Modern Problems: Successfully Eliminating Freedom of Speech

Very recently, I had an article forcibly unpublished from HubPages that was titled "This Was Written to Trigger You (Satire)" and that article was alleged to contain hate speech and personal attacks. I'm never one to personally attack others, with hate speech or otherwise, so I was baffled to see that my satirical article had been removed. It had been up for over three days with no public complaints, in fact it had been lauded as accurate, exceedingly humorous, and having a broad scope. Then I wake up to find it had been removed, and upon emailing HubPages they were unwilling to point out where in this self-proclaimed, multiple times, humorous jest of an article there was any hate speech or personal attacks. Now I know for a fact that "hate speech" and "personal attacks" within the guidelines for this wonderful community hold no basis in objectivity, but in fact have purely subjective definitions that are subject to change at the will of community managers and moderators. This is a toxic trend that isn't only occurring here, but on every social media site around the world. Your opinion, no matter how valid or pertinent it may be, can be removed no matter what the intent and emotions behind it are if someone else feels vindictive and bitter about what you are saying. These individuals who go out of their way to try to silence you would also love to see your freedom of speech taken away, and they're getting exactly what they want by abusing the report systems made available for serious matters. Just another tool in the bag of performative cruelty.

With every passing day freedom of speech faces an onslaught of hypersensitivity seeking to limit it, and the results of such hypersensitivity are beginning to take their toll on society as a whole. This isn't to say that hypersensitivity in real life leads to the limitation of freedom of speech, no, because anyone who seeks to limit freedom of speech online are often too afraid to stand up to people in real life knowing they couldn't get away with such atrocious and seemingly cowardly behavior. With most organic human interaction taking place online these days, not taking into account what people prefer only the reality of what they choose to take part in regularly, the bitterness of these people who wish you to be silenced is spreading like a contagious virus that really needs to be vaccinated.

You wouldn't force someone to get a vaccine, because that would be illegal, so why would you force someone to remain silent? Whether it be memes, commentary, or videos people are seeking to report anything that doesn't fall directly in line with their narrow views of the world. What happens when these things get reported? The community managers take action immediately, like white knights upon noble steeds rushing to slay a foul beast. With no warning, and nothing but a generalized and insulting message implying that you need to familiarize yourself with the community guidelines, they remove your post because of someone's subjective interpretation of your intents and meanings.

This is not how freedom of speech works, this is what freedom of adherence looks like. You aren't free to speak, unless it falls in line with a strict set of guidelines and couldn't possibly negatively trigger someone. You aren't free to have an opinion, unless that opinion stands directly in tow with the standards being set for it. You aren't free to have your own sense of humor, your sense of humor must abide by the overarching rules that have no bound definition and can be abused by those who enforce them. What a silly situation, which could be avoided if everyone sought to accept one another and didn't think their opinions were objective and inalienable facts. It is about time everyone humbles themselves, and realize that no one's excrement smells like roses.

So you'd rather not let everyone have their say, no matter what it may be, and submit to a system of adherence because it makes it so everyone is equally victim and aggressor. You know what they say, "If a boy isn't building his blocks, he is destroying them," and that equally applies to women as well it would seem. It is toxic, disgusting, and I'd never do anything except fight against it, but I fully understand the mentality that if you can't win then make sure everyone loses. It is easier to fall in line than it is to lead the way into a brighter future, so here we go, I'm already dulling down the zest of everything I say so as not to offend anyone so slap the chains of oppression and subjugation on me.

If we can't be equals as independent adults with opinions, then let us be equals as slaves. It isn't as if I could properly argue, or refuse the masters lest I receive a figurative whipping and possibly being removed from this plantation permanently. I slave here willingly, making money for the masters and when you go out of your way to sabotage your fellow slaves then you are hurting everyone's income. Even the master is equal to us slaves because of you, subjugated by the incessant toxic subjectivity based in hypersensitivity.

When the mafia walks into a business for the purpose of extortion they often do a lot of damage so as to coerce payments from you. The action of extortion typically has a payoff for the aggressor, and the aggressor will even help the victim recover from the damage with the expectation of higher payouts in the future. If you're the type to report things for no reason other than it figuratively left a sour taste in your sensitive mouth, you're an extortionist of the worst type. You get nothing other than the satisfaction of knowing you caused someone a slight bit of misery, you extort suffering rather than money. Does that mean you don't cause financial damages as well?

No and you probably don't have the proper sympathetic capabilities to have considered it already, but my article was extremely popular. I was getting a heck of a lot of views and the revenue was meant to come in. Revenue that I put towards my son and my family as a whole. By reporting my article, rather than expressing what part of my humor offended you, you hurt myself, my girlfriend, my son, and most hilariously yourself. No amount of editing that article can get it republished because changing it would change the very important message that lied within it. What was the underlying message within my article that was removed for alleged "hate speech" and "personal attacks" that just weren't there to begin with?

The underlying message was to accept the people you view as enemies and give them the right to express themselves without attacking them. In the effort to hurt me, hurt my son, hurt my life as a whole, and succeeding in that endeavor you successfully shut down a call for unity and freedom. You also stole funding that otherwise would have been appreciated and provided a better life for my son. Truly, a thief who steals only to watch the world burn and do nothing productive with their ill-gotten gains has a rotten heart. Change your ways, and take the time to care about your fellow man rather than trying to bring everyone down to your level. Speak up for yourself like an adult, and manifest the change that ensures we all live better lives.

Rather than hiding behind the anonymity of the internet, acting like big tough guys hitting the report button to silence those who would dare to break even slightly away from the system of forced-adherence, we could all help each other break our chains. I mean, rather than reporting my valid and pertinent articles, especially those with loving messages hidden within the pure-humor, go write an article to the contrary of my article and tell me you did it so I may come and comment on it. Dissent doesn't need to be disgrace, and we needn't feed the sadistic beast that the current social climate is trying to breed within us. You needn't hurt my child because I decide to hold an opinion contrary to yours, and I'd never seek to hurt you for yours either.

So go now, hit my comments section up and blast me, hit your keyboard up and write a comparative article, do something other than continue to poison your fellow man. We all deserve freedom of speech, regardless of the laws that seek to limit that on the internet and the people who use those laws to their own dastardly ends. I would also ask, wholeheartedly, you recognize when tyranny is rearing its ugly head. Evil tends to appear small and quiet, until it has enough strength to take everything and everyone by force. Limiting freedom of speech on the internet is just the first step to a grander scheme unfolding before our very eyes, a scheme perpetrated by everyone not some singular entity.

Don't be the one to perpetuate evil, be the light in the darkness, the figurative breaker of chains if you can forgive the reference, and a figure to follow not to avoid and extinguish.