Thoughts on WikiLeaks and Amazon, and Censorship and Walls

This is really quite amazing. The WikiLeaks documents are on sale at Amazon. You heard that correctly. From Amazon.co.uk:
"WikiLeaks documents expose US foreign policy conspiracies. All cables with tags from 1- 5000 [Kindle Edition]"
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004EEOLIU?ie=UTF8&force-full-site=1

Remember that Amazon booted WikiLeaks from their servers just like other companies, such as credit card companies, stopped doing business with WikiLeaks. So for this to show up on Amazon is using these companies' business models against them. Whether you agree with whoever did this or not, you have to admit this is brilliant. Make Amazon look hypocritical and foolish, and pay for it via credit card companies so that they look foolish, too. Brilliant. Just brilliant.

It is also amusing to read the comments and ratings for this product and find out just how stupid people really are. Read what I wrote above. I didn't say that Amazon was hypocritical. I said that they looked hypocritical. It doesn't take a lot of research to find out that authors can self-publish on Amazon. Point is, Amazon didn't do this. An individual or a group did.

So what should Amazon do? Should they remove this product? If they do, aren't we heading rather quickly into slippery slope territory?

After initially refusing to remove a book about pedophilia, Amazon eventually gave in to public pressure. But similar books still remain on sale so just removing one book doesn't really solve the issue at all. Should they police and censor all the offerings on their site? Is that even possible, as people continue to post more self-published books on a regular basis? (I'll give you a hint: The answer starts with an "n".)

And what about the credit card companies? Apparently it is wrong to do business with WikiLeaks but the KKK is okay. From The Inquisitr:
"Ku Klux Klan is okay, Wikileaks is bad, says Mastercard and Visa"
http://www.inquisitr.com/92447/ku-klux-klan-i-okay-wikileaks-is-bad-says-mastercard-and-visa/

Stop trying to block information, that is a losing battle. Just like building walls (whether in China, in East Germany, or on the U.S./Mexican border) is also a losing battle. Why do people keep doing things that simply don't work, when we KNOW they won't work?