05-30-2017, 04:43 PM
I picked the option I felt most comfortable with - that it should be minimal and really used as a way to alert others of questionable content. But I think I need to consider it and the implications more deeply before I'd be sure in that answer.
It depends on many things. Like who is doing the censoring and how did they get appointed to have that responsibility? By whose standards of decency or morality determines what is to be censored? I mean even minimal censorship can have a powerful influence depending on the answer to those questions.
I guess what I support is giving people a heads up. Having whatever material is out there, still be out there, but behind a closed door. Like I don't want to watch a show and suddenly see super graphic violence where I wasn't expecting it. Or look up to see a pornographic billboard, or go to a bookstore and see a children's book filled with hate speech. It's not so much that I want those censored, so that no one can see it or be exposed to those things, or that I want those things to banned from being created at all - I just want to be able to have enough of a heads up that I can decide for myself if it's something I want to see.
I feel like top down censorship makes me uncomfortable because I don't like the idea of someone else deciding what I should or shouldn't see, or what someone should or shouldn't say. But if there were a way to give people the power to decide for themselves, that's better.
Even that though bugs me to say because sometimes we don't push ourselves out of comfort zones as we should. Sometimes being exposed to something that you'd never expose yourself willingly to, can act as a major catalyst for positive change or personal growth. And I wouldn't want important works or ideas to be missed because people decided they preferred to keep themselves in the comfortable little box they have made for themselves.
But unnecessarily exposing others to trauma, incredibly offensive opinions, or obscene material against their will, just for shock value, or to push limits isn't something I really get behind either.
It's a complicated, loaded question. I'll have to think more about it and see if I can come back with any more definite thoughts. And I'll be interested to read what other people think.
It depends on many things. Like who is doing the censoring and how did they get appointed to have that responsibility? By whose standards of decency or morality determines what is to be censored? I mean even minimal censorship can have a powerful influence depending on the answer to those questions.
I guess what I support is giving people a heads up. Having whatever material is out there, still be out there, but behind a closed door. Like I don't want to watch a show and suddenly see super graphic violence where I wasn't expecting it. Or look up to see a pornographic billboard, or go to a bookstore and see a children's book filled with hate speech. It's not so much that I want those censored, so that no one can see it or be exposed to those things, or that I want those things to banned from being created at all - I just want to be able to have enough of a heads up that I can decide for myself if it's something I want to see.
I feel like top down censorship makes me uncomfortable because I don't like the idea of someone else deciding what I should or shouldn't see, or what someone should or shouldn't say. But if there were a way to give people the power to decide for themselves, that's better.
Even that though bugs me to say because sometimes we don't push ourselves out of comfort zones as we should. Sometimes being exposed to something that you'd never expose yourself willingly to, can act as a major catalyst for positive change or personal growth. And I wouldn't want important works or ideas to be missed because people decided they preferred to keep themselves in the comfortable little box they have made for themselves.
But unnecessarily exposing others to trauma, incredibly offensive opinions, or obscene material against their will, just for shock value, or to push limits isn't something I really get behind either.
It's a complicated, loaded question. I'll have to think more about it and see if I can come back with any more definite thoughts. And I'll be interested to read what other people think.
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