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posted by martyb on Tuesday October 02 2018, @09:26AM   Printer-friendly
from the I-Disapprove-of-What-You-Say,-But-I-Will-Defend-to-the-Death-Your-Right-to-Say-It dept.

From an editorial in the Otago Daily Times out of New Zealand, Censorship a Trojan Horse:

It's an oft-cited maxim that the news media is the "fourth estate" upon which a healthy democracy stands.

It ensures the three traditional powers of state — the legislature, executive and judiciary — can be critiqued, challenged and curbed from quietly drifting into the arms of corruption and authoritarianism.

A free, fair, open and uncensored media is an antidote to state power and, for all its failings (and there are many), should be treasured as such. There are many countries around the world whose people would give anything for such a freedom.

Yet calls for the banning of certain opinion pieces, cartoons and commentary have risen in recent months, especially from those using social media, a world where such talk is becoming a trend. It is a trend we must confront.

Censorship is to suppress the harmful, the unacceptable, the obscene and the threatening from the media and other forms of public communication. Like a virus attacking democracy from the inside out, it was traditionally the tool of the dictator, though it is one used by many in power.

[...] It pays to query what those demanding censorship — be they celebrities, social-media activists or anybody else — see their ultimate goal as being.

To reduce hurt? To make the world a better place? Possibly, and those motivations are laudable. But the method employed to achieve them is not.

While censorship may be meant as a figurative horse upon which a better future rides, inside the belly of that horse lurks an army of conformity, quite capable of unwitting oppression.

History shows what happens when the fourth estate is no longer free to table all opinions.

It is a bleak picture. Without the disinfectant of exposure, power and ideals tend to corrupt even the most seemingly incorruptible.


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  • (Score: 0, Flamebait) by zugedneb on Tuesday October 02 2018, @12:12PM (1 child)

    by zugedneb (4556) on Tuesday October 02 2018, @12:12PM (#742726)

    "Men are good for dying."

    Hmm, interesting. I do consider women retarded, but that sentence is worse than all things I have ever said in my life.

    There is probably more to it than that, but look at it like this: you are free, because your freedom has been given to you by, and is upheld by strong men, who are ready to engage mortal combat, if necessary.

    Also, your country and the law around you exists because there are some armed, uncomplicated, and not fragile man around willing to keep it up.
    And if you would starve, killers on your side would go and take what "belongs" to others, so that "their own" survive.

    If you are going to shitpost, stick close to a "truth", and try to make a point that does not return with the wind.

    U see, the only thing I loose are karma points, not arguments =)

    ps
    Learn to troll.
                 

    --
    old saying: "a troll is a window into the soul of humanity" + also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ajax
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 02 2018, @12:46PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 02 2018, @12:46PM (#742740)

    men, who are ready to engage mortal combat, if necessary.

    That's what I said (not trolling).

    Most people do not care about freedom anymore. Simply an observation.