Goodreads Debate Guild discussion

debate⠀/dɪˈbeɪt/
noun
1.⠀⠀formal discussion on a particular matter in a public meeting or legislative assembly,
⠀⠀⠀ in which opposing arguments are put forward and which usually ends with a vote.
2.⠀⠀an argument about a particular subject, especially one in which many people are
⠀⠀⠀ involved.

verb
1.⠀⠀argue about (a subject), especially in a formal manner.
2.⠀⠀consider a possible course of action in one’s mind before reaching a decision.

SOURCE, OXFORD LEARNER’S DICTIONARY
https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionarie...


This is the Censorship topic. Here, we are focusing on explaining the censoring of
real-world issues or topics in general.

[⠀⠀https://www.aclu.org/documents/what-c...⠀⠀]
[⠀⠀https://ncac.org/resource/what-is-cen...⠀⠀]

According to the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), censorship is “the suppression of words, images, or ideas that are "offensive," [which] happens whenever some people succeed in imposing their personal political or moral values on others.” Censorship occurs in the news, books, movies, music videos–anywhere you would expect to see artistic expression, and is carried out by both governments and private pressure groups. A form of censorship that is important and discussed on Goodreads specifically is book banning. Censorship by the government is unconstitutional in the United States.

The two big points that get brought up over and over when it comes to censorship are sexual content and violence, but both are highly subjective and a slippery slope into pushing personal ideals onto the masses. “American law is, on the whole, the most speech-protective in the world—but sexual expression is treated as a second-class citizen. No causal link between exposure to sexually explicit material and anti-social or violent behavior has ever been scientifically established, in spite of many efforts to do so. Rather, the Supreme Court has allowed censorship of sexual speech on moral grounds—a remnant of our nation's Puritan heritage.” The censorship of content that has been deemed “too sexual” has led to the removal of the Venus de Milo statue from stores and important literature like Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” from schools.

It is impossible to define “obscene” material because it is far too subjective, but the government has tried. “The Supreme Court's current definition of constitutionally unprotected Obscenity, first announced in a 1973 case called Miller v. California, has three requirements. The work must 1) appeal to the average person's prurient (shameful, morbid) interest in sex; 2) depict sexual conduct in a “patently offensive way” as defined by community standards; and 3) taken as a whole, lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”

The other big push for censorship is in relation to violence, as many believe that seeing fictional violence will lead to more violence in the real world. “There is, in fact, virtually no evidence that fictional violence causes otherwise stable people to become violent. And if we suppressed material based on the actions of unstable people, no work of fiction or art would be safe from censorship. Serial killer Theodore Bundy collected cheerleading magazines. And the work most often cited by psychopaths as justification for their acts of violence is the Bible.”