Why Censorship Must be Vigorously Fended Off
A facebook friend was bitching about a vegan who posted on his timeline. The facebook friend simply blocked the vegan because something was said that irritated him. Then he fortified his action by posting about his distaste for vegans (pun intended) Most of his facebook friends endorsed his action. A few gave another view, usually to defend the idea of veganism. But no one challenged his action of blocking.
The expression of his dislike for vegans, even his hostility towards vegans, is not my beef here — my dispute is that he used blocking to shut someone down.
Censoring cannot stop offensive speech but it will definitely increase offensive actions and there won’t be anything you can say about it if you allow free speech to be infringed. We need to ask “what is offensive speech and who decides?” When we leave these matters to others, we are treading in quicksand. It is superior to answer offensive speech with more speech not no speech, and preferably — rational speech.
Blocking is a behavior we haven’t analyzed at all. What is the thinking behind it? Do blockers do so in order to remain in their smug world, and feel themselves superior because their ideas go on unchallenged? Are they afraid that they might have to make changes to their thinking if they were to hear another view? Wouldn’t it be more mature to disagree graciously rather than shut down those who disagree?
Blocking is final, it’s like a virtual death — the blocked person cannot even see the blocker’s timeline to follow their discussions. And often there is no way to make contact again and learn from errors made. But does it even make sense to completely amputate someone that you were friends with once?
Change my mind but I feel blocking is equal to social bullying. We are simply not giving it our conscious examination and like anything done unconsciously, we are probably going somewhere we may not be willing to go. Those of us who value free speech need to make sure tyrants do not get away with censorship even in the smallest of forums. Because it is the greatest weapon of the tyrant and like a mold, it will grow and grow if you let it go by.
Have you ever been blocked? I have and every time it was done in a way that gave me absolutely no redress or opportunity to give the reasoning behind my opinion. On occasion I could see the posts lambasting me and I could not defend myself at all because my comments were blocked. Is this fair treatment? Is this mature?
Have you ever blocked someone? Why? Think about it now, why did you do it? Many say because they didn’t want to bother with someone who was a pain or a troll. I’ve seen the conversations — often there was no such reason. It is often a matter of interpretation and simply working through the tangle. It’s human to have tangles sometimes. Preventing ourselves from practicing ways of overcoming these snarls only makes us weaker. And yes there are trolls but what sense does it make to block them to save you the trouble of dealing with them but letting them lose of the rest of the world? How about trying to edify the troll and maybe something will come of it?
Those who block should be called on it — we need to make a big deal of it lest those of us who do and who treat people with such respect will be leaving ourselves open to be crushed. We don’t do the same to censors because we have respect for free speech and for everyone’s view, but those who don’t get the upper hand if we let it slip by. Blocking and censoring is not yet thought of as disrespectful — but it should be. In fact it is the most disrespectful and harsh treatment one can do to another other and only one step below physical bullying. I’m not saying one leads to the other, just that censorship is the harshest resort often used first, before rationality.
Blocking is the same as censoring. Sometimes it seems like people block or censor their peers because they want to feel powerful or superior, they want to “lord it over someone” and it sure can ruin one’s day. I see many people get angry and frustrated that they were blocked. The feeling from being blocked or censored is a bit like abandonment or betrayal. Do we really want to inflict these feelings on each other?
Why are people so impatient with opinions that differ to theirs? We tend to feel bad if someone doesn’t agree with us. Why is this? We all know that we are individual and we all have a different opinion and come from different perspectives. We all agree with this on the whole. Yet so many times, people shut others down for having a difference of opinion. There are better ways to deal with differences and maybe it’s time we practiced them so we’ll get used to them and finally grow up.
In the new paradigm we feel we are moving to — we need to be proficient at listening and allowing others to respond, if we want to build a world that is fairer and more pleasant to live in. If we want a world where we won’t be at war all the time, we need to learn how to coexist with people who are different and who hold different views. Why are people hostile towards others with different views to themselves?
Many justify blocking and I see that practiced even by “awakened” or “enlightened” people. It’s almost a national sport these days. How do you feel when you are pressured to reign in expressing your views? How do you feel when you cannot express your views at all because if you did you will be rejected outright with no redress? Do you inflict that upon others? For those who believe and stand by free speech — bravo and brava! But if you truly believe in free speech — you’re going to have to speak up louder because saying nothing lets ignorance rule the way.
Many say, “Life isn’t fair” as though we simply have to be resigned to it. The statement is sometimes true, yes life often isn’t fair. However I believe it is up to us to make life fair. Unfairness is not something we simply have to accept. We can make an effort to make our lives fair, we needn’t simply sit on our haunches and declare that life is automatically unfair when something goes wrong. We need to be able to speak about it, let others know so that it curbs the offensive actions. If we cannot speak it dooms us all to discrimination and maltreatment. It will come around to each of us eventually, you can be sure of that.
Some people feel blocking and censoring is justified because it keeps things pleasant in conversations but just like taking your guns must be defended, so too must free speech. Free speech is the only “weapon” available to the average person — who doesn’t have an army or a police force at their bidding. It doesn’t make sense either to relinquish our free speech when there are entities who do have such an arsenal and can be used against us at any whim. Keeping things pleasant in conversations at the expense of truth an free speech is only pleasant for the tyrant. The rest of us learn to live with the cornucopia of natural born humans and yes there will be differences, but this is also what allows you to have your foibles.
Another dynamic going on is that anyone can be shut down or brought trouble upon because of someone’s complaint. Sometimes it may be just one person’s complaint and often without any openings for the victim to reply. This may please those who like to lord it over others and get a notch for themselves on the totem pole. Nobody is safe from these people — if we ignore this dynamic, it will give such types carte blanche to foster ignorance and pettiness over our lives. It will have a dampening effect on feeling free to speak as we wish and we will always have to bow to these types because they will use their power. So we must show resistance here and insist that all speech is free. After all isn’t it free speech that allows them to complain?
Any threat of taking people’s guns away and immediately an uproar ensues and that is as it should be. Censorship is even more important than guns because censorship takes away your right to knowledge and without knowledge, you give the advantage to those who have it. This could affect a matter of health or prosperity. It puts you at a distinct disadvantage as anything done to you cannot be said and you will just have to lump it then. But with the freedom to speak your mind, you can tell others about your experiences.
Some people think speech must be censored to maintain civil society. Some people think that hate speech is not acceptable speech. But no amount of damage hate speech does could eclipse the damage that censorship causes to society. In other words the downsides to offensive speech is nothing compared to the downsides of curbing speech.
You can’t be half pregnant and so too you can’t be “somewhat” for free speech. You’re either for free speech or you’re not. That includes hate speech or any speech. I cannot stress how important free speech is to a civilized and free society. It must be vigorously and unequivocally defended. Didn’t we learn anything from the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany? Restricting knowledge relegates a nation to a class society that is closed to new ideas, stifles originality and breeds mediocrity. Intelligence comes from an open, not a closed, mind.
Intelligent society needs to protect free speech like it is one of their children r one of their guns. Without free speech we cannot know things that are important to know and it gives rise to tyrants. Nobody has the supremacy to stifle speech — if we believe in equality, if we want to evolve our minds, we must stand for and tirelessly protect free speech. It is the most precious safeguard against tyranny. And sometimes it is the only safeguard.
