Amazon workers petition and two quit over anti-LGBTQ book sales | Hacker News Reader

Amazon workers petition and two quit over anti-LGBTQ book sales

nbcnews.com

16 pointsthrowkeep6 comments

The book in question, a major bestseller, was named a book of the year by the Economist and one of the best books of 2021 by the Times and the Sunday Times. So, not exactly out of the mainstream: https://t.co/Bp5FcXDsg3

But it looks like Amazon has found a way to get rid of undesirable employees without having to fire them.

The title is bizarre. The issue is about one book, which deals with only one of the letters in LGBetc., and is not, according to the author and most reviewers of the book, “anti” that letter at all.

>But it looks like Amazon has found a way to get rid of undesirable employees without having to fire them.

Two Employees quit.

The article seems to lay out quite plainly how the book could be considered “anti’: people tend not to appreciated being accused of mental illnesses when they consider themselves sane, and proof as much by having successful careers at Amazon corporate. Framing them as “undesirables’ reeks of “no, I’m breaking up with you”.

This ids of course just a rehash of 50+ years of trying to “cure” gay people, including a lot of hardship, occasional suicides, and the end result of just not doing that any more and everyone being happier.

People are not “accused” of being mentally ill, but sometimes they are diagnosed as such. They are often not in a position to know whether the diagnosis is correct.

The employees are undesirable because they want to ban mainstream books while working for a bookseller.

Many people supportive of gay rights, and especially many lesbians, consider the rise of “gender affirming care” for young people (something that I’m guessing is discussed in this book) as a new, insidious form of the conversion therapy that you allude to.

> people tend not to appreciated being accused of mental illnesses when they consider themselves sane

Working for a store that sells a product is not the same as being accused of anything, and it really makes no sense to pin the responsibility of quitting your job on the fact that your employer has one item out of a catalog of billions of products that for some reason you've decided to single out.

Also, the concept of mental illness doesn't depend on appreciation or acceptance from the patient. Some people suffering from morbid obesity might not appreciate being called overweight or more vulnerable to health problems, but that doesn't mean the issues vanished.

Book banning has a historical tendency to slip towards book burning. People who believe in the principles behind free societies support the fundamental rights of expression of those they disagree with, especially those.

(And no, the paradox of tolerance is ultimately fascist in outcome when it forces censorship onto opposing views)

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