Silbury Hill 180
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ummm... i think the Silbury vandals are pretty reprehensible. But i feel you need to tread carefully when complaining to a bookstore about the content of the books they sell. I'm not sure suppressing books is a healthy thing to do - whatever you feel about the content.

There is a whole slew of books, for example, which make claims about the relative IQs of different races (almost always as an attempt to "scientifically prove" white folks are more intelligent). I utterly despise this attempted co-opting of 'the scientific method' to make unsustainable racist points. But i will (however much i hate having to do it) defend their right to publish their opinions. To do otherwise is to begin down the road that leads to book burning and fatwahs against writers.

If the Silbury vandals broke the law in doing what they did (i have no idea whether they did or not - i'm not familiar with the details), then they should be held to account for that. And there's no question that their actions were ethically unsound and should be exposed as such and denounced. But that's a world away from advocating the suppression of books. And it sets a *really* dangerous precedent when you start insisting that book sellers are responsible for the content of the literature i am allowed to access.

Do you really want the CEO of Amazon, or WH Smiths, or Barnes & Noble to be deciding which books are "acceptable" and which ones aren't? Cos actually, that's a decision i'd like to make for myself.

Point taken GJ, but it if makes a few more people aware of what some authors (and I use that term lightly) are doing in their supposed research, I don't think it can do any harm.
I don't for a moment believe my action will disuade Amazon from stocking anything they think will turn a profit, but it may lead to words being had with their agents/publishers about their future actions. And hopefully the fact that they will know that others are unhappy with their behaviour might encourage them to think twice before they act in such a manner again. I honestly feel that the greater the number of people that know about the Dutch Duos dispicable carryings on, the better!

I totally agree with Grufty Jim here. Censorship of anything is (in my opinion) worse than some of the stuff I would like censoring!

However, there is the matter of allowing people to be able to profit from their crimes ......