Free speech is one thing, hate speech is another.
I wrote a rather decent article, I was proud, I felt I had to show it off. It was a review of Hitler, the rise of evil, a CBS special aired this week. I was trying to convince people of the similarities, between the civil rights abuses of Hitler, and those of Bush.
You see, my mother is my biggest cause, I've been trying to convince her, that her fear of terrorists is not a reason to destroy the constitution or support this president.
It might have worked, the article had good insight, and free added some great comments.
Except for one thing, when my mother came to the Indeymedia site, she was confronted with nothing but hate speech.
People who post here generally agree racism is bosh, the wrong thing, the wrong way.
But there are a few, who have nothing better to do, that come to disrupt our general euphoria we gain from having a voice.
Those people group other people into categories so they can hate or blame them. But they don't do it by wealth, or by bad acts, they simply do it by religion.
For those of us born into a religion we did not understand or disagreed with, for those of us who are different from religious stereotypes, the use of hate speech is a major turnoff. What's more, it ruins our credibilty as journalists if we resort to hate speech.
I cannot controll what goes on Indeymedia. I don't think I would want to. It's an inner conflict between the right to speak and offend, and sometimes shock, AND THE RIGHT TO LIVE HATE FREE. The caps were an accident but it couldn't have come at a better time.
If a coalition is to be sucessful it must be as unified as it's opposition. And hate speech only hurts people and brings disharmony to the cause.
People can be bad, but when we lump them by religion or country even we are ignoring so much of the good.
Let us not make that same mistake here.
Let us use our editorial policy to the best of our ability, no more slander based on faith, we need facts about individuals, corporations and their actions, not their religion.
Because in essence, Karma screws with all of us. And if we say hate speech is o.k., we are faced with lady Karma making it so that no one will hear our pleas for justice. Do not become the evil you wish to eliminate, be the change you'd like to see.
Censoring the stupid and wicked may not be the best idea, but I think all Muslims, Jews, Catholics, and Free Masons should be able to come hear without having to be unlucky enough as to read racist hate mail. After all, this is Independant Media, not the religious hate network. Let's leave the hate speech for Rush Limbaugh to trip on instead of ourselves.
Original: Indeymedia loses clout