Censorship

What is censorship? Why do we feel the need to censor out certain topics? What good does censorship accomplish? These questions and more answered from my point of view in today's What Rug Thinks. (cue applause)

Borrowed from NCAC.org (Worth a read)

Google defines censorship as "the practice of officially examining books, movies, etc., and suppressing unacceptable parts." Which seems to agree with the way most people tend to think of it. However, sometimes definitions are a little weak in how they are stated. Therefore, to put into common language. Censorship is the act of removing content based on the view of acceptability. Which of course brings to mind. What is acceptable?  Google defines acceptable in this usage as "able to be tolerated or allowed." This whole thing seems to boil down to what someone finds offensive and not offensive. Well, that seems to be a load of crap. Most people find anything they don't agree with to be offensive. Instead of coming up with my own rebut to being offended, I leave you a quote from a master of the spoken word. 

“It's now very common to hear people say, 'I'm rather offended by that.' As if that gives them certain rights. It's actually nothing more... than a whine. 'I find that offensive.' It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. 'I am offended by that.' Well, so fucking what." -Stephen Fry

People tend to avoid things they don't agree with. Rather it be a political, scientific, religious, or just simple speech. Democrats tend to not watch Fox news. Republicans tend to not watch Rachel Maddow. Non-liberals tend to not watch The Young Turks (TYT). Religious people tend to avoid Richard Dawkins or the late Christopher Hitchens. Atheist tend to avoid Kirk Cameron or Ken Ham. Trump supporters tend to not listen to Sanders. Sanders supporters tend to not listen to Trump. People that don't like science tend to avoid Neil DeGrasse Tyson. We spend so much time in our lives avoiding things we don't like, it starts to become second nature. Our social media outlets, Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Instagram, and many others tend to only show us what we are interested in. What we like to see. Take a good look at your Facebook feed. How many things do you see there that you don't agree with? Probably not very many. We tend to have friends that have similar idea to our own. We tend to engross ourselves with the topics we care about and pay little attention to other points of view. I ask you this, if you only see one side of a disagreement, how will you ever know which side is correct? You can't. What good does it do to only listen to one side? None, unless you want to go through life without ever being challenged on what you believe and why you believe it.

There is one form of censorship I agree with, self censorship. If you choose to censor what you say, so be it. However, no one has any say on what you can and cannot say. You are the only one that can correctly convey what is going on inside your head. You are the only one that had the ability to express the emotions, thoughts, and ideas that come to your mind. How would you like it if someone told you, "You can not say that." Just because they didn't like what you had to say. Seems like a crappy way to get along doesn't it? Continuously telling people what they can and cannot say. I say, fuck it all.

No matter who you are. No matter where you come from. No matter what your point of view is. No matter how much difficulty you have. No matter if you think you might offend someone. No matter if you feel it's wrong somehow. Say what you mean. Mean what you say. There is always someone out there to disagree with you. There is always someone that will be offended. There is always someone that will try to tell you, "You shouldn't say that". That will always be a stick in the mud that wants to control what can and cannot be expressed in some way. Well, I say, Fuck them.

Just because someone doesn't like what you have to say doesn't mean you can't say it. All it means is they have a choice to listen to it or not. No one is making them listen. No one is making them read what you write. No one is forcing them to do a damn thing that has to do with you.

Sure, they can complain all they want. They can disagree with you on everything. They can counter your points one by one. They can attempt to make you look foolish. They can attempt to change your mind. Then again, they could also ignore you completely. They could walk away or close the web page. They could take you off their friends list. They could block you on all of their social media. They could never come over to your house. They could lose your phone number. Whichever route they choose is on them.

When everyone can say anything they want. Public debate and discussions can happen in a meaningful way. The human race may then be able to move past the things that separate us, because we have discussed and agreed on what is important to us as a species. Where our goals align, and where our differences are. We may be able to move past the infighting, and move to a civilization that appreciates everyone. Sees the human race as a whole, and moves with intent to make our little world better for all. We may even be able to then move beyond this little world to other worlds. Some of these worlds might be bigger, and others might be smaller, but we will be able to see us all as human beings. One species, one people, one race, one goal. To thrive in a hostile universe. I might be some insignificant human named Rug, but that is what I think.