Self-censorship / Social Marxism or Political Correctness

[dyn]

Censorship was discussed before, but let me paste what i wrote in PM to admins recently, it sums it up nicely:

--- snip ---
Unless it's real threats we try to ignore it. Usually it's people venting off because they are frustrated with real life, job (or lack of), idiots @ school and so on. Trying to do mental censorship all the time in order not to offend someone leads to bigger problems later. Always. Usually it is better to be "racist" now and then than to keep everything inside in order to pretend you get along with everyone -- which later erupts into something much more dangerous.

I noticed few times people got banned just because they had NIGGER or MUHAMMAD/OSAMA nickname. Don't do that, it's not what our servers stand for. We allow everything except real threats, revealing private info (home address, etc.), and obvious spam, for instance selling aimbots/hacks or aggressively promoting crappy websites. If someone wants others to check their web page, that's fine. Repeating it all the time is not. Bind-spam also can be annoying and player can be banned for it.
--- snip ---

About chat logs...
Servers do not log your chat -- in contrast to most game servers out there. Reason is, after logging Q3 for a bit of time years ago we realized chat logs are usually very stupid and annoying to read. Mostly it's people venting off or complaining, while others are trying to enjoy the game. So reading logs in order to get "feedback" is a very bad idea. Besides, we respect privacy and don't even want to know what you talk about.

And finally, fuck Social/Cultural Marxism also known as Political Correctness. If you don't know what that is, follow this link. You are most probably manipulated into it already, even if you hate ideas of that type.

[dyn]

Let me explain this again: everything is allowed unless it's obvious spam/bind-spam, or selling hacks, or real threats with illegal stuff towards players, or repeated insults towards someone. What does this mean? It means "i will kill you all, you fucking kikes" is still a form of free-speech, perhaps annoying at times, but it's mostly people venting and essentially harmless. It happens all the time on game servers. We only ban when there is spam or anything which would be illegal or really life threatening.

Basically what we allow is more or less what is considered free-speech, legal under the US Constitution above all things. Free speech is about allowing freedom of expression, even if you disagree with it. Without this society transforms into very oppressive regimes pretty quickly, and most responsible are all those who don't even bother to learn about it, indirectly allowing it to happen. Well it won't happen on our servers, that's for sure.

Anyone having problems with this should reconsider playing or admining on our servers. I am serious about it. And before you say anything, think about it - all i demand from you is to respect fucking free speech, something so basic and essential, yet on times it appears like i am the dictator among politically correct sheep. Mentality like that can not only destroy best nations in the world, it can produce very oppressive soviet-style regimes. Whatever you do in your fucking life, do not destroy this idea. Freedom you are enjoying right now looks like an anomaly from a historical perspective. It may go away tomorrow, but it won't be because of me or VOGON.

Recommended reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
United States free speech exceptions

To be fair towards players, if you think some admin is banning people for unjust reasons, let us know here in forum, preferably with a demo. You can send PM, post topic about it, or send email to contact[@]vogon.vg.

[SD]

I agree with free speech, and I agree with most of what you say about it. Just something to point out though - "I will fucking kill you" - if said face to face at least, is actually against the law. The same thing said in good humour in an online game probably isn't. Actual freedom of speech IRL is not unlimited. Shouting "BOMB!" on a plane is very much illegal for instance, even if you are laughing like a deranged hyena at the time. Also, my freedom to swing my arm ends at your nose. I understand that we are not on a plane and maybe the law for "online threats" is different. I'm not protesting your wishes, just pointing out that free speech is not without limitations.

[chuva]

I'm not protesting your wishes, just pointing out that free speech is not without limitations.

Exactly...

[dyn]

Yes, generally this is what people agree upon, it is also what i said above with "anything which would be illegal or really life threatening". Basically what is accepted under the US Constitution, that's why i linked to the wiki article on limits of free speech. But, while this makes sense and on the servers it should be like that i also believe in total freedom of speech, which can be very sensitive topic. Under total freedom of speech there are no limits whatsoever. It is not too practical for organizing people, because it has no protection against sabotage, which is why i am against that when it comes to the State (of any sort). In that case free speech which is not harmful to the organization or State makes most sense.

If you are interested in experiments where total freedom of speech and expression are possible check Tor and Freenet, also I2P comes to mind and similar darknets. Usually you find a lot of illegal stuff on those netoworks, but it would be interesting to see how much of this illegal stuff would really be there if society allowed some of it, for example legalizing drugs. It in effect destroys the black market overnight, which may not be the desirable outcome for those who are profiting from it, usually highly connected people and politicians.

Tor - https://www.torproject.org/
+ Tor Browser Bundle - https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en
+ http://www.scribd.com/doc/81129630/Tor-onion-linklist (random sample/document, may not be best)
+ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_(anonymity_network)

Freenet - https://freenetproject.org/
+ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freenet

I2P - http://www.i2p2.de/
+ http://www.i2p2.de/how_networkcomparisons.html
+ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I2P

Anonymous uses Tor a lot, mostly to avoid persecution when some information may be too sensitive for the US administration.