I recently discovered some censorship, via flagging, going on here at steemit, and after questioning the motives of the censor I was told the steemian being censored had crossed the line with hate speech. The article being "greyed out" was about geoengineering and contained no racism or hate speech. When I brought this up to the censor I was told the steemian in question, (who, for the record, I do not know and only recently followed due to my interest in chemtrails/geoengineering), had expressed "hate" towards him and he would no longer allow said steemian to post on his "tag".
We could discuss the topic of ownership of "tags", or hate speech and what should be done about it, but today I want to talk about cognitive dissonance and how our own self censorship could be hurting us.
I say censorship is a slippery slope.
It is not because the truth is too difficult to see that we make mistakes... we make mistakes because the easiest and most comfortable course for us is to seek insight where it accords with our emotions - especially selfish ones. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
The purpose of this article is not to talk about this one case of censorship, but look at the question "what triggers me to stop listening?" Where do I draw the line and say "this person, or argument, is no good and I will no longer consider or entertain any discourse from that source."
I have been personally insulted here on steemit, and it was upsetting. Steemit is my first experience with social media. I do not live a life where I am exposed to people who would behave this way very often. I made a few defensive remarks "I'm not stupid" and "wow now I'm a witch", then I unfollowed.
The problem is I found this guys opinions on many things agreeable and valid. Do I want to close a door forever? This guy was wrong, but he may have realized that, or he may realize it some day. Can I forgive? Do I want to forgive? Is forgiveness worth it?
When we let anger or hurt dictate what we will or will not consider we may be closing a door to a deeper understanding of ourselves. When we find ourselves shutting down we need to look inside and ask, "why am I feeling this way, what is being threatened?"
I will try to calmly consider information without emotional bias, however daunting, because I want the truth. I will try not to censor my own life.
So I would ask, what triggers you to shut down, and could you be missing anything important due to these emotional biases?
Are any words unforgivable?