I don’t come out of every argument thinking everyone else is wrong, insane and stupid. Most often it’s just somewhat wrong, mildly off the wall, but never stupid.

As for the disclaimer on my part - it’s like monitored newsgroups: it’s not that I’m implementing cencorships but rather that I’m keeping the blog on topic. Since it’s my blog, I can choose the topic and expect people to comply. If people want to post about feminism, abortion, and politics they can post on the communal blog - they can even post comments to MY blog on the communal blog. That’s what the communal blog is for, I think - something that no one person can control. So, I really don’t think that me making rules about what gets to go on my blog is such a black and white issue. I don’t think that accusing me of undeserved cencorship is appropriate either.

Anytime you wanna argue… I’m certainly up for it. :)

First off, I didn’t say that you were implementing “undeserved censorship”. I said specifically that Singapore had blatant and undeserved censorship, and that hailing from that background, your decision to disallow certain comments from your blog disturbed me.

I didn’t use either “undeserved” nor “censorship” in reference to your blogging decision, much less “accuse” you of it, Mags. And you’re being rather nasty for very little reason.

I’m saying that you deleting comments on your blog disturbs me. You’re right, you have a right to decide what you want on your web page, but I don’t have to agree with your decision. Once again, opinions. Monitored newsgroups, or mailing lists which require each message to be approved (it is interesting to note that the only such mailing list I have seen is a Singaporean one), those disturb me too.

It could be argued by the Singaporean government that it is their country, they should have a right to decide what can be said/written, but then there would be a bunch of free-speech advocates jumping on their backs about that. For disclaimer’s sake (which apparently is necessary, considering the response I’ve gotten so far), I would like to state that I do not agree with the aforementioned opinion of the Singaporean government. I like free speech.

Having not lived in Singapore, I’m curious, what is undeserved about Singapore’s censorship?
Also the main reason there are moderated mailing lists and newsgroups is too prevent spamers or trolls who would flood the list or group with off topic messages and make the group or list virtually unuseable. I really can’t see how that’s a controversal use of censorship.

They censor all references to homosexuality, “sexual deviance” (their words, not mine), stuff that’s uncomplimentary to the current political party in power, etc. When I interned at a newspaper there, my editor was forced to pull a piece about a gay couple adopting a child, on threat of having her funding revoked.

Again, I didn’t say that mailing lists and newsgroups constitute censorship. I said that I’m over-sensitive to topics related to information blocking or selective information dissemination. Also, there are mailing lists which only allow messages that are considered “inoffensive”, according to the list owner’s abitrary rules. I’m not versed in Usenet, and cannot make a conclusion there.

ps. I obviously have very little to do today.

sam babydoll, my US visa expires on 31st december. if i do mange to visit you in ny before that, i’ll be there during mid-term. assuming those heathens from illinois do have midterm breaks..

and syn’s mom and my mom went down for the wake. my mom’s feeling rather shocked and unsettled still.

strangely, it seems to me that everyone who’ve experienced the wake deal with it the same way; by putting themselves in louse’s shoes, and trying to imagine one of their parents dead.

i don’t know. i don’t know anything anymore.

Another reason my blog will never get popular. Censorship has it’s purposes. Unfortunately, that’s not what this argument should be about, neh? Riiiiiiiight, I’m just the new guy…

-Whir

censorship sucks.

Hm. So have the disagreements gotten worse since I left, or is it just that you have gotten fed up with them?

Even though I don’t know any of the parties involved, I’m sorry about your friends loss. In a vague, far off, general sympathy kind of way.

Regarding censorship and blog editing. Well, one could just *not* have comments. But it seems like Mag’s blog attracted a large share of vitriol. Whereas yours is relatively calm.

Hmmm, things must have changed since I left. I seem to remember everyone disagreeing like mad, but all citing thier reasons for a given opinion. Logic was employed by many, and often to good effect. I changed my mind at least twice, and maybe some other people did as well.

I also recall having my mind changed by good arguments… Ah, the dorktopia crumbles.

On a censorship note: The film I interned on some of the costuming, Zoolander, has been banned in Singapore for references to assasinating political figures in bad taste.

This may be a wrong assumption on my part, but I never took all the “You’re wrong!” and “You’re insane!” type commentary seriously. The problem is that those kind of comments start off as jokes, but then people get to the point where they’re not joking, or are perceived as not joking, when they make them. For the record, I respect other peoples’ opinions as such, and whether or not I agree is irrelevant.

It isn’t easy to have a dissenting opinion in this group, and you really need to have a dumptruckload of self-confidence to stick by your guns. Try having everyone try to pick apart your opinion because you don’t like a movie. Good thing I have a dumptruckload of self-confidence.

I think the biggest offenders of the opinion-policing are Rick and Adan. Dan and Hal and the rest of us join in from time to time, but I’m really going to have to point fingers at Rick. I think, early on, Hal may have started it as a way to liven up debates about movies. I also agree with ET - much of the opinionating was begun in jest, and it is still done in jest, although sometimes it appears less so.

It’s still better than arguing with my friends back home about things. I have at least one friend who’s infallible - it doesn’t matter how good your argument is, she always finds some way to be right. My other friends, well, we just don’t debate things with the same fervor. It’s actually way less fun.

I think it would be cool if there were a superhero or some superheroine who, faced with an evil villian, turns to the camera and say “I know… I can stop them with my logic.” Then the villian would say “oh no! I didn’t expect it to use logic on us!”

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