Censorship
06-02-2017, 04:02 AM
InbetweenDreams Wrote:Anyway, back on the subject. I do think employers have the right to terminate employees for having done something, such as the whole deal with Trump's head... Of course, I think yeah they should have right to do that sort of stuff, but doesn't mean someone shouldn't face the consequences. However, when employers cross the line, such as the case where an employee didn't like the same beer his boss did, got fired the next day. (Which I can't seem to find, saw it years ago on some documentary sort of thing). Anyway, things like that or something you posted on Facebook (assuming it isn't something vile, racist, or threatening -- you get the idea). I had to really watch what I posted, when I posted things on Facebook at my last job. Had too many colleagues who were sticking their nose where it didn't belong. I don't think people at work need to know my sexuality or any of that stuff... When I actually have a partner and live together and so on then yeah, can't really hide that from everyone... Not for long anyway.
The beer thing is ridiculous. If that's really the reason the person was fired, could that fall under wrongful termination?
Also, does your state not protect you from employment discrimination based on sexual orientation? I know NY has laws like that, and I'd hope eventually it'd be on a federal level.
I feel kind of unsympathetic about Facebook and other social media to be honest. I'd consider the internet and social media to be part of the public sphere and people are willingly sharing private details of their life. Just in the same way a wild photograph can come back to haunt you, our words can too. When it comes to what I post or am willing to talk about online, I try to follow the general rule - would I care if my grandma read this? Would I be ashamed if this were on the front page of a newspaper?
Now I'm a private person in general, and I care very much about my professional and personal reputation, so I'm cautious to begin with. And in some ways I think the internet tricks us into thinking it's more private than it is - like typing in my phone or on my laptop at home feels intimate, like I'm in a private setting. But in actuality it's like screaming in a public square - except your voice is recorded for eternity, and there's a billion other people doing it too.
But again, what's absurd is absurd. Firing someone over beer is stupid. And it's important in situations like this to keep in mind we are humans and humans make mistakes and get heated or emotional or too comfortable and we say and do things we regret. It's important to allow people to apologize, to give another chance to those who are sincere, and to pick battles thoughtfully- not flip out over every little thing. But money is a powerful influence, and if the company thinks an employee is putting their reputation at risk, or a news paper or tv station is worried about losing sponsors... they do what they think they need to in order to distance themselves. You think Fox really cares that Bill Oreily was a creep? Or were they just worried about the financial backlash...
Quote:My thinking had been that if you take away the censoring, that people would be able to see the things they have not been exposed to and would work itself out...but I'm seeing that the logic is heavily flawed...nice to think such a wonderful thing would occur but people won't come around and smell the coffee (or the coveffe). Nope, people come from all sorts of backgrounds, religions and bullshit... Some people are bigots, for whatever the reason, some people are psychopaths and literally have no soul.
I'm not sure I really understand what you mean by that. Like that being exposed to some things can create some positive change? Artistically, yeah I can see that. But exposing someone who was raped to a graphic depiction of rape in an uncensored movie without any warning, I don't think that's healthy.
Or like how people often make fun of "safe spaces" as people just trying to hide from the real world... I think many people who are drawn to safe spaces are not people who have been coddled and protected from the real world, its people who exhausted from constant exposure to it. Like if you live in a place where you get constant shit for being gay, or for being fat, or for being disabled, or being black, or for being female or trans or whatever else... and you constantly feel outnumbered, ganged up on, or silenced when you try to speak out... having a place where you can go, physically or otherwise, where that identity is either a non issue or a shared one with the people around you, that in itself can be empowering and cause positive change for those individuals or marginalized groups. The march on Washington wasn't planned at a lunch counter in Greensboro.
Quote:That all being said yes, things should be kept of the public eye. Kids don't need to see naked people on billboards. However, suppose that particular thing was allowed, naked men and women on billboard advertisements? Is there something wrong seeing the human body? Of course there's got to be limitations, but should nudity be something we hide from kids. I mean the whole argument in the interview I posted went down the track of kids not learning about the human body and being ashamed about talking about sex or not knowing when they have been abused by an adult. The whole suppression of sex is actually a big deal. The studies have been done, we definitely need sex education and it does need to be discussed, it is the only way we're going to be able as a nation get rid of STD's.
I don't think there is anything wrong with kids seeing naked bodies. Nudes in art do not offend me, and I do think sex Ed is something this country needs to take more seriously... and start teaching earlier, and teaching it knowing that gay and lesbian kids exist too. But I'm a far left big city liberal gay so what do you expect?
My issue isn't with sex or with nude bodies, but with highly sexualized nudes, pornographic images. I'm not sure we are deep enough into the era of incredibly easily accessible porn to fully understand what consequences it might have on our society. I think we are exposed to highly sexualized images all the times in ads and entertainment, but stepping it up to graphic sex... I don't see that as something that leads to a healthy understanding of either bodies or sex.
Quote:Well, I don't think Frank Zappa has a song about fucking a dead cat...I mean he does have 50 albums and there is a lot of bizarre music to say the least.
Yeah I didn't think so. I was just trying to give a wild example. If someone were to write such a song though, it's not something that would bother me to know it existed, but it's also not something I'd really want to hear while in line at a deli getting a bagel for breakfast. Just like I know there are people who think I'm disgusting and sick for being gay. And they are free to think that. But I don't want it being shouted at me while I'm eating my bagel. I'd rather reflect on the lyrics of the dead cat love song.
Quote:When it comes to people online. People get behind a username and troll because they're safe in their little anonymous bubble. The question is, with all the hate speech that gets thrown onto YouTube, how much of it is really real and how much of that crap is actually sincere. I mean it's bad either way, but it is different when people are faking it even if the sole purpose is to piss people off and I think the majority of it is to piss people off because people get their kicks from doing so. I mean you're including the people who are of course just trolls and also people who are being paid to say certain things online, astroturfing and so on.
That someone is saying something just to get a rise out of people, just trolling or whatever, that's even more obnoxious than straight up hateful people. At least it's something hateful people actually believe in. Trolling is just such a modern mental illness in my mind, something born from isolation and attention seeking. You don't really find happy, well adjusted people behaving like that. I used to watch the show catfish... the catfish is almost never a happy, well adjusted person. In a fucked up way, I have much more respect for someone who is racist and owns it than I do for someone who is pretending to be racist. But maybe respect isn't the right word there.
Quote:Oh and yes, Danny Glover did turn the team around. That clip was from Angels in the Outfield....Watch it you haven't seen it, it's one of those movies you see as a kid and pretty much don't watch it again until someone brings it up. Kind of like Indian in the Cupboard...
Hmmm. With everything going on, I think I need a Danny Glover in my life.
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