The intensifying Israel/Palestine crisis has generated the necessity of reexamining Docudharma’s current policy of requiring preapproval for I/P essays. A range of opinions have been expressed regarding the validity of this policy, most have been stated respectfully, a few have been inflammatory. The current policy is still being defended by the Admins and CE’s, based upon their view that the content of I/P essays must be preapproved in order to avoid angry words being exchanged in essay threads.
I have a fundamental problem with that policy. The censorship aspect of it is problematic enough, but even more problematic is what it reveals about progressive weaknesses, weaknesses which have crippled our ability to have any impact on the political, social, and economic systems in this clusterfuck of a country.
Progressives shouldn’t get so freaked out about angry name-calling in an essay thread. What the fuck? How are we ever going to have any impact on the government or anything else when something as relatively minor and trivial as name-calling and insults in an essay thread freaks everyone out? The participants exchange increasingly angry words, everyone else curls into a fetal position, and nothing is ever resolved anyway.
It’s no wonder everyone in D.C. laughs at us and tells us to go fuck ourselves.
We need to get tougher, we need to get a lot tougher and we need to do it in a fucking hurry.
But The Rule Stands. I’m told The Rule has to stand because . . .
Discussions of I/P almost always instantly degenerate into knee jerk apologies for unconscionable actions on the one hand and anti semitic hate speech on the other.
So fucking WHAT?
Progressives haven’t done a damn thing about 8 years of Bush/Cheney war crimes and torture, they haven’t done a damn thing about 30 years of Democratic betrayals, they haven’t done a damn thing to generate change on any major issue, but if angry words are exchanged on a blog, then the hammer comes down. The mighty admins draw the line at that. A million people have been killed in Iraq, Wall Street perpetrated the greatest financial crime in all of human history, BP unleashed the worst ecological disaster ever, the list of corporate crimes against humanity is endless, but progressives have done nothing meaningful about any of it, absolutely NOTHING.
Chickenshits. Don’t talk to me about enforcing fucking FAQ’s while the world’s going to Hell, don’t tell me your feelings were hurt because of hate speech on an essay thread, not when we’re all in a world of hurt because criminal governments and corporations can inflict massive suffering without ever being held accountable. Don’t tell me Docudharma will be ruined if we allow I/P essays. Go to Iraq, you’ll see what ruin looks like, go to Gaza, you’ll see what ruin looks like, go to the Gulf of Mexico, you’ll see what ruin looks like, you’ll see ruin like no one’s ever seen before.
But The Rule Stands.
Well the Segregation Rule stood once too, for the same misguided reasons. Most people back then said talk about desegregation couldn’t be allowed because too many people would get pissed off, they preferred to pretend the rule was OK, they tried to justify it by saying it had been the rule for a long time, they told each other it would be wise to ignore the segregation problem, maybe it would just go away if no one talked about it.
The Israel/Palestine crisis isn’t going to go away, it’s going to get worse, which is why Docudharma should be providing multiple perspectives and views of that crisis in order to maximize awareness of its causes and generate progress towards solutions. We can’t avoid that issue anymore, it’s gone beyond being the elephant in the room most people don’t want to talk about, it’s become the room itself. We’re trapped in that room whether we like it or not, and the walls are closing in.
I’m told I/P essays have to be preapproved in order to avoid horrific consequences such as angry words in a thread. I’m told accusations made in ek’s essay thread “were unconscionable, reaching a level beneath contempt.” What’s unconscionable, what’s beneath contempt, is continuing to tolerate a criminal government, a criminal corporate system, a rigged two party system and a war machine culture that are threatening the very existence of this country, not to mention this entire fucking planet.
JeffRoby . . .
It is simply that when there is murder and oppression going on, we have not only a right but an obligation to speak out. Anywhere. Even if some are made uncomfortable. To do otherwise is to commit the crime of silence.
But The Rule Stands.
It still stands because we apparently need to maintain our comfort level while the world is imploding. It still stands because discussing that rightwing Israeli government’s massacre of human beings bringing humanitarian aid to other human beings might offend the psychopaths and hypocrites desperate to justify it, and generate false accusations of anti-Semitism. It still stands because fear of namecalling is dictating what can be discussed here and what cannot be.
If we aren’t going to Blog the Future here, if we don’t have the moral courage to condemn what must be condemned, we might as well shut this place down and let someone else give Blogging the Future a try.