Censorship does not make the ideas we disagree with go away
It strikes me how much facing bad things we disagree with is like facing the “bad” emotions we refuse to acknowledge. What we can’t face doesn’t go away—it festers and comes out in much worse ways.
Curiosity is always the answer. Curiosity and addressing the root cause in a meaningful way.
Censorship does not make ideas we disagree with go away. It does not transform those ideas, make them less appealing to people who are drawn in by them, or prevent those ideas from being spread.
Censorship, like cancel culture, does not do the thing it claims to do. Just like how cancel culture does not end, prevent, or transform abuse, censorship does not end, prevent, or transform hate speech. There is a lack of emotional maturity in the belief that because we say something is bad and attempt to make it disappear, the thing in question will actually disappear. It won’t disappear. It will just go somewhere else. And our refusal to actually face it, be curious about why it exists, and do something meaningful to address it, actually makes the problem worse. —clementine morrigan, Censorship is not the answer
- previously: tools for thinking about censorship
- related: fear destroys curiosity and playfulness — the more we fear a thing, the less likely we are to get curious about it, but the more we fear a thing, the more desperately we need to get curious about it