What did you call me?
This makes me grind my teeth a bit…
WordPress.com Banned Again: Why Aren’t You Concerned? « Lorelle on WordPress
I think bloggers around the world have become apathetic. Lazy. Uninspired. Dumbed down. Honestly. When the term echo chamber was coined, it was a good label for all the regurgitation of content spread all over the web, drowning individual voices. Self-interest blogging is pervasive. What happened to altruism and using the blog publishing platform to support freedom of speech and bloggers around the world?What happened to us? Why am I not seeing protests and opinions on this issue all over the web? Why isn’t the banning of three million WordPress.com blogs a big deal? Why aren’t we talking about this instead of the latest iPhone gizmo and useless SEO techniques? Why didn’t people get angry and protest loudly when WordPress.com blogs were banned in Turkey, China, and other countries? WordPress.com continues to be banned in places - why aren’t we talking about this?
We aren’t concerned, because in truth, unless we are Brazilian, Turkish, Chinese, or whatever, it doesn’t concern us. Don’t get me wrong, I am not insensitive to the fact that silencing thoughts and opinions is a fundamentally wrong thing, and I can sympathize with the citizens of those countries who have to deal with a government that chose to do so. However, in the end, it’s still their problem to solve, and no amount of protests from us are going to do any good. Seriously, do you think the Brazilian government gives a damn what the average private American citizen thinks?
As an American, I enjoy the right to say what I will without fear of persecution. If my ability to do so becomes threatened, then that’s when I suit up with a protest sign in one hand and baseball bat in the other and set my sights on Washington. However, with the many other things that most average Americans have to contend with on a daily basis, the similar plight of citizens on another country have to become secondary concerns.
Look at it another way. Over two hundred years ago, people who lived on this continent had to live under an oppressive regime where their voice could easily be stifled. As a whole, the decided the could not accept it and went to war to change it, and they succeeded. However, people of other countries cared less than a fig about the colonials goals. It didn’t concern them about our right to free speech, because they had worries of their own.
Blogging should not be defined as a vehicle for activism. Most of us don’t have the stamina to be activists, and writing about things that outrage us or make us angry turns blogging into an “anger machine”. Blogging should be a way for those of us who do it to talk about the things that are important to us. If some choose to use it as a means to vocalize their activism then they are welcome to do so. However, if it happens to be the latest gizmo, or web technique, so be it. Calling us lazy or uninspired comes very close to being flat out insulting.
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[...] matter the most to me, and the rest of it has to be left to others who care more. Erik Stell has a good entry along the same [...]