The other crew members were his brother Mark Bezos, 18-year-old student Oliver Daemen, and 82-year-old aviation pioneer Wally Funk, who finally made it into space 50 years after an all-woman space mission dubbed “Mercury 13” was scrapped.
Even before the rocket launch, Bezos and fellow billionaire, space tourism rival Richard Branson, were criticized for using their vast wealth for space adventures and not aiding humanitarian or climate change issues.
“Since independent bookstores pay our taxes, allow our employees normal amounts of bathroom breaks, don’t sell your data/private info, and support our communities, we don’t have the money to go to space, but we CAN recommend some great books about it,” the Minnesota-based Red Balloon Bookstore tweeted while sharing a link where customers can buy books about space from them.
Author Jared Yates Sexton tweeted: “Just to properly frame it, Jeff Bezos used your money and money that should’ve gone to build schools and roads and public housing and provide healthcare and support small businesses to blast himself into “near space” and enjoy days of uncritical media fawning.”
He added: “It’s fun that all the independent bookstores which are community institutions and serve a public good while struggling to keep the lights on got to watch the guy who destroyed them take a little space ride.”
Square Book, who are based in Oxford, Mississippi, tweeted: “We don’t really need to go to space, we just wanna sell you some books.”
Loyalty Bookstores, who are based in D.C. and Maryland, also encouraged people to tweet out their merchandise which state “f**k Jeff Bezos” on Tuesday to show support for independent bookstores.
