| I think people are too concerned about offending someone else. You should be able to speak your mind without fear of what someone else may say or do. Anything you say will no doubt offend someone, but that shouldn't stop you from stating your opinions. You are entitled to have your personal beliefs, and you are entitled to speak your mind. I'm sure I've said something on this site that offended someone, but that didn't stop me from saying it, now did it? And it shouldn't. I really don't care how many complaints I get. If I did, I wouldn't have bothered to add this section to my website. If you disagree, that's fine, I'm glad to hear that you're not basing your opinions on mine. I'm glad you have your own beliefs. And if you were to make a website where you stated your opinions, some of them would probably offend me, but I wouldn't get defensive about it. I wouldn't try to make you believe the same things I did. I mean, yeah, you shouldn't try to offend someone, but you shouldn't worry about whether the person next to you is going to get up in arms about something you say. You have a right to express your beliefs. All artists and musicians and authors have a right to express their beliefs. They have a right to say whatever they want to and not have their artwork destroyed by the censors. They have a right to have their music heard, their books read, and their art displayed. Don't get me wrong, I don't like music like Eminem, I don't like the fact that he sings about killing his mom and beating up his wife, but singing about them and doing them are two different things. If he were to go out and do it, yeah, it'd be horrible. But there are people out there that do like his music (how is beyond me, but I see a lot of people with Eminem shirts and I know a sad, pathetic 18 year old girl that got a tattoo just because Eminem has a similar one), and he has a right to make his music and his fans have a right to hear it. You can't restrict what he says. If you think censoring artwork will keep violence down, I honestly think you're mistaken. The crime rate has not gone up in the past 20 years as so many people think it has. It's only been more publicised. The crime rate has, in all actuality been on the decrease. It's just that mass media cares more about their ratings than informing the public. We have had violence since the beginning of mankind. Murderers have always existed. People in the 1400s didn't need TV, music, and video games to inspire them to go out and kill someone. Neither do the murderers of today. So stop blaming entertainment for a problem that's not even as big as people make it out to be. |
| Censorship |