Censorship isn't just wrong, it's dangerous.
The truth is rarely a pretty thing...or at least it doesn't start out that way. The truth is oftentimes wildly inconvenient, offensive, and even dangerous on occasion. People spend a lot of time and effort hiding the truth from others. Corporations spend billions of dollars every year hiding various truths about their products and that's just through advertising. I'm not even referring to lawsuits.
Do you believe Cinnamon Toast Crunch is part of a complete balanced breakfast? It's not. It's really not.
But we hear lies and accept them willingly all the time. We paint a picture of our world in ways that soothe us and we willingly accept comforting lies all the time. It's a pretty natural psychological response from the human brain, especially in times of high stress.
But while this happens naturally all the time, it's not necessarily the best thing for you. Accepting ugly truths helps you deal with the world as it is, not lead you to believe the world is as you'd rather have it, which can cause its own stress responses. Some of the worst stress responses I've seen to fully embracing lies come in the form of the social justice community, a group of people I believe should be studied psychologically.
But while there are lies that we tell ourselves that could degrade our mental health and cause us to make self-destructive decisions, the lies told to us by our leaders can get us killed.
Recently, X CEO Elon Musk has been sparring with the Australian government which believes that a video of a young man stabbing a Sydney Bishop during a service should be censored. The stabbing has been labeled as a "terrorist" attack yet the Australian government wants Musk to stop allowing the video of the stabbing to be seen on X entirely, even to the point where it's banned in countries outside of Australia. As Nick Arama reported on Monday, Musk's response was a very polite "hell no."
Why does Australia want the video banned? Because it depicts a violent act by a radical Islamic extremist and seeing that would cause a circulation of "disinformation" and "misinformation."
Keep in mind that first-world governments usually use that term about facts and information that run contrary to the chosen government narrative. I'll leave the inner workings of Australia's government here because you've seen and heard this song and dance about violent attacks from Islamic radicals before when it comes to narrative generating from the left. What I want to talk about goes a bit deeper.
As I mentioned earlier, belief in a lie can be dangerous to the point of death and here we see this on display. Islamic radicalism is still out there. It never stopped being dangerous. It never stopped being the reason people are murdered, yet Western governments don't like talking about that because they're afraid it will cause people to become racist, xenophobic, or some other ridiculous social sin that we stupid peasants are prone to.
Ignoring the truth that radical Islam is a danger to the people is dangerous. It's not hard to figure out that a great many Muslim people are friendly, peaceful, and have no desire to be violent, but they don't want us questioning anyone else who might require that distinction for fear of being racist which may lead to some sort of racist end result.
They choose instead to sensitize us. To not see the results of extreme groups be they religious or political. They make up excuses, finger-wag at those who try to point out the obvious, and hide the truth from the public in hopes that it will buy the narrative thanks to a lack of information.
This was the often case during the pandemic.
They hope with this lack of information and lack of normalization that you will become sensitive to this kind of thing yourself and actively avoid it yourself. You'll speak their talking points in conversation and become offended when someone speaks the truth. You'll cheer for censorship because you'll fully believe that this is the right and moral thing to do.
It's not.
The world needs to see the ugly truth and to understand fully what kind of place we live in. Desensitization is necessary for the well-being of a functioning society that is able to handle matters with wisdom and discernment. A lack of information and fear of the truth can only lead to a slow collapse.
I'm not saying we need to display grotesque images on social media. There's nothing to be gained by having hardcore porn pop up on social media where your kids can easily access it, but there are events that require an awareness that, while unpleasant to look at, is necessary to make good decisions.
This is not a happy-go-lucky world. There is evil in it, and we need to know where it is and who is embracing it so we can best figure out how to deal with it.