This post is Censored

[Protagoras]

Are yours?

It occurs to me that I'm deliberatly scrubbing some of my thoughts and limiting my expressions here in the grand old DU. I wonder, do you do the same? Sure I'll use an occassional vulgarity here...I'm not too worried about the FCC. I'm not even worried overmuch about being banned if someone really really really needs to be called a dumbass I'll probably do it.

But I find that I now deliberately avoid certain expressions when referring to our political opponents. Not because I am actually advocating violance for instance, but because I am now genuinely concerned that if it SOUNDS like I might be making a threat trouble might follow.

No, I don't think the men in black vans are across my street...but still there is a lingering concern that somehow, somewhere it just might not work out in my favor.

The same goes for many discussions of terrorism. I noticed in the last few days that there were lots of complaints and jokes and rants about terrorists that seemed to all point to the fact that they were apparently stupid and fixated on elaborate plots involving planes. Within just a few minutes my wandering mind thought of half a dozen ways they could hit us and hurt us in equally dramatic fashion with only a fraction of the chance of getting caught. It occurred to me that I'd had discussions before with friends where they had come up with off the cuff ideas that sounded equally plausable. Which then led me to think that either the terrorist organization we faced was AMAZINGLY limited in creativity or suffered from sort of Airplane OCD. To point out the absurdity of this I considered posting some of these obvious ideas...and then caught myself.

I started back spacing away those lines thinking...nah it's probably not a good idea to post those up here. I realized I was censoring myself due to some unspecific concern...fear even...but I cannot totally define it. Is it that a dumb terrorist will read it and then USE my idea? Is it that my government will in fact send over a black van? Or perhaps they'll just stick myself or my spouse on a list somewhere? What if I run for dog catcher next year will someone link that to me and then use it against me? Or maybe it's just that it would get picked up and spammed across Freeperland where they'd use it to claim we were fermenting such ideas...

I'm not entirely sure. But I have made note of it. I'm censoring some of my thoughts. Not because they are vulgar, but because thoughts now appear more dangerous than they have before.

Do you find yourself doing the same?

[JuniperLea]

1. Nope

I just say it, then I say hi to Agent Mike...


:hi:

Hi Agent Mike!


I'll see you at the Halliburton detention facility... hopefully I'll have enough time to slip into my black t-shirt with a red rose on the front because I keep telling people I'll be the one wearing a red rose so they'll recognize me.

I'm sure they've already played "seven degrees of separation" and have linked our phone and/or bank records to "known terrorists" anyway.

[OneBlueSky]

2. selective self-censorship is pretty much a requirement for living . . .

in a civilized society . . . if everyone said exactly what they thought all of the time, we'd have a pretty chaotic situation, no? . . .

[Javaman]

3. "But I find that I now deliberately avoid certain expressions..."

"...when referring to our political opponents."

you mean like calling george w. bush* a fucking idiot?

Or perhaps joe lieber man a colossal asshole?

do you mean things like that?

:rofl:

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Heidi]

4. In my estimation, this is the Bush legacy:

Is it that my government will in fact send over a black van? Or perhaps they'll just stick myself or my spouse on a list somewhere? What if I run for dog catcher next year will someone link that to me and then use it against me? Or maybe it's just that it would get picked up and spammed across Freeperland where they'd use it to claim we were fermenting such ideas...

Protagoras, please know that someone far, far away is lighting a candle tonight in hope that the reign of fear soon will be over.

[Stoney13]

6. I did once.

But then I smoked a joint, and put on my aluminum foil hat! I feel much better now!:smoke: :sarcasm:

[underpants]

7. Welcome to DU Stoney

1st post

:hi:

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

8. Welcome To DU Stoney!

Take a hit for me too.

[Sinti]

11. Welcome to DU Stoney!

Take off that foil - we can't beam our secret messages to you through it!

[underpants]

9. Vulgarity, if used correctly, accents the language

I try to stay away from using it mainly because there are younger people on this board and it is supposed to be family friendly.

As far as the terrorists go- I have talked to several people and we all agreed that they don't seem at all interesting in actually observing our society and figuring out how to do acts that are more efficient. They seem to always go for the big bang and a high death count. I am not going to post the ideas we came up with but mostly it was about how you COULD really scare people or at least make your presence known and disrupt their lives.

:shrug:

[Sinti]

10. Have you begun to censor your private thoughts yet? n/t

[earth mom]

12. You're absolutely right-The thought police are working overtime these days

I found that out over on another board I used to post on. :scared:

[pooja]

13. yes, only because i have family, but no because we aren't

worth anything tangible.

[Protagoras]

14. Yes, you have to wonder

what limits are removed when you don't have family to worry about. I'm sure there is some broader insight there for some of the frequent topics we face.

[shadowknows69]

15. You never know

I once had a member on my own forum post something which would definitely get the attention of DHS or the NSA. I quickly deleted the post and set the poster straight but before I did a rival forum in my same town took screen caps and our buddies over at CU were even trying to find cache copies of it when they saw me talking about it here and I wasn't even the poster of the comment. If the FBI didn't see any caustic posts you might make rest assured there are plenty of "Hitler youth" out there to point them in your direction.