Category: Censorship

Bad Ideas, Censorship, Cultural Change, Cultural Traits, Culture, Family, Human Nature, Internet, Love, Lovers, Loyalty, Masturbation, Mental and Emotional Health, Morality, Obsession, Political Issues, Politics, Pornography, Relationships, Sexuality, Sexualization, Values

Men, Women, and Internet Porn

Paul Sunstone

(About a 4 minute read)

I am old enough to have known a time — long before the internet — when porn was something you could get hold of only by being man enough to face a real human in order to lay your sweaty hands on it.  A store clerk, or at least now and then, a postal carrier.

Well, I concede you didn’t really have to be fully a man to get it.  In an earlier post on this blog, “How to Get Away with Buying a Playboy, Circa 1970“,  I confessed to how I would buy porn long before I  — much to my mother’s surprise — actually turned into a man.

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Alienation, Alienation From Self, Authenticity, Being True To Yourself, Censorship, Community, Cultural Traits, Culture, Family, Freedom, Freedom and Liberty, Human Nature, Obligations to Society, Oppression, Society

How Small Town Reputations Work

Paul Sunstone

(About an 8 minute read)

I think the best way to begin a discussion of how small town reputations work is by talking about Glen.

Glen shocked me that day I discovered he was an adamant creationist, but in hindsight I should have seen it coming, for evolution contradicted his faith.  In my shock I thought a few things I regret now.  Notions about him that lacked understanding and kindness, and that were absurdly false and misleading.

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Alex Jones, Authoritarianism, Bad Ideas, Censorship, Citizenship, Community, Conservative, Cultural Traits, Culture, Democracy, Ethics, Fairness, Fantasy Based Community, Freedom, Freedom and Liberty, Idealism, Ideologies, Intellectual Honesty, Intelligentsia, Internet, Justice, Law, Liars Lies and Lying, Liberal, Libertarianism, Logic, Morality, News and Current Events, Obligations to Society, Oppression, People, Political Issues, Politicians and Scoundrels, Politics, Reason, Skeptical Thinking, Society, Thinking, Truth

Alex Jones and the “Paradox of Tolerance”

Paul Sunstone

(About a 7 minute read)

I think it can be said of Alex Jones that he is the poster-child for the “American disease” of tolerating the intolerable.  Perhaps out of all major democracies, America’s democracy is the most susceptible to the disease.  That’s because we tend to be extremists when it comes to protecting freedom of speech.

To be sure, America does limit free speech somewhat, but the limits are absolutely minimal.  You cannot advocate physical violence against someone and/or their property, nor can you “yell fire in a crowded theater” for the mere sport of it, since that might lead to physical injuries.

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Authoritarianism, Bad Ideas, Censorship, Democracy, Freedom, Freedom and Liberty, Liberal, Oppression, Political Issues, Politics, Progressive

Think the Left is the Real Enemy of Free Speech? Think again!

Paul Sunstone

(About a 1 minute read)

I don’t usually post on politics, and certainly not day-to-day politics. When I do post on politics, I prefer the grand timeless themes — such as the conflict between elites and non-elites — that can help us to see deeply into what’s behind the daily stuff.

And mostly I don’t post because there are a million other sites that do a much better job of that than I ever could.

Yet, today I came across some things that need saying because they are about free speech in America, and free speech is the very foundation of all other freedoms and liberties. If a government can take away your right to speak your mind, it can take away every other right you have as well.

Now, the radical extremists on the left who have in recent years sought to limit free speech on campuses are admittedly dangerous fools.

But they strike me as decidedly a minority of leftists. Mostly they are young and foolish university and college students and junior faculty. Of course, that’s bad enough and the rest of the left must zealously oppose them.

But is the left in general the enemy of free speech? I challenge anyone who thinks so to provide the polling that shows it.

On the other hand, a recent poll conducted by the reputable Ipsos house of right wing views has tellingly revealed that a full 43% of all Republicans would support the President dictatorially shutting down news outlets in America that offended him.

That compares with only 12% of Democrats who would do the same.

Think about that folks. Forty-three percent of Republicans!

Food for thought for anyone who has not already chosen to be willfully stupid about the real enemies of freedom in this country.

Bad Ideas, Censorship, Freedom and Liberty, Ideologies, Intelligentsia, Oppression, Philosophy, Political Ideologies, Political Issues

Free Speech Today

Paul Sunstone

(About a 3 minute read)

In recent years, there have been many cases of people denied platforms to speak to audiences by publicly funded institutions, such as universities and even radio stations.

So, what are the reasons or grounds for denying a speaker a platform on which to speak? And are those reasons or grounds justified?

What has happened is this: There has been a shift or change in the philosophical grounds on which freedom of speech has traditionally been limited. The old, less restrictive, reasons have been kicked out the door, and new, more restrictive, reasons have been adopted. But is that a good thing or a bad thing?

To answer that question, let’s take a look first at the old reasons, and then the new ones.

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Authoritarianism, Bad Ideas, Business, Censorship, Class War, Cultural Change, Ethics, Ideologies, Intellectual, Intelligentsia, Law, Liberal, Management, Morals, Obsession, Oppression, Political Ideologies, Political Issues, Politics, Professionals, Society, Village Idiots, Work

The American Class System and the Political Correctness of the Regressive Left

Paul Sunstone

By political correctness, I do not mean the term as it has come to be employed on the right—that is, the expectation of adherence to the norms of basic decency, like refraining from derogatory epithets. I mean its older, intramural denotation: the persistent attempt to suppress the expression of unwelcome beliefs and ideas.  — William Deresiewicz

A few days ago, The American Scholar published a revealing article by William Deresiewicz on the political correctness of the regressive left.  The article, which is beautifully written, entwines several themes, and one of those themes is that advocates of political correctness on the college and university campuses in the United States are almost exclusively drawn from two social classes: The privileged upper and upper-middle classes.

Those two classes are predominantly comprised of affluent, politically liberal or neoliberal White and Asian professionals.  They overwhelmingly attend elite private colleges and universities  — the hotbeds of political correctness — and at those institutions, they constitute by far and wide the vast majority of the student body and faculty.

If Deresiewicz is correct, the implications are interesting.  Today’s elite students will almost certainly go on to become tomorrow’s elite professionals.  I wonder if we’re going to see safe spaces in the corporations, trigger warnings on business memos, and endless cat and mouse games of “Gottcha for being Politically Incorrect!” played out in business offices.  Of course, those would be the minor changes.  The major changes would be made in politics and law.

Deresiewicz’s article is a long one, but an excellent read.

Censorship, Freedom and Liberty, News and Current Events, Politicians and Scoundrels, Politics, Quotes

Glenn Greenwald on Why There’s so Little Government Censorship of the Media in America

Paul Sunstone

“The reason there’s so little government censorship of the press in America is because it’s totally unnecessary; why would the government even want to censor a media this compliant and subservient?  Recall the derision heaped upon the media even by Bush’s own former Press Secretary, Scott McClellan, for being “too deferential” to administration propaganda.  As soon as an entity emerges that provides genuinely adversarial coverage of the U.S. Government — such as WikiLeaks, whistleblowers, or isolated articles exposing its malfeasance — the repressive measures come fast and furious.  But in general, it’s no more necessary for the U.S. Government to censor the American media than it would be for Barack Obama to try to silence Robert Gibbs.”

— Glenn Greenwald