Censorship

Many in the middle east in general are very upset over a film that jabs at their religion. That is their decision. People on this side of the world are calling for censorship and forcing the internet to better censor itself. In this case, it is YouTube.

If you block YouTube you need to go ahead and block the whole internet,  because the internet is freedom. When it stops being freedom, people will stop using it. When people stop using it, it will die. Things will never be the same again. you cannot go backwards from any point in time. you can only go forward. Which path will you choose?

If what you had to say were not offensive, you would not need a right to say it. How boring a world would it be if everyone agreed on everything?

I have to be careful on this one. People are dying. In Libya several U. S. diplomatic staff were killed. This video and the failure of the U. S. to “apologize” for it has been blamed by some. I’ve heard the attack was planned and I’ve heard the opposite. At the moment, it depends on to whom you listen.

On a less important note, YouTube channels are getting pulled over this video. I am the first guy in line complaining about people preaching hate and needing to be pulled from YouTube. One thing that pisses me off is the speed at which this one is happening. According to some of the blogs I read, known terrorist recruitment videos on YouTube can take months to pull down.

Why is this time different? Western ideals of freedom of speech are slamming head on with the Islamic ideal of not permitting anyone to say anything bad about their prophet. That is it. For years the blogosphere has been a buzz that these two ideals are incompatible. Some say Islam is incompatible with democracy because of this feature of each.

If you do not have the freedom to speak your mind, you cannot convince others to vote for you or for the people you want in control. Without the freedom to speak your mind, there is no democracy. I don’t know the argument for Islam refusing to allow any dissenting views of their prophet.