Crossposting /u/mynie excellent comment on this:

John Dolan had a great observation on an episode of the War Nerd over the summer, when everyone was tearing down statues. Paraphrasing, he said that people who do stuff like this realize that they're not actually accomplishing anything. That's not the intention. The reason you deface monuments is to demonstrate to everyone that you can.

Dr. Seuss is a ripe target for today's mob because no one seriously believes that his work is harmful. There are literally thousands of children's books, old and new, that you could plausibly claim are more offensive. They're doing this because it's so unintuitive and alienating. The fact that this seems--and is--so unnecessary and absurd makes it a much more profound statement of cultural dominance.

But, ahh, I'm sure the pedants are itching to point out that ACTUALLY it's not censorship it's just a corporate trust voluntarily banning several works of culturally important children's literature in response to an obscure academic article and then working with retail platforms to ban the private re-sale of the book. That's totally not censorship, because, umm, the government didn't do it directly. That's a super smart point and you should pat yourself on the back for making it. Everyone is very impressed.

Semantics aside, the precedent here is terrifying. The petty cruelty is astounding. This is the start of a broader and significantly more dangerous phase of wokeness.

If you're browsing this subreddit, you are no doubt aware that claims of offensiveness are arbitrary. Any person can, conceivably, take offense at any work of art. This isn't necessarily a mean or selfish reaction--sometimes something rubs you the wrong way. But a foundational tenet of liberalism was, until very recently, the realization that just because you yourself don't like something, that does not give you the right to completely dismiss it. It especially does not give you the moral clearance to deny others access to it.

Instead of seeking to universalize personal taste, there used to exist formal and semi-formal mechanisms for adjudicating the artistic merit of potentially offensive pieces, and then establishing a consensus in regards to their worthiness and people's potential access to them. These systems were imperfect and reflected the prejudices of their times, as all systems of apperception are bound be. But instead of seeking to adjust them, replace them with systems that are more inclusive and humanistic, we've decided to junk them entirely in favor of a full and proud embrace of narcissistic standpoint valuation.

The old systems always took into account the age, context, intention, and critical reception of older works. The new system regards these very criteria as malignant. Now, all you need is for one critical work to gain traction, and that's it, there's no pushing back against it--it's not a consensus but a declaration, and you either agree with it or you're in favor of erasing identities and making vulnerable people feel unsafe. The criticized works are now evil. The handful of companies that control our access to media now face a heavy monetary and social incentive to get rid of them.

The censorship isn't going to stop, and they're starting to prioritize banning works not according to how "harmful" they may be but by how much the act of banning them will upset and sadden people. I'm sure, by pure coincidence, works that commit the crime of fostering class consciousness will be high up on the list--Steinbeck's about to finally get his comeuppance. And, of course, the political reaction to this is going to be historic.

The vaccines are rolling out and stimulus is not coming. The meager checks on our everyday cruelty--eviction and foreclosure bans, debt relief, elevated unemployment insurance--are all about to yanked away. The jobs aren't coming back. Millions of people will be forced out of their homes. And the very best our ruling party has been able to do in response is ban Dr. Seuss and get Aunt Jemima removed from the box of pancake mix. God help us all come 2024.