Calling Bullshit: Censorship On YouTube

YouTube Logo courtesy of Google

I kind of took yesterday off, I didn't write anything and it gave me some time to think. Recently, I see comments by YouTube users that they have been censored...their accounts frozen and any number of other methods employed to silence them. David Seaman, Mark Dice and Reality Calls, are only a few of those affected by YouTube's censorship campaign. All in the name of "fairness." YouTube claims that they are trying to "protect" people from information that they deem false. They have even employed a cadre of "Heroes," a bunch of collectivist trolls that flag anything that doesn't fit the collectivist narrative. YouTube!!! I'm a firm believer in Sturgeon's Law, I believe it can be extrapolated to fit almost any situation. For the uninitiated, "90% of science fiction is bullshit, because 90% of everything is bullshit."

I am also a staunch believer of the "free marketplace of ideas." Ideas will stand or fall on their own merit, or lack thereof. With the exception of purveying pornography to children and other such odious practices, I don't believe in censorship at all. This is one reason you will never see me flag or downvote an article on Steemit (or anywhere else, for that matter). John Stuart Mill addresses censorship in his seminal work, On Liberty, much more eloquently than I can:

"The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error."

Mill also wrote:

"If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind...there ought to exist the fullest liberty of professing and discussing, as a matter of ethical conviction, any doctrine, however immoral it may be considered."

This pretty much sums up my feelings on censorship. Now back to Youtube. In applying Sturgeon's Law to YouTube, I think 90% is being generous. Anyone that has browsed YouTube knows what I'm talking about. Almost everything on there is utter nonsense. If they were to start attempting to apply some "bullshit filter," YouTube would be reduced to nothing...they would likely go out of business. One thing I like about Steemit, is that they seem to have attracted a much better clientele. I don't know if intellectually upscale is the right term or not, but it seems to apply. YouTube, on the other hand- although there are some good people- seems to have attracted buffoons of every stripe. Much of what I've seen on there reminds me of the movie Jackass...it's like Jackass Meets the Kardashians! Censoring content for being "false," on YouTube transcends idiocy. The same dynamic is true of Twitter and Fakebook, although to a somewhat lesser scale ( lesser speaking of content, not censorship) and seems to be spreading throughout social media. Without opening up the what is truth debate (technovedanta did a great article on that today) suffice it to say that YouTube has no business in the censorship business.

BTW: I just went to-you guessed it YouTube- and found this by High Impact Flix (one of my favorite guys there) that backs up what I'm saying!

Thanks for reading. If you like it, please upvote/resteem!