Andrew Sullivan Throws Hissy Fit at Amazon "Adult" De-Linking

The Los Angeles Times notes, "One of these books has been removed from Amazon's sales rankings because of "adult" content; the other has not":

"American Psycho" is Bret Easton Ellis' story of a sadistic murderer. "Unfriendly Fire" is a well-reviewed empirical analysis of military policy. But it's "Unfriendly Fire" that does not have a sales rank - which means it would not show up in Amazon's bestseller lists, even if it sold more copies than the "Twilight" series. In some cases, being de-ranked also means being removed from Amazon's search results.

Unfair? Perhaps ... But boy does this ever throw Andrew Sullivan into a hissy fit!

This has to be one of the weirdest and least defensible policy changes imaginable. Mein Kampf is fine. Jackie Collins is fine. But books about gay subjects are now "adult" on Amazon and so not included on best seller lists or rankings. Sure enough, "Virtually Normal" and "Love Undetectable" have been de-listed and stripped of customer sales rankings. Jackie Collins' "Married Lovers" hasn't. My books contain discussions of Aquinas and Freud and Foucault and Burke. I'm puzzled as to why those authors are more "adult" than Collins' adulterous couplings.

Hmm, "weird" and "indefensible"? Kind of like Iowa's same-sex marriage ruling. Go figure?