitute A.) a straw man; B.) moving the goalposts; C.) both ? No? That's why you're bad at debate.
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As soon as a bunch of crazies wearing Trump-Russia collusion tee shirts ransack the Capitol, those books will be gone too.
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Hardly sounds like the actions of someone that is guilty and wants to cover things up.
I mean the things he was declared guilt of and yet simply not prosecuted over due to the question of if it were legally possible were already declassified. If you go into a house and see a man kill and dismember someone with an axe do you magically give him a free pass when he says "feel free to look in the fridge, there you'll see I eat health and am thus not a bad person" do you sit down and drink a beer with said psycho or do you hightail the fuck outta there?
Re: Double standards (Score:2)
Fun fact about mobs: They're reaaaally easy to control.
Just don'd be an idiot.
Simply give them what they think they need. By linking what you want to what they want, and having them eat it up.
The problem is that even agencies fight this the wrong way. Or they want it. I can't tell without contacts with clearance.
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There was a time when mocking freedom of speech would have been abominable and anti-American.
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Sounds like free enterprise to me. They can choose to not sell, even have a Supreme Court case to back them up.
Re: What? (Score:2)
You check first.
I'm not entering that into Amazon search with a seven proxy line.
Re: tru pat-riots (Score:2)
There are no ISIS t-shirts and Al-Qaeda shit. There are no Antifa boots or Hezbollah caps. Only one type of moron declares such an extreme and violent view in such a manner: a Trumptard. So come at me with your shirts and assorted paraphernalia. Can you believe that some fuckwad attempted armed insurrection ... with a flagpole!? We'll spot you from a mile away.
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