An excellent post on Roger’s blog, Contains Moderate Peril, delved into the subject of what topics individual bloggers may self-censor. The short answer for me is I don’t block myself from covering any subject: this site is a reflection of what is on my mind after all, and not everything I think is suitable for every reader.
But there is a longer and more subtle answer worth digging into a bit at least. I like that I’m being inspired by the more detailed and complete works of others to write, and hopefully Roger is okay with me riffing on his theme a bit.
Self-censorship
I don’t have a list of topics I automatically avoid. My inner monologue, however, does pipe up when I start to think about writing something that is unnecessarily controversial. This isn’t a full-on set of chains and shackles that I deploy on my thoughts, but rather more like a porous filter that gets applied. This filter often calms my thoughts and causes me to move on to different topics when I start to feel that I’m about to write something purely to express a strong opinion.
A bit of controversy is necessary to have something to talk about, but I suppose I don’t see the need to rile people up excessively with my words. But there is a secondary aspect to my filters, and that is to avoid getting myself upset over something I might regret talking about later. So much of what is common in the common discourse these days turns rational people into slavering spittle spraying monsters that I often don’t want to add to the noise.
Other times I feel strongly enough to overcome my filter and talk about something I know will upset some people. I don’t exactly want to, but I have An Opinion™ and feel like I need to let people know where I stand even if it turns off some readers. I wish people could just think and talk about what is written in a reasonable fashion; possibly even agree to disagree. But from time to time I don’t feel like I can quietly wait for the discourse on a topic to calm down before I add my two cents.
Topics I generally avoid
A simple list, very much similar to the topics Roger detailed, will suffice here
- Politics: I can’t avoid this one as I have Strong Opinions™on what passes for politics these days. What constitutes politics these days is comically broad: apparently caring about our fellow humans and the environment is politically incorrect for some people now. But I try to avoid going down this path too frequently- I’m not always successful though
- Religion: I’m agnostic bordering on atheist, but I understand some people have strong beliefs that guide their lives. So long as those beliefs remain their own choice and are not forced upon others then I have no concern. I even feel attracted towards certain forms of spirituality myself. But I can’t stand quietly by and ignore the excesses and horrors visited upon people in the name of religion: I sometimes have to speak up. But out of a desire to avoid conflict, I generally hold my peace.
- Gender identity questions: I strongly support LGBTQ+ rights and the individuals themselves. But I don’t talk about it much as a topic because I am so far from being an expert that I don’t feel qualified to comment most of the time
The very self-congratulatory header image is AI generated using ChatGPT
- I honestly didn’t ask ChatGPT to be so smarmy and fawning over my blog or me, but that is the way of modern AI it seems
Re: religion. Much discourse on religion is of the nature of “A,B,C are utterly stupid and abhorrent. X,Y,Z is the better way.”. “No! XYZ will lead to destruction and death. Only ABC will save us all!”.
I have little to no interest in such discussions. But I do enjoy more philosophical discussion on the societal role of religiousity on culture, mental outlook and the world in general, both positive and negative.
This usually upsets both the ABC and XYZ people 😀
I suspect that, when I talk about religion, I often fall into the trap you describe of identifying one religious group as “more bad” than the others. Westboro Baptist church versus general protestantism as an example.
I might try to keep things general, but the specific examples of badness generally leap to the top of my mind. And they are usually the trigger for my (rare) posts on the topic of religion.