031; Vote For Freedom: regarding Warriors for Innocence. [PUBLIC]
So firstly, on a mildly humorous note: I leave the internet alone for one day, and this is what I find. Honestly.
But I'm afraid that I have to say, the rest of it is not funny. I am not going to rehash the events of yesterday, because many people have done that already, and nobody is interested in reading what has already been said. What is the point? All that needs to be said and heard at this moment is that Warriors for Innocence have decided to launch an attack on LiveJournal for apparent violations of its TOS with regards to child molestation and pornography via fictional content as well as what is actually disturbing.
To an extent, any free-thinking person has to agree with the basics of what these so-called 'warriors' are saying. Using LiveJournal, or indeed any other site, for child molestation purposes - for adults to be genuinely soliciting children for sex using this medium is vile, and it should be stamped out. I agree, I concur. They are right, and it is a duty of the LiveJournal staff to stop any such practices, should they exist.
However, it is the attack on freedom of speech - the attack on literature - that is terrifying. Let us take as an example, Alice Sebold's 'The Lovely Bones'. This is a book that has sold millions of copies worldwide, and is viewed by many as one of the ultimate messages against sexual attacks on children that there can indeed be. However, if you were to sum it up in LiveJournal interest words, perhaps mentioned would be the act itself: "sexual attacks on children". "Rape".
Would these Warriors for Innocence condemn the book now? Surely not. But if it was a piece of literature on LiveJournal kept on a community and summarised by interests, then they would have petitioned to have it deleted merely for a mention of a practice. Furthermore, the Lovely Bones does graphically describe the act of child rape and the eventual murder of said child. Do we condemn the book for this? No, because it is the message that is important. The message is what we read for, through the sexual attack that makes at least most of us squirm. We know that what the book is trying to say is what's important, not merely what is described. But, if we were to apply what Warriors for Innocence are saying with regard to literature, then the Lovely Bones is a veritable bible for child pornographers and paedophiles. They would have it banned for its content, without so much as reading what is within the story. There would be no grasp of what the most important thing about literature is: the ability to give a message through a story.
There is some content on LiveJournal, particularly in fandom, that makes me cringe. There are some things I do not enjoy. This is a personal distinction of mine, so I do not read it. But how can someone tell exactly what an author of a story on LiveJournal is trying to achieve with that story if only the sexual content is being measured? What will be next? All stories with homosexuality in them should be banned, because they are a bad example to children? All stories with graphic heterosexual sex should be banned, because children are too young to see such things? All stories with anything vaguely deviant in them should be banned, because fiction is exploitation?
I am a person who does not write "shota", "lolita", or graphic sex. I am a person who is not particularly interested in reading it either. But I say no. If we lose freedom of speech on the internet, we shall become a vanilla, censored society, with no room for diversity or variation. Allow LiveJournal to police LiveJournal, to find sex attackers and those who mean harm to children. Allow LiveJournal to police those who condone pictures of child pornography and those who are soliciting children through the internet. And leave fiction writers alone. To delete fiction journals for some content without even reading that content is censorship, pure and simple.
Fiction is imaginary. Nobody is harmed in writing it. Furthermore, how can one tell between someone who writes a story because the idea appeals to them, or someone like Alice Sebold, who is writing a tale that is directly related to her own experience to give a message to those who read it about child violence? If we cannot write, we are not free. If we cannot express, we are not free to imagine.
Vote for freedom. I intend to remove all of my LiveJournal interests, and replace them with one word: freedom. Writers, readers, people who don't do either: maybe if you agree with what I have said here, do the same. Stick a finger in the air to these people and let them know exactly what you think, with one word. It doesn't take long - only a minute. It's all I'm doing. I don't approve of 'jihad' and 'war'.
See roaring's journal here for more ways you can speak out against this. Sign the petition.
You can only see as far as you think.
But I'm afraid that I have to say, the rest of it is not funny. I am not going to rehash the events of yesterday, because many people have done that already, and nobody is interested in reading what has already been said. What is the point? All that needs to be said and heard at this moment is that Warriors for Innocence have decided to launch an attack on LiveJournal for apparent violations of its TOS with regards to child molestation and pornography via fictional content as well as what is actually disturbing.
To an extent, any free-thinking person has to agree with the basics of what these so-called 'warriors' are saying. Using LiveJournal, or indeed any other site, for child molestation purposes - for adults to be genuinely soliciting children for sex using this medium is vile, and it should be stamped out. I agree, I concur. They are right, and it is a duty of the LiveJournal staff to stop any such practices, should they exist.
However, it is the attack on freedom of speech - the attack on literature - that is terrifying. Let us take as an example, Alice Sebold's 'The Lovely Bones'. This is a book that has sold millions of copies worldwide, and is viewed by many as one of the ultimate messages against sexual attacks on children that there can indeed be. However, if you were to sum it up in LiveJournal interest words, perhaps mentioned would be the act itself: "sexual attacks on children". "Rape".
Would these Warriors for Innocence condemn the book now? Surely not. But if it was a piece of literature on LiveJournal kept on a community and summarised by interests, then they would have petitioned to have it deleted merely for a mention of a practice. Furthermore, the Lovely Bones does graphically describe the act of child rape and the eventual murder of said child. Do we condemn the book for this? No, because it is the message that is important. The message is what we read for, through the sexual attack that makes at least most of us squirm. We know that what the book is trying to say is what's important, not merely what is described. But, if we were to apply what Warriors for Innocence are saying with regard to literature, then the Lovely Bones is a veritable bible for child pornographers and paedophiles. They would have it banned for its content, without so much as reading what is within the story. There would be no grasp of what the most important thing about literature is: the ability to give a message through a story.
There is some content on LiveJournal, particularly in fandom, that makes me cringe. There are some things I do not enjoy. This is a personal distinction of mine, so I do not read it. But how can someone tell exactly what an author of a story on LiveJournal is trying to achieve with that story if only the sexual content is being measured? What will be next? All stories with homosexuality in them should be banned, because they are a bad example to children? All stories with graphic heterosexual sex should be banned, because children are too young to see such things? All stories with anything vaguely deviant in them should be banned, because fiction is exploitation?
I am a person who does not write "shota", "lolita", or graphic sex. I am a person who is not particularly interested in reading it either. But I say no. If we lose freedom of speech on the internet, we shall become a vanilla, censored society, with no room for diversity or variation. Allow LiveJournal to police LiveJournal, to find sex attackers and those who mean harm to children. Allow LiveJournal to police those who condone pictures of child pornography and those who are soliciting children through the internet. And leave fiction writers alone. To delete fiction journals for some content without even reading that content is censorship, pure and simple.
Fiction is imaginary. Nobody is harmed in writing it. Furthermore, how can one tell between someone who writes a story because the idea appeals to them, or someone like Alice Sebold, who is writing a tale that is directly related to her own experience to give a message to those who read it about child violence? If we cannot write, we are not free. If we cannot express, we are not free to imagine.
Vote for freedom. I intend to remove all of my LiveJournal interests, and replace them with one word: freedom. Writers, readers, people who don't do either: maybe if you agree with what I have said here, do the same. Stick a finger in the air to these people and let them know exactly what you think, with one word. It doesn't take long - only a minute. It's all I'm doing. I don't approve of 'jihad' and 'war'.
See roaring's journal here for more ways you can speak out against this. Sign the petition.
You can only see as far as you think.