A Forum for Vigorous Debate, Cornerstone of Democracy

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A FORUM FOR FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND VIGOROUS DEBATE, CORNERSTONES OF DEMOCRACY
[For the journal--guidelines, focus, etc.--go to www.theamericandissident.org. If you have questions, please contact me at todslone@hotmail.com. Comments are NOT moderated (i.e., CENSORED)!]
Encouraged censorship and self-censorship seem to have become popular in America today. Those who censor others, not just self, tend to favor the term "moderate," as opposed to "censor" and "moderation" to "censorship." But that doesn't change what they do. They still act as Little Caesars or Big Brother protectors of the thin-skinned. Democracy, however, demands a tough populace, not so easily offended. On this blog, and to buck the trend of censorship, banning, and ostracizing, comments are NEVER "moderated." Rarely (almost NEVER) do the targets of these blog entries respond in an effort to defend themselves with cogent counter-argumentation. This blog is testimony to how little academics, poets, critics, newspaper editors, cartoonists, political hacks, cultural council apparatchiks, librarians et al appreciate VIGOROUS DEBATE, cornerstone of democracy. Clearly, far too many of them could likely prosper just fine in places like communist China and Cuba or Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Russia, not to mention Sweden, England, and Austria.
ISSUE #45 PUBLISHED MAY 2023. NOW SEEKING SUBMISSIONS FOR ISSUE #46.

More P. Maudit cartoons (and essays) at Global Free Press: http://www.globalfreepress.org

Monday, September 21, 2009

Yet Another Pitiful Statement of Censorship

Collegiality and an ethic of civility encourage conformity and the suppression of dissent. Group solidarity encourages tribalism. Dedication to mission encourages obedience to people charged with mission control. Loyalty to the group easily subsumes loyalty to the ideals for which the group supposedly stands.
—Wendy Kaminer, Worst Instincts (On internal corruption at the ACLU)

It is very evident what mean and sneaking lives many of you live… lying, flattering, contracting yourselves into a nutshell of civility
—Henry David Thoreau

Censors are dead men/set up to judge between life and death./For no live, sunny man would be a censor,/he'd just laugh./But censors, being dead men,/have a stern eye on life.
—D H Lawrence, "Censors"

Editor Tim Green of Rattle: Poetry for the 21st Century (sounds like an Orwellian nightmare!) just posted a statement of censorship on the journal’s blog site to further justify his role as yet another lackey of the established order bent on killing vigorous debate, cornerstone of a THRIVING democracy.

Censor Green is paid a salary by the Frieda C. Fox Family Foundation to censor voices of which he disapproves and earned awards from Phi Beta Kappa, the Golden Key National Honors Society, and the Academy of American Poets. The latter, fearful of meaningful dissent regarding the general bourgeois nature of its heralded poets, censored and banned me from participating in its forums (see www.theamericandissident.org/AcademyAmericanPoets.htm).

How, a thinking citizen must wonder, do so many students manage to obtain college educations without learning much at all about democracy? Clearly, their professors favor CIVILITY and conformity over dissidence and vigorous debate. The whole civility initiative works against democracy and reminds of the left’s recent “whining”—to use Censor Green’s word of predilection to dismiss anything with which he disagrees—, regarding the recent town hall meetings, where vigorous debate actually took place. Censor Green reminds of Bubba Clinton who stated: “This cynicism is my enemy.” “Cynicism” was, according to Bob Woodward, however, in part, a code word for media criticism. Interestingly, Censor Green dismisses critics with the very same term used by the British government to dismiss American revolutionary patriots: “riffraff.”

Clearly, Censor Green, like all censors, has a deep-seated feeling of inferiority, which explains why he is so FEARFUL of opinions that might prove more cogent than his and why he defines himself as the sum total of awards obtained from the bourgeois established order.

By the way, Censor Green’s blog seems to be attracting a number of democracy-indifferent schoolgirls. How sad. In any case, Censor Green’s statement of censorship follows and is a shameful affront to democracy. You decide.

Comment Guidelines
random riff-raff / 1 Comment
Wed 9.9.09
The trolls are ruining this place, and I’m sick of cleaning piss out of a carpet that I don’t even care about. There’s no reason to waste time thinking about comments on this blog, unless it’s to participate in a discussion relevant to the post above them. I’ve spent way too much time this summer trying to decide how to respond to what amounts to ignorant, masturbatory graffiti. I feel like a kindergarten teacher. Well, I’m taking away the scissors.
Comments on this blog are now all moderated. Hopefully very few comments will actually be screened out, but there will be a delay, while I check to make sure they follow these simple rules:
1) Be civil.
2) Be relevant.
That’s all you have to do: Be civil and relevant. Even trolls who keep their whiny rants civil and relevant can voice their opinions. But if you can’t, your comment will sit forever in a queue gathering cyberdust.
Let this be a notice to everyone who’s been warned before: Don’t waste your time. I suggest making your own blog and bitching there.
And to everyone who no longer reads the comments because they raise your blood pressure: You can come back now, the riffraff is gone.

11 comments:

mather said...

The term "civil" is relative. And anyway, why would that be one of the most important things? Tim Green's blog is dedicated to civility. Wow, that's great, how interesting! What a groundbreaking force that blog will be.

The term "relevant" is extremely broad. Recently Green wrote a blog in which he mentioned that it seemed the audiences at poetry readings were more interested in talking with with the poet than listening to him recite his poetry. This is not mysterious to me. People are interested in somethng they can participate in, and which might actually lead to conflict, something spontaneous and living. Nothing is more boring than listening to someone recite previously written words with no possibility of interjection. And then at the end you're supposed to clap and drink lemonade and eat carrot cake quietly. I made a comment underneath Green's blog in which I said the same phenomenon was at work when readers found the comments section of a blog more interesting than the blog itself. Unfortunately, my comments were deleted. They were "relevant" I thought. Maybe they were not "civil"?

mather said...

Those were good quotes that specifically mentioned "civility", extremely "relevant" quotes I thought...

G. Tod Slone said...

Well, some of us thirst for truth and reality, while others for groupthink and civility. Yeah, I just read that book. It was very interesting--written by a former ACLU board member against ACLU groupthink and fraud.
Of course what kills me are Tim's "honors" as listed on his site. In other words, how does someone like him become an honor student and remain as ignorant as it gets regarding the real needs of society (there, I didn't use "democracy).

M.P. Powers said...

Is it Censor Green or Sensei Green? I'm just wondering because I heard someone saw him practicing his Jujitsu in the offices over at Rattle. Apparently he smashed his head through the monitor, kicked over a lamp and began tearing apart large pieces of (Chinese) drywall after reading your recent troll cartoon. Pretty strange, because I thought he found your caricatures amusing. Anyhow, D.H. Lawrence wrote a poem called Censors, and if I could find it on the net I would post it, but I can't so I won't. Here's the first three lines though: Censors are dead men/set up to judge between life and death./For no live, sunny man would be a censor,/he'd just laugh./But censors, being dead men,/have a stern eye on life." The rest of the poem also applies, but you have to ask what Tim's motivations are, besides safeguarding his image. I have a sneaking suspicion there's a money trail involved. He's either conned his way into the bookkeeping department & is robbing The Foundation blind, or they're paying him so much he turns a blindeye to editing, and spends all his days filling garbagebags with money and hauling them into ye ol' Brinks truck.

G. Tod Slone said...

Thanks much for those DH lines. I'm putting them in the blog! No, I think you're off regarding the "money trail." PC and censorship are ingrained in Tim's soul. They are his norm, money or no money.

M.P. Powers said...

I don't know if you can say PC and censorship are ingrained in his soul. Figuring out how best to maximize both his ego and comfort-level is ingrained in his soul. And the shrewdest way to do that is by being PC and censoring things.

(as far as he knows, anyway)

Filling garbagebags with lotsa $$ never hurts either.

mather said...

I’m sick of cleaning piss out of a carpet that I don’t even care about."

This is a quote from the beginning of his blog. I find this very telling, that he really doesn't CARE about it...why would he say that?

G. Tod Slone said...

Sorry, it is my firm belief that PC is an indoctrination. Those who spout it tend to be firmly indoctrinated by it, money or no money.
Well, M, you do have a point on that carpet. But is he talking about the RATTLE carpet... or some other carpet?

mather said...

He seems to be saying that the carpet is the blog, which he doesn't really care about (is he forced to do the blog?) or maybe he is talking about the journal itself...Poor Tim's whole livelihood is such a chore...but if he just does it a few more years he can retire and then "dedicate" himself to simply writing...

M.P. Powers said...

I've gotta disagree with you T. If PC was simply indoctrination, then everyone who was indoctrinated would be PC, which isn't the case. I think it has more to do with susceptibility and opportunities.

Some PCers would be downright rude if they thought it would get them farther.

M. - Tim sure has a unique way of showing he doesn't care about his blog - getting trigger-happy with his delete key, verbally abusing and then throwing people out on their ASSES for being open to vigorous debate, cornerstone of democracy.

And lastly, venturing off to a SEARS portrait studio (dressed like a poor man's Sho Kosugi) to take some snapshots for the wall...........

G. Tod Slone said...

Yep, and then we'll have yet another large pile of useless writing to keep the nation's bowels clogged up.
Some people are by nature more easily/more willingly indoctrinated... the conformist grain. We definitely disagree here. I really don't think money and opportunity have a major role, though, sure, they do and can play a role in the PC mindset. BUT I am convinced having jousted with many PC heads that they sincerely believe what they're saying. I really think Tim sincerely believes what he spouts.