It Is Not Just Social Platforms That Censor

 I just finished enduring real life censorship.  I certainly believe the evil likes of Facebook and Twitter censor with bias.  I don't think the social platforms should censor at all, except for threats of violence.  To censor for "hate speech."  Really?  Which hate speech?  Whites hate blacks?  Blacks hate whites?  LGB folks hate straights?  Antifa hates white males and successful capitalists?  Actually, none of those are censored except for "whites hate blacks."  

Censorship is not limited to Dorsey or Zuckerberg.  Censorship is done by little minds in small towns that live in a bubble.  

I have a house in Washburn, Maine.  1,975 people.  I love the place; I would move in a heartbeat from Long Island if I could convince my wife.  What a neat small town; serenity, good neighbors...even a post office and a small grocery that netted the award in 2018, "the best small grocery store in Maine."  I learned that precisely because I told the owner how well he stocked his store.

Recently, a house fire (while I was visiting there,) took a house nearly to the ground (see pictures at the end of this paragraph). All people and pets got out.  How great is that!  I walked around the place the next day and took the four pictures you see following this paragraph. Looking at the damage one wonders how anyone escaped.  My comment along with the pictures was I was relieved everyone got out (later I learned that four children and two pets escaped). Fact? Yep.  Innocuous comment? Yep but you would not believe the hate mail I received, "insensitive," "seeking attention for himself," "unsympathetic to the victims." “Trespassing on private property.” Those were the more civil comments.  Two days later I wrote privately to the woman who lost her house and said at HER request I would take down the post.  I did not intend to take it down because a small-minded community was offended.  I like the statement I once heard "the bill of rights does not guarantee you the right to not be offended."  I never did hear back from her and I learned that group-think prevailed; the page administrator took my post down.  At least he had the decency to also remove all the hate mail.  See the pics here:

Reality sucks but there is no purpose served by hiding from it.  I tried to explain my motivation chiefly fire prevention but also as a “reporter” to the mob but the mob was not having it.  I just simply had to be an irredeemable awful person.  At length I wrote the administrator, not asking that my post be restored but to remind him that bad things happen to good people and posing an example...if Billy Joe got drunk and crashed his car in to a tree and killed himself, the locals would not want to see in print that he was drunk. What if my post had been in a local newspaper?  Would the hate have been so strong? I also told the administrator that had the house been mine I would have had no problem with pics being posted, and the cause, even if I had caused the fire (the cause of the fire in question is still undetermined.) We learn from others' experiences, good and bad. And anyone who denies the public will gravitate to a "good" house fire is not honest.  A house fire is a shame only in its sadness, not because of embarrassment.  I have no room in my life for Chicken Littles.  I told the administrator that I would aim to be more careful on further postings but that I am a pragmatist and I might offend people again. At this writing I have not heard back from him though I believe I will. Seems to be a decent guy.  I also told him I publicly offered free garage storage for a woman who was looking for a paid storage locker.  She thanked me publicly but had made other arrangements.  I also noted that I had twice written that though I did not live in Washburn full time, that I had offered donations to a turkey dinner fundraiser and another (which I now forget).  No reaction.  

People just love to hate.  I have neither guilt nor shame over the posting.  I did write on the post and separately to the homeowner that I was sorry for their loss but offered no apology to the crowd mentality.

Cowboy up; get out of your damn bubble.

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