Auto-censors (we really could be doomed)

[adirondakjack]

Since the internet is now so central to our lives (the Oxford English Dictionary, the big one, is no longer even offered in print) we need, I mean really need to look at the utility of auto-censors and the potential for rendering our communication into "Taliban-esque" gibberish. When the meaning of a sentance, the instruction itself is neutered because of a dual-use word's elimination, ya got NOTHIN left.

George Carlin used to say our Puritanical society was at risk because of taboos in languange. He'd say "when a society allows that it is ok to talk about or experience painful, utterly obscene things like little kids running down the road with napalm burns, complete with pictures, but we cannot talk about basic human, universal experiences that are not even painful or harmful, we got a problem.

He'd say really now, you can talk about how you arrogant idiot your finger, but not the reverse. (note "arrogant idiot" is "censor speak for PR 1ck)

When you can't talk about a simple shop technique using a arrogant idiot punch, holes everywhere will be drilled off center. Thankfully we're not barrel makers, we'd no longer have a way to get the stuff in or out of a barrel. Locks on guns will have to be "retracted fully backward", lest we offend the big brother machine. I could go on, but I'm disgusted at the nanny-esque loss of comminication that we accept so we can rock ourselves to sleep in our glorious purity of languange. Alahu Akbar to all.

[COSteve]

Well said.

One thing great about being retired is that I don't have to give a darn about being politically correct if I so choose. No more being hamstrung in my thoughts and actions just because the 'boss' or our customers might not like it.

If anyone asks for my opinion they know they'll get my opinion, not some watered down PC speak. Best thing about that is that all the 'reaffirming their actions' questions I use to get don't come up and when I answer, everyone knows it's what I really think.

That said, there are mean ways to say things and tactful ways too. I never was really good at tact until I retired and realized I'd better learn it quick if I was going to speak my mind.

Retirement is truly liberating ............... on many, many different levels.

[AJMD429]

If it is on 'private property' (as a web forum really is) I don't object, as I'm voluntarily engaging in the relationship, and could find a different forum with different rules if I wanted.

If it is on 'government property' (i.e. a public place) I feel like any censorship is for minimal benefit (so a few folks don't get 'offended') yet poses a very dangerous risk (increasing censorship and sanctions to the point of stifling political dissent, or virtually establishing a 'state religion').

I know that's the opposite of what many people feel, because they want to travel about the public roadways and parks and never have a curse word offend them, but I don't see the right not to be offended anywhere in the Constitution. On private property, the owner gets to set the rules.

Specifically on this forum, it works out pretty well, and although I'm nearly impossible to shock or offend with language, I don't mind having my more colorful expressions off-limits here.

I view the 'automatic censor' as something that perhaps saves the forum moderators a bit of work, in exchange for sometimes being a nuisance (as in the 'sharply-pointed-center-punch'). I can live with that; sometimes the substitutions are fairly humorous, and don't seem to pose a danger we'll actually go find an 'arrogant idiot' and try to make a dent in steel with them.

[Chas.]

Auto-censors are not going to "doom" us nearly as quickly as we doom ourselves. I've read many posts only to be convinced that English is NOT that poster's first language. In fact, I'm sometimes convinced that their first language is fabricated in their own minds, and I have a really hard time understanding what they're trying to say.

[Bullard4075]

Well said.

One thing great about being retired is that I don't have to give a darn about being politically correct if I so choose. No more being hamstrung in my thoughts and actions just because the 'boss' or our customers might not like it.

If anyone asks for my opinion they know they'll get my opinion, not some watered down PC speak. Best thing about that is that all the 'reaffirming their actions' questions I use to get don't come up and when I answer, everyone knows it's what I really think.

That said, there are mean ways to say things and tactful ways too. I never was really good at tact until I retired and realized I'd better learn it quick if I was going to speak my mind.

Retirement is truly liberating ............... on many, many different levels.

+1 from another retired guy.

[Markbo]

PC is simply our current form of Fascism. Anyone who does not agree is considered a radical. See most recently the hosts of "The View" walking out on invited guest Bill O'Reilly.

[Hobie]

Being PC is one thing, being polite another. People have become confused as to which is which.

[JerryB]

I reckon Hobie just closed the case, very well said.

[Otto]

Being PC is one thing, being polite another. People have become confused as to which is which.

Thank you!!

[jlchucker]

Well said.

One thing great about being retired is that I don't have to give a darn about being politically correct if I so choose. No more being hamstrung in my thoughts and actions just because the 'boss' or our customers might not like it.

If anyone asks for my opinion they know they'll get my opinion, not some watered down PC speak. Best thing about that is that all the 'reaffirming their actions' questions I use to get don't come up and when I answer, everyone knows it's what I really think.

That said, there are mean ways to say things and tactful ways too. I never was really good at tact until I retired and realized I'd better learn it quick if I was going to speak my mind.

Retirement is truly liberating ............... on many, many different levels.

+1 from another retired guy.

+2! Maybe we need an "Ol' Geezer's Forum" on this website. Our collective opinions would carry the wisdom of years.