Dr. Seuss Books Rise to the Top of Amazon Sales Charts After Attempts to Cancel
Dr. Seuss’s estate announced this week that six of the late author’s books would cease being circulated over claims they were racist, but the rest of his body of work has since taken over Amazon’s bestseller list.
The six canceled books — “If I Ran the Zoo,” “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” “McElligot’s Pool,” “On Beyond Zebra!,” “Scrambled Eggs Super!” and “The Cat’s Quizzer” — were connected to stereotypical portrayals of different racial groups.
Dr. Seuss Enterprises — which holds the keys to Seuss’ works, used the author’s birthday on Tuesday to pull them.
“These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong,” said Dr. Seuss Enterprises, which was founded by the author’s family after his death. “Ceasing sales of these books is only part of our commitment and our broader plan to ensure Dr. Seuss Enterprises’ catalog represents and supports all communities and families.”
The estate exhibited peak cancel culture by canceling its own intellectual property.
Dr. Seuss Enterprises probably would have done itself a favor by refusing to cave and simply profiting from classic books. They set a precedent for allowing Seuss to be called racist by mouth-breathing leftists — conceding them a victory with the initial six books.
Eventually, cancel culture will likely come for the rest of Seuss’ work, and his estate will have its back up against the wall in a game of chicken that it will probably lose.
But those who pulled the books overestimated the power of liberal outrage and underestimated a market in which Dr. Seuss is still sought after and is viewed as anything but a racist colonizer.
As of Friday afternoon, Dr. Seuss books took up nine out of the top 10 spots on the Amazon bestseller list.
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“The Cat in the Hat” sat in the top spot, while the Dr. Seuss’s Beginner Book Collection was in second place. Familiar titles like “One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish,” “Green Eggs and Ham,” “Fox in Socks” and “The Lorax” were all there as well.
Of the top 13 spots on Amazon’s bestseller list, only two authors not named Dr. Seuss were present. One of them was Canadian conservative professor Jordan Peterson, whose book “Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life” was number 13 — coming after Seuss’ “What Pet Should I Get?” and “Horton Hears a Who!”
That notorious racist Dr Seuss is unfairly oppressing my new book Beyond Order to #12 on Amazon’s bestseller chart (10 of the top 11 books are his)https://t.co/3sAbW6I1o5 pic.twitter.com/qumS9EGTNE
— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) March 3, 2021
The fascist, leftist cancel culture in this country isn’t burning books, but it’s certainly attempting to keep many of them from being printed or circulated — which might as well be the same thing. You can tell that cancel culture has gotten out go control when Christians and conservatives can now come across clips of the vulgar liberal Bill Maher online and nod with him in agreement on an issue or two.
Cancel culture is often falsely portrayed as a market response to controversy. It’s not. It’s often the result of a mob harassment campaign that results in a person — even someone who has been dead for decades — being de-personed and de-platformed by institutions.
This is what cancel culture looks like:
Ebay BANS people from selling six ‘offensive’ Dr Seuss books as demand and price for them skyrockets https://t.co/o97zZejFeK
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) March 4, 2021
Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” is still available on eBay, as it should be. As all books should be. Banning and burning books is what Hitler’s hateful, self-serving and actually racist autobiography led to. People should read it, as it’s an insight into the mind of a monster. On eBay, they can.
But some of Seuss, per the company, is too controversial.
The market is telling us that people simply aren’t buying into the accusations being lodged against timeless children’s books and how they purportedly perpetuate racism. People are fed up with cancel culture and the market here has responded by stocking up on Dr. Seuss books the way many people did toilet paper around this time last year.
The Amazon bestsellers list is currently a one-finger salute to all those who attempt to police speech, thought, actions and literature. It’s a beautiful sight to see.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
