Anyone else feel that the more social our devices and opportunities to have a global audience, the less we are able to say?
The only people that seem to get away with saying whatever they want are people like Trump with mad money.
I’m just saying it feels like anything you say could be used against you 30 or 40 years down the line if the right people know it was you or had something against you.
This is coming from someone who used to have a facebook and browsed multiple forums and is off facebook and only comes here for forum usage for the time being.
Political correctness has gotten totally out of hand.
I know I’m not saying anything new here. I just thought it would be nice to have a discussion about it I guess.
I do have a FB profile under my real name; it’s there in case prospective employers check to see if it exists. I don’t think I’ve even looked at it in a month.
I’ve made occasional stabs at keeping a diary or journal, but I always run into at least one of two problems:
[ol]
[li]I’m keeping it in public and people appear to be reading it, and the effort to manage my self-presentation accordingly becomes overwhelming.[/li][li]I don’t believe anyone is reading it, and I have no real motivation to keep it up.[/li][/ol]
So at least for me, it may be that an audience is inhibiting (though I don’t feel I try to hide any of my opinions on things), but I’m not sure there’s a workable alternative.
I’ve been online since the late 80s, and only post anonymously. My Twitter account is totally anonymous, as well.
I have a FB under my own name. However, the profile is pretty locked down and the town listed is not where I live. I also have a common name. With FB, I’m pretty political, and an “out” atheist. None of my employers has cared. I imagine no one cares about my opinions because they’re not dangerous, and no one cares about my FB posts because I’m well past the age where there would be photos of me drunk and topless in a bar. Or anywhere else.
ETA: in my field, prospective employers care more about your LinkedIn page. I hate LI; it’s a boring FB. But I keep mine up, share professional articles, comment on a few, and have a professional photo so people can see who I am.
The only opinions I see being suppressed are jerkish opinions. The only people I see complain about “political correctness” are people who are now afraid to tell racist jokes because anyone might read them.
My real identity can be found by anyone with fifteen seconds and Google. I sound the same here as I do under my real name elsewhere.
There has never been a time when a person could run off at the mouth and not face negative consequences.
It seems to me that the only difference between now and the idyllic yesteryear is that people today seem to think freedom means not having to apologize for anything.
It’s kind of sad that socializing is no longer about meeting up with your friends at a bar and hanging out for a few hours. Now people are equating it with typing away on a keypad and receiving instant validation for every random thought that comes to mind. I’m addicted to the internet too, but come on.
That’s because what we say is spread more widely. Time was, if we blundered badly socially, we could move elsewhere and make a fresh start. We can’t do that now.
And I disagree with your statement. Unless you feel I’m being a jerk and racist!
On another board that I have since quit, I posted some comments about a trip to another part of the country. One of my comments was an observation that on this trip I had seen very few “blacks and other coloured people” (my quote).
Well, one of the moderators jumped in and tore a strip off me for using the terms "black’ and “coloured”. She firmly stated that the term “people of colour” is the only accepted terminology today. Fortunately, a number of other posters came to my defence.
From that day until the day I quit that board, her and I banged heads, much to my pleasure, and often initiated by me.
Her reaction is quite typical of what I see and hear too often, on boards and in person. There are times when politically correct friends make the mistake of “correcting” me, but if my S.O. is present, I usually get kicked in the shin before things get too lively.
I think that these people and their fickle use of their nuclear option - cutting all economic ties with a business - to suppress speech is way out of line. It’s even more stupid that just saying that under my own name can be considered casus belli by the internet lynch mob.
Well, “colored people” is offensive to some, but I’ll assume you didn’t mean any offense by it and the moderator was probably overly sensitive about it. So now you have two options. 1) say "I think you’re making a mountain out of a molehill, but fine, I’ll change it. 2) dig your heels in and demand your right to say “colored people.”
No harm comes from option 1, no good from option 2.
me? I use nom de plumes so people don’t come and stalk me!
I’ve become more and more verbal as I age.
I’ve been touting “revolution” for years and now The Donald has come to fulfill my wishes…wish anyway
Toss the current money sucking congress people en mass and install part time; unpaid; non politicians that are not money motivated people, doing whats best for us and not themselves
If the present body of creeps in DC would make things better for us while lining their pockets would be different but they’re only out for themselves
Now what was the topic?
Oh-I mouth off more and more as I age…(whether or not it makes sense does not matter to me)