The greatest thing that we, as a country, possess is freedom. The biggest threat we have to that freedom is censorship. Past all of the other evils in this world, censorship is the worst simply because it is the one key that could allow all the other evils of this world to be unleashed.
By no means do I believe that any human being is worth more or less than another. However, let’s pretend that there exists someone out there who believes that men are superior to women. While his ideas may sound ridiculous to someone educated with common sense (like me and hopefully you), the fact is that we cannot censor his beliefs and he must be able to state them under the freedom of speech we all share. Why? Simple: What if the role were reversed? What if instead of censoring the guy you want to tell to shut his mouth, someone out there decided to censor the people with common sense who speak out and say women and men are equal. Censoring one side of an argument is the most cowardly and offensive act that I can think of, no matter how wrong someone might be.
The very idea of censorship, when it comes to picking a side, then depends upon who wants to pick which side. While I may very easily admit that men and women are equals, what if it was a different topic? What if it was a topic you and I didn’t agree upon? There can be a wrong and a right, yes, but the wrong must still be allowed to exist to prove the right is correct. It’s like how the bad times in this world are there to make the good times seem only that much better.
To give you a non-opinionated point of view, let’s talk shop. Imagine a company, let’s call them Kia, wants to release a car onto the market that doesn’t have brakes. Why would anyone do this is beyond me, but somehow, I could see it happening in this crazy world of ours. The selling points would be simple: No brakes means less production costs, hence they sell the cars for dirt cheap because they don’t cost as much to make as a car with brakes. Now, in order to sell this to the consumer, Kia decides that they’re going to tell you not to worry about not having brakes because that’s why you have insurance. Your brakes could go out anyway, even if you had them. And think of all the maintenance you’ll be saving money on without having brakes to take care of routinely. Plus, there is always the added notion that a car without brakes is better than no car and, well, it would be all some people could afford.
Imagine that was pitched to you. Imagine there was a giant marketing campaign with ads in magazines and on television. Imagine that the opposite side of the coin was censored. Imagine the people who were trying to tell you about the health risks not only to yourself but others as well were silenced. Certainly some people would have enough common sense to say “No brakes means I can’t stop, so I won’t buy this car and I don’t feel safe having others on the road driving it”. But imagine if they were silenced. Imagine if all you could hear was what they wanted you to hear.
There are two sides to every story. As (fairly) intelligent beings, it is our right to be able to hear both sides and form an opinion of our own as to which we believe to be the correct one. When you take away one of these choices (censorship) you are essentially taking away any choice in the matter.
If someone says something to you that you don’t like, ignore them. Or you could tell them why you think that they are wrong. But censoring them? There is just no excuse for that. And I don’t know if it was the man himself or some lackey of his that runs his official Facebook fan page, but I was recently restricted from commenting on the fan page for Chuck Palahniuk. All of my comments made over time were also removed. I was blacklisted and erased right out of his history. Rather than stand up and tell me why my beliefs are wrong, I was just washed away. Does that sound like the act of a true man, one who has probably had to fight censorship before in his career as a so-called writer, or does it sound like the act of a coward? Defend yourself, Mr. Palahniuk. I dare you to. I dare you to stop living on the fame of your “Fight Club” book and start doing something that matters. I dare you to stop selling your soul dollar by dollar and come out from behind the shadows and explain to me why I am wrong. Why I’m right? Well… That’s another story.
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