Censorship
Sometimes the internet is an infuriating thing. One of the people on my MySpace friends list just posted a bulletin that was a petition to have one of the MySpace groups, called fuckthetroops, removed from the Web site.
I checked out said group. It seems to be a general anti-war group. Its members are either anti-war in general or anti-soldiers specifically because they don't agree with the military system in general or the Iraq war in particular. For whatever reason, this group has open posting and damn near every post on the forum is about how horrible the group is and how it should be removed. Every post in support of the group is littered with comments about how wrong the poster is and that he/she is inferior for holding such beliefs.
It reminded me of last year's fiasco involving The Commentator and the PFC. The incident equated to liberals touting equality - but only for those who agreed with them. It spawned from a published joke, that wasn't all that funny and certainly was offensive, and resulted in a battle with the PFC who wanted to defund the magazine because of its content. Censorship is entirely justifiable if it is right-wing and somehow offensive to "progressive people."
Now this is the opposite scenario. Here, the conservative voice is demanding that these lefty nuts be silenced because they are offending the soldiers who are fighting for their rights! Apparently not for their rights to free speech... but their rights nonetheless! Here censorship is justifiable if it is left-wing and somehow offensive to "patriotic people."
I can understand the thinking behind: I don't want to see this, so I am not going to look at it. Perfectly reasonable. After all, the Internet is a pull medium, not a push medium. You don't have to join this MySpace group, or even look at it all, if you don't want to. You don't have to read The Commentator if you don't want to. If you support the war efforts in Iraq and American soldiers in particular, don't go to a group called Fuck The Troops! If you are very liberal in your political beliefs, don't read a Libertarian campus magazine! Simple.
The thing that I don't understand is the thinking behind: I don't want to see this, and therefore no one else should be able to see it either.
Censorship is anti-American from any political point of view. If only people would remember this when they find themselves trying to silence others as well as when they find themselves being silenced
I checked out said group. It seems to be a general anti-war group. Its members are either anti-war in general or anti-soldiers specifically because they don't agree with the military system in general or the Iraq war in particular. For whatever reason, this group has open posting and damn near every post on the forum is about how horrible the group is and how it should be removed. Every post in support of the group is littered with comments about how wrong the poster is and that he/she is inferior for holding such beliefs.
It reminded me of last year's fiasco involving The Commentator and the PFC. The incident equated to liberals touting equality - but only for those who agreed with them. It spawned from a published joke, that wasn't all that funny and certainly was offensive, and resulted in a battle with the PFC who wanted to defund the magazine because of its content. Censorship is entirely justifiable if it is right-wing and somehow offensive to "progressive people."
Now this is the opposite scenario. Here, the conservative voice is demanding that these lefty nuts be silenced because they are offending the soldiers who are fighting for their rights! Apparently not for their rights to free speech... but their rights nonetheless! Here censorship is justifiable if it is left-wing and somehow offensive to "patriotic people."
I can understand the thinking behind: I don't want to see this, so I am not going to look at it. Perfectly reasonable. After all, the Internet is a pull medium, not a push medium. You don't have to join this MySpace group, or even look at it all, if you don't want to. You don't have to read The Commentator if you don't want to. If you support the war efforts in Iraq and American soldiers in particular, don't go to a group called Fuck The Troops! If you are very liberal in your political beliefs, don't read a Libertarian campus magazine! Simple.
The thing that I don't understand is the thinking behind: I don't want to see this, and therefore no one else should be able to see it either.
Censorship is anti-American from any political point of view. If only people would remember this when they find themselves trying to silence others as well as when they find themselves being silenced