CENSORED

If you have read any of my recent rants, you know my mind has been focused on what we have learned and what we are now learning. Then this morning the local newspaper post this:

 

I understand the need to try and scrape some shekels from the masses searching for information because the original business plan is not working, but it this becoming ‘censorship’?

I know it is a New World Order and people are shifting away from established news organizations for tweets or chats or comments stating opinions and undefined or verifiable references repeatedly until they become viral. The time and money and staff and resources to investigate a story from a pure journalist non-bias point of view is fading away to a splinter network allowed by our First Amendment.

People can (and do) say whatever they want wherever they want until it becomes threatening but where does that cross the line? In every conversation should one have a lawyer at hand to review your phrases before stating your ideals?

Little back story here:

Growing up in a country that was not physically attacked during WWII (Hawaii was not a state then) and prided itself on defeating the bad guys (though there was a lot of help) and with that good feeling started building a new economy based on the skills learned to make weapons of mass destruction while at the same time the government didn’t want the public to get out of hand so they created a new invisible enemy called ‘communism’. The general public had been trained to follow the government orders to purchase war bonds and sacrifice for the troops and the flag had a daily pledge and we changed our motto from ‘out of many, one’ (United States…get it?) to ‘In God We Trust’ (but they never explained which God?) and so we followed the status quo that was presented in movies while the fine print was buried in the back pages. The trusted educational system taught the basics with ancient textbooks that skipped or glossed over histories sins but that was for the church to handle.

The freedom of speech, as long as it was the correct and approved, was still free.

I went to school. I followed the rules. I read the text and believed in what the teacher said. I was a lemming following what was given to me, without question of what was on my plate. I ate it.

There were questions avoided by teachers and parents alike. Don’t rock the boat.

I will admit my intake of knowledge up to a certain time was limited because I did not take advantage of the library and only referenced the mesmerizing television with fuzzy animation and classical music backgrounds.

Then came University, well actually it was an Institute. University is (or was) a place of higher learning. The other 12 years or so were given to regurgitating what teachers had repeated from lesson plans gone by, but now was a chance to ‘think’. Professors were a high-grade teacher who not only spouted factoids but also questioned the minds to consider alternative thinking while their audiences were testosterone filled youths full of sex and drugs and rock and roll curiosity away from parents.

While political events were happening on the news, either I didn’t have time or interest or the conservative media present a slanted view.

Whether it was foreign films or music or coffee house discussions, the path to form opinions started. Some were confusing, some seemed radical and some were just nonsense. The overhanging stress of getting drafted for a war or becoming a father or being busted or the constant harassment to cut the hair all blended with the reality of getting a job, getting married, buying a car and learning how to fit in this culture without the safety net of being a kid in school.

Like today, people were fascinated by political scandal, but instead of just watching congressional blather on television or comprehending actions that would lead to arrest, I decided the best action was face the opposition on their own field of battle. Strength in numbers I joined and contributed to an organization that partitioned the power base, questioning their actions and offering alternative solutions to problems. As today, we were speaking out for our youthful ideals. This was my attempt of freedom of speech.

Disillusioned to reality, I continued to read different sides of opinions and ideas with a bit more experience to listening rather than yelling. Soon enough the voices were silenced and yet another cause was founded.

The established media had to try and figure what to report and what the readers would accept. Fragmentation of views and opinions were evident in the Letters to the Editor and the publisher had to take a stand.

More division and now there are red states and blue states and e pluribus Unum has cease to exist. Us versus them have become the rally cry. The invisible enemy is no longer them, but us.

So as my local news media will limit access to the public (censorship?) then the town criers will become the voice of the people. Fiction becomes fact if you listen to it enough.

If this pay for information continues to grow, social media may become a private club for those who can afford it while the others are lost in oblivion of darkness. Think the Middle Ages?

Will the ‘freedom of speech’ be no one can listen or understand?

I chose (for now) who and what I will censor, but when the media does it for me, I have to search for alternatives or become blind, deaf and dumb to my surroundings. I agree pay for product, but it should be worth the cost.

If I start questioning my previous understanding of facts then maybe the slaves were happy?