The Mein Kampf Sales Surge: A Self-Fulfilling Not-Exactly-Prophecy
So, as David Gaughran notes here, and as you've probably heard, recently there were lots of stories about a surge in sales of e-copies of Mein Kampf. Lots of the usual bottom feeders got in on the action--Huffpo, Gawker, Fox news, the Daily Mail etc. But so did some of the less-bottom-feederish sites like Salon, Slate...even the LA Times...
Half-baked hypotheses followed--people were reading Mein Kampf more because they could do so privately! (Huh? You mean...like they always could?) The e- version provided people who'd been longing to get their Nazi on with some extra anonymity that was...what? Absent from ordering it online and having it delivered to their houses in an Amazon box? Who knows? Even, allegedly, at least one prediction that a new Holocaust was in the offing...
But, as Gaughran shows, more-or-less conclusively in one graph, sales of Mein Kampf went up twice. First, when the price dropped to 99 cents, on 10/20/13, and then again--a huge jump in sales--after stories began to circulate about, well, a huge jump in sales
If you want a picture of the future of the internet, imagine a hand palming a human face forever.
Half-baked hypotheses followed--people were reading Mein Kampf more because they could do so privately! (Huh? You mean...like they always could?) The e- version provided people who'd been longing to get their Nazi on with some extra anonymity that was...what? Absent from ordering it online and having it delivered to their houses in an Amazon box? Who knows? Even, allegedly, at least one prediction that a new Holocaust was in the offing...
But, as Gaughran shows, more-or-less conclusively in one graph, sales of Mein Kampf went up twice. First, when the price dropped to 99 cents, on 10/20/13, and then again--a huge jump in sales--after stories began to circulate about, well, a huge jump in sales
If you want a picture of the future of the internet, imagine a hand palming a human face forever.
posted by Winston Smith at
9:26 AM
3 Comments:
An interesting story. May I suggest that "Imagine a Hand Palming a Human Face Forever" needs to be the slogan for this blog. It matches the tone perfectly.
"The Eternal Facepalm" by Winston Smith
heh heh...I was inordinately proud of that...glad somebody other than me appreciates it... Good idea to make it the motto...I think I'll do that...
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