Catnip1024 said:
Only 2 teeth? You can keep talking then, that's not censorship. Censorship is cutting out someones tongue and chopping their fingers off, and that's only if they don't know interpretative dance...
But seriously, to a business, or to a high profile personality, a mob internet reaction can be just as damaging as a rifle butt in the face. Someone kicks up a sufficient fuss about a non-issue, your company could be out of business, you could lose your job, go bankrupt, be unable to provide for your family. Sure, you are physically sound, at least immediately, but it still screws you over.
Look at the guy from Saatchi and Saatchi - he made an unguarded comment, now he's unlikely to be able to get any significant work in the PR industry again. He's a well-off fella, he can take the hit, but if that was someone lower down the food chain, who didn't have significant savings? And given that, in much of the western world, the worst the government can be expected to do is imprison you or shut down your operations, that does put mob reaction on a par with government censorship.
The internet also propagated this whole shouting in peoples faces to get what you want attitude, because you don't have to worry about witnessing the reaction. There is no reasonable debate with the internet mob, there is no chance to properly argue your position and defend your ideas, because any debate just gets overridden by the loudest and most repetitive.
And purely out of curiosity, which country is this you keep referring to? Just so I can refine my holiday destinations list a little...
Philippines. I went there as a kid to visit my uncle who did stuff during the People Power Revolution. Made a whole lot of enemies. It's gotten progressively safer ... up until Duterte, now ... I feel as if you're an enforcer for one crime boss and you have a choice between leaving any witness alive and possibly getting caught, tortured and executed regardless of your crimes, or just committing multiple accounts of murder and reduce the chance of identification, but with a far heftier list of offences, you're now going to go with the latter.
Anyways ... nobody has been safe from running their mouth. Ever. US, 1919, you could be imprisoned for spreading 'communist propaganda' ... so much so, a senator was sent to prison simply for espousing his own political views on the merit of accepting the Soviet Union as a sovereign state, and not advancing hostilities against it. You know,
real censorship...
Bad press has never been something you could simply escape. And hell, with the advent of the internet it's actually easier to network. Germaine Greer ... says the most virulently transphobic garbage you'll ever hear. And it hasn't stopped her making money in Australia. Though the ethical nature of much of that money has yet to be properly examined. Including using the student fees of Melbourne University students (and government monies) to purchase her memoirs and papers, and correspondence, for over a million dollars to be preserved as if she is worthy of such an honour.
In terms of such expensive preservation of original documents in such a setting, it is usually reserved for Australian academic legends ... scientists, doctors, philosophers, etc ... people who actually contribute to knowledge and progression of cultural and scientific things of value. The only reason why such money was awarded was because of her BFF, Sheila Jeffreys, who is also one person who you'll hear some of the most virulently transphobic garbage to be uttered. The point is, both of them are financially sound regardless of what they say.
Despite nobody sane really wanting their opinion on anything.
The internet is replete with examples of people gaining unmerited credit for anything. Milo is a twice failed university student who has commited near felonious acts of mistreatment of his employees and tax evasion, and wrongful use of IP. Because he's carved out a niche he's the editor of a right wing newspaper people pretend should be valued for anything more than electronic toilet paper.
Miranda Devine....
Barry Humphries....
Any Republican politician (facetious, yes I know. But looking at their platform over the last year, just how facetious might be the question to ask) ....
Internet has proven time and again, anywhere in the West, that it's less what you say and who you market yourself towards. Which suggests to me that if criticism is some surefire way to get rid of someone who is obviously a horrible person, there isn't enough of it.
Thing is, I've never been in a job that has defended me from what I've said to co-workers or clientele. Because believe it or not, insulting people and making a bad reputation of yourself
sticks. Your general ability to avoid said bad reputation is not the public's fault for calling you out on your bullshit. Hell, I almost
like people I intensely disagree with who rise above it and carve themselves free from it ... but I don't have to pretend it's my criticism of their wrongdoings is somehow misplaced. Particularly when they double down.
