Tuesday, October 19, 2021

The Abuse of Censorship

Should censorship be a four-letter word?

Eeeeuhm. There's a loaded question. We have a knee-jerk reaction to the term "censorship" because we see it being abused as a political weapon and a tool of suppression for civil rights and social progress. What we tend to forget are the instances where censorship is beneficial and necessary. There are reasons How To Be A Pedophile and Maintaining The Upper Hand: The Benefits of Beating Your Wife aren't readily accessible to the mainstream. One has to go deep into the troll dungeons to find that shit. 

There are different types of censorship: government, religious, and free-market being the most obvious. While we want to chafe against any institution trying to control what we can and cannot access, we do so from within a space that's already been protected from the deluge of horrific crap. When the crap barriers weaken, we get things like Facebook and YouTube with their enabling and promotion of bad actors. 

So, short answer, no, "censorship" is not a four-letter word. Censorship is built upon the gray wobbly foundation of "morality." Alas, mortality is gleefully exploited by those lacking it. The ways to combat censorship abuse...would require me to write multiple doctoral theses. The shortest and most glib answer is "follow the money then take it away."

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