eBay's Decline, George Carlin, and the Censorship Crisis - The Earnest Mann Show
The Decline of eBay and the Rise of Censorship in Modern Society
Hello, Earnest Mann here! Today, I'm reflecting on something that's either humorously absurd or deeply concerning—a sign of the times that encapsulates the decline of Western civilization. I’m discussing eBay and its transformation from a fun marketplace into a frustrating corporate entity, where sellers get the short end of the stick. My frustration peaked when I tried to ask a seller a simple question and was blocked by eBay's word police for using mild language. This episode is more than just a rant about eBay; it's a critique of how our society has become overly sensitive, censoring even the most harmless expressions. As we tiptoe around offensive words, we lose a piece of our freedom and humanity.
eBay's Evolution from Fun to Frustration
eBay was once a place of joy for buyers and sellers alike, but over time, it has transformed into something quite different. Corporate interests have shifted the balance, making it a haven for buyers but a minefield for sellers. I share my personal experience, highlighting how eBay's censorship has gone overboard, even flagging innocuous words in private messages. This is just a symptom of a broader societal issue where we’re increasingly treated like children, unable to express ourselves freely.
The Broader Impact of Language Censorship
The eBay experience reflects a larger trend of societal infantilization, where adults are treated like children, constantly monitored for offensive language. I discuss the broader implications of this shift, questioning how much freedom we’ve already lost as a result of these creeping changes. Our society's obsession with political correctness and non-offensiveness might seem trivial, but it signals a deeper dysfunction that could erode our fundamental liberties.
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Transcript
if you work for a living why do you kill
Speaker:yourself
Speaker:working
Speaker:hello it's um it's
Speaker:Friday and I wanted to share something
Speaker:with you that I thought is well it's
Speaker:either pretty damn
Speaker:funny
Speaker:or it's a very sad
Speaker:Testament to the end of [ __ ] Western
Speaker:Civilization either way you're either
Speaker:going to work or maybe the day is over
Speaker:and you've already finished work so at
Speaker:this
Speaker:point depending on your mood you know I
Speaker:guess that's the way this is going to
Speaker:strike
Speaker:you but you know it's it's one of those
Speaker:things that we do every day in our daily
Speaker:lives
Speaker:so I just wanted to share it with
Speaker:you now what I'm going to talk about
Speaker:here is
Speaker:eBay
Speaker:now um You may love eBay or [ __ ] hate
Speaker:eBay I stopped using eBay for the most
Speaker:part many years ago
Speaker:and the reason for that without without
Speaker:going off into a tangent and I don't
Speaker:know how many of you may have noticed
Speaker:this but I'm talking about way
Speaker:back it was
Speaker:cool eBay was
Speaker:fun then just like everything else that
Speaker:corporatism entwines
Speaker:it became really well
Speaker:[ __ ] in my
Speaker:opinion one of the big
Speaker:things um was that it suddenly went
Speaker:from being a uh you know a fun place
Speaker:for buyers or sellers or you know what
Speaker:have you and it pretty much came that
Speaker:they apparently they decided um that
Speaker:somebody had to be [ __ ]
Speaker:on and so let's let's make it the
Speaker:seller
Speaker:so if you're a buyer on eBay it's it's
Speaker:great it's still great you can get a
Speaker:deal and for the most part it's it's
Speaker:fine if you're a
Speaker:seller not so
Speaker:much apparently like I said they had to
Speaker:go one way or the other they said [ __ ]
Speaker:it if anyone's going to really lose out
Speaker:of this deal let's make it the seller so
Speaker:basically you know that's why I gave up
Speaker:on them
Speaker:because as soon as very slowly very
Speaker:incrementally they were in you know
Speaker:that's the way everything is
Speaker:done that's the way the countries went
Speaker:that's the way everything's went
Speaker:whatever it
Speaker:is it happens slowly almost imp
Speaker:perceptually but it [ __ ]
Speaker:happens and so that's what they did they
Speaker:slowly shifted various fees and just all
Speaker:kinds of [ __ ] I I don't want to go into
Speaker:that that's not what this is about
Speaker:really it's about
Speaker:just the one exper the one thing that
Speaker:happened
Speaker:but it the [ __ ] just here we go
Speaker:again
Speaker:so I was interested in you know buying
Speaker:an item and I uh I had some
Speaker:questions for the
Speaker:seller so I sent him a question and
Speaker:I and um
Speaker:right out of the
Speaker:shoot right out of the [ __ ]
Speaker:shoot I sent a question and all I
Speaker:said was comparing a certain you know
Speaker:say this model to a previous model of
Speaker:what it is I'm checking
Speaker:out and I typed yeah I was curious about
Speaker:this model
Speaker:because the previous one was a piece of
Speaker:[ __ ] and I was wondering if they
Speaker:corrected
Speaker:this and you know finished it wasn't
Speaker:very
Speaker:long and I click Send and immediately I
Speaker:get the the red
Speaker:notice be
Speaker:beep the [ __ ] word Poli the bots of
Speaker:the word police were there
Speaker:you said a bad word you can't that word
Speaker:think you said
Speaker:[ __ ] I'm not kidding
Speaker:you
Speaker:so I
Speaker:didn't I wanted this item I didn't want
Speaker:to press my
Speaker:luck but I'm still Furious over it so I
Speaker:redid the thing and this time learned a
Speaker:trick sometimes even an old dog can
Speaker:learn a new trick and I learned a trick
Speaker:that if you're going to type something
Speaker:in make sure you copy
Speaker:it because when the red warning [ __ ]
Speaker:Banner came that I had committed a
Speaker:cardinal sin of saying the word
Speaker:[ __ ] which in German is shy by the
Speaker:way yeah that
Speaker:I it just completely lost its mind but
Speaker:it wipes out the
Speaker:message now fortunately I didn't you
Speaker:know I didn't I wasn't [ __ ] episodic
Speaker:about this I didn't write [ __ ] War
Speaker:and Peace cuz if that would have
Speaker:happened I would have yeah I might had a
Speaker:[ __ ] heart attack or something I
Speaker:would have I'm just so I'm still [ __ ]
Speaker:living I'm still pissed about this so
Speaker:anyway next time I I redid it and I
Speaker:changed get this you
Speaker:see
Speaker:sometimes you can get around the system
Speaker:but you got to know it so this time I
Speaker:put the same [ __ ]
Speaker:message but instead of the word [ __ ] I
Speaker:used yes that unit is complete
Speaker:defecation and
Speaker:apparently that was
Speaker:fine yeah the system didn't didn't lose
Speaker:its you know didn't lose its [ __ ]
Speaker:mind over it so
Speaker:um yeah I got past
Speaker:that my point about this is that
Speaker:if you think about this when we talk
Speaker:about people who we had this this was 40
Speaker:plus years ago when George Carlin set
Speaker:the world on fire with this the seven
Speaker:deadly sin words and it was this whole
Speaker:thing that went to the Supreme Court and
Speaker:like children can you
Speaker:believe we're still [ __ ] caught up on
Speaker:Words and this
Speaker:case it wasn't I didn't say [ __ ]
Speaker:or [ __ ] or
Speaker:[ __ ] liquor or you know none of these
Speaker:things just
Speaker:[ __ ] and within the
Speaker:parthona foul
Speaker:language shit's pretty
Speaker:mild but
Speaker:anyway that's what I mean by reflecting
Speaker:back because many many years ago on eBay
Speaker:this this this absurdity didn't
Speaker:exist but that's what I'm saying that we
Speaker:have
Speaker:grown to the point of being walking
Speaker:around and being so [ __ ] inbe
Speaker:silic that we're not
Speaker:instantaneously
Speaker:insulted and pissed
Speaker:off when someone some being some entity
Speaker:I don't care what you call it is telling
Speaker:us
Speaker:like we're little [ __ ] children don't
Speaker:say that it's a bad
Speaker:[Music]
Speaker:word like we're [ __ ]
Speaker:children and many people just say well
Speaker:okay I'm
Speaker:sorry and that's what I mean so my point
Speaker:to this in
Speaker:turn is if you want to know that is just
Speaker:one
Speaker:one little
Speaker:symptomatology of how [ __ ] up things
Speaker:are but I think it has Merit I'm not
Speaker:saying you know that I'm the brightest
Speaker:guy in the world by any
Speaker:means but I know what a [ __ ] adult is
Speaker:and I
Speaker:know that with on without rare occasion
Speaker:maybe a few special
Speaker:places that you know you should be able
Speaker:to say not only what you want to say but
Speaker:Express Yourself the way you want to it
Speaker:is fundamental it is a fundamental
Speaker:feeling it's being a [ __ ]
Speaker:adult and as long as you keep tolerating
Speaker:being pet on your head don't say that
Speaker:yny it's that nice word
Speaker:as long as you accept that it continues
Speaker:to go
Speaker:down I don't know if you want to call it
Speaker:the
Speaker:idiz of America the feminization the
Speaker:combination of the of the two I don't
Speaker:know I don't know what the [ __ ] to call
Speaker:this this this this this this projectile
Speaker:vomited tsunami of utter and total
Speaker:[ __ ] stupidity I don't
Speaker:know don't know but I know it when I see
Speaker:it and if everybody if you allow that
Speaker:and you wonder if you look I don't
Speaker:understand where did allar freedoms
Speaker:Liberties go oh because I'm [ __ ]
Speaker:clueless and I don't pay attention to
Speaker:anything
Speaker:well here it is it always starts small
Speaker:now maybe you think it's like well the
Speaker:but it's a small thing but it's not a
Speaker:[ __ ] small
Speaker:thing you go out on Friday nights you
Speaker:worked all week maybe you'll see this
Speaker:maybe you'll [ __ ] laugh I hope you do
Speaker:but the point is is that you've worked
Speaker:that is that is part of the
Speaker:agreement that's what I grew up with
Speaker:that was part of it you work all week
Speaker:you're going to get have some Brews and
Speaker:you're going to blow off some steam and
Speaker:no you're not walking around outside is
Speaker:in a library it's not a [ __ ]
Speaker:Church you should be able to say what
Speaker:the [ __ ] you want when you want within
Speaker:reason now I am not quickly I'll just
Speaker:end this with this I don't want to go
Speaker:endlessly into this my point is I don't
Speaker:believe a person I think it you know it
Speaker:actually looks Juvenile and kind of
Speaker:stupid if you you're doing this and
Speaker:you're just every other word is an F
Speaker:bomb and you're just doing it for the
Speaker:sake of doing
Speaker:it that in and of itself it's just kind
Speaker:of
Speaker:stupid but that's not what I'm talking
Speaker:about here and this wasn't even in
Speaker:public this is to another person but
Speaker:everybody has to be non
Speaker:offensive because something
Speaker:might offend
Speaker:someone and you can't have a [ __ ]
Speaker:society like
Speaker:that because it's dysfunctional and it's
Speaker:[ __ ] idiotic then as a consequence of
Speaker:that you have all the other [ __ ] that
Speaker:goes bad with
Speaker:it for the time being that's all I'm
Speaker:going to say on that
Speaker:so did you like this did you not like it
Speaker:do you have an entirely different point
Speaker:of
Speaker:view drop
Speaker:me a [ __ ]
Speaker:line drop me a line let me know one way
Speaker:or the other and please
Speaker:subscribe
Speaker:please
Speaker:because really does help the channel
Speaker:grow I get to send you notifications
Speaker:with
Speaker:another fantastic episode is coming
Speaker:up and hopefully the world's a little
Speaker:bit better as a
Speaker:consequence at
Speaker:least that's what the hell I'm trying to
Speaker:do
Speaker:so until next Monday or
Speaker:Friday this is earnest
Speaker:no until next Monday or Friday if this
Speaker:in
Speaker:Earnest what is
