I recently discovered some censorship, via flagging, going on here at steemit, and after questioning the motives of the censor I was told the steemian being censored had crossed the line with hate speech. The article being "greyed out" was about geoengineering and contained no racism or hate speech. When I brought this up to the censor I was told the steemian in question, (who, for the record, I do not know and only recently followed due to my interest in chemtrails/geoengineering), had expressed "hate" towards him and he would no longer allow said steemian to post on his "tag".
We could discuss the topic of ownership of "tags", or hate speech and what should be done about it, but today I want to talk about cognitive dissonance and how our own self censorship could be hurting us.
I say censorship is a slippery slope.
It is not because the truth is too difficult to see that we make mistakes... we make mistakes because the easiest and most comfortable course for us is to seek insight where it accords with our emotions - especially selfish ones. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
The purpose of this article is not to talk about this one case of censorship, but look at the question "what triggers me to stop listening?" Where do I draw the line and say "this person, or argument, is no good and I will no longer consider or entertain any discourse from that source."
I have been personally insulted here on steemit, and it was upsetting. Steemit is my first experience with social media. I do not live a life where I am exposed to people who would behave this way very often. I made a few defensive remarks "I'm not stupid" and "wow now I'm a witch", then I unfollowed.
The problem is I found this guys opinions on many things agreeable and valid. Do I want to close a door forever? This guy was wrong, but he may have realized that, or he may realize it some day. Can I forgive? Do I want to forgive? Is forgiveness worth it?
When we let anger or hurt dictate what we will or will not consider we may be closing a door to a deeper understanding of ourselves. When we find ourselves shutting down we need to look inside and ask, "why am I feeling this way, what is being threatened?"
I will try to calmly consider information without emotional bias, however daunting, because I want the truth. I will try not to censor my own life.
So I would ask, what triggers you to shut down, and could you be missing anything important due to these emotional biases?
Are any words unforgivable?
I find your post poignant indeed.
I may be a bit different than most folks on Steemit, as I have actually been grateful for each time I have been flagged. In every case, the flags proved my point more effectively than my words could have. Since I am not here for rewards, such financial hit as came with the flags didn't affect me at all.
Words do not threaten me. Actual slings and arrows have, in many ways, already killed me.
When I think of 'shut down' I do not think of a conversation. I think of why I don't have a bank account, own valuable property, or earn enough to pay taxes. I shut down in these ways because of predatory violence I was unable to defeat, and this is the only way I am able to not contribute to feeding those predators.
That is what 'shut down' means to me, and what it took to shut me down.
Thanks!
I commend this form of shutting down. You are removing your support for this system. That’s how we win.
When they become abusive it's definitely time to go.
I don't think anything on this site should be censored unless it's blatant plagiarism, but even then we have to be cautious. I used to get flagged for copying and pasting material from my own site. There should be some kind of appeal process to get ride of flags.
what triggers my ending of listening and wanting to pay attention to a certain someone, well, usually i am long suffering, but I don't like to suffer, when the person falls into one of the slots or type of category of willingly willful ignorance I give up on that person, they should have been listening to someone like me years ago, i don't try to change the minds of bigots who got the mainstream official lies who then close their minds. but if your still reading my comment remember this quote from burtrand russel; paraphrasing here; " its a shame that so many ignorant minds are so convinsed like zealots so sure they are right, and so many, many wise minds full of wisdom who know better, who are full of doubt due to knowledge of so much."
The more you know, the more you know you don't know. Absolutely! Thank you so much for reading and commenting. I too am short on time to listen to fools. If only I had more time I could be more tolerant, but life is short and there are so many ideas to consider. Following your blog now and happy to have run across you.
[Edited: my apologies to @choosefreedom; the tone of my comment was hostile (and I'll leave it up so the context is still there). I appreciate the comment on the blog.]
[original -and you dint bother to research a single thing regarding the situation, did you?]
https://steemit.com/informationwar/@stevescoins/censorship-in-informationwar-why
OH SO YOU'RE A KIKE MAKES PERFECT SENSE! I know plenty of self hating jews, they arent bad people.
You cant control the narrative here Moshe! It has already begun!
OK Derp, I'm done with you. This will get us nowhere.
Neither will jews censoring pertinent information about the world we live in! Israel does nothing wrong, right. We should just continue to be exploited by AIPAC and Israel to do their dirty work and send them billions in aid every year. yeah okay. IM the problem though for pointing it out.
I don’t think the Israeli government, nor any government, for that matter, can be entrusted with a monopoly on the use of force. All governments are illegitimate and abusive.
^^^^^ Girl... you got that right! For real. I tell people that all the time.
Right but that doesnt change the fact they are undermining our sovereignty ad nation while sending our troops to die so they can grab more land. Do you know Khazars, http://www.khazaria.com/ erhm I mean Jews have been kicked out of over 100 countries the past 2k years? http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~jkatz/expulsions.html
THEY certainly arent the problem, right? its everyone else!
thanks for proving the point. LOL.
at this point, I don't think you could actually be that dumb, you are probably a shareblue or Soros troll
I see. wow
SO ITS TEH JEWS???? Shareblue is fucking jewish as hell they get their $ from Rothschilds via pedo fuck David Brock.
And Soros is a Jewish, so.....Like pipul at breakfast Jewish