An Issue of Taste

I'm taking a step back from my normal posts to address an issue that has come out after the recent BookStrand removal of indie authors issue.  It's a subject I have remained mostly silent about, because I do not share the same opinion as a lot of other indie authors.  While the idea of censorship is, of course, concerning, that is not what upsets me most about all of this.

It's the use of the following Martin Niemöller quote:

First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

I've seen this used by more than one author in the discussion of the business choices BookStrand made, and in response to the pressure PayPal is putting on various websites.  The quote refers to the rise of Nazi power before and during World War II.  The people they came for were systematically murdered.

Now, some background:  With a name like Nuala you probably think I'm Irish as all hell.  I'm not.  My family is German.  I am German-American.  And my family has been very entrenched in WWII history and how it affected our family, most of whom were still in Germany at the time.  Even if they were not, however, I absolutely do not see how anyone could think that is an appropriate quote to use to rally the smut slinger troupes.

The fact is, our ebooks and accounts are being removed.  And, yes, that sucks.  But PayPal, BookStrand, the credit card companies, et al are still in their legal rights.  As a minority of erotica writers are we being persecuted to some extent?  Yes.  But at the end of the day, while this effects our money, our jobs, and parts of our life, this is not Nazi Germany.  This is not World War II.  We are not Jews, Socialists, underprivileged Germans, trade unionists, or the undesirables lost in a country run by a fascist regime.  Our lives are not on the line.  It can be questioned if even our rights are.  We made the choice to work in a risky industry, after all, and no one is breaking the law here.

So, please, think before you spout out propaganda.  While your outrage is, in many cases, justified, it is, in no way, shape or form, all right to trivialize a horror like the Holocaust by comparing this.  Make your point some other way.  Find some other quote, but don't touch this one.

There are lines even those of us who skirt the issues of taste should not cross.

This is one of them.