Of Pimped Intellects and Thought Prostitution : Part 1

"The freedom of expression is essential for any society to evolve. Comments are welcomed but will be moderated. "

hmmm... 2 sentences replete with profound yet reptilian imputations. The first is an obvious paean to the freedom of expression and by logical extension, the freedom of thought and speech. However, this purported support for free speech is effectively neutered by the catch-all phrase “but will be moderated” in the second sentence. And so by a clever sleight of words, blogmasters adroitly “hide” themselves under this caveat and trot it out at their convenience to strangle comments or views inimical or pernicious to their warped world-views. Precisely what “will be moderated” is never enumerated and a would be commenter is left to his own devices to figure out as to what is allowable and what is proscribed. Hence, he comments in all innocence, not knowing that the 30 minutes or so (normally a two or three page comment would not take more than this to materialise) spent crafting a comment could have been better spent feeding them sparrows and pigeons in the local park when it (the comment) will never open its innocuous eyes to daylight manacled as it is in the censor's dungeon!

So there you have it in a nutshell, you are invited to comment under the guise of free speech but the content of your comment is subject to censorship ('moderated' being the “cultured” nomenclature for “censorship in blogosphere) and even if it escapes those pesky imaginary “scissors” snipping away within befogged minds, the disconcerting rumblings of second thoughts and the innate fear of the subversive nature of that comment to established worldviews, political leanings, personal prejudices whatever will render its birth a stillborn affair. Hence, many a comment will never see the light of day categorised as they are as “ad hominem attacks”, ‘vulgar” (as if society is so cultured that the obscene is an aberrant concoction of diseased minds…..poooorah!!), ‘sensitive” etc. Even worse is the injustice endured by many a soul who have been needlessly assailed by their fellow commentators and whose attempts at clarification are deemed to be obnoxious, rancorous etcetera simply by the blogmaster who in his eagerness to protect views that are supportive of his opinion is ever ready to jettison rational views that challenge accepted dogma.

But then again, only in Malaysia would you find such stupid and insecure people dominating the so-po discourse in cyberspace. The very same people who will scream blue murder when MSM affects to do the same. The very same people who will don the garb of intellectuality and pontificate on the unfairness of it all. The very same people who will shout from the rooftops for a freer and more liberal environment but who will in the same stroke, pollute the atmosphere with their condescending attitudes and their need to assert control. Humbugs!!

Revert : The simple rule being, if you do not want to undergo all that hassle, then yank off that seductive yet deceptive bait and convert the verdant yet weedy acres of your blogsphere into a proper garden in which you can babble about the beauty of flowers, croon about them warblers and extol the virtues of being a green finger. Anyway Rocky’s Bru is exempted from this “diatribe” cos although I have not commented at his place except maybe once, I have always found him to be open and receptive to all sorts of comments and that I guess comes from his unbiased and informative approach to issues. Proof of a journalist at work not an equivocating fiend!!