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Comment by Fezzik | Hacker News Reader

and from a platform that still allows Mein Kampf to be listed it seems especially idiotic...

Edit, to add: as a comment below notes eBay only allows annotated versions of the book. So maybe they are consistent; I didn’t click through any of the listings when I searched. I also have no idea how you annotate Mein Kampf to not be racist/anti-Semitic propaganda...

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It's the next step of corporate virtue signaling. Just repeating slogans on twitter or changing the bio and profile of a company account will not be enough anymore, instead pick a ridiculous hot topic from the news cycle and use this as an opportunity to implement an even more ridiculous policy change in your company to show that your company is down with the cause. I bet we will see even more of that.

I love the term virtue signalling, but I'd much prefer the stronger word come back into the regular lexicon: "sanctimonious". It feels more impactful, as in "we didn't need a new word to describe your tendency to shout about your moral superiority"

In the 70s and 80s, a common complaint about American Republicans was that they were sanctimonious moralizers. Now another party has adopted that mantle, but a lot of people have yet to catch up with that fact.

Virtue signaling is such a great descriptive term for a lot of behavior. It's such a shame that it got politicized.

social grandstanding is another good one

“Oh we would never burn book... oh wait.”

It really was not that long ago... like 20 years we knew that all the things we’re seeing now are wrong and even had an idea why they were wrong.

There is going to be a kick back from all of this. I think we all know it, just not what form it will take.

I've occasionally observed parallels between the 4chan-esque mob and the woke mob.

It's the power of peer pressure combined with the apparently human tendancy to encourage others to do things we know are wrong for our own amusement. It's the playground mentality where a bunch of kids stand around goading another kid into doing something terrible chanting "do it, do it". With each success the groups find new levels of perversion to push their members to.

It's doublethink, there's no other way to really summarize the effect from things like this.

Mein Kampf isn't a children book though. In addition to the be fact that the books are annotated, those who are going to read it will be of enough to get the context surrounding this book

Only annotated editions apparently.[1]

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26350364

Interesting! I have only ever read the original - does the annotated edition actually remove all the rampant racism and anti-semitism? Both are rather prevalent topics in the book...

Your bio says you're an attorney. I think you know how annotation works.

I most certainly do! I was referring to this specific annotated version, which also indicates that it was edited... having read the book I just don’t see how annotations would change anything about how racist and anti-Semitic the book is. EBay’s police indicates that they remove racist and offensive items... there’s nothing about leaving those listings up so long as there is a stern disclaimer that the item is, in fact, quite offensive. I perhaps incorrectly assumed some of the more virulent nonsense was edited out.

The only specific version they mentioned was pulled because it wasn't annotated. I don't know what specific version you mean.

Most people wouldn't call a version with just a disclaimer annotated. I assume annotated versions of Mein Kampf refute Hitler's claims.

especially because the Dr Seuss books are superior literary specimens (how ironic!)

> Edit, to add: as a comment below notes eBay only allows annotated versions of the book.

I wouldn't be surprised if this started as a copyright issue. Bavaria inherited Hitlers copyright and aggressively banned any sale of Mein Kampf, only annotated versions got around that ban and even that was a legal uphill battle as far as I remember.

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