Amazon issues gag order to staff: don't answer customer questions about Nazi symbols and the Confederate flag

(NaturalNews) Online retail giant Amazon.com is refusing to allow its customer service representatives to answer questions about why the merchandiser has decided to end its sales of Confederate flags while continuing to permit the purchase of Nazi paraphernalia, Natural News has learned.

In a chat session with an Amazon customer service rep, Natural News editor Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, inquired, without success, the impetus behind the company's decision.

Under a subject line of "Concerns about Amazon selling hateful flags," Adams wrote to a service rep named "Sai," "I am concerned that Amazon is still selling Nazi flags and symbols, even after removing the Confederate flag," noting that "Nazi imagery promotes a regime that murdered six million Jews."

Sai replied, "Thank you for your feedback. I'll certainly forward this on to our team." The rep then supplied the customer a reporting link, noting, "It will be directly sent to our team internally."

"Thank you, Sai," Adams pressed, "but I am also concerned that Amazon is now actively taking part in a new wave of expression 'thought police' by banning the Confederate flag. Does this mean Amazon.com is now going to ban books, movies and other items that cover the historical South of the USA?"

"Unfortunately, I do not have any information to comment regarding this.... But I've made sure to forward this to our team," Sai replied, again providing the reporting link.


(A vintage sign displaying the Nazi flag, available on Amazon)


(A phone case sold on Amazon commemorating Adolf Hitler)

No explanation

The exchange continued, however.

"Thank you, Sai, but I think it is entirely inappropriate to have an answer of 'we can't talk about our censorship' when Amazon is actively engaged in revisionist history and censorship of free expression."

"Currently I do not have any details regarding this," said the customer service rep.

"Okay, thank you for your time, Sai," Adams wrote. "I realize you are only doing what you are told, like East German soldiers at the Berlin Wall."


(Amazon profits from patches featuring the Totenkopf and "SS" symbols of the Nazi Schutzstaffel death squads)

The online retailer's decision to muzzle its customer service reps has essentially amounted to a gag order, Adams noted.

"Amazon.com is now the Big Brother arm of the leftist thought police. It's playing a deliberate role in the pushing of revisionist history by banning products carrying the so-called Confederate flag, all while continuing to sell symbols and memorabilia celebrating the Holocaust carried out by the Nazi regime," he said.

Amazon appears to be following suit along with other companies and political leaders who are distancing themselves from the Confederate flag in the wake of the horrific murders of nine African American worshipers at a historically black church in Charleston, S.C., last week.

The confessed shooter, 21-year-old high school dropout Dylann Roof, made racist comments before he opened fire, according to witnesses. Images of him have since been discovered posted on websites associated with white supremacists.


(One of many swastika-emblazoned knives sold by Amazon)

Far-reaching implications – for authors, too

The Amazon decision, however, is liable to have wider implications other than just curbing sales of Confederate flags. As noted by the news site Inquisitr.com, book authors who feature the stars-and-bars – which was, in reality, just the battle flag for the Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War – on covers may also be affected.

"For major vendors and manufacturers, finding another outlet to sell their Confederate merchandise may not be so difficult," the website reported. "However, for the writing community, a new means of selling their novels, novellas, and anthologies may not be as easy. The authors would be left with two choices: either pay someone to recreate the book covers, or simply give in to the removal of the book."


(The fascist Italian battle flag is okay, but the Confederate battle flag is banned from Amazon)

Here's the full text chat between Adams and Amazon.com:



For Adams, the decision by Amazon – and other retailers like Walmart and Sears, who have also opted to end sales of Confederate flags – is troubling.

"It is beyond astonishing to me that Amazon.com would give preference to Adolf Hitler over General Lee," he said. "We are now living in a society of absolute moral collapse combined with the rise of an ominous, destructive police state led by people like Jeff Bezos, who owns both Amazon.com as well as the GMO-pushing Washington Post."

The recent YouTube video below featuring a conversation between an Amazon customer and a service representative indicates that the federal government actually stepped in and ordered Amazon, eBay and Walmart to ban sales of items depicting the Confederate flag:



Sources:

http://www.inquisitr.com

http://nypost.com

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://www.naturalnews.com