Amazon.com, a Publisher of Racist Bilge?

Amazon.com sells millions of books, CDs and other products each year. So, we can't necessarily expect the online retail giant to be morally responsible for every single last product and, where its book offerings are concerned, we shouldn't ask them to become censors. But, selling a product someone else created and producing the product yourself are two different things. And, in this case, we might be seeing Amazon.com actually printing an anti-Jew, anti-US, "truther," Holocaust denial book with their BookSurge subsidiary company. One wonders if Amazon.com is even aware they are suddenly in the business of publishing anti-semitic books?

And this early warning system is where education serves a chief role. Our schools are supposed to serve as the gatekeepers of what a society deems in good taste, important or necessary to learn. Our schools are also supposed to serve as a critic of sorts to teach students what to avoid or, if not avoiding, teach where certain philosophies that might prove harmful fit into world history. In other words, if Marx is discussed, the evil he is responsible for should be highlighted. If “Mein Kampf” is assigned, the results of Hitler’s hate should be a principle subject.

So, my point is books can sometimes be bad things depending upon what is in them. This seems to be a lesson that Amazon.com never learned. Or at the very least, it's a lesson the on-line book giant never thought it a worthy one to consider.

Yuval Levin of Commentary Magazine brings us the story of how Amazon.com is suddenly, but not by design necessarily, responsible for publishing racist, anti-Semitic, anti-US, “truther” trash with their on-demand book service.

To expand their Internet empire, Amazon.com purchased an on-demand book printing service named BookSurge where customers can order printed copies of any particular book. The customer chooses the book they want and this service prints the desired number of copies and ships them off. This service also prints short run books for those wishing to sell them. It's all quite innocent, isn't it?

But, then again, it depends on what book the customer wants printed, doesn't it? And in at least one case, a book being printed by BookSurge is not the kind of book that a serious bookseller would want on their shelves.

Levin reports about a new book being printed by Amazon.com's BookSurge company:

I tell you all this because this morning I received a press release by email from BookSurge, informing me in breathless tones of the publication of an exciting new book called Persecution, Privilege & Power, edited by Mark Green, and offering “a searing collection of articles about the organized-but often unrecognized-exploitation of political and cultural power in the United States.” Here is how the email describes the book:

"In Persecution, Privilege & Power, Green has collected the sharpest commentaries and analyses from 30 different writers as they critically examine the role that Zionism plays in shaping U.S. policies abroad as well as cultural transformations at home. This riveting volume provides a broad and exhilarating inspection of Zionist machinations as well as the entrenched taboos and covert alliances that sustain them. Green’s array of commentators includes James Petras, Charlie Reese, Alison Weir, Kevin MacDonald, Gilad Atzmon, Ray McGovern, Joe Sobran and many others. Persecution, Privilege & Power unearths the unchecked malfeasance within the political wing of organized Jewry, specifically examining that international lobby’s political excesses from a multiplicity of perspectives."

The email is signed by Amanda Sullivan Wilson, BookSurge’s public relations manager, and it details the company’s status as “a subsidiary of Amazon.com Inc., (NASDAQ AMZN)”.

Let’s not just take CM’s Levin’s word for it, though. So, what is this exciting new book that Amazon's subsidiary is publishing? Let's take a look at some of the writers that the advertisement so "breathlessly" brings to our attention.

• Gilad Atzmon is a musician who has a long history of anti-semitic political views. He has compared Israel to Nazi Germany and verges on Holocaust denial.
• Kevin MacDonald claims his specialty is the evolutionary psychology of Judaism that allows Jews to "out-compete" whites for resources and that this sort of voluntary eugenics helps Jews undermine white people.
• Ray McGovern is an ex-CIA agent who is a 9/11 truther and is one of those who imagines that if the USA didn't plan the attacks behind the scenes, it at least deserved what it got.
• James Petras is one of those guys who imagines that "the Jooooos" hide behind every powerful person, manipulation their every move. The rest have similar ideas.

So, we wonder if Amazon.com is aware that they are responsible for printing anti-Jew, anti-US propaganda with their BookSurge operations? It’s one thing to sell books that others publish, even if they are off-color or troublesome in some way or another. But to actually become the publisher of them?

Well, that is another thing entirely.

(Photo credit:Amazon.com)