People are always trying to censor someone or something. It is a never-ending shit-show. It will go on from now until the end of time. Because it’s easy. Humans will take the easy path more often than not. Why think about someone’s ideas, words, or arguments when you can just shut them up?
Censorship is a tool of the weak.
When you censor someone, you are basically disarming them and then not letting them participate in the discussion anymore after you do so. Meanwhile, you are still able to participate freely, and you still have all your weapons (ideas) at your disposal.
It is a bitch move of the highest caliber.
Censorship isn’t limited to the government, either.
I hear this bullshit argument all the time whenever the subject of free speech comes up. People will say free speech means that the government cannot inhibit your speech. This is strawman. On the surface, it seems to pertain directly to the subject at hand, but it’s only true in one regard: the 1st Amendment (in the US) protects citizens from government censorship.
That part is true.
But people bandy this fact about as though government censorship is the only kind. It’s not. Anyone with the ability to do so can censor someone. What the 1st Amendment means is that you don’t have the right to say whatever the fuck you want on someone else’s tweet, for example. They have the right to delete it. You are only protected if the government deletes your shit.
But it’s still censorship, no matter who does it.
And it’s still a bitch move if you’re trying to stifle competing ideas.
Why do people even give a shit?
The real question is, why do people even care about ideas to such an extent? Because we identify with them. Criticisms of the ideas become criticism of us when we attach ourselves to them. They become personal attacks. And if we attach ourselves not to ideas but to teams that have particular ideologies, we forego free thought completely and rely on a whole multitude of people to do our thinking for us. It becomes no longer about actually finding the best idea, the truth, seeking out alternatives. It becomes about puking out whatever filth our team is feeding us. I call this the Game of Fools. The only way to win is to not play.
You can avoid falling into groupthink by not attaching yourself to ideas, first of all. If you have to rely on falsities to maintain your agenda, your agenda probably isn’t worth a damn. But humans will human.
So they do underhanded shit like removing books from schools because they don’t like the message. Never mind the fact that schools are supposed to be havens of free thought and instruction. Why not use competing ideas as a teaching moment?
-Janden
Forsaken Vale is here! Grab the latest issue of SPKTR on Amazon.
FREE GIVEAWAY, three books here: https://books.bookfunnel.com/jandenhale
✓
.
Oh believe me...I know all about attempting to censor someone. First hand. Isn't that right, Janden? 🙂