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Saturday, March 8, 2003

Does Amazon Really Need Money This Badly?

Here's a letter that I just sent to feedback@amazon.com:
I'm a pretty open-minded sort, but there are limits beyond which decent merchants should not go--such as offering a book like Understanding Loved Boys and Boylovers. I appreciate that the Amazon.com review was pretty hostile, but do you really need the tiny profit that you make selling this book?



If a publisher asked you to sell a book about how rape is actually a good thing for rapist and victim, would you sell it? What about a book encouraging the torture of children? How about a book promoting genocide as a net positive for the human race? Are there depths that Amazon.com won't dive down to in the pursuit of a profit? If so, why do you consider it necessary to promote this sort of destruction of the innocence of children?



I wrote you a few months back, when I first saw that you were selling this apology for child molestation. I assumed that you had this book on our your list because you hadn't thought this through. I see that you are still selling it. Why? You don't sell every book that's offered. Paladin Press published a book some years ago about how to be a contract killer, and you don't seem to carry that. So why carry a book that tries to justify molesting children?



I have an Amazon.com Honor System Account with you that has made a bit of money for both of us; over the last few years, my wife and I have bought many hundreds of dollars worth of books, perhaps thousands of dollars worth of books from you. If you are still offering Understanding Loved Boys and Boylovers at the end of this month, you will never see another penny from me.



I would prefer to keep doing business with Amazon.com. I at least would like some explanation for why you consider it so important to offer a book like this that you are prepared to drive away a long-time customer. Please ask Jeff Bezos to explain why the paltry profit you make on a book like this justifies putting Amazon.com into the sewer of human depravity.
Go click on the link, and tell me: why does Amazon.com need to offer this book? It's pretty clear from both Amazon.com's review, and those of the pedophiles that wrote customer reviews of it, that this is a straightforward apology for child molestation.



UPDATE: Amazon.com responded. I'm not doing business with them anymore. I hope that you don't either.