Is Amazon.com Deleting New Conservative Book Reviews?

-By Warner Todd Huston

(Important notice! I have radically changed my mind about the review of this music. See the new review.)

So, here is a curious thing. I have been reviewing books at Amazon for a few years now and never had the occasion to have one censored by Amazon.com. But, I just had two reviews in a row deleted by Amazon and it has caused me to wonder how often other conservatives have their reviews summarily eliminated from the Amazon site?

I have noticed, of course, that leftists use Amazon quite well to give conservative books a bad Amazon rating. In the past, whenever I wrote a positive review of a conservative book, for instance, I would be loaded up with negative votes on the review by Amazon visitors. But whenever I wrote a review of a non-political book, I got favorable votes on my review.

But, up until now, I’ve never had a review completely deleted by Amazon.

The first review that was deleted by Amazon was for Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s failure of a book titled “Know Your Power: A Message to America’s Daughters.” This book is horrible and is horribly tanking at the booksellers.

I wrote the review on-line and posted it from the Amazon site. I did not save my review in a word document because I did not imagine that I would be censored. But, let’s just suffice to say I hated her trite piece of garbage. Still, I did not call her names but I did say this (and I paraphrase from memory):

Some may recall the oft quoted and badly mauled Shakespeare quote that goes something to the effect that we should “first kill all the lawyers.” Well, I would like to paraphrase that saying and direct it to a profession more worthy of such a genocide. It would go thusly: “First kill all the political book ghostwriters.”

I know, I know. I’m very clever. But, Amazon apparently didn’t think so because the on-line bookseller deleted my review. And without so much as a by your leave, at that.

The next one I reviewed was for a music CD called “Levittown, Go Out Dancing – Part II” (2008). This is a CD by Tony Carey’s occasional band Planet P Project. Carey is a self-loathing, ex-pat American that lives in Germany now and since 1983 his Plant P band has put out four albums.

His first one from 1983 was an 80s style pop album that sound OK even today, if not a bit dated with that typical 80s sound. The second, “Pink World” from 1984 began to show Carey’s obsession with Hitler and his hippie-esque worry over the bomb and western totalitarianism – as all the while he ignored, like every other hippie did, the worse totalitarianism of the Far East and Russia. Still, “Pink World” has some interesting Pink Floyd-like tunes that are listenable. The third album “1931, Go Out Dancing Part I” (2003), is a full-blown nightmare of hippie angst replete with Hitler speeches recorded into the songs. I began to sour on Planet P Project with that one.

And now we get to their newest one, “Levittown.” This one is a frontal assault on the evil, evil America that Carey left behind when he went to Germany, turning his back on his country. Still, he loves to whine about us, just the same.

Just as I was ripped off by Pelosi’s “book” I was similarly cheated out of good money for “Levittown.” And that is what I wrote in my Amazon review. But, Amazon didn’t want me to say so, apparently. My review was deleted unceremoniously.

So, now, I leave the assessment to you, kind readers. Was my review too mean, too harsh, not on target or somehow deserving of being deleted by Amazon? Is my opinion of this album not as legitimate as those who love it? Or is Amazon trying to shill for the left?

Here is what I wrote:

Levittown? Try LEAVE IT Town!

Planet P Project has been steadily getting worse and this fourth album offering is the worst of them yet. Tony Carey’s first Planet P Project album (un-inventively called the “Planet P Project”) in 1983 at least had a great 80s sound that almost stands the test of time today and the double album “Pink World” (1984) was a really great album filled with tons of Pink Floydesque music. But the 2003 offering “1931” began the over-the-top, self-hating, nihilism that this new offering, “Levittown,” loads up in spades.

There is lots of hand wringing and self-hate piled on top of finger wagging scolding of western culture and history in the lyrics of this ponderous album. Worse, Carey’s vocals seem strained and sorrowful giving each tune — and by each I mean EVERY — a whiny character that seems to make a mockery of the harsh subject matter he is attempting to highlight. It all seems over wrought, petulant, and eye rolling.

With a sort of stilted narration in the song “The New Frontier,” Carey tries to scold America for its wonderful economic growth in the Post WWII world, an economic growth that later improved the standard of living for the whole world. Naturally, like most with his anti-western point of view, he just complains and offers no solution to what he obviously sees as some sort of evil — except the empty advice of “just fight it,” what ever THAT is supposed to mean. Carey uses this whiny narration in several other songs but it ends up sounding like an attempt to impress with sonority instead of really being thoughtful.

“Fremont Street” sees Carey whining that his family should have been millionaires from Vegas land sales after the turn of the century (that apparently they somehow missed because his grandaddy was a “gamblin’ man.”). Unfortunately, he ends up sounding more like an envious complainer. Not only that but his whole worry about the bomb, such as in the song “What We Did,” and the finger pointing at the USA as all that is evil in the world smacks of the failed tactics of the anti-western hippie set from the 1960s causing this album to seem dated and silly. Remember, all those hippies became stockbrokers or government workers in the 1980s, partaking quite easily in the so-called evil profits that Carey whines about in his “Levittown” tunes. Few ever kept to the claimed “principles” of the Counter Culture.

With “Where We Want You,” Carey seems to blame the USA for the attacks on 9/11. This one was the most offensive of the bunch. Apparently we Americans just used “the big lie” and “found the common enemy” to force the lowly people to do our government’s bidding. Also apparently, the planes flying into the Twin Towers was somehow a “big lie” that never really happened, or maybe was caused by the US government its hard to tell which Carey is positing. I wonder if Carey is scared by the black helicopters floating above his European home as he worries over 9/11 truther conspiracy tales? Naturally he seems to think all Americans assume “the devil himself wears sandals and a robe,” too. This causes me to wonder if he sees anything at all wrong with people who use Islam as an excuse to chop off people’s heads, stone gays to death, rape women and small boys and the like? After all, he has all sorts of complaints about America and the west, but doesn’t seem to display any opprobrium of the East.

All in all, the entire subject matter of this album sounds as outdated and wrong headed as the failed ideas of the childish, nihilistic, troublemakers that shut down University campuses all across the country in the 1960s. The vaunted Counter Culture that ended up doing absolutely nothing but causing strife fills this backward looking and pointless collection.

I suggest passing this one up unless you hate America, too. I, for one, will also be passing up part three of Tony Carey’s “Go Out Dancing” trilogy. Worse, I wish I hadn’t wasted my time with this one. But, like I said, if you think America is evil… well, this one will fit the bill for you.

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So, there you go folks. Was this so out of line that it should have been deleted by Amazon? And is Amazon deliberately deleting conservative reviews? And if so, how long has this been going on?

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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston


2 thoughts on “Is Amazon.com Deleting New Conservative Book Reviews?”

  1. I see nothing wrong with your editorial review of this Planet P crap. I am not a fan of this type of music and wouldn’t have bought their album in the first place but if I were I would at least like a good heads up about the music’s ridiculous leftist political views before I wasted money on it. I am not supirsed to see their site shilling for the left, since they seem to have disproportionate presence on the internet and Amazon wants to “fit in”.

    In fact it seems Amazon is turning into Scamazon with each passing day. I am former employee of their Lexington, Ky fulfillment center (which they claim is their largest such facility) and I saw first hand some shady practices. Such as a book being torn literally to pieces in shipping, then taped back together by their damage and reclaim dept. to be sold at a discount “as is” book rather then simply write it off as an unsellable item. I don’t know who they think would buy such a book but that is absurd.

  2. Amazon reviews are community policed for the most part. With the second review, you probably upset quite a few fans when you said, “I suggest passing this one up unless you hate America, too.” That probably ruffled enough feathers to get enough abuse reports to get the review automatically deleted. The best way to have reviews that actually stay on Amazon is to be thoughtful and professional.

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