A word about censorship

Community
42

So, I think now that @crunkyeah made his points I will say restriction is beyond political from what I’ve seen. There are 2 individuals that clown around with the potty humor that I’ve seen flagged and threads closed over. Humor I didn’t see as political but the fact THAT got the negative feedback thread closed, I started a new thread to enjoy some adult humor in, others started to join in and then as soon as some controversial comments made it was closed down again. Seems if alternative solutions are presented (off site chat link to Signal) nobody wants to engage, except in public thread formats where they get attention. I even had Loki unlock the “uncensored chat thread” to a PM format but there it sits unused…

There’re a FEW places but will they be utilized :thinking: I’m actually fine with no political discussion even though cannabis awakens the mind to free independent thinking, however flagging adult potty humor and having it closed doesn’t set a good precedent as advocating the fight for ‘free speech’ ideas. Language such as polarizing, uncomfortable or tension tells its more about feelings and emotions, and truth in life is uncomfortable to learn, cannabis is part of that TRUTH to life otherwise many of us would be sleeping drones of conformity. I don’t like nor will agree HUMOR should make any member uncomfortable that it’s offensive to flag and get a thread closed down, because YOU are sensitive! Is this a forum for children or adults ? That IS where I draw the line, death of comedy/comical expression :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

3 Likes
43

if you think freedom of speech actually exists go piss off an extremely rich person and youll find out very quickly you dont actually have rights. whoever has the most lawyers generating the most paperwork and legal procedures in america has the most rights. this site surely has enemies and giving them fuel is going to hurt you more than not being able to voice your political beliefs here.

the pandoras box of allowing people to say anything has been opened many times and never worked.
i dont think the vast majority of people want freedom, the concept of it sure sounds nice to everyone but in practice people tend to follow the rest of the steer into the corral. they think they are enlightened because they saw someone else say something unique or different and then they just follow. seems like human nature, but i seriously doubt that 99% of the self-professed freedom lovers in america would actually dig their own well, kill their own meat, grow their own food, harvest their own energy. thats true freedom.

cannabis does awaken senses, it enhances ESP and i have found in the very high doses i consume that i have walked a path similar to what people describe DMT as, seeing things that happened in the future years later, seemingly unexplainable things. it is truly medicine with powers none of us fully comprehend. but that doesnt mean it makes you smart, it doesnt gift you visions out of nowhere like LSD, you have to curate them.

curation/moderation call it whatever you want, it is an essential part of growing and prospering. i do it with my own actions every day to make sure im not hurting others. some days i dont have the energy to do a full accounting, some days i need someone to point out my mistakes and get rid of them for me. all you can do online is to find a place where you believe those people are doing a good job at that, and have generally altruistic intentions. i believe i found that place with OG.

6 Likes
44

Hey. Gotta point this out. Freedom of speech is about the government infringing on it. Not overgrow.

Like this place isn’t our house, we’re just hanging out in a space someone setup as a business of sorts (even if it’s all nonprofit). This isn’t even “public” space.

7 Likes
45

It’s the story as old as time itself. Open up a chat of any kind without rules and monkeys will fling poo. All of em.

7 Likes
46

I think the thread creator closed it?

There is some reassessing what people are mad about that needs to happen.

1 Like
48

My mistake. Carry on.

49

What freedom is being restricted?
You’re free to not be here if you don’t like it.

But, you could just not say those offensive things, have you thought about that? And they’re absolutely fuck all to do with cannabis, so why even say them here.

I think everyone bemoaning their lack of “freedom of speech” needs to remember this isn’t America, its the Internet, and the rules of this forum apply here, not your constitution.
Thankfully the rules here are civil and we should just stick to them.

14 Likes
50

Then it’s TIME to shut down @ColeLennon and @Foreigner for encouraging this banter that gets threads closed and censored…do you agree ?

3 Likes
51

100% agree.

If talking shit and having fun isn’t cannabis related I don’t know what is.

13 Likes
52

I’ll be honest,
I don’t know either of them or what they’ve said that you’re annoyed about lol

2 Likes
53

That’s the point! I don’t want nor will AGREE with your expression flagged because it’s too sensitive to read, and yeah it’s not fun to not talk shit and laugh about it. Cannabis induces it.

3 Likes
54

Sometimes we do take over a topic and get flagged, and fairly. I’m not going to cry about it. Sometimes I get flagged for no good reason, which is weird, but whatever.

I’ve had threads changed without my say so, and I’m not going to cry about that either.

Nobody expects us to be robots but sometimes we can smell a fight and predict the imminent death of a thread.

Think of them as tough but fair editors. The mods have a tough job dealing with dickweeds like us.

There is no such thing as absolute freedom.

8 Likes
55

The problem with passionate people is that they are passionate with more things than weed.
I have saw some threads where the ambient got heated talking about procedures to germ seeds, defoliation, cal/mag, boron, etc, people tend to defend their ideas, and sometimes make the mistake of confussing a debate with personal attacks.

Yes, this forum has some rules, one of them is not start controversial talks, conspiranoid or political things etc…
Well, as my point of view, although cannabis legalization is highly political related and controversial, BUT it is one of the things that this forum is about.
But rules are rules, and people on this forum are not the kind of people that follow the rules. Many people here has grown cannabis when it was illegal, some still do it in the shadow. Let’s face it, the people in this forum are not sheeps with the way of thinking “The rules are like that, we leave them like that” .

If they where people that follow the rules as sheeps, then there will not be any cannabis legalization, things still will be as always be. Without activism, and fight agains stabilished rules nothing would have changed.

I’m in the thinking that censorship and punishment is bad, unless it is to cut lack of respect, insults, etc.
Conspiranoic or not conspiranoic, the reason that started this little debate (chemtrails and thinks like), I think that was not disrespectfull to someone. Controversial, YES, but anyone could go away and not read it unless he/she want to read it. And I think that doesn’t hurt.

In other side of things, moderators are people like you and me, and perhaps they can not express themselves well, have a bad day, etc. In the short time I’m here, I’ve see some moderators comment out of tone or mistaken. But hey, nobodys perfect.
Also, I must recognize that the member affected, perhaps loose the papers. Nobody’s perfect again.

I defend free speech, BUT as some other member noticed me (George), long ago (or not long ago) that free speech scalated to divisions and “wars” in OG. So, perhaps some little less “free speech” is better than having internal wars. Closing a thread or censoring before that happens is like in the “Minority Report” movie, but perhaps censoring later is too late.

I don’t really know what would be worse (censoring or not), but then, I remember what my father said to me many times, “listen to the elders” they have more experience. And if the older members of this forum think that censorship is needed to keep peace, they have far more experience than me and I must have faith in that what they are doing is the “lesser evil”.

ANNNDDD, don’t forget that almost all of us are guests in another member house. And when you go to anothers one home, you don’t tell him how to do the things in his/her home.

As in all familys, there is always some fights. Any way or other, hope the things calm down and let the good feelings reign.

I’m not more than a shit spiked on a stick in this forum, but that is my point of view.

Sorry for any mistakes or misinterpretations, I’m spanish.

5 Likes
56

i know one or two guys who moderated websites and to be honest they are unique folks. the kind of people who let absolutely nothing bother them, never react only respond to things. i think at some point you are going to have to just trust in that, regardless of how some sort of bias might leak into their moderating, they are human beings. if it is in their nature changing that or replacing them is probably not of any benefit.

if you want to go deep into the psycho-analysis of it then what i would propose is this: how do you know the anything-goes environment here would actually benefit you? we are generally all reactionary people, how you present yourself now will change based on others being able to speak truly freely, and it might change you for the worse. you will likely become even more reactionary, likely more irritable either here or in your personal lives, these are the side effects of reading things you view as toxic all day that you have to be a pretty sturdy individual to be actually immune to.

1 Like
57

There is no such thing as ~absolute~ freedom. fify

i thought so too initially, then i adapted and changed my way of thinking to fit in without making so many waves and i find that i enjoy the site so much that sometimes it is the only one i spend time on. it wouldn’t be like this if political crap was allowed. i hear a lot about ‘muh freedumbs’ since i live in wv and mostly idiots reside here, but don’t see one complaint about the piss tests, seatbelts, motorcycle helmets, fishing licenses, regulations for everything except what actually does the harm, and the fact that the ag sued the epa for trying to protect us even, but i manage, mostly by grounding myself by immersion in this one small corner of the internet where that bullshit isn’t allowed and is frowned upon. so sure, it may or may not hurt things, but it sure does a whole lotta good for some of us.

3 Likes
58

Obviously not; this is not a private business. While there may be a business model somewhere; this is a public forum where people can express openly. By definition this makes this a PUBLIC venue. If you make threats on here; they can be permissible in court as evidence.

It’s also realizing that while we are on a specific domain, (and are completely free to leave OR STAY), the internet has no rules. Except for maybe the golden rule: Do unto others as you would have done unto you.

My freedom to talk about whatever I like without being censored or removed from the conversation. I’m free to not be here but I am also free to be here, and say whatever pleases me. Generally I’ve found that people respond best to information which either helps them in some way, so I try to write with the fundamental principle of “I want to help people”.

To give a very good analogy of why censorship is such a big deal to me…

Let’s take a very nonpolarizing topic like : dirt vs hydro
Let’s just be clear the sake of this demonstration that you’re either one or the other. These would be the 2 ‘political’ spectrums, or parties if you will. You have the Dirt party and the Water party.

We could have very in depth discussions vs the merits of either system. Some people will swear up and down every day that hydro beats organics. You get better yields, bigger plants, faster growth, etc etc. But me being an organic guy there’s no way you can beat the effects and the flavors I get from my cannabis. We can discuss (or you might say argue) each system against each other.

What happens when we look at the financial side however? Hydro isn’t sustainable on a global scale because you’re not improving the environment or our carbon footprint. Soil based systems only work locally because of the sheer weight of soil; so when we look at the economics behind “Dirt vs Water” this topic becomes a LOT more than “Dirt vs Water”. There’s literally endless amounts of things to discuss WITHIN the topic of “Dirt vs Water”.

There are already threads for Indoor vs Outdoor, Sativa vs Indica, LED vs HPS…

As many topics as you can think about… they ALL have the capability to turn ‘political’. The subject matter is what matters. The people in the topic are the ones that drive the conversation. If it turns hostile it’s because those posters haven’t matured and understand some of the nuances that come with age.

When you remove subject matter because it doesn’t fit the agenda of one person or one group of people, you’re stripping everyone else of their right to learn or engage in conversation. You’re nipping the bud before the flower can form…

If there are no rules on the internet, why are there so many rules?

Sigh… prove me that another has authority over you. You are free even if the constricts in your own mind restrict you from feeling that way.

3 Likes
59

“I do not recognize your authority over me, your honour.”

I wish you luck with that one.

13 Likes
60

This is one of the lines of thinking I like to propose when faced with difficult information. Like for example if we discuss climate change. There’s lots of scientific testing and studies going on every day; but it’s still impossible for science to predict everything.

The questions that you pose: what affect does it have on you, if any? A lot of times questions like that come from random thoughts that people have and it helps the community when we try to find answers together.

If we say “Oh climate change too political let’s shut it down” we limit all the viewpoints which would make us stronger sturdy individuals like you said.

3 Likes
61

2 things I’ve always practiced, don’t talk politics and you don’t discuss religion.
Thank you to all @moderators @LemonadeJoe for your tireless efforts to ensure OUR our pursuit for cannabis legalization. We’re a unified community, there shouldn’t be any tensions for any reasons.

3 Likes
62

that does not exist, here in the us or anywhere else in the world, internet included. the sooner you realize that, the better off you’ll be. this is not a public forum, but a private one, regardless of what you believe.

4 Likes