Free Speech is as uncomfortable as it is important.

in #freespeech4 years ago

I want to discuss Freedom of Speech not just because @theycalledmedan started the initiative, but because it has been a deeply important feature in every aspect of my life every waking moment, as many long time readers will already know.

image.png

Living in China, I feel practically on the front line of a world of 1984, only with more technology. I get constant, daily insights as to what life could be like in the modern free world, should they start to give up freedoms and aspire to China.

Why would anyone even consider it?

Well, that's the million-dollar question, but it's happening. The UK is installing vast, facial recognition cameras on its streets and the people are like 'if you have nothing to hide, you shouldn't complain'.

Companies in the west are selling out to China, while simultaneously bending the knee regardless of human rights abuses and intellectual property theft, and even the UN and the WHO organisation are kowtowing to their demands, going as far to putting China on the UN Human Rights panel.

Yes, the country that executes more people than the rest of the world combined (official numbers only), destroys churches, homes, lives on a whim, has a 99% conviction rate and drags your pregnant girlfriend to the clinic to get an abortion against her will - in the millions - this country is on the human rights council of the UN.

Go figure.

So yes, the free world is, to some extent, aspiring to be like the totalitarian regime that is the CCP. The more you become aware of it, the more you'll see glowing through the cracks of their propaganda charades.

Naturally, I've become quite sensitive to the concept of freedom of speech, and it's largely why I started using Steem-now-Hive, to begin with.

Here, you see, all media - and I mean all - is state-run, state-approved. There is no such thing as private or independent journalism. So the people here will only hear a single narrative.

That narrative, in short, is 'It's the world against us, they are bad, we are good'. Everything they do is just and glorious, everything outside of China is out to get them and jealous.

That isn't necessarily on a nation basis. Religions, rumours, ideas, characters, hell, even computer games and the hours spent on them are all threats to the CCP. Should a child play too many game hours, they are not focussing on their love for the CCP. If you go to Church, you are not loving the CCP over your God. If you practice Falun Gong meditation, well it's too popular and it undermines our authority. If you protest, people might start questioning us.

The obvious problem with this is that a country of 20% of the planet's population almost entirely believes in a single narrative that serves their political party's agenda. But there's something more sinister to me.

The development of our society is at risk

We have seen here in China time and time again, outbreaks of small, medium and large protests slammed down and silenced. We also see an extremely high rate of knife and axe crimes and similar, almost entirely men who quote themselves as resenting some establishment, be it a school or organization, and they were out for revenge.

image.png

These videos come out more than you'd be comfortable with

The causes can be plentiful, from mental conditions to legitimate frustration with their lack of access to the truth and the belief that he world hates them, or any number more - things we see in other countries too.

But here in China, you are not allowed to speak of these issues. You are not allowed to discuss mental illness or educational woes where schools are, say, making their primary school children watch professional strippers, or other children forced to have toothpicks in their eyelids to force-read according to the requirements.

You are not allowed to share and discuss issues the country is having on any level, and so those problems will continue to persist, and frustrations in those isolated, lost people are going to be taken out on the public more and more.

Nobody can discuss the atrocious health and safety standards of construction leading to collapsing hotels, or the disgusting practices of skinning, boiling, flamethrowing dogs alive and spreading all kinds of viruses in the markets they are then sold at which got us in the mess we're all in today which, let's face it, could be throwing us all down the rabbit hole of another Great Depression of the 1930s.

Nobody can actually address the issues at play, debate and construct solutions. Everything is in the hands of the Malevolent Dictator to sort it all out. And given that this dictator is not actually omniscient and omnipotent, he necessarily has to leave many behind. Roughly 800 million.

This is the kind of extreme reality that can happen in a world with no freedom of speech. When nobody can talk, everything is game.

And right now, I see governments arresting comedians for jokes they consider tasteless, certain types of porn made illegal, banning people from entering the country for having political views opposing the country's general consensus and private enterprises taking on political roles that they prefer whilst 'protecting' people from hurt feelings by banning 'mean' or 'controversial' people in coordinated attacks in which all the big Silicon Valley companies in the space of a few hours, communicate and agree to throw people off the entire internet (in a practical sense, this is true. If you can't get on any mainstream media or social media, you are a ghost), unable to even apologize if they wanted to.

People are being demonetized on YouTube, their search results wiped from Google no matter how specific your search and the list goes on.

I feel extremely grateful right now that I know when the time comes, I will be able to return to England where I will have more freedoms returned to me, where I can criticize the government openly, I can be criticized in return, and I can pretty much do anything that doesn't harm other people. I can feel free.

But I no longer feel this is a permanent state. I sit here in China, surrounded by thousands of CCTV cameras, with my phone, chat history, location, bank details and everything else all monitored, tracked and recorded, friends disappearing without notice for a week at a time, other individuals kidnapped and dragged into Mainland China for a forced confession, and I watch in despair as my country continues to ponder 'The Chinese Model'.

Now, I'm not saying It could ever get this bad anywhere else, but even a step in that direction is a drastic mistake, and it pains me to see it every week, shuffling inch by inch because some things some people say aren't very nice.

So. Hive.

Well, Hive is my home away from home. It's a bitter place full of vengeful souls and ill-informed conspiracy nuts.

But that's ok

At least people, shunned from society, have a place to belong. And that place is exactly the same place as those people who thrive in society. Whatever people are, however they are perceived, whatever their reputation, they can come to Hive and shout it out. They can do whatever they want within the realms of the law (and a little beyond), and nobody can block them for it.

Everyone can ignore them. Absolutely. That is right, too. But its all out there, on the blockchain, immutable as can be.

  • Violent crime has diminished with the rise of violent video games. Evidence points towards the idea that video games are a cathartic way out for those frustrated with the world.

  • Porn is also known to reduce violent intent, for those who cannot function in society, there is porn to relieve them of those powerful, primitive desires.

  • Hive is the same. If you have political or societal itches, If you feel the world is against you and you want to lash out, do it here, not on the high street with an axe or a gun.

This puts Hive in a kind of taboo place alongside gaming and porn, but all three serve an absolutely vital place in the ecosystem. (there's also porn and games on Hive)

That's what Freedom of Speech means to me.

That's why it's important to me.

That's why I'm here.

Sort:  

Any fear the CCP will track you down on the blockchain?

A little. They'd have no trouble finding me if they were interested, but for the most part they worry about things getting out of hand, viral, things that can undermine them on a scale I typically can never reach. These things can be tiny offences, such as a girl who got arrested, fined and banned from social media where her whole career was, for singing the national anthem badly on camera.

But I think as long as I'm a foreigner and a small-fry, I SHOULD be ok

I feel extremely grateful right now that I know when the time comes, I will be able to return to England where I will have more freedoms returned to me, where I can criticize the government openly, I can be criticized in return, and I can pretty much do anything that doesn't harm other people. I can feel free.

Oi oi oi, you got a license for that?!?!

This would not surprise me in time =/

I appreciate the detailed litany and personal experience of censorship and propaganda in China that informs your post.

I note at least one provable inaccuracy regarding Hive and censorship, however.

"...nobody can block them for it."

You can be no less completely blocked on Hive as the tech giants undertake on the interwebz. I have been discussing that censorship mechanism for the last few weeks now, and according to replies I have just received today, some issues seem to have been mitigated, which I am happy to learn.

Here's a reply to me from @pharesim, who appears to be a man that gets shit done. He provides a link to the #irredeemables list there you can see for yourself.

Let's hope both of us stay off that list =)

Thanks!

Sorry about the delayed reply - I missed this one!

Although the nitty gritty details are beyond me, from my understanding, less we've all been completely misled, is that decentralisation allows for options that don't exist on places such as Facebook.

once you are blocked on Facebook, that's the end. Once you are blocked on Hive.blog, you can use another interface (or make your own) that uses another blacklist. I don't think it's relevant just saying 'what if everyone just used the same blacklist' (Not sure why I quoted that, nobody said that).

But then, I am reading this with blurry eyes and a shut down brain so I'm probably completely misinterpreting it

You could just as easily make another Facebook as another Hive. Until quite recently, everyone did just use the blacklist and the irredeemables list that totally censored those on it.

Peakd seems to have changed that, although I haven't looked at how yet.

Yeah but making a new Facebook means you aren't able to use the ecosystem of the original in any way, you're totally disconnected from it. Same as making a new Hive.

That's the main difference. Just because everyone is currently using said blacklist doesn't mean you have to. You can create a platform that doesn't use it, and you're still on Hive. Should the blacklist rules change, your previous content will all be visible again.

It's more like... blacked out. You can still physically create the content here.

The thing is, what you talk about is always, always going to be an issue as long as laws exist. Which platform will allow pedophiles to advertise their distribution business with explicit videos and photography?

Of course, they either remove it, or they get removed. There's no getting around that, philosophically and legally. I'm sure you've already thought extensively about this topic though =P - which I haven't really

What's the main difference, that they are exactly the same regarding network utility?

I submit that censorship is an existential threat to survival, because the vector of oppression is particularly targeted, along with potential mitigations. Knowing where and what threats are, and what to do about them, is the majority of our ability to survive and thrive. It's not merely social validation, but a matter of life and death that we can speak forthrightly.