They’re not “banning” them (governments do that). They’re just choosing not to offer/sell them. Such movies and books are available elsewhere, as in libraries.
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The Outsiders? I thought the world of The Outsiders was pro-Gone with the Wind?
I know my local library had its funding slashed 80% last year, and I’m sure the librarians we have (had?) on BB have been seeing similar cutbacks. I’m priviliged enough to afford independant booksellers and can media if necessary, many people across the world are stuck with minimal acess as provided by megacorps. Creates the feeling that we’re approaching a snow crash reality, in which if something isn’t availanle through amazon, that makes it innacessible to large chunks of the population. Absolutely zero tears shed for GWTW though lol, good riddance to bad rubbish
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Hell, if GWTW were dropped by all distributors, I’m sure it would quickly be as easy to find online as The Turner Diaries.
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Lol yeah, the biggest irony to my example is that amazon et al are more than happy to carry white supremacist masturbatory media. It’s much easier to be suspended for calling someone a nazi than actually being one.
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True. But still. Considering the monopolistic (and copyrighted) nature of today’s media companies it doesn’t sit entirely right with me.
Twas sarcasm.
I’m not someone to miss an attempt at sarcasm when I see it, but I don’t think using a derogatory Nazi term to sarcastically comment on the ban of a movie that romanticises slavery quite works.
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Sure. There are two sides about slavery… one side had cool dresses after all. 
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Yes. That’s totally what I said. /s
Yes I like classic old hollywood movies (though GWTW isn’t really a favourite of mine, I’ve never really been a ‘beautiful dresses movie’ lover) . A lot of them contain racism, misogyny, gay bashing. You name it, it’s there. Take any B movie from the 50s and there will be problematic parts. Some more than others.
Removing all those movies from our culture seems a bad idea to me, whether it’s the government doing it or the corporate monopolies (is there much difference anyway?).
I’d hate to live in a world where the alt-right claims hollywood’s classic output.
Maybe I’m just an old fart set in my ways. But I refuse to be called a slavery defender because I dislike book burnings.
There’s a substantive difference as far as the First Amendment is concerned. And even taking into account the power of corporate monopolies, there’s a substantive difference between an offensively dated movie that’s otherwise regarded as a classic “must-see” being removed from a platform’s/distributor’s offerings (e.g. what’s happening here – and the intent is to return it with historical context) and its being completely removed from circulation within the culture.
If I’m so inclined, I (far from an alt-right person) and anyone else who’s interested will still be able to order and watch a copy of GWTW, just like I can with “Birth of a Nation” or (despite Disney’s heavy-handed control over its IP) “Song of the South”. It will still be viewed and discussed and analysed by film scholars, by historians, by other adults who understand its context as a cultural artifact. But like those two other movies and lots of output of the American film and music and publishing industries, it will have lost its status as a classic of American popular culture – and with it the legitimacy that status conveys to a toxic central message that we as a society are (shamefully) still struggling to outgrow.
To compare this decision to a book burning is ridiculous.
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Please refrain from using this term. Please.
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To be fair, some of those dresses were awesome.
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A sufficiently large chunk of the media industry can censor expression as much as a state can (if not more), so it’s not absurd to talk about this as censorship.
That’s why I find it annoying and unhelpful on HBO’s part. One the one hand it’s transparent pandering for PR purposes, and on the other, it’s grist to the mill of pro-slavery assholes. Now we get to talk about how they’re victims of censorship, instead of talking about how their victims are victims of them.
If this was HBO taking a real stand, they would have spray-painted “black lives matter” across key scenes, without sending a press release to Breitbart.
If you’re that disappointed I suggest you cancel your Breitbart subscription.
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Editors, Directors and producers “censor” whenever they produce any product. How is it possible to produce any publication or work of art without making choices about what you wish to say or produce?
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You can still find that racist piece of trash in many, MANY other places besides HBO. No one is “censoring” anything.
What?
What? That’s not what’s happening. You can get yourself a copy of GWTW, both the film and novel. No one is going to stop you from doing that.
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It isn’t, which is why, if enough of the media makes those choices in concert, it adds up to a statelike role. Like, the MPAA or the Comics Code Authority aren’t government agencies, but they are absolutely censors.
Editorial discretion is censorship. IMO that’s good, if we’re talking about bold artistic choices, and there are lots of independent editorial voices available; but if we’re talking about big companies acting in the interests of their corporate image (which are the same for all their competitors), then that’s another story.
For most of my life I wasn’t allowed to see anyone like me on screen, not because it was illegal, but because every media company made the same business decision in parallel. And that’s the kind of process we’re talking about here, too. So I’m not going to pretend the system itself is cool, just because it happens to be targeting deserving racists instead of cool sexy gays this week.
It’s possible for it to be right for HBO to not host movies like this, and also an asshole move for them to cash in that chip at this particular moment. Especially because, like I say, it’s an unforced gift to the world of right-wing victimhood fanfic.
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If all media decides not to publish child pornography is it censorship?
State like is not state actual in any case. Your wishing to force private businesses to publish things they don’t wish to is more like censorship of their autonomy than their making their own decisions.
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Trailer Park Boys reuns.
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