RSS
Over the last decade, Amazon has gained a near-total monopoly over Internet book sales, and late last month, we saw the dangerous consequences of such intellectual control as the company suddenly banned dozens of books, many of them of excellent scholarly quality. Apparently, activist organizations such as the ADL and the SPLC had succeeded in pressuring the company to ban those works to avoid any risk that American readers might become “confused” on certain controversial historical matters.
In an extremely ironic twist, several outstanding works of black historiography were banned at the height of Black History Month, presumably because they provided a far more complex and nuanced view of the historical relations between blacks and Jews than the ADL and those in its orbit have long promoted. In particular, one of the volumes published by Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam, which I had only discovered and read last year, seemed to conclusively demonstrate that the circumstances of the ADL’s own establishment a century ago were almost exactly contrary to what I had long believed based upon my standard history books.
Clearly, the ADL was loath to have others discover these same facts, and must be pleased that Amazon has now banned the work in question. I covered this and the various other Amazon book banning in a lengthy article a couple of weeks ago.
- American Pravda: Amazon Book Censorship
Banning Black Historiography During Black History Month
Ron Unz • March 11, 2019 • 7,600 Words
Although various people have discussed plans aimed at pressuring Amazon to retract its policy and I have even provided them some suggestions in that regard, it is not at all clear whether a company with a market value of nearly $900 billion will be swayed by a few intellectual malcontents. Indeed, the far greater likelihood is that large numbers of additional books will eventually be “disappeared.”
This small webzine was founded with a mission of providing “interesting, important, and controversial perspectives largely excluded from the American mainstream media.” Therefore, it seems natural to extend this policy to cover books, and I have now added a new Bookstore Section, allowing interested readers to browse and order those texts that Amazon has banned, in most cases directly from the websites of the particular publisher. As a start, I have stocked it with the hundred-odd books banned by Amazon but still available elsewhere on the Internet.
A half-century ago in a totally different America, publishers sometimes trumpeted the fact that their books had been “Banned in Boston,” which vastly increased their sales in many other parts of the country. Since past sales of the banned books had hardly been great, it seems not impossible that the notoriety associated with their removal might actually boost their visibility and purchase sufficiently to render the policy counter-productive.
After all, Amazon eagerly sells many millions of books these days, including Mein Kampf, The Communist Manifesto, and how-to manuals for producing homemade explosives to be used in domestic terrorist attacks. Yet the hundred-odd books now provided in my new system are apparently believed to contain ideas so horrifically dangerous that Amazon has chosen to violate its longstanding policy of intellectual freedom and ban them. Perhaps you should consider purchasing a couple of them and deciding for yourself.
I’m only familiar with a small fraction of the banned books, but can highly recommend the following half dozen:
- The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, by Nation of Islam Research Group, which I had discussed last year at considerable length in American Pravda: The ADL in American Society.
- The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, Volume One, by the same organization, on the Jewish role in black American slavery.
- The Culture of Critique, by Prof. Kevin MacDonald, on organized Jewish activist movements in America, originally published in 1998 by a leading academic press.
- Breaking the Spell: The Holocaust, Myth & Reality, by Dr. Nicholas Kollerstrom, a British historian of science
- The Hoax of the Twentieth Century, by Prof. Arthur Butz, the seminal text of Holocaust Denial
- Stalin’s War of Extermination, by Dr. Joachim Hoffmann, a leading mainstream German military historian, presenting analysis that I had discussed last year in American Pravda: When Stalin Almost Conquered Europe.
The works provided in this Bookstore section may be filtered based on Topic, Author, or Period, and the first of these criteria may provide some intriguing clues as to why they were selected for elimination from among Amazon’s endless millions, along with suggestions of the source of the pressure. George Orwell famously observed that those who control the past control the future, and those who control the present control the past. Therefore, we should hardly be surprised that the overwhelming majority of the banned books fall into the category of scholarly texts dealing with important historical events.
More than two-thirds of the books focus on the subject of “Jews” and over half deal with the Holocaust in particular. Indeed, it appears that the Amazon ban now now encompasses virtually all Holocaust books that substantially deviate from the orthodox framework promoted by the ADL and its allies, which is currently enforced by the threat of fines and prison sentences throughout most of Europe. These include several of the texts I had relied upon for my long 2018 article American Pravda: Holocaust Denial, but which I had fortunately purchased at Amazon before they were banned.
- The Unz Review Bookstore
Books Banned by Amazon but Available Here
�
Aside from now providing convenient access to what the Amazon Corporation officially ranks as the hundred most dangerous books in the history of the world, I’m also pleased to be able to resurrect the collected writings of a very prominent conservative writer and intellectual purged from National Review nearly thirty years ago, during the early stages of the Neocon takeover of the conservative movement.
Although the name of Joseph Sobran may be somewhat unfamiliar to younger conservatives, during the 1970s and 1980s he possibly ranked second only to founder William F. Buckley, Jr. in his influence in mainstream conservative circles, as partly suggested by the nearly 400 articles he published for NR during that period. By the late 1980s, he had grown increasingly concerned that growing Neocon influence would embroil America in future foreign wars, and his occasional sharp statements in that regard were branded “anti-Semitic” by his Neocon opponents, who eventually prevailed upon Buckley to purge him. The latter provided the particulars in a major section of his 1992 book-length essay In Search of Anti-Semitism.
Oddly enough, Sobran seems to have only very rarely discussed Jews, favorably or otherwise, across his decades of writing, but even just that handful of less than flattering mentions was apparently sufficient to draw their sustained destructive attacks on his career, and he eventually died in poverty in 2010 at the age of 64. Sobran had always been known for his literary wit, and his unfortunate ideological predicament eventually led him to coin the aphorism “An anti-Semite used to mean a man who hated Jews. Now it means a man who is hated by Jews.”
Following his defenestration from National Review, he spent about a dozen years as a syndicated columnist, while providing a small monthly conservative newsletter called Sobran’s. I’m very pleased to have now made arrangements to republish his complete archives of that period, currently totaling just nearly 650 columns and a half-million words, but probably due to rise as additional writings are located and added.
The obvious similarities between between the purge of a leading conservative writer thirty years ago and the banning of various books from Amazon thirty days ago provides an intriguing glimpse in the underlying nature of American political life, and the forces that can shape its trajectory. Writers, authors, and other intellectuals constitute a minuscule fraction of our society, yet removing or muzzling just a few of these can have enormous influence upon the social and political directions eventually taken by our country.
English
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
Dutch
French
German
Hebrew
Hindi
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Persian
Polish
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Swedish
Turkish
Vietnamese
Thanks Ron and especially for obtaining the permissions to republish Joe Sobran’s work. Have you given any thought to doing the same for Sam Francis? Or Elizabeth Wright (https://www.amren.com/news/2011/09/black_conservat_3/)? We’ve lost some of the brightest lights in conservative writing over the past decade or two and it’s to our shame if the left is able to memory-hole their published wisdom.
Heroic.
Great points. There is a small error. The word “eager” should be “eagerly.”
Jim Fetzers “Nobody Died At Sandy Hook” [ Moonrockbooks.com] was also recently banned by Amazon. Probably other Moon Rock titles too.
And so it goes….
Regards, onebornfree
You are truly amazing Mr. Unz! Truly!
I am an atheist, but as a neurotic compulsive bibliophile I have an irrepressible urge to say: GOD bless you!
Here is an article that looks at the Amazon that most of us don’t know:
https://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-amazon-that-you-dont-know.html
Amazon’s connection to the surveillance state is a rarely discussed but very important part of the retailing giant’s business model.
On Joseph Sobran, see my “A Tale of Two Obituaries.” http://dcdave.com/article5/140820.htm
Jared Taylor and Roosh were also banned.
Bravissimo! I suspect I wouldn’t believe any of these books, but that the ADL can merely whisper into Amazon’s ear and have them vanish doesn’t strike me as right.
I would suggest a different layout with titles spread out more horizontally than vertically, esp by eliminating the sidebar of article suggestions.
Also on Amazon, when you click on an item, it comes with recommendations of related items.
Also, maybe the book section can be categorized according what it was banned by.
Banned in Russia books
Banned in China books
Banned in Turkey books
Banned in Mexico books
Banned in Israel books
Banned in Public Libraries books
(Banned in North Korea is pointless as just about everything is banned there)
Or books banned in the past.
We can learn much about a society and nation by what is banned there by whom and why.
What a red-letter day: banned books and Joseph Sobran. Thank you.
Sobran seems to have only very rarely discussed Jews, favorably or otherwise, across his decades of writing, but even just that handful of less than flattering mentions was apparently sufficient to draw their sustained destructive attacks on his career
As Sobran wrote in 1996:
‘[Jewish] power is unique in being off-limits to normal criticism even when it’s highly visible. They themselves behave as if their success were a guilty secret, and they panic, and resort to accusations, as soon as the subject is raised. Jewish control of the major media in the media age makes the enforced silence both paradoxical and paralysing. Survival in public life requires that you know all about it, but never refer to it. A hypocritical etiquette forces us to pretend that the Jews are powerless victims; and if you don’t respect their victimhood, they’ll destroy you. It’s a phenomenal display not of wickedness, really, but of fierce ethnocentrism, a sort of furtive racial superpatriotism.’
He told the truth and they destroyed him.
You the man Ron.
What a quote.
Joe Sobran deserves to be remembered. What they did to him was evil.
O Lord, how long will you tarry?
Folks should spend a lot of time on your work, Dave. GREAT stuff!
For starters, two must-reads:
Who Killed James Forrestal? – http://dcdave.com/article4/021110.html
America’s Dreyfus Affair (Pt 1): The Case of the Death of Vincent Foster – http://www.dcdave.com/article1/961127.htm
you might want to add The Saker’s banned by amazon book, it is in the link above. Amazon banning it is clearly an attempt to censor the truth.
I am also 100% behind Ron Unz and his battle to defend open discourse and access to information.
The oldest and original definition for Jehovah is the essence of existing.
Therefore all atheists do not believe in the existence of existing.
Sure. It sounds like a really stupid book and Fetzer seems like a total nut to me, but I’ll be glad to include it. The only problem is that the 3-D cover image looks terrible on my website, and the only normal one I could find seems a little small or far too large. If you can find an Amazon-size one, I’ll add it.
I already have one of Taylor’s books. If you can point me to on-line sales links and properly-sized ordinary cover images, I’ll be glad to include the others you mention.
Actually, you can use the drop-down field in the upper-left to show the books in “Cover” view, or use the following control link:
https://www.unz.com/bookstore/?ViewOptions=ItemViewCovers
Another very entertaining writer purged from National Review in it’s early days was Revilo Oliver. His prose is a pleasure to read, and had me going to the dictionary every half hour or so. Being a philologist by trade he was far more verbally adept than I. I bought one of his books, “America’s Decline” at typical trade cost years ago. It appears to be out of print now and I was amazed at what it is going for on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0906832012
I think Fetzer is a nut too. A little OT, but you might be interested to know that according to Michael Collins Piper’s colleague and friend, Deanna Spingola, Piper was fired from the American Free Press (AFP) due to his stance on the Sandy Hook massacre. A great many conspiracy theorists have pushed the Sandy Hook Hoax narrative. However, Piper and Spingola weren’t having any of it. They spent many months researching the whole affair and knew that it was real. Spingola wrote a book on it.
According to Spingola, a very wealthy donor to the AFP demanded Piper’s dismissal due to his position against the view that Sandy Hook was a hoax. This lead to Piper’s salary being cut by 80% and his being forced to move into Mark Glenn’s guest house. According to Mark Glenn:
Fetzer and Alex Jones seem really shady to me. It would be very interesting to know who the wealthy donor was who made the Sandy Hook Hoax a condition of his continued support of AFP and what his motivations were.
Excellent article, Dave, and it’s good to see that you’re registered here. I’m a long time reader of yours.
Why not apply some wisdom in these cases and decline to include this stuff?
After all there’s plenty of extremely disturbing problems with the 9/11 story but in the public eye they’re all linked with “the buildings were imploded by the govt and the planes were holograms”.
I don’t wish to spike Ron’s guns but I think nearly, if not all of the Holocaust Handbook series (featured prominently here: https://www.unz.com/bookstore/topic/holocaust/) are available as free downloads in different formats at https://holocausthandbooks.com/
If cost or legality isn’t a problem, then sure, I suggest you get the books in physical form.
Speaking of censorship.. Here is but one of many examples of the MSM, likely in cooperation with globalist/anti-gun Jews, selling the New Zealand shooting hoax as real when, in fact, it is a complete hoax as this video clearly documents. Censorship is coming from all conceivable angles but it only makes things all the more conspicuous with each oppressive action.
https://153news.net/watch_video.php?v=XM13B529XK3K
“Banned by Bezos” is memetically stronger than “Banned by Amazon” – it sounds better and it also personalizes it. And it gets people thinking about the Washington Post, too, and their own, alliterative slogan.
Fixed it for you.
Funny, I don’t recall Piper ever saying the Sandy Hook issue had anything to do with his parting from AFP. He was very bitter towards the Cartos, especially Elizabeth, and he clearly had a dislike for some of the people at AFP who thought the official story was like other official stories – rife with holes.
But, of course, after Las Vegas, we know now that all these shooting events are real and it’s time to show full respect for people’s feelings.
My sense, and that’s all, was that he’d been there the longest, done the most to keep the publication on the map, done the best books and therefore deserved more than they were willing to offer. He mentioned that he couldn’t “keep his doctor” under Obummercare and probably had new financial pressure.
He did extensively discuss how Mark Weber seized control of IHR and turned it into a do-nothing sinecure for himself.
Michael Collins Piper – The IHR Files, Pt I – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7M1x_Fo6f8
Video Link
Sure, I agree 100% and for exactly those reasons had even suggested the alternative phrasing to several people in connection with attempts to mobilize public pressure against Amazon/Bezos in connection with the book-banning.
Not only that, but about two weeks ago, I purchased the URL “BannedByBezos.com” just in case I decided to use an outside domain for my Bookstore.
But in this particular case, I preferred to use Amazon in the title.
One does not need God to believe in existence.
“I think therefore I am (i.e. exist)
But, then again this is why I hated my philosophy course.
Sure, that’s exactly the website my listed books actually link to, and they include the links to the free downloads (if they exist) at the top of each page.
One reason I was able the build the entire system in just a couple of days is that I’m merely *linking* to the sales pages for each particular book, not building any sales system of my own, and almost all the cover images are external links as well.
Basically, I’ve just provided a convenient, nice-looking aggregation sales page for the various present and future books banned by Amazon.
(((ADL)))
now do you get it?
and the powerline goes from there to (((Wall Street))),
where Bezo’s billions are a contingency, not
a permanent fact.
good idea, that:
because its a dead certainty that the # of banned books (etc.) will escalate rapidly.
Mr. Unz,
An important work that has never been published in English is Solzhenitsyn’s history of the Jews in Russia/USSR, “200 Years Together (Dvesti let vmeste)”. The failure to publish is extremely suspicious. Personally, I do not need an English translation, as I possess a German one, but most readers of English do not have skills in German, French, or Russian (the languages in which the work has appeared) sufficient to allow them to read whole books. Can this site do something to repair this problem?
https://store.amren.com/catalog/product-category/books/
I was always fascinated with the guy having a palindromic name.
Another memory-holed writer (without a palindromic name) is Willis Carto. He has some fans among the commentariat here however who frequently link to his IHR site.
I will gladly translate it from French to English, if asked to do so. That said, it is obviously not as ideal as a Russian to English translation (which I do not speak).
Thanks for your bookstore, Ron. I’ll check it out. I sure wish there was another company that sold books in e-book form other than Amazon. It sucked seeing most of Michael Hoffman’s books being banned from amazon. This monopoly by Amazon isn’t good. I wonder if Barnes and Nobles still puts out books for the nook. Even if they do, I’m sure the same books are banned for it.
Cool. Maybe you should just keep it as ‘Banned in Boston’. Given the historical resonance & the contemporary cultural climate there, it’s probably a safe bet that they would ban such books if they still could. At the very least you could say, ‘Panned in Boston’. Curling the lips of high-brow liberals in that bastion of good taste should do a lot more to spur sales than the pedestrian ‘Banned by Amazon’. Ho-hum.
Making these books available is a good move.
Intellectuals have their place, but they mostly also “know the rules”, and just present the same scripts in a more pretentious way (e.g. the French “intellectual” Left).
IMO a robust Democracy has to operate at the lowest level (Swiss style) with obligatory citizen participation in local meetings where impartial plus/minus research is presented with issue by issue voting. It’s expensive (compensation for time off work), needs special meeting halls, a strong shared identity and commitment, plus permanent administrative and research staff, but it’s the only way.
Ron, please include Alex Krainer’s book, which was removed from Amazon after pressure from Bill Browder’s attorney. The book exposes the fraud of the Magnitsky myth, Browder’s ongoing campaign against Putin, and his role in destroying Trump’s hope for better relations with Russia.
Grand Deception: The Truth About Bill Browder, the Magnitsky Act, and Anti-Russian Sanctions
https://www.redpillpress.com/shop/grand-deception-bill-browder-magnitsky-act-russian-sanctions/
You can download “Two Hundred Years Together (The Crucifixion of Russia’s) here: http://www.phibetaiota.net.
I downloaded the sample from kindle, and read the excellent first chapter, detailing the relationship from the Kievan RUSS up to the nineteenth century. Then when I went to download the rest, it was suddenly unavailable.
Thank you Ron, for all you do here.
Thanks. I’ve now added the three additional American Renaissance books banned by Amazon:
https://www.unz.com/bookstore/source/american-renaissance/
Also, I added the Krainer book that someone else mentioned:
https://www.unz.com/book/alex_krainer__grand-deception/
Sorry, I couldn’t find a suitable image size for you, Mr Unz. Try taking the “too large” image you found and shrinking it down to size with your browser enlarge/shrink page feature, then screen -copy that image. Conversely enlarge until suitable the “too small” image on your screen browser then screen-copy that . Either way may or may not work depending on final image resolution desired.
As to the whole “was Sandy Hook a faked event?” question, this may interest some here [but obviously not yourself, Ron 🙂 ], provided one keeps in mind the famous Frank Zappa quote: ” a mind is like a parachute, it only works when its open”. Otherwise, fergit it:
Sandy Hook “Pozner v. Fetzer” Lawsuit: Defendant’s Counterclaim against “Leonard Pozner”
https://jamesfetzer.org/2019/03/sandy-hook-pozner-v-fetzer-lawsuit-defendants-counterclaim-against-leonard-pozner/
Regards, onebornfree
Solzhenitsyn’s ‘Two Hundred Years Together’ is a must have. You can now google up copies. I have complete pdf and doc versions if you can’t find them
Also, a banned videos section would be good. I’m thinking in particular banned holohoax videos and also ‘Behind the Scenes of the Magnitsky Act’ – I have a copy. You can post the YT banned videos on BitChute.
Personally I think posting crackpot books/vids is not a good idea.
Thank you.
Yet Haxo Angmark has assaulted ‘holocaust’ Revisionists scholars by labeling them “autistic” at this site.
Now he kisses Ron’s tuchis. LOL
http://www.codoh.com
So, you want compulsory democracy?
No thanks.
You can’t say that you’re a member of a football team if you don’t attend training or play in any matches.
Saying hello to team members every 4 years doesn’t count.
its almost like they believe (know?) that they haven’t actually earned it
Walter Karp!
And the word “Denial” should be “Revisionism”
Thank you for providing this public service. Amazon is way too powerful. Some countries to start legal processes against Amazon for being a “foreign agent”. It is no different from all those fake Soros NGO’s
This is a basic question and at the same time a slippery slope. It could easily form the basis of its own article (if not its own website) and would result in an avalanche of sturm und drang.
For my part, though I disagree with Mr Unz on several of his own stances, the fact remains that he’s almost uniquely willing to honor the principle of free speech, whatever the result. Many, many people pay lip service to the ideal but I’m not sure I can think of anyone who actually puts it into practice like this guy does.
Thos Jefferson: “We are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.”
There may well be a full leavening of lunacy on this site, but if that’s the price of freedom, we should be happy to pay it.
We would also have accepted “Banned By Billionaires” 😉
Cloudswrest, check out Abe Books.com for sane prices on out of print volumes. Amazon’s used book sellers ask for insane prices because Amazon hits them for about 85% of the sale price.
This has aged remarkably well.
It is from “The Buchanan Frenzy,” an essay he wrote in Sobran’s (newsletter), March 1996. Twenty-three years ago.
Here is a link to download the pdf. There are other links but most are to incomplete versions. This version is complete, and as far as I can tell, faithful to the original.
I stopped using Amazon about 8 years ago. There’s no reason to give them any money. Everything they carry CAN be bought elsewhere, equally conveniently and often cheaper.
anon[337]—Another factor is Jews’ extreme sensitivity to criticism, which Lawrence Auster analysed as ‘their corrosive apprehension of what they think the goyim might one day do to them’. It’s a form of paranoia, christened by Gilad Atzmon as ‘Pre Traumatic Stress Disorder’, and it’s one of the mechanisms by which Jewish group cohesion is maintained: the saintly Jews eternally persecuted by the evil gentiles.
Hail—Yes. I link to his essays whenever possible but ‘The Buchanan Frenzy’ is one of the many items which are not available online at Sobran’s. Fingers crossed that Mr Unz will be able to rectify that.
Kevin MacDonald reproduces part of the essay in Chapter 2 of Separation and Its Discontents, page 55, and in his Irving-Lipstadt testimony, where it sits immediately above the sub-heading, ‘Deborah Lipstadt as a Jewish Activist’.
Here’s my favorite Sobran quote, Drives the liberals nuts but they can never explain why it’s wrong.
“Western man towers over the rest of the world in ways so large as to be almost inexpressible. It’s Western exploration, science, and conquest that have revealed the world to itself.
Other races feel like subjects of Western power long after colonialism, imperialism, and slavery have disappeared.
The charge of racism puzzles whites who feel not hostility, but only baffled good will, because they don’t grasp what it really means: humiliation.
The white man presents an image of superiority even when he isn’t conscious of it.
And, superiority excites envy.
Destroying white civilization is the inmost desire of the league of designated victims we call minorities.”
Joseph Sobran, April 1997
OT: The Board of Deputies of British Jews criticizes Suella Braverman MP for saying that the UK is under threat from “cultural Marxism”. They believe that, because anti-semites use this “trope”, no one else should use it, on pain of being identified as an anti-semite.
This is a pity, because the Board of Deputies usually tries to be sensible, and does not conduct witch-hunts like the ADL or the SPLC.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/cultural-marxism-tory-suella-braverman-conservatives-antisemitism-a8841581.html
The Guardian journalist Owen Jones points out that at least four respected mainstream journalists have also used the term – but instead of drawing the conclusion that it is not merely an “anti-semitic trope”, he finds them guilty too!
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/28/media-far-right-radicalisation-politics-hatred
According to the Independent,
But obviously all Marxists wanted to undermine western democracies, and the Frankfurt School was no exception! If most of its members were Jewish, this ought to be a source of mild embarrassment to the Board of Deputies, not a reason to accuse people who comment on “Cultural Marxism” of anti-semitism.
It would be interesting to read an article assessing the intentions and impact of the Cultural Marxists. Do they have any responsibility for the adverse changes to Western society over the last 60 years? For example, they wanted to disrupt the family, which they believed instilled authoritarian beliefs and thereby restrained workers from revolution. Did they assist or even cause the disruption that has actually occurred over the last 60 years? Or did these changes occur for other reasons, such as increasing prosperity, and the availability of hormonal contraception?
Ummm, what’s Amazon?
I buy my books from Barnes and Nobels.
Just asking.
Cultural Marxists. Do they have any responsibility for the adverse changes to Western society over the last 60 years?
See … you’ll be educated and amused …
Video Link
Video Link
Video Link
A system that offers no protection to that same censuring.
Thanks, Mr Unz. You are a true American hero, and I never say that lightly. I wish we could elect you to higher office. We may not agree on everything, but you are obviously a good, honest man. Probably means nothing in this upside down society we live in, but I appreciate it. Again, thanks for all you do.
I remember getting a letter from Mike Piper in the weeks following his termination from AFP and I believe there was a serious personality conflict with the wife of Willis Carto. I don’t recall him citing his disbelief in claims that Sandy Hook was a hoax was a cause but it’s possible it was there and I just don’t remember and can’t find it at the moment.
Michael Collins Piper was a national treasure and great guy I called in to his internet show several times and he was always a gracious host and made all of his callers feel important.
I note thatthe Unz main page now features Sobran columns. I had not noticed this before and perhaps Ron has just added these in the past few days.
https://www.unz.com/author/joseph-sobran/
I don’t know exactly where these columns are compiled from. There are only five for 1996, and the “Buchanan” column in question is not among them.
I would draw attention to a Sobran column dated Dec. 12, 1996, hosted at Unz. It starts with the words:
I had honestly been under the impression there was no ‘debate’ over gay marriage until the early 2000s. Gay Rights may have been in the general culture by 1996, but Gay Marriage was not. It simply was not talked about, except at most as a joke (Seinfeld had a “lesbian wedding” joke in the mid-1990s, a joke which would not have been written by the mid-2000s). Sobran, penning a column on this in late 1996, was ahead of his time.
Hail—I imagine that most, or all, of the Unz Sobran archive, as it presently stands, will have been compiled from the back issues of Sobran’s, which are listed here. As Ron says in his article, he hopes to locate additional writings and add them to the archive. Sobran wrote a column for The Wanderer, the Catholic newspaper, for over 20 years but only the 2007 index is available, here. The hyperlink to ‘WW Archives (2006 and before)’ is, sadly, kaput.
Yes, Sobran had an exceptional mind. Heartfelt thanks to Mr Unz for spreading the word.
Joe Sobran: ” The Reluctant Anarchist”:
“My arrival (very recently) at philosophical anarchism has disturbed some of my conservative and Christian friends. In fact, it surprises me, going as it does against my own inclinations. ….”
“….For most people, anarchy is a disturbing word, suggesting chaos, violence, antinomianism — things they hope the state can control or prevent. The term state, despite its bloody history, doesn’t disturb them. Yet it’s the state that is truly chaotic, because it means the rule of the strong and cunning. They imagine that anarchy would naturally terminate in the rule of thugs. But mere thugs can’t assert a plausible right to rule. Only the state, with its propaganda apparatus, can do that. This is what legitimacy means. Anarchists obviously need a more seductive label.
“But what would you replace the state with?” The question reveals an inability to imagine human society without the state. Yet it would seem that an institution that can take 200,000,000 lives within a century hardly needs to be “replaced.” “
Christians, and especially Americans, have long been misled about all this by their good fortune. Since the conversion of Rome, most Western rulers have been more or less inhibited by Christian morality (though, often enough, not so’s you’d notice), and even warfare became somewhat civilized for centuries; and this has bred the assumption that the state isn’t necessarily an evil at all. But as that morality loses its cultural grip, as it is rapidly doing, this confusion will dissipate. More and more we can expect the state to show its nature nakedly.
For me this is anything but a happy conclusion. I miss the serenity of believing I lived under a good government, wisely designed and benevolent in its operation. But, as St. Paul says, there comes a time to put away childish things.”
Excerpted from:“The Reluctant Anarchist”
http://www.sobran.com/reluctant.shtml
Regards, onebornfree
Anything for the anti-vaxxers?
We could take up a collection and send Mr. Bezos this
Banned Books coffee mug
Sold via Amazon are other “banned books” products (mugs, t-shirts, tote bags, posters, etc.) of this sort, bearing titles banned in the pre-internet-publishing era. Fanny Hill, Catcher in the Rye, etc.
Maybe it’s time to create such schwag for the current set of titles as well.
Solely in the interests of empiricism, of course. To test the hypothesis of whether Amazon would ban a mug or t-shirt or poster with the just the titles of Mr. Unz’s ongoing list of pravda’ed books. (And of course a link to unz.com.)
Imagine these products offered via an Amazon storefront called American Pravda Products.
Any thoughts on the Gardasil vaccine? I feel it’s been pushed on American children in a very aggressive manner.
Someone brought to my attention that the outstanding Joachim Hoffmann book on World War II that I mentioned is actually still sold by Amazon:
My mistake was made because Amazon had indeed banned the same book produced by a different publisher, but having identical cover-art.
I’m not sure whether I should describe this as confusion on my part or confusion on Amazon’s…
God bless, Ron.
I can assure you that constructive or circumstantial censorship in America is a real thing. Recently I thought to comment beneath an article in a local newspaper on the opioid crisis. My 100-word or so comment was to merely note with minimal embellishment the existence of a prescription drug user fee act (1992) that preceded the approval of Oxycontin in 1995. Drug companies were to pay for the FDA to make a judgment on their proposed drugs. My sources were mainstream journalism.
Well, I’d been told indirectly that previous comments of mine on the same and related topics had angered some important locals from the medical establishment and other civic leaders. I caved, and self-censored.
I’m likely not a fan of some of the titles you’ll offer, but Amazon’s actions are abhorrent.
I was personally a victim of this Amazon scam:
Amazon rips off regular customers. Again
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2000/11/06/amazon_rips_off_regular_customers/
Hi Ron. Thanks for your fantastic site. Watching Fetzer on YouTube might give you the impression that he “is a total nut”, but please note that his book is actually written by 10 contributors, including James F. Tracy, Ph.D., who got fired by the Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton because of his research on Sandy Hook. Tracy contributes a timeline originally published as “Sandy Hook School Massacre Timeline” (Jan 6, 2013), on his site memoryholeblog.com, that includes (p. 247), the introduction of Bill SB 1054 “to allow the parents of a child who was a homicide victim to request that the autopsy report not be publicly disclosed.” The Bill was passed, Oct 1, 2011, fourteen months before the Sandy Hook alleged shooting.
The book was made available as a free PDF after it was banned by Amazon, e.g., https://rense.com/general96/NobodyDiedAtSandyHook_final.pdf
Anyone know why the Kirkpatrick article today doesn’t allow comments?
I haven’t seen any “stances”. What he writes is largely or essentially investigative. Investigation discovers the truth, without a premature jumping to a “stance”.
This is a great site.
Unz is an intellectual badass/national treasure.
I haven’t read Nobody Died At Sandy Hook but based on the title it sounds like a good fit for Ron’s collection.
International Jew says: “I haven’t read Nobody Died At Sandy Hook but based on the title it sounds like a good fit for Ron’s collection.”
You can download a free 1st ed. in pdf form here :
reformation.org/NobodyDiedAtSandyHook.pdf
Regards, onebornfree
“it is not at all clear whether a company with a market value of nearly $900 billion will be swayed by a few intellectual malcontents”
There are definitely a few things that can be done on that front, but most will have to be done indirectly as, unfortunately, “sit back and grill” conservatives have proved remarkably inept at organizing counter-offensives. Regardless, Amazon’s market valuation may be high, but their margins are very small. That’s why they freaked out when Trump wanted to remove their postal subsidy. Highlighting Amazon’s terrible workplace environment, low worker pay, links to the CIA, and unfair mail subsidies might go a long way towards provoking a reaction that would hurt their bottom line. AOC already proved their is strong and growing hatred of this company. Why not push a few buttons and get them regulated a bit more? Why not incite populists and progressives against them through demands for worker unionization and higher pay? Why not make book delivery part of the US mail service? Wouldn’t that be a wonderful way to keep the post office in service – just have the US government open a competing store to Amazon?
Speaking of saving non-conforming literature from invisibility, I submit to you the idea that perhaps in the Featured Book rectangle the number of comments posted to that book could be made visible.
In my opinion it would serve for a prod for people to click the box and go see what it is about.
Will you be picking up the recently deplatformed Chateau Heartiste? Hope so.
Here’s a puzzle Ron. Following up on links from “Jewish Voice for Labour” I found that Amazon was still selling Lenni Brenner’s books, e.g.
“Zionism in the Age of the Dicators” and
“51 Documents: Zionist Collaboration with the Nazis”
I don’t think Brenner is into Holocaust denial so… could that be the dividing line?