If You Meet A Censor, Ask Why They Haven't Become Moral Degenerates Themselves

from the simple-questions dept

Tue, May 15th 2012 10:46am — Mike Masnick

Last year, we wrote about one of China's chief censors, the creator of the Great Firewall of China, who did an interview where he talked about how important censorship was to protect people -- while also noting that he, himself, had five VPN accounts to get around the Great Firewall... for research purpose only (he promised). I'm reminded of this while reading an interview with a Kuwaiti censor who seems quite proud of her role in keeping horrible content from being consumed by people in Kuwait -- while also talking about how much she gets to learn in reading all this content.

I found out about this interview from Adam Thierer, who has a simple question he thinks every censor should be asked:

But here’s where the reporter missed a golden opportunity to ask Dalal the one question that you must always ask a censor if you get to meet one: If the content you are censoring is so destructive to the human soul or psyche, how then is it that you are such a well-adjusted person? And Dalal certainly seems like a well-adjusted person. Although the reporter doesn’t tell us much about her personal life or circumstances, Dalal volunteers this much about herself and her fellow censors: “Many people consider the censor to be a fanatic and uneducated person, but this isn’t true. We are the most literate people as we have read much, almost every day. We receive a lot of information from different fields. We read books for children, religious books, political, philosophical, scientific ones and many others.” Well of course you do... because you are lucky enough to have access to all that content! But you are also taking steps to make sure the rest of your society doesn’t consume it on the theory that it would harm them or harm public morals in some fashion. But, again, how is it that you have not been utterly corrupted by it all, Ms. Dalal? After all, you get to consume all that impure, sacrilegious, and salacious stuff! Shouldn’t you be some kind of monster by now?

Thierer goes on to posit that the "Third-Person Effect Hypothesis" explains the issue. It says that "people will tend to overestimate the influence that mass communications have on the attitudes and behavior of others," while assuming, however, that they are somewhat immune to those effects. It's an interesting post, and that question should be used whenever anyone has the pleasure of meeting (or better yet, interviewing) an official government censor.

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Filed Under: censorship, china, great firewall, kuwait, vpn

35 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 15 May 2012 @ 10:53am

So who watches the watchers, punishes the punishers, and judge those who judge? Now we can add who censors the censors!
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Anonymous Coward, 15 May 2012 @ 10:54am

If a lone censor falls in the middle of the forest, does he make a beep?
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The eejit (profile), 15 May 2012 @ 10:57am

The coreect answer is...
Because the censors lose their morality as soon as they take the mantle up.
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Ninja (profile), 15 May 2012 @ 11:05am

Actually, aren't them moral degenerates already? I mean, how else would you brand a person that has such a sense of entitlement that he/she believes to be above of all else in a way that it enables them to dictate what all the rest see? In my view the censors have some degree of mental illness.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 May 2012 @ 11:17am

'you get to consume all that impure, sacrilegious, and salacious stuff'. you remain unharmed, why not others?

perhaps it should read 'how come you are not consumed by all that impure, sacrilegious, and salacious stuff?' and still remain unharmed? why not others?
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Anonymous Coward, 15 May 2012 @ 11:26am

Censors have already embraced evil and immorality, a different kind then the kind they're supposed to fight. A censor is a power hungry fanatic who doesn't care who else they harm in their fight against 'evil' and 'immorality'.

Which pretty much describes most governments from the dark ages. Declare that your the only one true followers of the lord, and use that as your justification to inflict lots of harm on other kingdoms as you burn their property and slaughter all who refuse to convert. Because the 10 commandments don't apply to you when you're fighting someone you've declared evil, even when fighting others of the same religion as you!
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:Lobo Santo (profile), 15 May 2012 @ 11:34am

Re: The coreect answer is...
+1
Well, we can all stop on this thread, The eejit has it covered with truthful brevity and style.
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Anonymous Monkey (profile), 15 May 2012 @ 11:38am

It's all about attitude!
"Do as I say, and not as I do!"

[/sarcasm]
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Greevar (profile), 15 May 2012 @ 11:43am

Re:
Better yet. If a censor smashes his thumb while alone in the woods, does he make beep? @#$% no!
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zub, 15 May 2012 @ 11:43am

Re:
Where is the "sad but true" button?
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Greevar (profile), 15 May 2012 @ 11:48am

Re:
Forget the dark ages, we have that right now. Tipper Gore anyone? Jack Thompson?
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Anonymous Coward, 15 May 2012 @ 11:52am

Can't never could do nothing and don't rules the world.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 May 2012 @ 11:59am

Re:
how else would you brand a person that has such a sense of entitlement that he/she believes to be above of all else in a way that it enables them to dictate what all the rest see

You should add "what the rest are allowed to do" to that.

One answer is Congressman
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Anonymous Coward, 15 May 2012 @ 11:59am

Call it what it is:
Oppression.

Oppression keeps people stupid and in the dark so that they can be led by the propaganda of the oppressors. It has worked spectacularly well for all religions and for oppressive regimes, including western ones.
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Paul Renault (profile), 15 May 2012 @ 12:02pm

They have a staff discount.
..so they can keep a good supply of cilices, both wool and metal. This is what keeps them pure.
(The call them 'magic underwear'.)
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ASTROBOI, 15 May 2012 @ 12:05pm

Explaination
A parallel is the big, tough, he-man FBI agent who, after seeing every sort of cruelty and bloodshed without batting an eye, breaks down and blubbers like a little girl when he sees an allegedly illegal bit of underage porn.

Bob Dobbs said it best: "the reason I don't practice what I preach is that I'm not the sort of person I'm preaching to."
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Anonymous Coward, 15 May 2012 @ 12:05pm

Because censorship has nothing to do with morality, only control.
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Jeremy Lyman (profile), 15 May 2012 @ 12:06pm

Re: The correct answer is...
If you ever meet a censor, sweet jebus, RUN! Run for your life before they savage you like a reaver.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 May 2012 @ 12:28pm

Getting past the whole 'Censorship is only control' thing, you have to consider what they're censoring. Yes, undesirable political speech, making the censors more even minded in such matters, or so blind that they can't see the point of view. But they also would come across the veritable flood of pirated copyright material. And they're paid by the government to view and filter it. Censors: Kings of Piracy.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 May 2012 @ 12:41pm

Re: It's all about attitude!
I believe that is the 11th Commandment
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Kevin H (profile), 15 May 2012 @ 12:59pm

It should be obvious that the censor is simply of higher moral character than the rest of the general public. Has anyone ever seen the movie Soldier? It is like that only with out the hand to hand combat training. The raise children to be immune to the filth and at the same time completely loyal to the state.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 May 2012 @ 1:00pm

Censors are watched more carefully
Read Orwell's 1984 -- While the proles are the naive victims of censorship, It's the outer party (those performing the censorship), and not the proles, that get the intense scrutiny of the powers that be.
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egghead (profile), 15 May 2012 @ 1:33pm

Re:
Where's the WTF button when you need it?
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egghead (profile), 15 May 2012 @ 1:44pm

What about parental filters?
Shouldn't this question also be applied to those parents choosing to censor the internet for their precious little children? How about trying some real parenting for a change? Teach your children what is right, wrong and a morality judgement. The more you censor content, the more the child will try to see what you're hiding. I'm not saying you should point them at the bad sites, but don't bar them from looking. Keep an open dialog with them about what they find and use it as a teaching moment. Be a parent, not a censor!
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Anonymous Coward, 15 May 2012 @ 1:48pm

Censorship is like banning steak because a baby can't chew it. - Sam Clemens.
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Rich, 15 May 2012 @ 1:55pm

Re: Censors are watched more carefully
They are watched because, unlike the apathetic proles, they are educated and (because they care out the wishes of the inner party) have a modicum of power.
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Mr Big Content, 15 May 2012 @ 3:14pm

Some Of Us Are Immune To The Third-Person Effect
I notice it a lot in people around me, but never in myself.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 May 2012 @ 3:31pm

Makes me think of the movie "Lolida 2000".
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Anonymous Coward, 15 May 2012 @ 3:38pm

Re: Re: Censors are watched more carefully
Sure.

The point I'm making is that I think this article is wrong - they are more prone to becoming "moral degenerates", and their bosses know it. Supposedly, Dalal, has been able to not be corrupted with all those concepts of free speech, etc that he's exposed to. But I bet that other censors have not been able to successfully avoid being tainted by western thoughts.

The fact that there exists people who can read Thoreau without being moved to sympathize with his ideas of civil disobedience, doesn't mean that a tyrannical government would be wise to let all their subjects read it.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 May 2012 @ 3:39pm

Re: Re: Re: Censors are watched more carefully
(speaking with Machiavellian reasoning of course)
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explicit coward (profile), 15 May 2012 @ 10:35pm

Re: What about parental filters?
"Be a parent, not a censor!"

This +1

And it is something that can be applied to any government as well. It seems as if some governments deem most of their people beyond education efforts.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 May 2012 @ 12:20am

Re: Re:
I think it's missing punctuation. Throw some commas in there and it makes a bit more sense (only a bit):
Can't, never, could do nothing and don't rule the world
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The eejit (profile), 16 May 2012 @ 1:44am

Re: What about parental filters?
Indeed. I have a five-year old daughter, and I will be helping her when I let her on to the internet, I will be trying to guide her away from places like 4chan to start with: then, when she's ready, allow her to go where she wishes.

But not before she's, like, a hundred. :p
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Joe, 19 May 2012 @ 6:21am

Re:
I'd be SICK of Hollywood and Bollywood movies by the first year. Heck, probably a month since mostly only movies from the last few years are heavily illegally copied. Can you imagine actually getting tired of entertainment? Worse yet, you're not allowed to just sit back and enjoy them. Your job (assuming you have any work ethic) is to find all the problems with a movie frame-by-frame and determine what is kosher and what needs to be edited.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Apr 2013 @ 8:08am

Re: What about parental filters?
well, I CAN see some blocks being a good idea- if it would cost the parent money, then parental approval should be necessary, but that's more about preventing cases like the kid who recently ran up a 2 grand bill on the iPhone.
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