On Censorship
I'm generally not in favour of censorship, except where the production of material involves harm to someone who is not a consenting adult.
However, this does not mean that I think I am obliged to give a platform to people whose views I find offensive. I am not. They are free to air those views elsewhere. I am free to walk away, to ignore them, or to argue with them - which I do will depend on how much energy I have at the time and how likely they are to take any notice.
There are things I do not want to read or watch or listen to, because I know they will upset me or make me uncomfortable (or angry). If I find them sufficiently offensive, I will make my feelings known to the organisers of an event or the publishers/distributors of a book or film, because I believe that is legitimate comment. I am not asking them to censor material, but I am making it clear that if they continue to provide a platform for (e.g.) sexism, racism or homophobia then I will take my custom elsewhere.
I have just deleted several comments from my earlier post, because they contained nothing but personal attacks and contributed nothing to the discussion. My blog, my privilege. The commenters are free to post in their own blogs. I have not deleted other comments because they made at least some pretence of contributing to the discussion. This is not censorship, just housecleaning.
(I note several of the sock-puppets have already deleted their own comments, so I saved a screen cap of the remaining comments before I cleaned up.)
However, this does not mean that I think I am obliged to give a platform to people whose views I find offensive. I am not. They are free to air those views elsewhere. I am free to walk away, to ignore them, or to argue with them - which I do will depend on how much energy I have at the time and how likely they are to take any notice.
There are things I do not want to read or watch or listen to, because I know they will upset me or make me uncomfortable (or angry). If I find them sufficiently offensive, I will make my feelings known to the organisers of an event or the publishers/distributors of a book or film, because I believe that is legitimate comment. I am not asking them to censor material, but I am making it clear that if they continue to provide a platform for (e.g.) sexism, racism or homophobia then I will take my custom elsewhere.
I have just deleted several comments from my earlier post, because they contained nothing but personal attacks and contributed nothing to the discussion. My blog, my privilege. The commenters are free to post in their own blogs. I have not deleted other comments because they made at least some pretence of contributing to the discussion. This is not censorship, just housecleaning.
(I note several of the sock-puppets have already deleted their own comments, so I saved a screen cap of the remaining comments before I cleaned up.)
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Very glad you did a save - that was canny. I wish I had. The difference between the public image of Mr Duff and the reality is huge, and I expect he wants to preserve the fiction.And good for you. Your blog, your choice about what goes on it. You aren't jailing people who disagree with you, you aren't attacking them in the streets or arresting them in the night. You're simply editing your blog, which is *your* creation.
See you tomorrow I hope, divine one.
<3 I just joined here <3 and want to say all that was just so nasty, so unnecessary and so anti-social, and why should anyone have to put up with that! I totally empathise, (with your above decision and all your blog entries about Mike Duff), and thank you for caring Angela.
Don't Mess With The Butterfly
I originally wanted to call my collection of poems Don't Mess With The Butterfly, the final line of 'Butterfly Girl'; while I am not entirely Butterfly Girl and she is not entirely me, there is consid
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