Brief reflections - Eight years of PPR

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I joined WP 8 years ago today. While I did not post in this section right away this seems like a good time to reflect.

Two words come to the fore when thinking about how things have devolved more than they have evolved over the last eight years, disheartening and frustrating.

One constant topic over the last eight years is what has become know as cancel culture, the narrowing of what can be expressed without significant consequence. It has had the opposite effect on me. I am human and like everybody, I have my triggers. Eight years ago I was never what was considered "politically correct". While I understood the "slippery slope" argument against banning speech there were some things I thought should be banned. Those things were just too much, those saying those things were abusing their freedom of speech.

While I still believe certain things are offensive and those espousing them are abusing their freedom of speech the last 5 years have made real to me the consequences of the "slippery slope" and the hypocrisy of me saying cancel culture is bad except for what I find offensive. While there are a few things I personally boycott. you are not going to get me to call for others to boycott things, words, or people. I also think I am offended, or bothered less by certain things than I used to be. This has been a conscious effort on my part not to be that "snowflake".

I think "cancel culture" is an over correction for centuries of oppression and violence against certain groups of people. Some may see it as beneficial to society, but I see it as counter-productive to the kind of dialog that can lead to more positive changes.

I am amazed by the argument for censoring speech that isn't palatable for most of us. How do we move forward without allowing these conversations to play out? It's a form of authoritarianism that, well meaning or not, will have dire consequences to our society.

Those are my thoughts anyway.