Hypocrites

Last week’s blog was suspended; they wouldn’t dare to say censored. By they, I mean Medium. So let’s get it out of the way. Who are the hypocrites? Well, let’s start with me because I’m writing another blog on this platform after being censored. I did consider making it my last blog on here but there are a number of reasons why I will continue writing here for the time being and two of the most important are: 1 — don’t have much time at the moment to set up a viable alternative. 2 — I don’t have a following and every writer wants to be read — even if I’m not selling you (introduce whatever affiliates or products/subscriptions here). I do write because I love to but I want to be read.

The other hypocrites are Medium. Obviously not everyone at Medium but someone is. I’d venture saying that whoever works int their “yourfriends” team and has authority to censor publications. As you would expect I don’t think the writers and readers on this platform are hypocrites or I wouldn’t be here (we really need to ignore my opening statement about being a hypocrite right now!). My last week’s blog was read by 2 people and at least one applauded (it was worth it just because of that!), did the other one complained? I really can’t tell what led Medium to suspend (read censor) the blog so I decided to try something different this week.

Now this may well get the post censored again. First because I’m re-posting last week’s blog and second because I’m calling some people at Medium hypocrites. 2 things I want to make clear: 1 — I understand this may well be a useless fight just in the sense that I will not win it and I know I need to be able to choose my battles (that said, here I am writing this blog). 2 — I can accept that my message may make you feel uncomfortable, moreover, I can accept that I am missing something and even though it is not my intention, the message is indeed hateful. The problem is, no one has been able to show me where and how my message is hateful.

I thought of publishing the post in a different web page and link this to that page but I decided against it so here it goes. Below is last week’s post with tiny modifications, which I’m sure you will catch straightaway. Then I will post the email I received from the Medium team and my response to them. Until now, I have received no response to my challenge.

“Today’s blog is not about racism, not directly anyway, independently of you finding the title racist or not. It’s not by the way, but you’re free to think otherwise. And that’s the topic of today’s blog, albeit indirectly.

And no, I’m not playing with words to get away with having the word nijjer in the title, or to get away with racism by hiding it in plain sight. I’m also aware that the fact that I say that the title is not racist doesn’t automatically mean it’s not so.

And yes, I am playing with words. What is writing if not playing with words? Today’s blog is about freedom of speech, so you can understand how it’s indirectly about our freedom to think. If I want to rob you of your freedom to think, all I have to do is to rob you of your freedom to speak freely. Given enough time after being robbed of your freedom to speak your mind, you will lose the ability to think freely as well. You may not know it and be aware of it, but your thinking will be robbed of all other thinkers. Think about that!

The social media platform X, aka Twitter, triggered my “need” to write this blog. Not that freedom of speech is more or less important because of what happened, but I have to admit that the fact that Elon is parading X as the town hall where free speech lives, did have an impact on my “need” to write this blog. You see, I found myself censored not because of what I said but because of the word I used. So in essence, they’re censoring a word and saying that the word is hate speech according to their code of conduct. That word is “nijjer”.

Now, I’m not going to pretend that this is not a sensitive subject (for Americans only) and that there aren’t important cultural issues behind that atrocious code of conduct that X decided to implement. Obviously, I can’t pretend that racism is not the root cause of those issues, but this blog is about freedom of speech and although I have to acknowledge the elephant in the room; racism, systemic or otherwise; I will focus on the subject of the blog.

First and foremost, I think it’s important for you to understand exactly what happened at X. I commented on a post and used the word nijjer. The post was basically censored as it violated X’s code of conduct, specifically to be deemed hateful content. The problem is that X didn’t censor my comment due to the message I wrote but because there was a word there that they deem hateful, or, in this case, even though they didn’t say it, racist. I ended up writing a few posts and at least one thread on the subject.

Well, I’m not racist; you may disagree with me but that wouldn’t make me a racist anyway; and my comment was not racist. Before I make my point on freedom of speech, and why it’s ridiculous to censor words, I’d like to give some context to the word nijjer. The word nijjer wasn’t “invented” as a racial slur. Nijjer was a word to refer to a certain type of labour that black people did. You may say that all black people at that time (in America) were slaves and thus nijjer would be a racist word because it was used to identify a certain type of work that blacks did but that would be disingenuous. Anyway, at one point in the 1800s, some racist people decided to use the word to refer to black people in a pejorative or demeaning way. At that time, the word was being used mainly as a racist slur because non-racist people stopped using it, exactly because racist people were using it as a slur. At that time, nijjer became a racist slur, because racist people appropriated the word.

However, that’s no longer the case. The people that use the word nijjer today, don’t use it as a racist slur. I’m not saying they’re not racist, against white or black or yellow or browns, I’m just saying that they don’t use the word as a racist slur. I understand that even within the black community the use of this word is controversial but that’s because people are still thinking of the word as the racist slur that same racist people made of it and not the fact that the word in itself is not racist.

I’m friends with a bunch of nijjers! Is the previous sentence racist or hateful even if it’s true just because I’m a white man? I haven’t seen those nijjers for decades now so it’s a bit of a stretch to say they’re still my friends but that’s besides the point. And I’m not referring to all my black friends as I’ve kept in touch with many of them, but I don’t consider them nijjers. I don’t think my definition of nijjer is different from most people that use that word but I may be wrong. For me if you’re not from the hood, you’re not a nijjer, I don’t care how black you are.

Words cannot be racist or hateful on their own. If anything, the word black would be more racist than nijjer. Black refers only to the colour of someone’s skin, whilst nijjer refers to a labour category. Are the words race, colour, african, black, white, gringo, yellow, alien, redneck, racist? Is the word racist, racist? Or is it the context that tells you if a word is being used in a racist message or not? Uh nijjer?!

And can words by themselves be hateful? The same logic applies right? Kill, die, dismember, torture, rape, hate, nasi. Are these words hateful? Rape even if perpetrated due to mental illness needs to be persecuted and be subjected to the full extent of the law. I hate mosquitos. As part of our biology class we dismembered a frog and now I feel I’m going to die, that’s how sick this is. Ok, this last one is a contentious one but you get my point.

Now, if you’re still with me, just stomach this next one as I’m almost done. I love to kill children. What’s the most hateful word in that last sentence? I’d argue that love is the most hateful word in that sentence, and I’m sorry I made you read that, but I have a point to make. Words are not racist or hateful by themselves.

Gary Webb once said, authentic journalism is telling people something that the government doesn’t want them to know. I say, even though it’s not my own insight, freedom of speech is telling people something that they don’t want or like to hear and for those people to accept the other’s right to say it. I completely disagree with you and I think your belief is abhorrent but I will fight for your right to be able to say it so that everybody can know what an eejit you are.

I thought of deleting my X account, I have stopped using it, I haven’t pulled the trigger yet and I really don’t know at this point what I’m going to do but that’s irrelevant anyway. I wrote a thread a couple of months ago, about my thoughts on Elon; friend or foe; this incident doesn’t change my stance on him, I still can’t say if he’s going to turn out to be a good for the world or if his mark is going to be really damaging for society. I know it won’t be insignificant, that’s for sure.

When it comes to X; in its current state; my constructive criticism is to not censor words as that’s idiotic. I understand not allowing hateful speech to be readily available and to propagate; even though that’s against freedom of speech. If the message is truly hateful, I accept that X is a social media platform and not the government and as such has the right to manage the quality of the message being shared on their platform. And of course, they’re the ones to decide what’s quality and what’s not. But don’t parade the platform as the place where freedom of speech went to die on the internet.

I would like to conclude by differentiating speech related to your thoughts and beliefs and speech intended to provoke action. I don’t think it’s hypocritical to say that I am an apologist of complete freedom of speech when one is saying what they think about whatever subject but if you’re inciting some criminal action then obviously it should be treated as such. I’ll spare you the examples because I don’t want to push the boundaries more than I already did.

I love words, all the words, even the ugly ones and the seemingly unnecessary. Isn’t gibberish a lovely word? Peace!”

That’s my last week’s blog. If you read it and you think it’s hateful, please let me know why. What did I specifically wrote that you feel comfortable to say it’s hateful. Medium certainly thinks it’s hateful but unfortunately they don’t seem to think my challenge deserves a response. Maybe they think they shouldn’t respond to hateful people? The problem is that they seem to be quite happy to continue to receive my subscription payment.

Their email to me:

My response to them:

Like I said, I would very much appreciate it if someone could show me the way and by the way I mean the way I’m being hateful. These corporations pandering to the victimhood mentality and supporting real hate need to be exposed for what they are. I know the only way this will stay up is if they don’t come and read it but I’m writing it because I think there’s a chance that’s exactly what’s going to happen. At least until someone feels victimised by my blog post and complains with theirfriends.

I feel comfortable enough to say the following knowing that this post would never be taken out (read: suspended or censored due to being hateful) because of it. Kids should be allowed to decide if they’re to start taking puberty blockers and even “medically” change their sex.