Clayton Cramer explains how he dropped his association with Amazon.Com on account of a particularly nasty book that company unapologetically sells called Understanding Loved Boys and Boylovers . Here are comments by the author and a reader from the Amazon website:
...
This book, while certainly bound to be controversial, and which espouses certain
changes in various laws, is carefully maintained within the limits of current laws,
there is nothing in it which could possibly concern any postal inspector, or which could
create any legal liability.
...
As a pedophile myself I found this book to be enlightening in my quest to truly come to
terms with my own sexuality... Although it doesn't glorify child molestation it does
attempt to shed the positive aspects of a healthy boy/male relationship... For anyone
trying to understand this phenomenon that is fairly commonplace in society this brave
book argues the point as well as any other
I have been principal moderator on an Internet site devoted to examining these issues
for two years, and was active on another similar site for a year before that. It became
obvious very early on that the men - and a few boys - who participate in these sites are
not the stereotypical monsters that the media portrays. They are sincere, concerned,
loving human beings who simply have - and were probably born with - a sexual orientation
that is neither understood nor accepted by most others.
This is an interesting case, because Amazon is selling a vile book, but one which does
not seem to be pornography (which Amazon also sells). Rather, it is vile because of its
content: because it argues that immoral behavior is not immoral and that existing laws
should be changed. I would not ban a book of this kind (though I would ban the
pornography), but I frown upon any bookstore that sells it. And so I agree with Mr.
Cramer, and will shut down my Amazon affiliate connection. I haven't actually ever
collected any money from them, and don't even know how much they owe me (presumably very
little), but I liked having the links up so people could easily buy books and movies I
recommended. I did a little research, though, and find that I can switch, which I've
done tonight. Using Understanding Loved Boys and Boylovers
as test book, I find that Amazon and Borders
are both helping the cause of child molesting (they seem to be teamed up somehow).
Powell's Barnes and Noble, All-Direct, and
Alibris are cleaner. It looks
to me as if
Powell's has the best
affiliate program, and it may even be that they don't sell pornography, so I'm switching
to them. They don't sell movies, though, so I'll use
Barnes and
Noble for movies. Barnes and Noble doesn't allow instant setup, though, so it may be
a few days before I have that affiliate program working.
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