Censorship

Music censorship is crazy. Glenn Danzig (of The Misfits) wrote wrote an awesome song about it:

[YOUTUBE]vgSn0SbQJQI[/YOUTUBE]

 

I'm not a fan of censorship as I don't believe large corporations or governments should be allowed to dictate to us what can can and cannot see or hear.

the reality is if you don't like what you hear or see on radio, TV, print media or the internet, there are plenty of opportuniy for you to self-censor what you don't like...it's called turn the TV/Radio off, don't buy the magazine/newspaper or close that internet page.

 

Censorship is evil.

 

This is no exaggeration. It is the easy cop-out used instead of promoting understanding and critical thought. Consequently, it leads to all sorts of bad juju.

I can see limiting exposure to certain things if dealing with young children, who are just not ready for some things. But that doesn't mean some things are inherently inappropriate for anybody.

 

I hate censorship

 

The problem with censorship is

 

The thing with the radio though is that you do get young children listening to what they're playing. Someone could argue that parents need to be responsible for what their children have access to, but by the time the parent figures out the song is inappropriate, they (and their children) have already heard something they shouldn't have.

It depends largely on the context, but in a medium like radio where it's essentially impossible to control who does and doesn't listen to what's broadcasted, you need to serve to the "lowest common denominator" of sorts - in this case, content everyone can listen to, which rules out inappropriate words/songs.

 

In the Nate Dogg/Warren G song Regulate, there is a line where it goes "Nate Dogg is about to make some bodies turn cold"

They actually censor out the word "cold"

wow...

Foxface

 

Or sometimes censorship makes it sound worse.

Like in "Dangerous" by Akon.

In the line "I wanted to make my black snake moan." more often than not the word "snake" is censored when they play it on the radio here.

"I wanted to make my black _____ moan" sounds a lot worse than the original line if you ask me.

 

If your talking about sexual themes and swear words, I think those are incredibly stupid things to try and censor, and in the case of sexual themes, damned harmful. One part of society is absolutely terrified of sex, another is obsessed with it, and most people seem to be both. I think the attitude towards sex in childhood (protecting children's "innocence" telling them never to have sex out of marriage, not even telling them sex exists, teaching them to fear and hate their bodies, particularly their genitals) is largely responsible for both extremes. Sex is used as a rebellion by teens, who often do it unsafely. And everything seems ultra-sexualised, while explicitly mentioning sex is banned. Its ridiculous. Once people start viewing sex and bodies like many other things - natural, enjoyable, and not to be feared - I think the problems will lessen.

/endrantaboutsexualcensorship

 

it just went quiet during "damn"? ie, "damn right I support it?"

 

I know, there is a version of Fall Out Boy's This aint a scene its an arm race.

They miss out damn and it just sounds stupid.

 

Stupid

 

Fuck censorship!

Also, I hate it when they censor the "hole" part of asshole. What the fuck is that about? Has anyone else ever heard this?

 

I think it's important to differentiate between censorship and moderation.

Censorship = you're not allowed to say it at all.
Moderation = you're not allowed to say it on the radio between 7am and 10pm.

I think moderation is a good thing. I think censorship is a bad thing.

 

Honestly, can't understand the concept. We as a society flip out more over a few words than starving children or injustice. Priorties, priorities...

 

Actually, ending censorship is quite high on my list of priorities.

 

I don't have a problem with censoring, as long as it makes sense. Obviously, I understand that family programming should not have bad words...but then what I don't understand is how a "word" is bad but everything else is okay? Like, a song about doing drugs or hurting someone would be okay, but a simple "fuck" is the end of the world...